Taking Cell Phone Photography to the Next Level

Believe or not both of these photos were taken with a Fuze.

Do you like looking like the ultimate geek cool guy? Well then you definitely need to get a small zooming contraption for your phone that will blow people’s mind away that such a thing exists and even works. What I am talking about is this zooming accessory that is available at brando.com. When I first saw this accessory and I saw the pictures they had on their site of the amount of zooming the accessory offered I was skeptical. I decided to get one (only $17) and give it a try for my self and see if it really worked and I can say for sure that it works and I am really impressed. There were a few things I did not like about the how the item was designed to be used with the phone but I really liked the zooming power and quality of the telescopic lens. Another cool little accessory I got is the cell phone tripod. Don’t let the word cell phone fool you because you can use this tripod for your regular cameras as well. So, if you were planning on getting a tripod for your camera just get the one that they have over at brando.com (only $7) and you can use it for your camera and your phone.

Lets talk about the tripod really quickly (Get it here). Its a small, lightweight tripod which is really good for portability. It has a ball head joint which gives it the 360 degrees rotation. Also as you can see in picture it also has the 180 degree sideways movement so you can have you camera in the vertical or horizontal position. Now moving on to the clip that holds your cell phone in position. The top part of the clip is on a spring and the left side clip is just a adjustable track it has no spring or anything. The top part of the clip which is spring loaded feels delicate and I feel like I am going to break it every time I put my phone or take it out (Eventually I broke it on purpose). Here is what the phone looks when it is in the clip.

The problem when you put the phone in the clip is that you don’t have access to the power button so before you put the phone in you have to press the power button and turn it on. However, when you have the phone turned on while putting it in the clip you could press the PTT button or the volume up button taking you out of the camera mode. Also I noticed that I usually pressed the screen with my hand several times while trying to put it in spring loaded clip. Which is a pain if you have to go back to the camera mode again. That is the only problem I noticed with the clip and the phone. I eventually ended up breaking the spring clip on the top because it was a pain to get my phone in with the spring being really tight. Even with the spring broken the phone fits fine and it is still sturdy.  Here are a few pictures of how the phone looks on the tripod and how a regular digital camera fits on the tripod.

If you want to get the tripod it is only $7 over at Brando

Now lets move on to the telescope zoom.

Here is everything (minus the fuze) that comes when you order the telescopic zoom. As you can see in the picture you get a hard plastic case for the phone. The one that you get is for the Touch Pro because it has the front camera hole but it still fits the fuze fine. The back cover of the phone has a attachment glued on to it so that the zoom can fit in that attachment which lines the zoom and the camera lens up. Lets take a look at the actual size of  the zoom.

The above pictures give you a general idea of the size of the zoom. As you can see it is about the same size as the screen which is not too big and you can easily throw it in your pocket. The zoom is really impressive it is a 6X18 zoom with a 9 degree field. It has a manual focus which allows you to focus on the object and then when you press the button on the camera to capture the photo the camera will also try and focus the object and then take the picture. As you can see in the picture to the right you can rotate the small area with the ridges to change the focus of the photos. Let me show you a couple of photos taken with the zoom and without the zoom.

Also you can see the power of the zoom clearly in the very first pictures that I posted of the light post with a birds nest on it. Here are two pictures from the Brando website.

Now lets talk about about some of the problems that I had with the zoom. When you attach the zoom to the back of the hard case there is a gap between the phone camera lens and the zoom and this allows for light to come in between the camera and the zoom adding a glare. To see what I am talking about look at the pictures below (gap between the camera and the lens left photo and the glare you get in the right photo).

You can see the white streaks on the photo to the right and this is caused because of the light that enters in the gap between the camera lens and the zoom. However, there is a quick fix for this and that is to just put your hand over the gap and the glare is gone. All the photos I took except the one on the right I had my hand over the gap so there was so no glare. Also when you look the pictures in the top right and left corners you see black area which I did not know how to fix but it does not seem to effect the photos that much since it is not such a big area.

Overall I really like the zoom it is really great. I never thought it would work but it does. It is small and an easily fit in your pocket. I would definitely recommend it to someone who is looking to get more zooming power out of their cell phone or for someone who travels a lot and does not want to carry multiple devices to get almost the same if not better zooming power from their cell phone compared to a regular camera. If you want to get it then click here. The only thing I did not like is the fact that I have to have the hard plastic case on it to use the zoom. Maybe something like this that they have over at the Brando site might be better since I don’t have to put the hard plastic case on it but don’t know how well it will works.

The tripod is also a really good product. I used to have the regular tripod for my normal cameras but now I can just use one for my cell phone and my cameras. I can also attach the cell phone clip on to any other regular tripod (like the the big 60 inch tripods or on the smalls ones) and if you don’t have a tripod for your regular cameras already then you can use the one that you get with the cell phone tripod. Just unscrew the cell phone clip and screw your camera on it. So this again eliminates having to carry two tripod but instead you just have one tripod that works for both your camera or your phone if you ever need a stand for your phone. So, click on the links if you want to get the cool telescopic zoom or the tripod from brando.com.