There are many types of lens adapters you can get now for the iPhone 5 which will optically enhance the abilities of it. For instance, a few weeks back I took a look at the Carson Lens Mag adapter for the iPhone 5 which was a 10x/15x magnetic lens kit that allowed for super close up photography. These unique adapters allowed your iPhone 5’s camera to function as a magnifier and take photos as such. Now on the other end of the spectrum, Carson also makes the HookUpz 7x18mm Monocular adapter, part #IC-518. What this does is it combines Carson’s CloseUp Monocular with your iPhone 5 allowing you to see objects far away as if they were up close. In essence, it’s a telephoto lens adaptor for your camera.
Build and Design
At the heart of the kit is the Carson CloseUp Monocular. This is what will allow your iPhone 5 to take photos of objects in a distance. The monocular attaches to the included iPhone 5 adapter which consists of a simple silicone case and the monocular adapter attachment. The adapter is made of a hard plastic that slips over the silicone case. The monocular itself attaches to this rubber ring that that sits over the lens opening of the adapter.
Once you put the case and the adapter on, you can then put the monocular on. The monocular makes the whole setup really huge with the added bulk from the monocular. however, the added bulk does actually make the whole setup much easier to hold as you can stead it all by holding on to the monocular. Now, because the monocular itself can be used on it’s own, you will need to manually focus this as the iPhone will not do it for you. You focus by turning the ring on the monocular.
Usage
With the monocular on, like I stated above, you can no longer focus automatically. You will have to manually focus using the ring around the monocular. You will also notice that when using the camera, you’ll see that there is now a huge circular border around your photos. For best results, you’ll need to crop your photos into a square now or zoom in using the camera software to crop out the border.
Other than that, taking photos with the monocular is like taking photos normally. You just have to get used to the added bulk and the manual focusing.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Carson HookUpz Monocular adapter for the iPhone 5 is really neat. It’s a fun add-on that solves one of the main problems with the iPhone 5 and that is its inability to really take photos of objects from a far. Yes you can digitally zoom in on its own but image quality suffers. With the monocular on, everything looks much clearer and more in focus with objects far away. One cool thing is that you can also use the monocular on its own as a spotting scope without attaching it to the iPhone 5 and it also includes a really handy case for when you aren’t using it. On top of that, it’s pretty inexpensive at under $30 and can even work with the older model iPhone 4/4S.
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