Mobile telescope lens turns HTC EVO into spy camera
Since we already know how to use the HTC EVO to take macro photos, now let's look at a way to turn the phone's camera into a high-powered telescope. No, no, there isn’t an app for that, but there is an add-on available.
I purchased the telescope lens you see above from eBay for under $12, including shipping from a US seller. Prices vary, but most auctions are going for less than $15 total. The lens comes with a cleaning cloth, lens cap, and instructions (installation is very simple).
While it looks ridiculous at first glance (heck, even at second glance), the can be attached to your EVO to provide a powerful 8x magnification! It may look like a gimmick, but it really works.
The lens quickly attaches to the EVO (and many other devices) with a universal holder. Extend the metallic handle out to the width of the phone, slide it over, and it's held in place. The holder has an adjusting ring that you align/center with your camera and lock in place with a turn-knob. Once the ring is in place, you attach the telescoping lens with a quick turn. The holder will press down on the volume rocker buttons, but this does not affect the operation of the camera.
Now your EVO is ready to take some awesome photos. As an added bonus, the holder can be mounted to a tripod.
The images below are ones that I took with this lens mounted on my EVO 3D. The left and top images were taken without the lens, while the right and bottom photos were with the lens attached.
Both were taken from the same distance within a few seconds of each other. Photos have not been altered in any way other than to resize them for this post.
There is a bit of blurriness at the edge of photos taken with the lens; however, the results are still pretty impressive.
The EVO's built-in digital zoom was not used in the above images. With it you would be able to get even closer photos, but unfortunately any slight movement causes blurriness.
The quality may not be outstanding, but I think it's pretty cool that you can use your EVO to snap photos of far away objects. Granted you might not want to replace a high-powered DSLR with this, but it does provide an inexpensive way to take some fun photos with your EVO.
It's also great to see your friend's faces when they see what your phone can do with this lens.
See the sample images below that I took with the lens. Top/left image is without the telescope lens and bottom/right image is with the lens. Both images were taken from the same distance within seconds of each other and have not been altered in any way other than reduced in size and added watermarks. Photos were taken with Evo 3D, but lens will also work with Evo 4G.
