Stylize your iPhone photos the old-school way

Whether it’s a spur-of-the-moment family road trip to Disneyland or a random get-together with friends, your iPhone 4 is probably a camera you often grab to capture the moment. After all, it’s always close at hand. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s fixed lens doesn’t give you much creative control, but with an Olloclip in your pocket, you practically have a camera bag full of lenses at your disposal -- without having to carry around a bunch of heavy glass.

The double-sided Olloclip features interchangeable lenses that add macro, fisheye, or wide-angle effects to your iPhone 4 photos. At about the size of a keychain, the Olloclip stashes easily in your pocket. It also comes with its own protective traveling pouch that does double duty as a lens-cleaning cloth. The lens slides onto your iPhone, and there’s a clever groove that allows you to install and remove the lens without triggering your phone’s Sleep/Wake switch.

While we put all three lenses to good use, the fisheye lens offers the most dramatic effect. Unscrewing the wide-angle lens reveals the macro lens underneath, and we used it to take some amazing close-up images. It can be awkward at first getting your iPhone close enough to focus with the macro lens, but we quickly picked up on the correct distance.

For best results, though, you’ll need to hold your iPhone very still -- any shaking will introduce blur into macro shots. A tripod would come in handy, but unfortunately due to close tolerances, the Olloclip is incompatible with everything but the thinnest of screen-protection films.

The bottom line. The Olloclip brings some creative photography options to your iPhone without sacrificing much in the way of portability and spontaneity. If you’ve got the cash ($70) and the creative spark, these lenses are worth a shot.