Whatever you are doing now, stop. Take a look around you. Chances are if you are if you are in a public place, you can spot at least two people taking a photo with their phone. Whether it’s taking a photo of a busy street or someone trying to capture that perfect Instagram-worthy shot of their coffee and food, mobile cameras have allowed us to easily document our lives. As full-time travelers and writers, sometimes, it is much easier to bust out our phone over our bulky DLSR just to be able to capture that perfect moment. While phone cameras have gotten extremely powerful, we’ve recently found a new way to upgrade your camera to take even better photos.
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Pixter: Wide Angle Pro Lens
While Pixter has a wide range of other lens’ their Wide Angle lens Pro is one of the most useful ones, especially for people who enjoy taking landscape shots. They also have the wide angle lens in their starter lens which is pretty good as well. Being true to its name, the wide angle lens widens your smartphone camera’s field of view. All you have to do is clip it onto your mobile phone and you will immediately see the difference. Due to the converging optical system on this lens, you can now capture 2.65 times more elements in your photo. Ever tried taking a shot of a building or a monument wherein you have to back up several times just to make everything fit in one photo? Instead of backing up to be able to get the full thing, you just bust out your wide angle lens and taaadaaah- everything fits.
How Pixter Works
The kit comes with an easy clip-on lens, designed to clip to the front or back of any smartphone. Meaning, regardless if you have an iPhone, a Samsung, or any other handy mobile, you can any of the lenses in the Pixter line. As soon as you clip it on, all you have to do is wiggle it in place- check to see if your camera lens is fully covered, and you’re now set to take a photo.
Lens Specs
- Equivalent: 16mm
- Surface treatments: Polarized/anti-reflective coating
- 5 multilayer lenses
- Resolution (lines/mm): 300
- Distortion: <2%
- Chromatic aberration: <0.5%
- Weight: 36 g
We got the traveler pack which also came with a handy flexible tripod which we could attach to pretty much anywhere. Similar to the gorilla pod which you can bend, distort, and hand in any type of surface, the flexible tripod allows you to join in on the fun while capturing special moments.
Related: Best Travel Cameras
The Pixter Lens Range: How to Choose Which One You Need
Apart from their wide angle lens, Pixter also has an ultra-macro lens, a fisheye lens, and a polarizer lens. If you’re unfamiliar with all these camera terms, here is a brief summary of what each one does and how you can use them to take better photos using your mobile camera.
Ultra Macro– Allows you to take close up detailed shots without blurring or distorting the image. This lens magnifies an image up to 6x. Great for close up detailed shots of products, flowers, animals, etc.
Fish Eye– Allows you to take unique a wide panoramic shot which distorts to a hemispherical image. Imagine looking into a fishbowl. You see a curved-almost cartoon-like effect which is common is some go pro images. Overall, it allows you to take some pretty fun images- just imagine the selfies!
Polarizer Filter–Â This clip on helps to reduce reflections that appear while capturing your photos. It allows you to take photos without reverberation of light which you can easily adjust using the rotative ring.
While these are the basic lens, they also have a pro line with upgraded specs. The proline also has an impressive Telephoto lens which has a focal length of approximately 60mm, allowing you to be 2x closer to the subject being photographed. Overall, the pro lens’ are more powerful, giving you better quality photos.Â
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Using the Lens: Before and After Comparison
In order to fully see how this device works, of course, we had to put it to the test. The photo below is a snap of our place in Bali which we rented for a month (P.S. $450 for a pool, daily breakfast, fast wifi, and all bills….is pretty sweet isn’t it?) As you can see, without the lens, I only managed to capture a portion of the place. The wide angle really helps when trying to fit buildings and structures into one frame. We noticed that if you use the lens on the front camera, it also allows you take better selfie shots which actually show the background of where you are due to the expanded view. My partner Tom would always joke about how when I take selfies, I could literally be anywhere in the world because my arm span is usually too short to actually include myself and the landscape!
Pixter Information
Overall, it’s a great addition to any photo enthusiast. The best thing about it, however, is the fact that it is so light and portable. Given that we already lug around waaaay too much camera equipment, this is something that we would happily carry due to its portability. If you would like more information about Pixter and any of their products, check out their website or send them an email.