If you have a smartphone from 2023 (or close to it), it probably came with multiple cameras, each of which can take spectacular photographs. So is it really still necessary for serious photographers to invest in a smartphone camera lens kit?

The Phone Tier Matters

The first thing you should consider is that a phone simply being new doesn't mean it has cutting-edge photography capabilities. The real action is at the flagship end of the spectrum, where you'll be spending north of a grand for the privilege of having the best smartphone cameras money can buy.

At the mid-range, you're getting the cameras from yesterday's flagships, and so from that point of view, you'll need smartphone camera lens attachments in the same situations where you'd have needed them for those high-end phones of yesteryear. For the rest of the discussion, We'll be focusing on the best smartphone cameras can do in 2023 to frame (ha!) the discussion of third-party lenses.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has it all; the latest A17 Pro chip with a 6-core GPU, a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display, and an excellent Pro camera system. This is finished with a titanium frame and textured matte glass back to warrant its place as the ultimate iPhone.

Computational Photography Has Limits

The amazing photographic capabilities of smartphones in 2023 is more the result of software and clever computational hardware than of camera sensors and lenses. A smartphone is an absolutely tiny device to squeeze a camera into, and the laws of physics only allows for so much light enter their relatively tiny apertures.

So, with the power of algorithms and AI, your phone will produce amazing pictures of the moon or portraits with high-quality depth-of-field effects, without the actual camera hardware being capable of any of it. There are also other neat tricks phone makers have figured out, such as taking a photo with all of your cameras simultaneously and then processing one amazing photos from all those different photos.

All of this magic happens where you can't see it. From your perspective as the user, you simply tap a button and a great photo emerges, but a lot is going on under the hood. However, the smartphone's brains can only work on image data that the sensor can actually see, so the lens that focuses light onto that sensor is still a limiting factor. You can't compute image data you don't have, after all, unless of course you're just making stuff up!

The Right Lens in the Right Place

Modern smartphones have a mix of lenses and sensors that try to cover the most common photography use cases. For the most part this is aimed at general portrait and landscape photography, with many phones now also including limited telephoto options as well as macrophotography options. For the vast majority of people, the double, triple, or more camera clusters will suffice for most types of photos they'd want to take.

However, there are still gaps between the typical lenses on offer, and of course upper and lower limits they can't exceed. A common example is telephoto, where the best optical zoom you're likely to see in a phone is 10x, with 2x or 3x being much more common. Once you're past the physical zoom level afforded by the physical lenses of your phone, you're into digital zoom territory.

This is like zooming in to a JPEG, where you're not actually seeing any extra detail, and the image will just get grainier and more pixelated. With some computational trickery, digital zoom is much better than it used to be, but the results are rarely usable in any serious sense.

Attaching a telephoto lens to your smartphone for activities like birdwatching or snooping on your neighbor (don't do that) overcomes this issue by giving you true optical zoom to whatever level you want. Heck, you can attach an entire telescope to your phone for astrophotography, so not even the sky's the limit.

Xenvo Pro Lens Kit for iPhone, Samsung, and Pixel

A simple clip on lens kits that adds macro functionality to phones that don't have it.

Other areas where it's worthwhile to invest in a lens accessory is in macro photography. I've taken some truly stunning photos with my S22 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro's macro lenses, but they still have limitations, Which is why I've invested in macro lens attachments for these phones when photographing insects, spiders, and other tiny subjects.

Should You Buy Smartphone Lenses in 2023?

There is definitely still a place for smartphone lens attachments in 2023. They're definitely much less convenient than simply pulling out your stock phone and snapping some pictures, but far more convenient than lugging around a DSLR or mirrorless camera with bulky lenses. Attaching the right glass to your phone can combine the best of computational photography with the options of detachable lenses, but it's not for everyone.

In the end, it depends on whether you're happy with the types of photos your phone takes. A lens is not going to help improve photos for which your handset already has the right lenses, but it can expand the types of photos that are possible with your phone, or even the types of video footage you can produce. In other words, buying a smartphone lens or lens kit isn't something I'd recommend modern smartphone users do in general, but it's definitely an option you should consider if your built-in lens options fall short of your needs.