Okay, let's be totally blunt, this isn't going to replace a good mirrorless camera with a decent macro lens attached...but by the same score it's not going to cost you a four-figure sum. If you already have that kind of equipment you're not going to be interested by a rather clunky attachment to your iPhone. However, there are some suprisingly results on show here. Provided you can get everything set up correctly. I have an iPhone 14 Pro which is a great all-round phone with a very good camera on it. Not quite up to the specs of some camera phones or, clearly, a powerhouse digital camera. But, good nonetheless. I have in the past experimented with lenses that can be attached to the iPhone for telephoto and macro purposes, but nothing has ever made me want to use it again. Could the Apexel macro lens be different? You get a carry pouch which contains an adjustable adapter which clamps onto your phone, a solid feeling lens with a detachable filter, a lens cleaning cloth, a number of stick-on pads that attach to the adapter to stop it from rocking on your phone, and a little instruction book. It's a bit fiddly to fit the adapter and screw-on lens, but not insummountable. There's a bit of trial and error to align the macro lens with the lens on your camera, but it's not difficult. What is difficult, though, is positioning the phone/lens in a way that gets your subject in focus. My iPhone did want to keep jumping around on focus and zoom lengths, and quite regularly the screen would go black. I never quite figured out why that was doing it, but only did it on the tightest zoom length. Getting the camera to focus on the subject in a satisfactory way was very difficult. It just didn't really work in anything other than ideal lighting conditions. Also, as with any zoom or macro photography, small movements are greatly exacerbated so you'll get more misses than you will hits. Especially since many items that you wish to capture such as flowers and insects tend to move around, before you factor in your own movements. However, I was still quite impressed with some of the results I got. When everything came together and the stars aligned, I got a few decent shots. Were they good enough to warrant spending the £50 asking price at the time of testing? Not for me personally, no. But, I don't do very much macro photography. It's one of the few lenses I don't own on my DSLR. But, if that's the nature of photography you're into and don't have the full kit to do so then you might find this is the product for you.
