NYC-based filmmaker Casey Neistat recently compared a $35 clip-on smartphone lens with a $7,000 DSLR (the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II to be precise) and superzoom lens. The results, to no one's surprise, were not in the smartphone lens' favor. However, Neistat expresses surprise at the (admittedly very minor) capabilities of the cheap lens, saying, "So, I very gently, very reluctantly, recommend this total piece of sh*t $35 lens because it sort of almost works."
That recommendation is given to potential buyers who need something to use with a smartphone. If a more capable lens and camera are within budget, the resulting content will benefit greatly from them, as the comparison screenshot below pretty clearly demonstrates:
Yes, Mr.Casey is verry fun, but I want too to be the same. I am an amator enthuziast photografer and own of few DSLRs and lens from 11 to 500 mm with a 1.4 teleconverter and APS-C sensor crope become 1050 mm. I never try, or think to try, to shut with a smsrtphone. Until two weak ago I have a 5 years old smartphone with a 13 MP sensor whuich I was verry satisfaced. And now I am a new Huawei mate 10 pro owner and, of corse, verry hapy. Fortnely I am well surprise how this smarphone camera perform and I think to bay a little tele lens for smartphone, but I have big questions. How I use this lens with a DUAL camera smartphone? This is a big question for me. If somebody know the answer plase give it to me.
Silly, but fun. If nothing else it was entertaining and shows how to put together a video clip that is well edited and catchy. Not my style maybe, but well done.
As for super-zooms on a cell phone, the way to go would be to have the sensor incorporated on a decent lens and just use the camera for framing and storage and power. I don't know why smart phones don't have a video-in feature and then use tiny Zeiss or whatever optics with a larger sensor built into the lens. Also, a clip on sun shade with pop up magnifying glass for the screen. Like old medium format reflex cameras had.
There do exist clip on cameras for mobile phones. I assume they use one of the wireless technologies you have in your phone. But, of course, it gets more expensive.
Who would put that lens on a 1DXMKII? He should have used a Big White. He blew a chance for something REAL. Obviously hes not a photographer, nor a technologist....
Ridiculous clickbait. So the 7K was with a very expensive DSLR. But the 35$ was without the 700$ smartphone?... An el-cheapo DSLR + cheapo zoom lens would compete for price and beat in quality.
I could get a decent DSLR + zoom for under $1500 that would come very VERY close to what you get with that $7k setup. I could possibly get away with under $1000. And this is assuming brand new equipment. I have no idea what the hell that was I just skimmed through.
When you see this, you really miss the old DigitalRevTV. That was entertaining and often silly, too, but it was 100% focussed on the subject matter, and not 98% about a guy doing things with his daughter in NYC.
With display advertising revenue falling, and reduced volume on affiliate click-through purchases, dpreview has to find ways to compensate and meet performance metrics. Hence the deluge of questionable content, inclusion of products at the bottom of most pages, all in an effort to drive engagements and increase dwell time on the site.
He took the image out over sea at something far away. Air movement will destroy any crisp detail. So will moisture. This is the bane of testing tele lenses.
I'm not surprised that people on here have no clue on who Casey Neistat is. He is a very successful YouTube vlogger (just shy VB of 10mil subscribers) who kick started his career with short films and an HBO television series 15+yrs ago.
He is not a camera reviewer. He often features random things on his vlogs (a lot which get mailed to him by fans) and might do a quick review on them. That's not even the main focus of his videos. Everyone needs to relax. The title on this article even reads "silly (but fun)". Almost as if DPR knew a lot of grumpy responses were expected.
Nothing fun about misleading comparisons when you're trying to buy something. Yes most people here know better, but do most of those in the market for a DSLR or smartphone?
this is a great marketing stunt for Casey. this lens looks like a "Bigma" and he even says it's a $1k on a $6k (approx.) body. it would be less interesting if you used a $1k canon body with this $1k lens. the results would be similar when compared to the snap-on lens (much better using the DSLR).
