Zeiss has thrown its hat into the ring of premium iPhone accessory lenses. Partnering with Fellowes Brands, the three Zeiss lenses will mount on the iPhone via the ExoLens mounting system, which is currently available for the iPhone 6/6s and the iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus.
The yet-to-be-released Zeiss lenses, a Mutar 0.6x wide angle, Mutar 2x telephoto, and Vario-Proxar macro, will hit the shelves in late spring, 2016. The macro lens uniquely features a zoom function and a translucent diffuser/spacer. All of the lenses are designed with the famous Zeiss T* anti-reflective coatings to provide excellent optical performance for all types of photography.
In keeping with their most current lens design, the Zeiss bodies are made out of black anodized aluminum with white labels.
Please check back for pricing and availability.
8 Comments
One obvious, unanswered question: If one were to invest in the ExoLens system and then upgrade to a later version of the iPhone, how could I be assured that a new bracket will be produced to permit the use of the expensive Zeiss lenses on a different, newer iPhone?
Shoot me an e-mail if you have an answer or assurance from Zeiss and/or Fellowes that they will continue to support these expensive lenses with new brackets for use with subsequent, newer versions of the iPhone.
Hi Paul,
Very good question.
I actually met with a company rep from Fellowes last week that said they were already producing brackets for the iPhone 7, so you are good to go as far forward as that.
As for assurances and guarantees? I doubt we can give you one of those. Camera and accessory companies come and go. I will say this: Even if Fellowes were to vanish from the Earth shortly after the rollout of the Zeiss lenses, I would guess that a 3rd party manufacturer, or someone on Etsy with a 3D printer will likely keep you in the game with your Zeiss mobile phone lenses.
Thanks for your question!
Thanks, Todd.
I wouldn't have expected B+H to assure the future availability of the mounting bracket for the expensive Zeiss lenses. But conversation on other photography blogs are pegging the price of the .6X WA lens at about $200, so it's easy to surmise that all three lenses might cost more than the iPhone itself. Continued availability of the bracket is a big question that will impact on a purchase decision of that amount. Good to hear that Fellowes is already working on a mounting bracket for the soon-to-be-released iPhone 7.
Hey Paul,
Here is my $0.02...
Mobile phone photography is huge. "Serious" mobile phone photography is growing. My guess is that means that until the phones feature zoom lenses and variable apertures, folks will gravitate to add-on lenses and, for the time being, the market will strongly continue to support that.
One thing to be wary of is the possible move to twin-lens or multi-lens mobile phones. Hopefully, if that happens, the camera will give you the option of a single-lens shot. Barring the development of multi-lens phone cameras, you should be good to go for at least a few generations of phones.
I personally have the iPro lens system and an iPhone 5. Schneider makes a case for the iPhone 6, should I upgrade my phone in the future. But, one day, I might run out of luck and be left with some tiny lenses that have no home!
Good luck!
Please make an adapter that can be glued to my iPhone case so that I can use these lenses. I won't use my iPhone without a case because it is too slippery. I would love to be able to use these great lenses.
Hi kimberly,
I will forward your request to the North Pole to see what they can come up with!
In the meantime, there are companies that make integrated phone cases that you can mount lenses on. Check out this case/lens setup from Olloclip or this setup from German optics manufacturer, Schneider.
More lenses, cases, and accessories can be found here. Good luck and thanks for reading!
Please let us know as soon as this is available....
Currently Zeiss anticipates them to be released sometime during the summer of 2016, but they have not indicated any specific target date as of yet. Once they provide us with more information, we will then create the product links for the lenses on our website, and at that point we will set up an email notification feature that you can sign up for to receive alerts about its availability. Unfortunately we do not have any similar notification feature available here on our Explora blog site for you to sign up for.