GADGETS | Mpow 2 in 1 Wide Angle Lens & Bluetooth Selfie Stick Review

October 17, 2016 Shell Robshaw-Bryan

0 Comment

Like it? Help us by sharing it!

Mpow 2 in 1 Clip on Smartphone Lens

Stockists

Check Price On Amazon.co.uk

Technical details of Lens

10X Macro Lens
0.6X Professional Wide Angle High Definition Lens
37mm Thread
Widely compatible with most iOS and Android smartphones

If there’s one thing I love more than camping, it’s taking my camera on our adventures and taking photographs of stuff! I have a beloved Canon DSLR which comes everywhere with me, but honestly, when doing tough hill walks, the extra weight and bulk often leaves me grumbling, so the prospect of being able to capture great landscape shots with just my smartphone and the addition of the Mpow Wide Angle Lens was an exciting one.

Left: With wide angle lens

I took it to Snowdonia last week and took lots of different shots with it to put the lens through its paces. I was left a little disappointed by the wide angle lens, which resulted in heavy vignetting on every shot I took. No amount of lens re-positioning, or manually changing settings stopped this effect.

Top: Shot of the lake without Mpow wide angle lens

Below: Same shot of the lake with the Mpow wide angle lens

The results of the macro lens are better, with no such vignetting, though It would be nice to get the whole frame in focus. It did need me to play around with the focus setting options on my smartphone to get the best results, but it’s the macro shots I’m most happy with.

Macro shots with the lens benefit from use of a tripod

Given the price, I think it’s decent value, though using the wide angle lens does result in vignetting. This means you’ll need to heavily crop images when editing, leaving you with letterbox style images, similar to those you’d achieve using the Panorama function already available on (most) smartphones.

Left: Shot with macro lens

Mpow iSnap Selfie Stick

Mpow iSnap Bluetooth selfie stick
£6.99 from Amazon.co.uk
Buy it here

On to the selfie stick now, and amazingly, I’ve actually never used one before! The stick felt sturdy and well made, and it fitted my phone securely. It works via Bluetooth and features a micro USB port so it can be recharged. The first time I tried it, it took several attempts before pairing the iSnap to my phone worked.

The next time I used the stick, whilst out camping and walking in Snowdonia, I was pleased that the selfie stick paired straight away. Most recently when I tried to use it, after a solid 15 minutes of attempting to pair them, which included turning Bluetooth on an off again several times and rebooting my phone twice, I still didn’t get the selfie stick to pair successfully, leaving me very frustrated!

I should stress I have a Sony Xperia Z5 with the latest Android OS, and haven’t had issues pairing any other Bluetooth devices. The selfie stick is brilliant – when it works. However, in my experience I found it wouldn’t pair successfully with my phone every time.

The best bits

Lens is very easy to use
Lens is quite big and heavy, and feels very good quality
Nice looking macro shots
Great value at under £20
The selfie stick looks and feels well made

Thank you to Mpow for supplying the featured lens and selfie stick for us to test.

Save

About
Latest Posts

Follow Shell

Shell Robshaw-Bryan

Editor & Owner at Camping with Style

Shell loves all things travel and outdoors and is a nature-loving, comfy-camping kinda girl. Shell started the Camping with Style blog after a serious snowboarding accident which left her with a broken back. Despite this she used the outdoors and healing power of nature to aid her recovery and she continues to spend time outdoors whenever she can.

From open water swimming, snowboarding and kayaking to hill walks and meditation, Shell shares her travels and microadventures here on the blog and in various publications she's written for, Shell has a particular interest in promoting wellbeing and the many benefits of nature therapy.

Follow Shell

Latest posts by Shell Robshaw-Bryan (see all)