The perfect accessory for the serious iPhoneographer. Just perfect.
Z-Prime by Ztylus Review – Great photos, great lenses, convenient package
Today we’re going to do a review of the Ztylus Prime Lens. This a lens system for all sized iPhone 6’s and we’ll be honest with you, it’s amazing. Ztylus has put a lot of thought into the design of the system, and it shows. The wide angle and telephoto lenses are awesome, but we do have a couple of reservations about the case.
For our Z-Prime by Ztylus Review, we’ve given this product a score of 4.7 Eh’s out of 5. The rating is a little more arbitrary given that we haven’t come up with a solid scoring system for camera iPhone cases but this is the baseline for iPhone camera cases going forward.
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Design – The Z-Prime is well thought out and designed well
In terms of design, its very evident that Ztylus put a lot of thought into the design of their lens system. The entire system may seem a little daunting at first but when you get the hang of swapping out lenses, it is incredibly efficient. Attaching the lens is fairly straightforward as there is only one right way to put it on and Ztylus has added a red part to the lens to remind you how the lens sits on the case. The entire setup is quite stable as I was unable to shake the lens off the case.
The lens cap is spring loaded which opens with a nice flip, and if you don’t want to deal with the lens cap, you can remove it since it attaches to the lens magnetically.
The lens themselves are marketed to be of high quality, but the specifics are outside of the realm of understanding but after using this product for several weeks, we’re inclined to buy into Ztylus’s marketing fluff. This was most evident to us when we compared photos captured between different camera systems. If need to know more about the technical details of their five glass element lenses, check out their website.
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The iPhone case – It works but we think it could be better
In terms of the case, we’re not too fond of the incredibly shallow edges. As you can see, on our pink iPhone, the ITG Silicate glass screen protector extends past the edge which means the glass screen protector is holding the iPhone up if placed face first on a flat surface. If you do get a screen protector with this case, we’d suggest you go with a thinner PET one like this Bodyguardz Screenguardz HD Impact on our grey iPhone.
The case itself is quite heavy as the tops and bottoms are made out of thicker metal, but this added weight seemed to make the entire setup a little more stable. The back of the case has an attachment point for other Ztylus accessories and doubles as a kickstand which is nice. The iPhone is uniquely installed by a thumbscrew at the bottom of the case. You can also attach a wrist strap to the case. The ease of installation means that this doesn’t have to be your day-to-day case.
We do wish that the case had little bit more texture as it wasn’t alway comfortable with having this awkward shape on the device. The lens does offer a bit of additional stability while shooting with one hand which helps a bit but there’s nothing that seems to provide the same level of stability as a good grip that you would find on a DSLR.
Now, having a functional lens on your iPhone is great, but it’s only truly useful if it can be easily stored and accessible. The Z-prime carrier is a brilliant attachment that allows you to carry the lenses around. It has a strap/belt attachment as well as a clip that allows you to hang it off of anything. This is such a great thing because it lets you have the lenses handy.
The Z-Prime carrier is an excellent example of the details that Ztylus has incorperated into this product.
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Photo Quality – Doesn’t look like a regular wide angle shot (That’s a good thing)
Included with the Ztylus Z-Prime are two lenses, a 100-degree wide-angle lens and a 2x telephoto. The image above is a good indication of the different FOV’s. In the review video, we’ve got footage of a workout that Aaron went through that shows the different FOV’s as well.
Now how about the quality of the pictures taken with the Z-Prime? Well, take a look at the next sets of photos. We ran a comparison against other wide angle lenses from Olloclip, HitCase and Optrix and the photos that came from the Ztylus wide angle lens were, clearer and had significantly less distortion. It was very surprising to us how sharp every photo that was taken by Ztylus was which again, leads to us believing the marketing fluff on Ztylus’s website.
Click to see the larger image
Shooting video isn’t any issue with the Z-Prime either. Cases like the Optrix XD6 and iOgrapher work well as iPhonevideography cases rather than camera cases as the zoomed in nature of the iPhone’s camera removes the edges of the lenses on those cases. This is not the case for Z-Prime.
Ztylus doesn’t explicitly state it on their website, but the wide angle lens also has some macro properties as it will allow you to get closer to a subject than you usually would without the wide angle lens.
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Again, for our Z-Prime by Ztylus Review, we gave this iPhone 6(s+) camera case a score of 4.7 Eh’s out of 5. Have questions? Please ask them on our Google+ page or our Facebook page or our About Us page.
Ralph F
May 8, 2016 at 9:46 pm
Great reviews. Was wondering two things:
1. Can you publish the weight of the z-prime case and lenses?
2. How do the stylus lenses compare to the Moment lenses.
Thanks!
Aaron Ho
May 10, 2016 at 2:44 pm
I don’t have an exact weight scale so I can’t say for sure that the weight is for the Z-Prime. Moment lens’s are better than the Ztylus ones.
http://www.mobilereviews-eh.ca/moment-case-lens-review-iphone-6s/
Emma
May 27, 2016 at 7:31 pm
Hi Aaron! I love your reviews, I always watch them when shopping for cases. I am thinking about getting one of these cases straight from Ztylus since they offer free shipping but want to make sure you get credit. They have a referral program, are you a part of that? It looks like you would get 10% of the purchase if you give me a referral code. More bananas!
Thanks!
Aaron Ho
May 30, 2016 at 4:21 pm
Huh. Didn’t see that referall program.
Signed up for it…you get 25% off!
http://ztylus.refr.cc/X35GKT4