As a professional photographer, I own several high-end Leica cameras. More and more, though, I find myself reaching for my iPhone when I go out on photoshoots. It has an amazing camera, and it’s always close at hand.

Cellphone cameras often lack the lenses required for certain kinds of work, like taking extremely close-up macro shots. My iPhone has a 3X macro lens, but that only gets you so close.

That’s why I was excited to hear about the Xenvo lens kit. It’s a clip-on kit that augments your iPhone or Android phone’s existing camera by adding macro and wide-angle lenses.

Here are my thoughts after trying the Xenvo lenses out.

My Thoughts on the Xenvo Lens Kit

I tried out the Xenvo lens kit on my iPhone 13. The iPhone already has a great camera, and I use its macro function all the time. Xenvo promised a closer macro lens without much distortion, though, so I wanted to test that out.

Setup was pretty easy:

• Attaching the Xenvo lens is a little fiddly at first. For some reason, the macro and wide angle lenses come screwed together, which isn’t obvious at first. You have to unscrew them, attach one lens to the included clip, and the center it over the existing lens on your phone.
• Once you get the hang of it, installing the lens is easy. You just need to make sure it’s over the correct lens on your phone.
• Build quality feels pretty good, with real glass on the lens and a metal frame around it. Holding the Xenvo lens feels like holding a real camera lens!

My iPhone wide angle lens already provides a .5x wide angle setting, so I wasn’t as interested in Xenvo’s wide angle attachment. The macro lens, though, was definitely intriguing.

Testing the Xenvo Macro Lens

I attached the Xenvo macro lens to my phone and starting taking some shots. Using the lens is super easy–you just focus and shoot like you would with any other phone camera, except you’re taking extreme closeups.

A couple things I noticed:

• You have to get really close to your subject (1-2 inches away) for the lens to focus.
• Your iPhone might struggle with getting contrast correct, or might choose weird exposure settings that make the whole frame go black. Touch your finger on the screen to manually set exposure if that happens.
• You need to hold the phone fairly steady to get a clear shot, since you’re working with a very shallow depth of field. Consider using a tripod or bracing your arm on a surface as you shoot.

Apply those tips, though, and the lens works great. I was impressed with the close-ups the macro was able to achieve. On certain items, it was like using a microscope.

Sample Photos

I found that the Xenvo macro lens works best with natural subjects.

Here’s a close-up of the internal parts of a flower, taken with the lens.

Here’s a close-up of a young parsley seedling.

The lens definitely isn’t free from distortion and aberration. But for an inexpensive piece of kit for a cellphone, it does an admirable job.

Other Stuff That Came With the Lenses

The Xenvo kit that I bought included a bunch of other stuff–a lens cleaning cloth, a carrying case, a neck strap, and a little LED fill light that you can plug into an Android phone.

I could do without those items. The carrying case is fine, but really I was mostly interested in using the lenses themselves.

Conclusion

The Xenvo lens isn’t going to rival the image quality of a true professional camera. As an accessory for your iPhone or Android phone, though, it’s a super neat little piece of kit that opens lots of creative possibilities.

If you love to photograph flowers, or want to do a nature walk with you kids, this will serve you well. For teachers, it’s also a great way to explore natural objects without a microscope.

Want to buy one? You can get the kit that I tested on Amazon.

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