Stop using a 52mm lens on your phone for Coral Reef Photography
We have been asked if there will be a bigger version of our ReefLens™ MKII PRO to cover multiple cameras cluster phone, in particularly the Macro Lenses, and the answer is no! The analogy we've received was simply because it is more “user friendly” but this is technically an improper implementation and will certainly diminish performance!
When you have a big lens covering multiple cameras, the focal points and focal planes are now at an offset and the optimal focus field is entirely off-centered, this is to be AVOIDED! The undesirable effects may include blurry edges and soft (ghosting) in the center of the image! For optimal performance, both focal point/focal plane needed to be aligned.
From my 15+ years of photography experience I've learned a thing or two of importance, below are some infographics I've created to explain this technical analysis as I understand it and hopefully you will too.
Light will always travel parallel through the camera's lens to project into the image sensor to create the image. This is how we achieve sharp focus and optimal performance in general (there are other factors involved such as subject lighting, camera settings, shooting technique, etc).
Aligned focal points and focal planes yields optimal performance – Maximum focus sharpness, increases light transmission to image sensor, and reduces ghosting and distortion in center of image.
Mis-Aligned focal points and focal planes yields undesired performance – Induce softness (ghosting) or blurriness in the center and edges of image, reduces light transmission to image sensor resulting in more grainy image, and unwanted distortion in the middle of image.
