The Schneider iPro 2x telephoto lens; 4 weeks later

You may recall at the beginning of July, I took delivery of a Schneider Optics 2x telephoto iPro lens, and at the time I expressed concern and disappointment that the lens seemed to badly suffer from soft edges. Since then I've been in contact with Schneider, and have been testing the lens, and below are my thoughts on this not so cheap lens and some of the feedback from Schneider regarding my concerns.

I'm not going to go in to too much detail regarding the lens build and packaging, as I've already covered this, but for those who have not read my "quick look at the Schneider iPro 2x telephoto lens", here is a quick summary.

Priced at $105 USD (lens only), the 2x iPro lens is nicely packaged, solidly made, and comes supplied with a combi case/handle extender and a lens cap (although this can't be left on the lens whilst stored in the case!!). If you're new to the iPro lens system, then you will also need to buy the iPro iPhone case (this is to allow you to attached the lens you your iPhone), which will cost you an extra $31.00 USD.

So we know the lens is solid and well made, but what about the optical quality that I raised concerns about? Well whilst on holiday a few weeks back, I took the opportunity to play some more with the lens, which sadly continues to disappoint. It didn't matter which camera app I used the results were the same as when I wrote my "quick look", sharp centre sweet spot, with very soft edges!! Now I've been in touch with Schneider over this problem, and they have sent me a preliminary report, that essentially says there is nothing wrong with the lens construction itself, and that the issues are related to limitations of the iPhones lens and image capturing process. Issues like the fixed f2.8 aperture on the iPhone 4 (f2.4 on the 4S), the selective focus and the way the iPhone captures and processes these shots with a lens that has no moving elements, and the rolling shutter, which has caused its own issues in the past.

Despite the report, I can't help but feel all this should have been spotted at the design and development stages, and clear usage guidelines provided on the iPro website, after all, I spotted these issues with in minutes of testing the lens.

Click to view full size image

Although the lens does not living up to its expectations, it's not all doom and gloom, as if used on the right subject matter, like portraits, or where you want to create a depth of filed, then just like my sample shot above, the soft edges of this lens can be worked to your advantage.

So, in summing up, the 2x iPro lens is a disappointment, but as I've just said above, if used under the right conditions (and this will be subjective too your style of photography), it can produce some very pleasing results.

If you've bought the 2x iPro lens, what are your thoughts? What do you think of it? Have you experienced the same problems as me?

Comments

[MiniBlueDragon]

This is really bizarre. I'd love to know who decided that a lens which blurs the edge of every image would sell enough to give a decent ROI on the design, manufacture, advertising and sales cost.

I've thought about various lens purchases as I'm getting more and more into my iPhonography of late but from what I can gather there's still nothing 'perfect' on the market and perhaps never will be. Shame.

The closest I can see so far seems to be the Olloclip for macro and fisheye images and the Photojojo for telephoto (HATE that I have to stick stuff to my phone with this though!)?

[Gordon Fraser]

I'm lucky i bought mine specifically for portrait type work....just need to actually find time to use it now!

[Espekayen]

It beggars belief that they did not pick up on this issue and point it out to potential customers. Saying it is a limitation of the iPhone itself is not a valid excuse. This is an expensive accessory and it should not suffer from the problems you highlighted. The accessory is flawed, not the iPhone. They should be designing the lens around the hardware, not blaming the hardware for faults in their product. Absolute fail and clearly not worth the money, regardless of what is to blame for the issues.

[AlanH]

If you look closely at the image posted here, it's not just the corners that are soft. Based on this image, I see random softness throughout the central part of the image, too. And, what's additionally odd is that the central soft areas seem to be within the same image plane as sharper areas! If this was from a DSLR lens, I'd guess we're looking at decentering of lens elements. Regardless, not impressive at all and I'd certainly expect more from Schneider!!

[Phil]

I completely agree. It's bizarre to blame the device. I can only assume that the lens was actually designed for another device with different specs to the iPhone. Rather than build an iPhone specific model, they just repackaged this set.

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I can't really see how else they could apparently miss the poor results you identified straight away.

[Suzé]

@MiniBlueDragon, if you buy the Diffcase (which the new update is great btw, very solid) they sell an adapter for magnetic lenses. I have the photojojo macro/wide angle combo and have been happy with the bayonet attachment of the diffcase adaptor. I was going through those stupid adhesive magnets like crazy because if they are not adhered perfect, there is a lot of vignetting.
I'm really glad I didn't spring for the Schneider, although I was sorely tempted. I had a Schneider lens on my enlarger for years and it was tack sharp. I'm disappointed that they would blame the device as they must have been aware of the inherent limitations of the iPhone and its system.
Good honest review Glyn. I would be really p@$%* right now if I had bought the Schneider and had such soft images as I don't do portraits. The cheap photojojo isn't perfect but it's not bad for the price point.

[PaHL]

SO... IF the iPhone lens itself has some technical characteristics that makes a 2x external telephoto lens to be crappy sharp on the edges (and possibly centre)...why would Scheider create one, "spend" money on using great glass, great construction materials, etc... and sell it for 105$???
If your lens will NEVER offer 105$ quality WHY are you selling it? WHY didnt you say that in the website? Perhaps you (Scheneider) where just trying to make some money with iPhone accessories without caring about customers?

If your 105$ lens will never give enough quality because of the iPhone, i´ll go for a Chinese one!! At least they just cost 20$ (5 times less!!!!).

Baaaad Schneider..... Baaaaadddd....

[Duncan]

So on a related note, have you used the other lenses for this same system? The macro/wide angle lens I mean- and if so would you recommend that one? Reason being, I'm not necessarily interested in the telephoto lens, but I am *very* interested in the other lens for this same case.

Thank you in advance!

[Chris]

Good review. I've been skeptical of spending pro level $ on iPhone lenses. I picked up an older telephoto designed for a rangefinder camera, and got it attached to my Diffcase. There is vingetting because it isn't designed for the iPhone, but I see no softness in it whatsoever. A company like Schneider should be able to come up with a better answer than blaming the iPhone camera.

[ruby falls]

I am quite content with my PhotoJojo 8x lens for 4s - $35 us for the lens, case, mount, and tripod.

[Thor]

Ok - so this is an issue that bugged me - and then the iPhone 5 showed up... Oops - case doesn't fit for any of the lenses - so I found this on Shapeways:
http://www.shapeways.com/model/712778/ipro-lens-mount-for-iphone-5-v1.html
Oh, and btw, it is a tight snap on rather than a case, so it is much easier to manage.