Casey Neistat on DPR. Well this will polarise the DP demographic.
Mature / retired / nearly retired male North American demographic meets one of YouTubes most influential vloggers.
It would not be an understatement to say that Casey Neistat probably has more influence over people under 30 than any Hollywood film maker. Neistat has been making short videos with a certain aesthetic and editing style that millions of people now emulate.
Making a video "more like Neistat" IS a thing these days. He is massively influential.
He can't walk down the street without being stopped by young people. He is a huge celebrity.
So those of you saying "kinda entertaining but I dont get it" ought to ask your kids or grandkids. I am certain they will know.
OK ... I have only seen one. But ... if this is what it takes to be a "huge celebrity" ... then I am kind of amazed. It was catchy ... but not THAT good. He did deliver - I got the info I needed. And he was natural, relaxed and funny. And it was a good show. So yes .. he has skills. OK ... as I said ... I have only seen one. Maybe I need to see more for a final judgment. Maybe.
@Roland: ...and he delivers each and every time. For a while he even did so every day. The man is tireless, which is the only way to do it: it takes a lot of work to make these videos look like they weren’t very much work (if you get my drift). I highly recommend you watch his other stuff, even if it’s just for the editing. Whenever you think “I’ve seen that style before”, that’s likely because he popularised it on YouTube and people now emulate it. I’m not saying he’s cinematographic genius or anything, but he’s worthwile.
No matter what body they would use and what resolution it may have - if a crap lens is the bottle neck nothing helps. What a nonsens comparison! They should have take a 1 K camera + a 2 k lens and the result would have blown the smartphone away.
I would like to know what's the intended message of that test and who was paying for it.
That is just a fun DIY thing that will, in practice, be more than useless. It will give less IQ, and also be impossible to make manageable. And I doubt you can do it below $35, even if you slaughter one of your old binoculars.
No - nothing beats buying a cheap Chinese gadget when it comes to value for the buck.
BTW - I am missing something here. It is usually so that, when there is a gear article, that the gear that has been described can be found at the bottom of the article, with prices. Would have been fun.
So - I took me the ten minutes it takes to look at the actual movie :)
Hmmmmmm ... kind of nice guy. The test and the result are actually fair and reasonable. Nice to know that you can get a nearly usable 18x zoom lens for your phone for $35.
The video was filled with lots of unnecessary stuff. I totally did not understand the connection to the part with his daughter.
This particular Youtuber is kind of infamous for being obtuse. He did a thing where he uploaded one video every day for a year (needless to say these videos were not very interesting most of the time). He has quite a large fanbase, but unless you're in his fanbase you'll probably not enjoy his videos.
He's less of a 'create interesting content' kind of youtuber, and more of a 'let me show you how cool/interesting what I'm doing is' kind of youtuber.
I watched a couple of his DJI-related videos when I was early into the multirotor hobby, and I had to mark as "not interested" all Youtube suggestions with him because there were a lot and very annoying. Good thing I don't see him anymore.
It’s a fine video, kind of funny too, and the conclusion is spot on. But I wish DPR as a web service just stick to their original theme and material. We know that there is YouTube out there, guys. If we wanted YouTube videos, we would go to YouTube. We come to DPR for something different. At least I do.
If you tell your wife you spend only $35 to take video of your lovely daughter, she is going to slap your face, 'where the hell you spend the rest of your money to?'
I got a different brand for just $10.00 yesterday from Amazon. It's plastic and cheap. But....the IQ for what it is (operative phrase) is astounding. I would never use it for serious work, and it doesn't come close to something like a Moment lens. But even directly OOC, the images look quite good, and after some post clean-up, they're pretty tolerable.
Because of the jumpiness introduced with handholding something like this (especially when I put it in front of my 2X Plus lens), I just shoot in burst mode to fire off 30-50 shots (3-5 seconds). One is almost always crisp.
