OOWA Lenses for Mobile Photography

Introduction

The OOWA lenses are the first product by DynaOptics, the first company in the world to introduce free-form lenses into high-quality imaging optics. Using their patent-pending free-form technology, they aim to provide a better edge-to-edge image quality. For more details about free-form lenses, please check out their website.

OOWA Lenses

I got the Pro Kit about a month ago, which includes two lenses (15mm and 75mm) and iPhone cases. Then I took a 17-day road trip to a few national parks and was able to put the lenses into action. As I love shooting with wide-angle lenses, I was eager to try the 15mm lens.

Below is my unboxing video.

Both lenses are well built. They are small and light yet feel very solid. The case and the lens mount are made of plastic. To mount the lens, the instruction says, “Lock the lens by gently turning it to the right until it clicks.” But the click is quite soft, which doesn’t provide a positive feedback to my hands. So by the 5th day of my road trip, I over-tightened the lens and broke the case. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and I could still mount the lens onto the case. It just didn’t have a hard stop when the lens was in the locked position, although it’s not really locked.

The OOWA 15mm Wide-angle Lens

The focal length of the wide-angle lens, or the 1X lens, on the iPhone 7 Plus is about 28mm (35mm-format equivalent), which is sometimes not wide enough for my need. So the OOWA 15mm lens is really appealing to me. A lot of my landscape photographs were shot in the 15mm-18mm range, not to mention my architecture and interior work.

The image quality is quite good overall. I really enjoy shooting with the lens. The distortion seemed minimal to none.

Painted Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Columbia River, Washington

Hurricane Hill, Olympic National Park

Diablo Lake, North Cascades National Park

The OOWA 75mm Telephoto Lens

The iPhone 7 Plus has a second, telephoto lens, the focal length of which is roughly 56mm, or 2X. The OOWA 75mm lens is only compatible with the 1X lens though. This is not a focal length I usually shoot with, especially when shooting landscapes.

I still tried to take some photos with it. But most of the photos were taken after I broke the case (as mentioned above). The images were not very sharp and showed a lot of vignetting. I suspected that it may be due to misalignment between the lens and the camera. I’ll provide an update once I get a replacement case or after I fix the broken one.

Kalaloch, Olympic National Park

Mount Wilbur, Glacier National Park

Conclusion

If you like shooting wide-angles, the OOWA 15mm is a no-brainer. On the other hand, if you are an iPhone 7 Plus user, I don’t think you need the 75mm lens since the native telephoto lens on iPhone 7 Plus is already very good and the difference in the focal length, 56mm vs 75mm, isn’t that much. But if you use iPhones other than the 7 Plus, the 75mm lens does provide a different perspective.

I’ve never been a fan of mobile photography until I got my iPhone 7 Plus. Now the OOWA lenses just make it more fun.

Check out OOWA’s website for more information and images taken with the two lenses.