I love my 5D Mark II – like love it. An integral part of my business, I love it so much that I rarely – like pretty much never – use it to photograph my own family. Last year, I fought my fears and took it to Disneyland. I did get some amazing photos of my family at the park, but I was a WRECK toting it around. So when we went last month, I needed a backup plan. I’ve heard people talk about phone lenses, but I was skeptical. At less than $20 for two lenses, I figured what the heck.

I ordered a fisheye and macro lenses kit. It arrived the day before our trip, so I didn’t have much time for practice. As it turns out, I didn’t need to practice as both lenses are super easy to use. Basically, you just slide the clip onto the lens and clip it over your camera. Surprisingly, this year’s vacations photos turned out pretty darn close to last year’s and were definitely better than regular phone photos. An upside I hadn’t thought about was the lens also works in video mode, so our videos are much better than last year.

The ease of mind I gained from taking my phone instead of my $3,000 camera made getting these lenses definitely worth it.