The Nokia N73 used in this review was provided by Drei, the Austrian division of Hutchison 3G. A big thank you goes out to everyone at Drei’s who made this possible!
Experiments with lenses intended to modify the optical properties of mobile phones already existed in the days of fixed-focus VGA camera phones. Back then, TamsPalm reviewed a set of lenses that were ‘glued’ onto the back of the phone…the lenses worked more-less, but had their issues with image quality. Brando’s latest attempt looks and behaves completely different - but can it stack up?
As usual, Brando’s products ship in a rather large envelope from Hong Kong. Austrian customs always left them alone…but this time, things were different. Some crazy person at the Austrian customs declared this an ultra-precise tool of optical mass destruction…and giving this into the hands of a half-Arab…no way. Sending a nice letter to his superior quickly convinced the jerk to produce the envelope.
The telescope attaches to the phone via a crystal case-type housing that also protects the phone:
Inserting the Nokia N73 into the housing is easy - put it into the bottom and press the top onto it:
Once in the casing, the telescope is slipped into the retainer. It is then held in place firmly:
The wheel at the end of the telescope is intended for focusing. I used the zoom function of the N73 to bloat the size of the image so that focusing became possible. Theoretically, the wheel should allow you to adjust the focus depending on the distance of the object. However, my tests showed that the ideal setting almost always is in ‘wide’ mode:
Just a few minuted of time definitely aren’t enough to completely assess the quality of a lens…and shuddery hands don’t really help either.
Zoom lenses always require very steady hands - and a 6x zoom without optical stabilization can be challenging to handle. Indeed, most of the pictures I made were at least a bit blurry:
Sharpness and optical distortion were a bit dissatisfying, although using a good image editor will do a lot for the images:
The Mobile Phone Telescope costs approximately 20$ and is available for a variety of phones(the N73 version looks out of stock ATM though).
In the end, the Mobile Phone telescope definitely is a way forward, delivering a reliable x6 magnification at an optical level. However, a 6x zoom lens is almost unmanageable without image stabilization or very high ISO - and the rather strong optical distortion doesn’t help either. It all becomes an issue of cost and weight in the end - if you want to have zoom handy every now and then and don’t need ultra-high image quality, this is your dream machine. If you need premium images, a digital camera still remains your best friend…