The Schneider iPro 2x telephoto lens; 4 weeks later
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 8:00AM | Editor 
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?