It's made from really cheap plastic, so I expect it to break in a year or two even with my babying it. But for the price of a chocolate molten lava cake desert at Olive Garden after tax and tip, it's a no-brainer.
Smartphone “cameras” are all FAKE AND DECEPTIVE, a complete WASTE OF TIME (and also money). If you truly want to make PHOTOGRAPHS worth of your time and the effort of confronting subject matters, GET A REAL CAMERA, JACK!
Don't want to use a "fake" camera? Don't even bother using DSLR then, a pinhole camera is a way to go, that's the only "real" camera you can count on! I mean, no one wants "digitally" "processed" images which only try to "imitate" what we see with our eyes, right?
Besides which, WE are interested in TRUE STILL PHOTOGRAPHY, not piece-of-trash videos, which are less than a dime a dozen, really a penny a million, in the actual (trash) world of hoi polloi videography.
Something makes me dubious as to whether movingpictures has any idea what Protogonus1 has and hasn't accomplished. Something like, I dunno...logic, probability, experience, confidence, openmindedness, etc.
Seems like most of the people on DPR have either been born with no sense of fun or had it surgically removed. It’s no wonder younger people aren’t interested in ILC when all these angry crusty old farts say things like spend thousands on the best lenses money can buy, shoot lots of test charts, stare at spec sheets until your eyes bleed, argue over whether brand X has a 0.0000000001 increase in DR over brand Y and then shoot serious work.
What? You again? With the same BS? Nothing of what you claim in this post have even remotely been said in posts here. You are just making it up. Actually, regarding expensive gear, only the opposite have been said - that choosing a $7000 camera is overkill. A $700 rig would give just as nice pictures.
You might think you are funny, and you got 10 likes, so some agree. But, you are 100% off.
Glad to hear you find it amusing Mr Punk. I have not a habit of reporting all that often, so it will be a long time to the next event. Seems like the Paul guy have some problems with old people and likes to ventilate those problems. Maybe some readers do have problems with near and dear with Alzheimer's. I am not sure they find it as entertaining. There are limits to the jokes you use in a public forum.
Yes, you can choose to be offended. I am not easily offended BTW.
In this particular case, the guy did repeat the same nonsense about old farts that only wanted test charts and only wanted the most expensive equipment - or whatever. In two threads I have seen - and nothing such thing had even closely been said in any of those threads. At that point I told him he was off. And NB at that time I was not offended. I just thought it was silly. Even more silly as the nonsense had 10 likes.
And as an answer the bloke told those Alzheimer's jokes. I mean ... totally immature. I thought that wa a bit out of bounds in the forum. So ... I reported him. Do not know how DPReview will react on that. And ... to be frank ... I am not sure offended is the right word for it. Rather more indignation.
No I have nothing against the chronologically aged only those who are hide bound and looking to impose the values, mores, of bygone ages on people now. If you think I’m being offensive about Alzheimer’s then you should have a gander at what Shakespear wrote about it.
Photography like all artistic expression is supposed to be fun and ultimately enjoyable. The measurebators who sit alone in darkened rooms reading equipment reviews while fondling lenses have sucked the life out of photography. We have equipment that is far more capable than anything Bresson, Adams et al had yet still people whinge and whine about needing more specifications so they can be fulfilled as a photographer. Get out and shoot, experiment, create, be silly, push the boundaries. Life is too short to sit around wishing that a sensor had 1/3 stop more DR or whether you need x number of DXO marks to make a print bigger than a post card.
@Paul. What surprises me is why you care. Lets say you are right. Or at least that this is what you believe and feel, for reasons you find fair. Why do you then twice let it out in random posts, where no other post even come near to what you are talking about? Were you bored? Were you drunk? Were you in a particular bad mood?
Why do you care if someone else is more interested in test charts and MTF graphs and whatever than in making pictures?
Personally I think whatever you are doing is fine. We need all kind of people. With only artists and picture makers there would be no cameras. Even making paper needs technology. So maybe we would still be drawing on cave walls with charcoal and dried mud.
