Design – The ExoLens case needs more

For design, the case is fairly normal. It is quite light which is good since the Lens is quite heavy. The case fits the iPhone well and has rubbery edges which slightly improves the handling of the camera setup. The back is clear and very slick which is a problem when you have the lens attached to the case. There isn’t enough texture on the case to overcome the awkwardness of the giant lens on your iPhone.

The buttons on the case are a little stiffer to use which means using the volume buttons as your shutter button is going to be noticeable. The clear back will showcase the color of your iPhone but unlike the average clear case, has a noticeable rainbowing effect.

The ExoLens attaches securely via a threaded hole on top of the camera and there is a cutout for the flash though it’s going to be useless when you’ve got the ExoLens Pro attached.

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Protection

The ExoLens case isn’t officially drop-rated but based on our experience with regular TPU and polycarbonate, the case (without the lens attached) will protect your iPhone from an accidental, waist high drop.

The ExoLens case does allow you to attach a wrist-strap to the case which is a MUST in our opinion. Our biggest concern when it comes to protection is the size and bulk of the lens. There is a good chance that you might drop the entire setup so having it attached to wrist is going to save you the horror watching your iPhone crash to the ground in slow motion.

Why is the ExoLens case so slick? Why?

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The ExoLens Pro

The ExoLens Pro is awesome (we can’t stop staying it). Surprisingly, you can get a sense directly from Apple and it will fit the iPhone 7 (NOT Plus), the iPhone 6’s and the iPhone 6 Plus’s. Included in the package are all the mounting plates for the lens and unlike the Moment Lens, you don’t need to mount anything semi-permanent on your iPhone.

The downside of the mounting clips is that you’ll have to remove your iPhone from the case and screen protector in order to use the lens. The mounting clip also has a cold shoe mount so you can add even more accessories to make your iPhone even more awkward to handle.

The actual lens is made by Zeiss (who is well-known in terms of making quality lenses). ExoLens claims that the lens doesn’t have any distortion or chomratic aberration and has exectional edge contrast. We’re not entirely sure what any of this marketing fluff means but we know that the images taken by the ExoLens Pro is crisp without any sort of distortion like you would find on lesser lenses. The wide angle lens greatly enhances the FOV of your iPhone as well.

There aren’t many times when it comes to iPhone accessories that we’re blown away by them but using the ExoLens Pro for the first time made our jaws drop. It’s hard to imagine having such a large FOV without any noticeable distortion along the edges. The lack of distortion and chromatic aberrations will be very apparent in the comparison section..

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Photo Comparison

Let’s start with a comparison of the ExoLens Pro with the Olloclip, Moment Lens and Ztylus Revolver case. As you can see, the Ztylus lens is the worst out of the grouping with the ExoLens and Moment Len’s being similar in terms of picture quality. We were actually surprised at the Ztylus’s len’s quality as we expected them to improve the lenses for the iPhone 7 (Olloclip did).

With these two photos, the difference between the Moment Lens and ExoLens Pro is quite noticeable. For the shot of the hand warmer, you can definitely see a bit of distortion along the edge of the Moment Lens photo. In the comparison of the grassy hill, the strands of grass look animated in the Moment Lens shot whereas the ExoLens Pro shot has way more detail.

In this photo a gravel pathway, we’d have a hard time picking out the distortion along the left edge of the Moment Lens photo without having the ExoLens Pro photo right beside it. The Moment Lens produces great photos but as you can see above, the ExoLens Pro products perfect photos.

Another example of the ExoLens Pro proving to us that their lens is almost distortion free. In the Moment Lens, the edge of the painting warps towards the right slightly whereas the edge of completely straight with the ExoLens Pro photo.

The only instance where the ExoLens Pro and Moment Lens photos where similar occurred with our attempts at macro photography. The depth of field of the iPhone camera in this type of photois going to eliminate the blurry edges from the Moment Len’s.

Again, we’re floored at the lens quality of the ExoLens Pro! The ExoLens case is lacking but the lens, just wow!

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