USB Fever offers iPhone Telescope with Crystal Case
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 31, 2008 at 12:24pm
USB Fever has released the iPhone Telescope with Crystal Case, which lets you “expand” the built-in camera of the Apple iPhone.
It’s an US$18.99 6X telescope addition on a crystal case. According to the folks at USB Fever the iPhone Telescope with Crystal Case lets you avoid image contortion, take advantage of a larger luminous flux, enhance color, have higher visual acuteness and more.
The “Macsimum MWSF 2007 Coupon Book” is available for download. You can find it here and print it as a PDF. It has discounts, special offers and promotions.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Nikolay Andreev Says:
Whe I ordered the 6xTelecope+Plastic Case, I had two things I mind:
1. I will get a case that is easier to put in and out of the pocket, not like the silicon ones that have high traction with clothes.
2. I will increase the ability of my iPhone camera.
Boy, was I disappointed.
First, the case
- Forget about pressing any of the buttons with anything but your nails. I used to be able to control the volume of the iPhone in my pocket trought my jeans even with the thick case like the iSkin Revo. This plastic case makes this practice absolutely impossible.
- All of the case openings have so sharp edges that cutting your own finger on them is not out of the question.
- The two parts of the case do not lock together completely. At the top edge corner, between the headset jack and the volume controls, the two part of the plastic case can the separated by as much as 5-6mm by a casual force.
- You can see there is about 1mm space between the back the iPhone and the rear half of the case, so the iPhone does not feel completely secure inside.
- While the case is smooth , the part holding the camera isn’t. It gets in the way and its make very difficult to get the iPhone out of your pocket if it fell too deep.
- I had a long scratch on the case only after 20 min of using it, even without dropping it.
Second, the Scope.
- The scope does not click or lock in place and you have to make sure it has taken its best position. Otherwise you will see some dark packer on the edges.
- The scope does not stay securely attached and you should be careful, not to drop it, or worse drop your iPhone because you were holding the scope.
- The biggest problem with the scope is the picture wobbling. It is extremely difficult to get a steady picture steady, let alone a moving one. Unless the iPhone gets some sort of image stabilization, pictures with optical zoom are out.
- I have also noticed some strange lighting effects on the pictures, which in no way can be compared in quality to the ones made without the scope.
Overall, the quality of the case is poor while the Telescope itself does work well on its own. You are likely to find this case and its features useful only 5% of the time you use your iPhone. The rest of the time it will be pain in the butt to work with it and you will probably take it off and get back to your trusty iSkinRevo as I did.
Posted on March 11, 2008