And regarding tasteless jokes. Yes, there are places and situations where tasteless jokes are considered fine. But this is an international forum where thousands of random posters are supposed to be able to co-live. Some care is needed.
The worst thing about this article is actually not the article itself but the comments beneath it. This is nothing new, sadly. There are so many people here on DPreview that bash articles simply because they offer diversity of thought or because the article did not personally suit their fancy. There once was a time when most people could skip over articles that did not interest them and then actually read the articles that interested them, all without endlessly complaining about articles they didn’t like. So I will take time now to break from the majority and personally thank the content creators at DPReview. I have enjoyed your site for many years and continue to enjoy it. Keep up the good work.
I also enjoy (some) of DPR articles and am often appalled by the numerous self-important mean-spirited comments. But DPR certainly shares blame for much of the nastiness here because the selection and framing of many articles is obviously intended to attract (bait?) trolls.
In particular there are too many social items with tangential photographic content that garner hoards of nasty political haters. There is little reason for such articles and no discernible reason for attaching a "comments" button other than to up their click count.
And there are virtually no useful or interesting comments for industry news items. Just a bunch of opinionated pretend CEOs and armchair analysts with no expertise or actual insight. Once again there is little reason for a "comments" bar other than to attract trolls.
The entertainment value of these opinions wears pretty thin and I find that I increasingly skip these types of articles.
I really liked the parts where's he's doing the selfie shooting on a skateboard. All-in-all, very entertaining. He seems like a good dude with an interesting style of presentation.
What the appearance of this and similar articles on DP trumpeting videography actually means is quite depressing--a clear admission that TRUE STILL PHOTOGRAPHY (with what are known in the trade as Digital Still Cameras or DSCs) is being eclipsed by videophiles who wouldn’t know or appreciate a PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT WORTHY OF A MUSEUM if they suddenly stepped on one or if it hit them in the face blowing in the wind.
I'll be whatever I want, at any time. And the last thing in my priority list is to hear idiotic "baristas" parroting whatever passes for wisdom in their demented world. And like it or not, it ain't changing!
$7000 DSLR kit ? Well, you can do a way better tele-photos with old used 500$ DSLR kit (APS-C + 70-300mm basic zoom) than this impractical cellphone contraption can do...
...However, frankly, $35 is not so much money, and actually center of image looks pretty sharp. Maybe one (kids for example) could shoot some funny/nice moon pictures with it etc.
Yawn - he named it correctly - "a piece of s#@t lens" only sharp in one place and pretty worthless in general. I suppose if someone absolutely has to use their cell phone for photography and don't mind carrying all the attachments plus a tripod for it, it's usable, but personally I'll take my P900 Nikon which I can hand-hold at anywhere between 24mm and 2000mm and get excellent results with. Yes, it doesn't make phone calls but that's not what it was designed to do.
The "comparison" itself was a transparent excuse for self-exposure/promotion of the videomaker. Very clever ad, I hope some producer looking for "video-collages" hires him and he gets an Oscar (or whatever statue-made-out-of-junk would be appropriate for this genre.) :)
You do know that Casey Neistat is one of the most high profile people on the internet? He has a global following that counts in the millions.
In terms of internet and online - Neistat is Kardashian levels of famous. He cant walk down the street without young people recognising him. He is a very wealthy guy who made the cover of Esquire magazine.
First thing's first, the music is absolutely horrible. But i guess i shouldn't expect much else for inner city hipsters. As for the comparison, no need to compare a $7,000 DSLR for that, you can get similar video IQ for way under a grand.
I agree...perhaps a little bit of editing by dp would clean it up. Fed up with reading childish negative comments. Seem to be getting this sort of suff all over the internet, and usually by the same people. Perhaps 'responders' should be "graded". Hmmm. Grading could be from 1-10. So a person who writes negative rubbish would be a number 1, and a intelligent answer without bad language would go up to number 10. So a number would ALWAYS be attached to each individual.
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