Hundreds of startup booths were crammed into a single auditorium at South by Southwest, a technology, film and music conference is Austin, Texas that draws more than 120,000 people.
One had a particularly large gathering with customers grabbing for their wallets as we walked by.
The Olloclip booth displayed rows of sleek red, black and white gadgets, each the size of a thimble. The Olloclip began as a Kickstarter product in May 2011; it was invented by Patrick O'Neill and designed by Chong Pak. Its goal was to raise $15,000 and create a multi-functional camera lens that could be clipped on to the iPhone. Olloclip can take fisheye, wide angle, macro and panorama photos depending which way you clip it onto the device, and it works on the iPod Touch, iPhone 4, 4S and 5.
Olloclip ended up raising nearly three times its goal: $68,201 from 1,300 backers. And unlike many Kickstarter products which fail to deliver orders on time (or at all), Olloclip is now shipping its lenses all over the world. They retail for $70 and can be purchased in Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target and the Sprint Store.
Here's what the product looks like:
Here's what it looks like on the iPhone:
We tried it out. Here's what the fishbowl lens looks like:
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