THE BEST LENSES FOR IPHONES

The Best Lenses for iPhone Photography

We considered 40 iPhone lens attachments and tested nine models in a variety of scenarios and settings (including backpacking through the Cascades) to find the best iPhone lens add-ons. Depending on your needs and budget, we have best overall picks for telephoto and wide-angle lenses, a high-quality (and expensive) kit for more versatility, and also a cheap starter pack for playing around with.

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. This is a condensed version of The Best Lenses for iPhone Photography; read the full review here.

Avid smartphone photographers understand they are shooting with an amazing portable and connected camera that also comes with certain limitations. Among these is a fixed wide-angle lens (equivalent to 29 mm for the latest iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, the popular models we focused on). If you find yourself wishing the “camera that’s always with you” could offer you a wider view or a telescopic option, a lens attachment can make your phone feel more like a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

A great iPhone lens should enhance, not deteriorate, your images. But it’s hard to tell how good one will be until you go hands-on. That’s why we had Erin Lodi, professional photographer and former mobile-imaging editor at DPReview.com, test nine top-rated products under a variety of settings to find which ones produced the sharpest images. She used each of these to take a macro-style photo of a penny, a wide landscape shot, and a zoomed-in shot (if a telephoto option was available). We carefully reviewed the results to determine which were acceptable and considered this further hands-on experience to reach our conclusions.

We considered 40 iPhone lens attachments and tested nine models in a variety of scenarios and settings (including backpacking through the Cascades) to find the best iPhone lens add-ons. Depending on your needs and budget, we have best overall picks for telephoto and wide-angle lenses, a high-quality (and expensive) kit for more versatility, and also a cheap starter pack for playing around with.

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. This is a condensed version of The Best Lenses for iPhone Photography; read the full review here.

Avid smartphone photographers understand they are shooting with an amazing portable and connected camera that also comes with certain limitations. Among these is a fixed wide-angle lens (equivalent to 29 mm for the latest iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, the popular models we focused on). If you find yourself wishing the “camera that’s always with you” could offer you a wider view or a telescopic option, a lens attachment can make your phone feel more like a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

A great iPhone lens should enhance, not deteriorate, your images. But it’s hard to tell how good one will be until you go hands-on. That’s why we had Erin Lodi, professional photographer and former mobile-imaging editor at DPReview.com, test nine top-rated products under a variety of settings to find which ones produced the sharpest images. She used each of these to take a macro-style photo of a penny, a wide landscape shot, and a zoomed-in shot (if a telephoto option was available). We carefully reviewed the results to determine which were acceptable and considered this further hands-on experience to reach our conclusions.