Review: Bitplay Professional Smartphone Camera Add-on Lens System

The biggest job perk of being a phone store manager for almost 20 years is that I get to use any phones I want for as long as I want them. Camera functionality has always been one of the key components when I choose which phone to use day to day.

From the early days of the Nokia 12Megapixel N series, to the Sony 21Megapixel Z series and all series of Samsung Galaxy, Apple iPhone, and HTC one with moving photos, to the current Huawei mate and Google pixel AI-enhanced camera phones, I can say the technology under the hood of these phones has come a long way.

However, having been a smartphone photographer for all my adult life and taking commercial photos for events, product placement photos for Instagram and Facebook, and the ever-important family holiday photos, I don’t think a day goes by without me opening the camera app on my phone.

Some people might think the purposely built action camera and AI-enhanced photographic smartphone technology are overhyped. I can’t help but think the consumer grade point and shoot digital camera’s days are numbered.

Smartphone cameras have always had a limitation in terms of the type of lenses they use. The lens is fixed and cannot be designed as an all-in-one. This determines the quality of close-up macro shots, long-range zoom-in shots, and crowded selfie shots that need the extra width. Some of these issues can be overcome by using software to stitch up multiple photos with panoramic mode or digitally zooming in on the picture, but the final product will not be as good, and this certainly cannot be done when you are shooting a video.

That is why phone manufacturers came up with dual or quad lens camera phones for different situations. Now the latest iPhone Xs comes with a f/1.8 wide-angle lens build-in on the back and a f/2.2 wide-angle lens for the front camera, specifically for those crowded selfies.

While it is good that phone manufacturers are addressing these limitations by bringing out shiny new devices with lenses that fit, not everybody has the $2000 budget to upgrade.

This is where third party lenses come in. There are a few of them out there but they mostly don’t stack up. Blurry images and distortion are the least of the issues. Some have hair line cracks or affect the colour saturation. A few professional brands stand out from the rest. Moment, Olloclip, and ITFIT are all pretty reliable.

Today I got my hands on a set of bitplay lenses and will be focusing on reporting their functionality and the quality of the photos after using them for a trial period.

The price of bitplay lenses is nowhere near the Olloclip or Moment lens so it doesn’t feel like buying a new set of equipment to fix an existing one. This is a plus for me. For the sake of comparison, I am taking an iPhone 7 Plus out on this task.

For stability control, I used a Snap!7 plus case on the iPhone so I can fix it onto a tripod with its built-in 1/4-20 UNC threads. This takes away the possibility of a shaking movement when the photos are taken that could skew the test result. The Snap!7 case is nicely built, fits the phone firmly and provides a good grip and protection for the device. It has a mechanical shutter button positioned naturally on the top right-hand corner and a thumb stopper where you can place your thumb to complete the grip without touching the screen, a feature no other mobile lens systems have. That being said, although the add-on case makes the phone so much better when using it as a camera, it does make the phone thicker. I wouldn’t use the case on a day-to-day bases, only during a photo session.