Gadgetory

hi I'm Jason otherwise known as a pocket filmmaker and welcome to the very first in our pocket filmmaking webisode series this week we're looking at lensing for pocket cameras I want to say lensing I mean the glass that we put onto our camera to give it a whole new view on the world now whether you're shooting on something like an iPhone or on something like this old little flip camera there's so many things you can out add to the front of your lens to create a whole new picture now in my hands I've got two little lenses okay I've actually got three and I'll show you how that works in a minute these are optical lenses they're metal and glass they cost less than $20 sometimes less than $10 online when you look on ebay in sites like that these are fantastic for expanding your scope when it comes to using your pocket camera to create whole new lensing opportunity I'm going to show you how they work now what these lenses come with is a very very tiny metal ring with a sticky back coating may appeal of that sticker and then you place this little ring around the lens of your pocket camera then these these actual lenses are magnetic so they just simply click on you don't have to glue them on you don't have to hold them on they just stay on like so I'm going to show you a little demonstration of something filmed with a conventional lens on say this flip camera and then if I put on this lens which is a wide-angle lens see all of a sudden there's a massive difference in that picture I can see so much more of the image area now this lens it's two lenses in this one little package fine screw the front element the back end of this lens becomes a macro lens now if you've ever tried taking photos on your pocket camera of things very very close-up an insect on a flower or a grain of sand or anything really really small and close you'll know that that focus is really really hard to find that struggles in fact with this thing beautiful and crisp have a look at this example now this lens here this is the Big Daddy this is a fisheye magnetic lens same principle as the other one it just clicks on to that magnetic ring and straight away it opens up a hundred and seventy degrees field of view which is unheard of for a smartphone you can just cram so much more into the picture if you're in a tiny space if you're outdoors I want to get a big scene in this fisheye lens is the one for the job so those optical lenses are fantastic they're really inexpensive they're a must-have for your tool kit in fact if I'm going to pick out a must-have accessory it's a little wide-angle one because it's two lenses in one wide angle and a macro I use it every day if you just google online you'll see that it's telephoto versions for iPhone now there's even microscope lenses they're really really cool so check them out but here's another jelly lenses now these are just made of plastic okay there's no metal parts and no glass Emmys and these are only a couple of dollars online if you look for them they come in a whole range of different effects some 30 40 different color effects special effects you can put on your lensing this one here is a polarizer a circular polarizer so if you want to introduce nice deep blue skies and your shots or introduce or eliminate reflections in a glass surface this polarizer will do that for you now one of the criticisms we often have with pocket filmmaking is we don't get to use that nice dreamy effect of shallow depth of field until now this jelly lens here is a vignette filter so it gives you that soft dreamy look on the edge of frame just like it what you can achieve using shallow depth of field to really the good I'm going to leave you with a really cool pocket film to check out this week online it's called dot by Arden studios in the UK now you might know Armand from such great films such as wallace and gromit it is some of the best stock frame animation in the world well they even made a film and a pocket camera on a smartphone so it's called dot check it out and if you get an opportunity to have a look at the making off too blow your mind that's about it for me when we catch up next time I'm going to run you through how to keep your shots super steady okay so when it's Steadicam devices and really simple techniques to keep those pocket filmmaking shots nice and smooth see you next time