Sandmarc iPhone lenses review

If you’re an avid iPhone photographer feeling a little limited by your phone’s camera features, Californian lens manufacturer Sandmarc has you covered.

Sure, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the latest and greatest camera tech Apple has to offer, but there’s always a natural limit to the photographic potential of smartphones thanks to their compactness, which limits the size and quality of lenses. Smartphone cameras also have to be great multi-purpose cameras, meaning their lenses lack the special abilities and characteristics of, for example, Macro or Anamorphic lenses.

By attaching one of the best iPhone lenses, you can increase the optical capabilities of your smartphone and expand your creative horizons for a fraction of the price of a full interchangeable lens mirrorless camera.

Sandmarc’s lenses are some of the best on the market, boasting stellar optical and build quality with very few drawbacks. Find out more in our full Sandmarc iPhone lenses review.

Sandmarc iPhone lenses review: Price & availability

Sandmarc sent us its 58mm 2x Telephoto lens ($159) and 25mm Macro lens ($129) for the iPhone. These are similarly priced to the corresponding lenses from rival manufacturer Moment ($150 for Tele; $140 for Macro). We've also tested the Sandmarc 10x super telephoto lens, which costs $329.

Sandmarc stocks a wide variety of lenses for the iPhone, including Wide, Anamorphic, Telephoto Macro, 6x Telephoto Ultra Zoom and Microscope. The company also stocks lenses for every iPhone model back to the iPhone 7. You can buy all its lenses directly from Sandmarc. Unlike Moment, these lenses will only fit iPhones.

We also tested out Sandmarc’s iPhone case, which features screw threads around the camera lenses to ensure easy and perfect fitment, as well as the Polarizing filter ($79).

Sandmarc iPhone lenses review: Design

The Sandmarc iPhone lenses I tested were built very well, featuring metal lens housings and threads. The Telephoto lens was quite heavy, but this didn’t cause any issues when it was attached to my iPhone. The 25mm Macro lens is small by comparison, but also has a surprising weight to it given its size. Far from making the lenses cumbersome, this weight adds to their premium feel — good lenses shouldn’t feel too light.

The 10x Telephoto lens is a total monster, though, and I felt a bit silly walking around with it strapped to my phone — it was as if I was trying to spy on people. It's also incredibly cumbersome in use and difficult for the iPhone's stabilization to compensate for (as it has a super telephoto equivalent focal length), so one of the best iPhone tripods is preferable when using it.

I would definitely recommend buying one of Sandmarc’s cases alongside your lenses. Each lens comes with a clip on mount, but this gets in the way of the screen and can also slip around in use. The case holds everything firmly, exactly where it should be, which will be especially useful if using one of the bulkier telephoto models.

Each lens comes with a plastic lens and thread cap, and with its own zip-up case for secure transport. The cases are too big for pockets but each lens also comes with a smaller felt pouch for keeping in pockets. Strangely, the lens pouch for the larger tele lens was the same size as the one for the much smaller macro lens. This meant that the telephoto lens only just fit and was a pain to get in and out.

Sandmarc iPhone lenses review: 58mm Telephoto lens

I was impressed by the performance of Sandmarc’s 58mm Telephoto lens. Firstly, thanks to its 2x magnification, it’s a great way to get extra reach optically to get closer to your subjects. In the gallery below, the first image is shot using the iPhone’s main lens at 1.5x magnification with the Sandmarc lens fitted. The second image was taken using the iPhone’s main lens at 1.5x magnification without the Sandmarc lens fitted, and is zoomed much further out.

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The benefit of using optical zoom (i.e. using lenses) instead of relying wholly on the iPhone’s digital zoom is that optical zoom results in a sharper image for the same magnification. The first image in the gallery below is the same photo as above, taken with the iPhone’s main lens at 1.5x magnification with the Sandmarc lens fitted. The second image is taken without the Sandmarc lens, this time using the iPhone’s digital zoom to match the framing. The Sandmarc photo is much sharper in the centre — especially noticeable in the detail of the black cast iron gazebo.

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When pairing the Sandmarc lens with the iPhone’s telephoto lens, things get a little less impressive, although the Sandmarc lens is still better overall. At moderate digital zooms, the iPhone tele lens actually delivers similar results to the Sandamarc lens. As you can see in this gallery below (Sandmarc image first, iPhone digital zoom second), there’s very little difference in sharpness in the center, although the Sandmarc probably comes out on top (only just), as the “Keep Dry’ writing on the cast iron gazebo is slightly more defined.

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As you increase the digital zoom on the iPhone, though, sharpness starts to drop dramatically. The Sandmarc telephoto lens allows you to use less digital zoom to achieve the same frame, meaning sharper images that retain more of the detail. In the images below, the Sandmarc image (first) is much sharper than the iPhone image (second) which is at its maximum 15x digital zoom. The decorations on the gazebo are difficult to make out on the iPhone photo, but still easily discernible on the Sandmarc image. I prefer the higher level of contrast in the iPhone photo, though.

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I also liked the characteristics of the Sandmarc lens. Demonstrated in the first image below, it generates pleasant out of focus backgrounds with round bokeh.

That said, in certain images, I noticed a fair bit of artifacting, including purple and yellow color fringing from lateral chromatic aberration. I have highlighted this in the second image below.

