HiLo Camera lens for iPhone and iPad Camera

There is also an app, which will be available for free. The app corrects for the mirroring of the image (caused by the prism) and improves image quality with some smart processing. The app provides an optional shutter delay, so you can get self/group portraits when using HiLO Lens as a tripod.

Why complex optics instead of a mirror ? Because to cover the iPhone camera's field of view a mirror would be large and ugly. HiLO Lens is small, elegant and maintains the camera's full field of view. Be aware that products using only a mirror may only be useful for video.

Image quality with HiLO Lens

The optics in HiLO Lens are more sophisticated than any other lens available for the iPhone. Optics are always a compromise and we want to keep HiLO Lens affordable. To give you an idea, the aluminium container housing the optics is machined to tolerances of 0.01mm - that's 1/10th the thickness of a strand of hair!

The images below are taken with the HiLO Lens pre-production sample.

HiLO Lens in a vertical angle

Hip Level photography (also great for portraits!)

Low level photography

There are more details on our blog.

Who created HiLO?

HiLO Lens is developed by an optical engineer (Alexander), mechanical designer (Onur), app developer (Nyugen) and led by Mark Hampton. The project began in mid 2011.

Mark invented HiLO Lens with Kickstarter in mind because crowdfunding is seriously cool. Mark's previous projects include a startup that created a new category of microelectronics design software (Certess Inc.) and an e-commerce for French expats.

Where are we at?

We've minimized the technical risks, getting HiLO Lens from idea to final prototype. We're just about ready to hit the production button. Currently we have:

• validated the optics design with pre-production samples
• a fully functional app
• working prototypes being used by iPhoneographers 
• production partners on board and ready to build

To make HiLO Lens affordable we need to make at least 1000 units and this is where Kickstarter comes in. The setup costs for manufacturing can be funded with the first 1000 units.

We are also making some minor improvements to the design so HiLO Lens will work perfectly with the iPhone5. The current design does work with the iPhone5 but we can improve it so we will improve it!

When will we be shipping ?

HiLO Lens uses custom designed optical components, not off the shelf parts. Therefore it will take a couple of months to grind, polish and treat the lenses with anti-reflective coatings. In parallel another production partner will be machining the precision aluminium containers. Yet another partner will be tooling for producing the plastic cap.

While the initial production run is being completed our app developer, Nyugen, will be finalizing the app, making it faster, more beautiful and even more fun.

We expect to have the first product ready approximately 12 weeks after successful funding.

Funding goal

We set our funding goal as low as possible given our resources. We would love to see HiLO Lens become a product. With Kickstarter it is all or nothing - no funding if we don't reach our target.

If we exceed our funding goal there is a long list of features we would love to include. Starting with more of your suggestions in the app.

Technical compromises

Every product has compromises. Our priority is to provide good quality images and a practical device. We use digital image processing in the app to correct for geometrical distortion in the optics. This innovation allows us to minimize the size of HiLO Lens. If you use HiLO Lens with another camera app then you will see severe vignetting in the corners of the raw photo. You can either consider this a feature or post-process the image in the HiLO Lens app. During post-processing the image will be "unfolded" to correct for geometric distortion and the vignetting is far less noticeable.

Any lens added to the iPhone camera will reduce the optical quality of the final image. This is because the lens is always added to the existing stack of lenses in the iPhone itself. This is most noticeable in low light conditions.

Grease and dirt should be removed from the tacky pad using a lint free, damp cloth, with a little bit of soap to help get rid of oil. Let the pad air dry and it will return to it's tacky state. You should not submerse the lens in water!

We believe HiLO Lens offers great value by allowing you to get creative camera angles more easily. But you can always add a straight-on wide angle lens or simply use the native camera and lie on the ground, buy a tripod and carry a ladder :)

Thanks!

Please vist us at www.hilolens.com 
Become a fan of HiLO Lens on Facebook 
Follow us on HiLO Lens on Twitter

Your support makes a huge difference !

via kickstarter.com

HiLO Lens is the first right angle lens for the iPhone4/4S/5 & iPad2/3. With this simple device you'll create more memorable photos.

Low angle - great for photographing young children and pets
High angle - like a periscope for photographing over a crowd
Wide angle - choose wide or standard, for video and photos
Any surface becomes a tripod - just lay the iPhone down
Self portraits & group shots - with an adjustable shutter delay

iPhone 5 Purple Lens Flare Problem Reports

Apple under the reigns of Tim Smith is certainly more open and vocal with regards to the many issues surrounding the company. First they admitted iOS 6 Maps is not that great, and now, they’ve responded to many iPhone 5 purple lens flare issues:

“Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures. The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5′s camera.”

The quote above was posted by Gizmodo saying it was the company’s response to a customer’s email regarding the problem. As Giz stirred the pot a little bit, Apple of course had to calm down the crowds by posting this public statement:

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

What do you think of this news? Are you concerned with the photos as much as the original email sender (and many others that followed)? Personally I haven’t noticed any problems with my iPhone 5 whatsoever except the peeling off the black coating a little too easy.

[Image, additional reporting Macrumors]

via theappera.com

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

The HiLo Lens for iPhone camera

via mobilemag.com

The HiLo Lens attaches onto your existing iPhone camera and gives it a 90 degree angle for shots. A new Kickstarter project aims to make taking pictures from various angles easier than ever with the iPhone 5.

Zoom Lens for iPhone Camera

Telephoto Lens for iPhone 4S Camera

I have been wanting to enhance my iPhone camera for sometime now. Today I finally received my long anticipated camera lens for iPhone which I ordered a week ago This is the lens to the iPhone 4! Yes ~ You're not wrong, lens Yes, although the iPhone itself already have electronic zoom and 5 million pixel built-in lens, but read this story you will feel the need to them

What’s In the Box The lens ships in a sturdy black box that contains everything you need. It comes with a mini-tripod, a hard iPhone case, an attachment for the case on which to attach the tripod, the plastic 8x telephoto lens with 2 cap covers, a cleaning cloth, a draw-string bag, and information sheet.

Telescope head all the accessories: on posters, the lens body, the iPhone shell, head, tripod, pouch, cleaning cloth

The tripod attachment for the case has a spring and a pull-tab, so it is easy to install on the phone case. The attachment includes a universal screw mount for a tripod. The included tripod is pretty compact and useful, with 4-inch long legs and a ball head so you can rotate the phone.This tripod with your iPhone gives you more latitude in how you set up your phone to take shots in a wide variety of settings, while the included tripod limits you to a flat surface.

IPhone case platic shell is very plain but smooth, but very loose gently pull the iPhone4s case with 2 plastic caps.

zoom lens texture look feel heavy plastic taste, but that's just the appearance of the material, really need to look at is the feeling, then take a look at how to treat photographed it, because plastic flavor without too texture bad. Please take a look at the photo shoot out, do not think that the focus scale is false, and sometimes the distance will still use the scale of the above indicators.

Here are two shots with the  8x zoom lens for iPhone4s attached, which roughly corresponds to the 35mm equivalent of over 200mm. I did not color correct these photos, and they look a bit blurry, but any photo editing program can fix the color. I want to show you the real thing, not an edited version.