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Palm Discovery would like to extend a BIG THANKS to Brando for providing the product for this review.

One of the limitations of the built-in camera of our smartphones and cellular phones are the fixed lens. By that, I mean that the lens of the camera is “fixed” and very similar to older cameras of yesteryears (yeah, I’m talking way back) that does not support manual zoom or the ability to manually adjust the lens to close in on an object. Thankfully, there’s a solution. Brando’s Mobile Phone Telescope is a small, portable zoom lens that will fit many camera phones and smartphones to allow us to be able to still take pictures of objects located far away that normally we wouldn’t be able to “zoom in” on. Obviously, we could snap the picture, but unfortunately, the focus or target of the captured image wouldn’t be easily seen since they are most likely little specks or small, blurry blobs.

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Brando’s Mobile Phone Telescope is comprised of two main parts: the telescopic lens and the attachment clip. To make it portable and prevent breakage, they are normally disassembled. To use it, simply attach and clip on the attachment clip base onto your cellular phone or smartphone and over the camera lens. Normally, you are clipping the longest side of the unit as the clip is set to clip at a certain length. Adjust the clip to fit properly on the cellular phone and adjust the lens base right over the camera lens. Snap on the telescopic lens and twist it clockwise until it’s securely fastened onto the base. Run the camera application on your cellular phone or smartphone and make some minor adjustments with the telescope and snap your photo.

The interesting feature of this mobile telescope and what sets it apart from others is that the clip is fully adjustable to compensate for the varying sizes of cellular phones and smartphones AND the lens base can also be adjusted to fit over the camera lens. This obviously means that you have a far better chance of fitting this telescopic lens over your cellular phone.

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

Product Video

Video at YouTube

Here are the resulting comparison pictures taken with both the telescopic lens and without, as shown in the video review

Picture taken with Mobile Phone Telescope

Picture taken without Mobile Phone Telescope

More details (taken from Brando’s website:

Features:

# 7×18 telescope
# Use telescope to magnify for near views.
# Lens rotation for adjusting clear image.
# Suitable for any camera phone with 91-109mm length.

# Nokia N70
# Nokia N73
# Nokia N95
# Nokia 3500 Classic
# Sony Ericsson K810i
# Sony Ericsson W810i
# HTC P4350 / HTC Herald / Dopod C800 / Dopod C858 / Vodafone VPA Compact IV
# ASUS P535
# HTC Cavalier / HTC S630 / SoftBank X02HT / Dopod C730
# HTC P3600 / HTC Trinity / Dopod D810 / Dopod CHT 9100 / Qtek P3600 / Orange SPV M700 / Vodafone VPA Compact GPS
# Blackberry Pearl 8100
# CLIE TH55
# O2 xda Atom Life
# Treo 750v
# ASUS P525
# Treo 680
# HTC Touch / HTC P3450 / Dopod S1 / O2 XDA Nova / T-Mobile MDA touch
# Motorola A1000
# HTC Vox / HTC S710 / Dopod C500 / Vodafone VDA V / Orange SPV E650
# i-mate SP5m / i-mate SP5 / Qtek 8300 / Qtek 8310 / Dopod 577w / Dopod 586w / O2 xda IQ / O2 xda Orion / HTC Tornado / HTC Tempo
# O2 XDA Atom
# iPAQ rw6800 series
# Palm Zire72
# Qtek s110 / Dopod 828 / Orange SPV M500 / i-Mate Jam Black / HTC Migician Refresh / Vodafone VPA Compact / i-Mate New Jam
# iPAQ hw6500 series
# Blackberry Curve 8300
# Asus P526
# HP iPAQ 512
# Eten glofiish x500
# i-Mate SPL
# Sony Ericsson K550i
# Nokia 3500
# Most mobile phone and PDAs

Here are my observations:

Although this mobile phone telescope offers the ability to adjust the clip and the telescopic base so that it will fit many cellular phone and smartphone cameras, keep in mind that it may not necessarily fit your cellular phone or smartphone’s camera, depending on the location of the camera lens. It works best for those with the camera lens near the middle. It will be very simply, snapping it onto your phone, adjust the telescopic lens over your camera lens, point to your desired target and snap the picture. However, if the camera lens is located near the edge of the device, you may experience some difficulty in using this. Case in point. The Treo 650’s camera and the Zire 71’s camera (I own both devices) are located very close to the edge of the device and it is very difficult (but not impossible) to fit the telescopic lens over the camera lens. With the Treo 650, the camera lens is located almost at the top left corner. Although I was able to demonstrate that it works on my Treo 650, it is not without spending a bit of time adjusting and fitting it right over the camera lens. The same experience applies with the Zire 71 camera, which requires sliding out the camera and which is located near the top edge of the device once opened. So, please keep that in mind when determining whether this telescopic lens will work on your camera.

The telescopic lens DOES work very well. As demonstrated in my video review and the resulting pictures I took both with and without the telescopic lens, you can clearly see the difference and the quality of the zoom that the telescopic lens provides. To ensure that the resulting pictures are as accurate as possible, I took great care to keep my hand exactly at the same place and snap the photo with the mobile phone telescope and without so that it reflects how well this telescope works. And, as you can see, it does work very well. But, one note is that I was only able to focus on and snap a picture when the lens is fully adjusted to for the zoom. Unlike many other zoom lens where I can focus and adjust the zoom mid way or any way partially, I am only able to view an image when the zoom is set at the end. Adjusting it midway will only provide a blurry image. So, this telescope will provide you with a great close up shot but you are not able to adjust the zoom. It’s either full zoom or not. Regardless, it’s still much better than not have a zoom lens.

Review Summary

Brando’s Mobile Phone Telescope is a great solution to those of us who own cellular phone cameras or smartphones with cameras and wish to be able take pictures of objects far away that normally are slightly little more than small dots or blobs. The telescope is relatively small and lightweight and comes with its own carrying case/pouch and wrist strap. The attachment base and clip is adjustable to fit the length of the camera device and the location of the camera lens, allowing it to support a large number of camera phones and smartphones. But most of all, it does work and you can take pictures of objects far away and still be able view them with amazing clarity, all without any adjustment of your camera phone. Mind you, it’s certainly not professional quality zoom but considering that it is relatively small and lightweight, it’s quite amazing that it works and it works well.

For those complaining about the lack of zoom they get with their camera phones, they can now find a solution with Brando’s Mobile Phone Telescope. Check it out at Brando here.

Palm Discovery again wishes to give a BIG THANKS to Brando for providing this product for the review.

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com or Palmdiscovery.net, the website you are reading it from is copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

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