Tom's Guide Verdict
If you have the patience to fiddle with the poorly designed lens clip, you may end up with some decent photos.
Pros
- +
Generally sharp images in the center
- +
Includes the three most-often-used lens types
- +
Affordable
Cons
- -
Poorly designed lens clip
- -
Difficult to mount lenses on clip
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VicTsing's smartphone camera kit comes with a trio of lenses — a 0.65x wide-angle, a 10x macro and a fisheye — which is probably all you need for most picture taking. Two lens clips, two lens caps and a small carry bag are included, along with instructions on how to mount the lenses to the clips. Trust me, you'll need the instructions; the clip design is this kit's Achilles' heel.
Design
Unlike the spring clamps with screw mounts that are commonly used with other smartphone lenses, the VicTsing kit uses clips with a cutout to fit the lenses. Slightly graduated in width, these cutout openings are designed to hold the lens in place.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to fit the lens into the clip slot. Then, you'll need both hands to attach the clip to the camera and move the lens itself into place over the camera's lens.
This is a more time-consuming and awkward process than other lens kits that use clips; those are one-handed operations. And, it's not always easy to move the lens on the VicTsing clip into the proper position over the camera lens.
MORE: Best iPhone Camera Lenses - Wide Angle, Macro & Zoom Kits
That said, some of our test images were better than anticipated. Whether shooting with the wide-angle, fisheye or macro lens, center areas were generally sharply focused — something that's not always the case with other smartphone lenses. We tested the VicTsing's lenses with an iPhone 8, though they're also designed to fit the iPhone 7, 6s, 6, 5s, as well as many Android phones.
Wide Angle Lens Performance
The 0.65x wide-angle lens produced photos with a larger in-focus area than some other lens kits, such as Memteq's; Amir's lenses were better, as were Aukey's.
For example, in an image of a wall of tools, a pair of adjustable pliers were sharper in the Amir test photo.
Fisheye Lens Performance
Like the wide-angle lens, the fisheye lens captured good detail in a relatively large center area. Move outward from the center and, not unexpectedly, you'll find soft blurring, although not quite as extreme as on other fisheye lenses.
The field of view is not noted in any of the specifications but we think it might be not quite as extreme as a 180-degree fisheye. There was slightly less chromatic aberration and fewer halos at the very outer edges than other, similar lenses as well.
Macro Lens Performance
Because the 10x macro lens is so thin and low profile, it's best to keep another lens attached on top when placing it into the clip. Once the clip and lens are in position on the camera, hold the clip in place and unscrew the top lens. That's much easier than trying to place the lilliputian macro lens into the clip by itself.
Bottom Line
It's really too bad that VicTsing used this poorly designed clip instead of a spring clamp to mount the lenses. Image quality, while not as good as that from the Aukey Ora or the Xenvo Pro, was better than the other low-cost kits. And you can't go wrong at the price. You'll just need good eye-hand coordination to work with the clips.
Credit: Tom's Guide
