Limelens – Wide-Angle, Fisheye, and Macro Lenses for your Smartphone

I have often seen lenses for smartphones advertised on Facebook and have been intrigued by them.  I have a decent mirrorless camera that I usually take along when I go places, but sometimes I just want to use my iPhone to take pictures and figured that a few speciality lenses would take my iPhone photography to the next level.

When Limelens inquired if I’d like to receive a sample of their lenses for smartphones, I took them up on it.  Being able to have a wide-angle, macro and fisheye lens at my disposal without needing to carry a huge bag was definitely something I was excited about.

Limelens is delivered to you in this compact little case.  Everything you need is right there in it.

An instruction book, the lens holder, an alignment disc, some cleaning cloths and of course the lenses themselves.

Limelens product range includes The Thinker, a dual macro/wide lens and The Captain, a 190 degree fisheye lens, with more smartphone camera accessories to follow. The lenses boast incredible framing capabilities, removing the limitations of the smartphone camera to produce stunning photographs with a greater choice of photo angles, framing and composition.

They really walk you through being able to properly use the lenses you’ve purchased.  There are 3 different Limeclips and a list of which ones fit on different phones.  From Samsung Galaxy models to iPhones and other brands, you shouldn’t have a problem if using a popular smartphone to get the lens holder set up on your phone.  It fits nicely on my iPhone 6s, and I even installed it on a case.

The lenses are easy enough to attach to the holder, they ‘thread’ into the groove of the Limeclip.

I did find it a bit awkward to remove the lens from the little ‘lime’ case (the wide-angle/macro one in particular), once I realized it was fitted around it very much like a silicone case it was all good 😉

But really what you want to know is what kind of photos you are going to get out of these lenses right?!  Of course!  I’ve only tested them a little but so far I feel that they are terrific.  The photos have all come out clear and snapping stills while taking video with the lenses is even more impressive than I could have imagined.

I took it out into our yard and snapped some pics with all three lenses.  The macro is by far my favorite.  The detail you can capture is incredible.  In the second picture you can even see a strand of a spider web by the leaves.

And with a few edits, look at what these photos from the macro Limelens can become.

The wide-angle lens certainly does the job.  Here I took a photo of the side of our house.  The first one is without the Limelens.  The second is using the wide-angle Limelens, and look how much more of the scene it captures.  You could just see a bit of the tree in the first photo.

I’ve never used a fish-eye lens before and in all honesty didn’t really know why I would want one.  It is really fun to take photos with though!  And I really enjoyed taking some creative pictures with it.  I have to work a bit at finding the proper angles and times to use it.  But I liked the few I did take with it!  The lens flare on this one at the bottom was completely unplanned 😉  But I love the second photo in the entry way of our home.  I feel like I have a Hobbit house now!

The quality and construction of the lenses and holder are very good.  I had no fear of the lenses falling out of the holder and the holder itself does not present an obstruction on the back of the phone.

This has been a really fun addition for my iPhone.  All in all, they are very good and worth the $$.

Available at www.limelens.com on sale for $49 (regular $99), the Limelens introductory Set includes both lenses as well the Limeclip attachment that fits over 40 devices including leading smartphones and tablet brands.  (See compatibility here)