Magniband: The Revolutionary Macro Mobile Lens

What if we told you that a company called Magniband was changing the landscape of smartphone macro photography accessories forever?

Magniband has created a macro photography lens with two primary things in mind – ease of use and crisp macro shots. It’s dead simple to use, unlike the plethora of clip-on lenses that plague the market today. With Magniband, all you have to do is wrap your Magniband around your phone’s camera like a rubber band – easy as that!

Oh, did we mention the product costs less than seven dollars? Considering how well it performs, we’d be content paying five times that.

What is Magniband?

Magniband is pretty new. It’s no surprise you haven’t heard of them.

At the same time, Esquire, The Guardian, TED, BuzzFeed, WIRED, and HuffPost either mention, gift, or review the Magniband. Perhaps the most important thing you can know about the company, though, is that it was created by a 16-year-old!

Toby Liew was in a similar situation to you when one day when he decided that instead of paying top dollar for a clip-on macro lens, he’d invent one instead. Fast forward a few years later, and Magniband is growing at an alarming pace.

So, while this new macro offering isn’t yet a household name, it’s well on its way to becoming one.

He’s gone and flipped the world of mobile phone macro photography lenses on its head with Magniband’s price point and revolutionary design. No longer do you have to attach a 100 dollar clip-on lens. Instead, slide your $7 Magniband on and get to shooting!

Why do you need Magniband for Mobile Phone Macro?

Outside of the fact that the picture quality is excellent (check out what I did in the first 5 minutes with an iPhone 6 above), here are some other reasons you should join the Magniband movement!

• The price point is 5 pound 49 (or approximately $6.68)
• Fits all types of mobile phones
• International delivery from the U.K.
• 4x magnification
• Full refund within seven days
• Comes in a litany of different colors
• Easy to travel with
• Not bulky like clip-on lenses

How to correctly use your Magniband

Well, it’s a band that slips over your phone. Then you can take some macro photos. Sounds pretty easy to use, right?

If you looked at testimonials and reviews of Magniband, then you may see the reoccurring comments regarding the blurriness of the photos. So, maybe Magniband isn’t so easy to use.

Don’t fret – it is. While the image’s crispness doesn’t compare to the Moment Macro, at this price, who cares! The majority of blurriness is a result of the operator and not the designer. To explain, if you take your macro photos at the recommended two centimeters or one-inch working distance and use a smartphone tripod, then the blurriness won’t occur. If you don’t follow the instructions, however, your results will suffer.

Outside of having the correct working distance for your photos, there isn’t anything that should hinder your ability to use your Magniband. Seriously, it’s the most straightforward piece of equipment that I’ve ever used.

There are some tips, tricks , and even hacks associated with using your new toy. Keep in mind though that these tips aren’t much different than what we would harp on for a clip-on macro lens.

Reason We Love Magniband #1 – Explore the Details Like Never Before

The whole point of a macro photography lens is to be able to capture the details that other lenses cannot – features that the naked eye cannot. Because of how comfortable the Magniband is to use, you can spend more time exploring these details and less time fiddling with your lens.

With typical macro lenses, we recommend the standard types of shots – creepy crawly critters, exciting textures, and small things that fit within the frame of your shot at a one-inch working distance.

While we still say that these types of shots are the go-to’s with the Magniband, we also would push you to be more experimental. After all, this macro photography lens is new enough that there’s been limited experimentation up until this point. The 4x magnification is also less than most macro offerings, so your experimental photos will be unique.

Reason We Love Magniband #2 – Nature is Calling

So, what should you be shooting on your new Magniband? Nature!

Well, you should be shooting all the traditional macro photography subjects. Traditional macro means shoot small animals, creepy-crawly insects, and interestingly textured items from a working distance of approximately an inch.

But, you should also be experimenting with other areas of nature too! Do you have a waterproof case on your phone? Take your new lens underwater. Are you head over heels for you hound? Do some close-up shots of their eyes and snouts. Truthfully, there’s no subject too obscure with which to experiment.

Reason We Love Magniband #3 – Composition is Easy

Because Magnibands magnification is only 4x there are some cool advantages to be had.

Magniband Helps With Lighting

Lighting is always of serious concern to any photographer, but when it comes to smartphone macro photography, it’s even more critical.

We always recommend an excellent clip-on lighting source, but if that’s out of your budget, then shooting in the golden and blue hours also produces quality lighting. Does Magniband really help with lighting? No. But with what you saved by purchasing Magniband as your smartphone macro lens you can now spend on a lighting source that’ll pay serious dividends.

Magniband Helps With Depth of Field

So, what is the depth of field?

Essentially, the depth of field is the distance between the two clearest objects in a photo. Typically one subject is in the foreground, and one is in the background.

When it comes to macro photography on a smartphone, you have a limited depth of field. While this may seem like a problem, once you take some photos with your Magniband, you’ll come to realize it isn’t. Magniband’s DOF sits between other macro lenses and what’s on your phone. As a result, when you use Magniband, you get unique results.

For reference, your macro photos will have an aperture and DOF somewhere in the middle of the two images above.

Reason We Love Magniband #4 – Video is Very Interesting

We’ve said it before, and we’ll repeat it – experiment, experiment, experiment.

With your new six-dollar macro photography lens, this advice is even more useful and should be used to try videography at the macro level. While you may struggle with the focus at first, you’ll eventually learn how to take professional video.

If you have one of the best smartphone cameras you could also pluck still photos out of the videos – think pausing the video and taking a super clear and crisp screenshot. This method can be an excellent way of discovering great images that you didn’t even really take!

Conclusion: A Smartphone Macro Photography Must-Have

Now that your new Magniband is en route let’s wrap up the discussion.

Any product that has been featured by the likes of Esquire, The Guardian, TED, BuzzFeed, WIRED, and HuffPost has to be something special. The comments and reviews of the Magniband site and product prove this sentiment through and through. After getting my hands on one, I can only echo the product’s prasie.

Magniband is legit, here to stay, and ready to make a serious splash. For the entrenched players of the mobile phone photography industry, you better watch out.