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It’s important to remember, though, that this is not a $2,000 lens for one of the best mirrorless cameras — iPhone lenses like this are a way to jerry rig better performance from a camera system that was never designed to use them, so you can’t expect optically perfect results.

Sandmarc iPhone lenses review: Macro lens

The Sandmarc 25mm Macro lens is a lot of fun, although as is generally the case with wide-angle macro lenses, the use cases are fairly minimal. A wide angle macro lens demands you get so close to your subject that you often block out all the light, and that’s the case here — the Sandmarc lens will only focus when you’re around 1-2cm away from the subject, at which point you’re casting everything in shadow, even if you’re using artificial lighting.

It’s precisely for this reason that the macro lenses of choice for professionals are usually a telephoto focal length, such as 100mm. A longer focal length allows you to keep some distance from your subject so you aren’t casting it in shadow. Sandmarc makes a 100mm macro lens, which I haven't yet tested.

The depth of field using the Sandmarc macro lens is also so thin that, unless your subject is totally flat towards the lens, only a sliver of it will be in focus. Again, having to get so close means you’ll often have to tilt the iPhone slightly to let in light, meaning you can’t get much in focus. You can use the iPhone’s digital zoom to get a bit further away from the subject, but we’re talking a centimeter or two of extra space at most.

When the conditions are bright enough, though, and you can get a decent angle, the 25mm macro lens produces some cool results. I took some photos of tree bark in my local park, and of the milled metal dials on my Fujifilm X-T5, and was very happy with how they looked. They’re certainly a lot better than using the iPhone’s Macro mode.

Sandmarc didn’t send us the 100mm macro lens, but that would definitely be the one to go for instead of the 25mm, for the reasons outlined above.

Sandmarc iPhone lenses review: 10x Telephoto

I really like the Sandmarc 10x Telephoto lens, even though it's outright crazy. Firstly, it's huge and unwieldy, which not only looks silly, but also proves problematic for stabilization, too. Best use a tripod. You'll also need to be prepared to use manual focus, as your iPhone won't focus through the 10x tele (which is why the lens has a focus ring). And make sure to download a good camera app (I use the Moment iPhone app), which features focus peaking so you can see where you're focusing.

Let me get one thing clear straight away — this lens is not sharper than the iPhone's built-in telephoto lens. I tested this lens with an iPhone 17 Pro, and below you can see three images: the first is shot using the iPhone's 8x tele lens; the second is that lens digitally zoomed to x10 to match the 10X Sandmarc framing; and the final is the Sandmarc 10x lens.

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As you can see, the results are pretty blurry with the Sandmarc lens, which is only moderately sharp in the center and then rapidly falls off to blur in the corners. I used the Moment app and its focus peaking to set the focus on the sculpture's face. Even the face itself is blurry, though, as the camera's stabilization really struggles when you're magnifying the image so much with a lens this long.

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However, this lens definitely has "character". I quite like the sharp focus fall off when your subject is centered, as it isolates the subject and adds some drama. There's a much tighter blur than on the iPhone lens, and the blur is very swirly, too, which gives an artistic feel.

I absolutely love the photo of the swan above, taken on the Sandmarc lens. It's so dramatic, with lots of contrast and a lovely pop of orange on the swan's beak. You can see a lot of yellow fringing around the wings, from the effects of lateral chromatic aberration — it's characterful, remember. But regardless of whether you like "character", as imperfect as the Sandmarc photos may be, I much prefer them to the iPhone tele photos, which look boring and flat in comparison.

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Colors on the Sandmarc + iPhone 1x lens are much nicer than the iPhone tele lens, with bolder oranges and reds, plus way more contrast. In the images above, the Sandmarc shot pops with much more color and contrast. You can see how hilariously fast the sharpness drops off around the edges, though. The right hand side of the flat bicycle sign, roughly on the right-hand 1/3 line, is fuzzy.

I was a bit disappointed in the bokeh in this shot. There's a little more blobbiness to the lights in the background, but not that much. There was about 30 feet between the sign and those lights, so to get more bokeh you'll have to choose a subject that's even further from it's background — this is due to telephoto distance compression that has the effect of drawing backgrounds closer in towards the focal plane.

Sandmarc lenses review: Polarizing filter

The Sandmarc circular polarizing filter is a clip-on lens filter for altering the colors and impact of your shots.

It works, darkening the sky in the image below. However, the amount of polarization is relatively small and, in the image below at least, a similar effect could be achieved by using the contrast and temperature sliders in the iPhone’s photo editing tools. For a hefty $79 — or most of the price of a lens — I don’t think it’s worth it.

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The Polarizer filter is also clip-on only, and annoyingly doesn’t work in conjunction with the Sandmarc iPhone case. This means it’ll always take up some screen space, and you’ll need to remove your Sandmarc case to get it on.

Sandmarc lenses review: Verdict

Sandmarc’s iPhone lenses performed very well in our testing and are a great way to add to your iPhone’s existing capabilities. They won’t completely revolutionize your photography like investing in a mirrorless camera, and they aren’t perfect optically. However, they still outperform the iPhone’s standard internal lenses in most situations, are built well and won’t break the bank. Sandmarc’s iPhone lenses are definitely worth buying if you’re a keen iPhone photographer.