When an independent dive magazine takes your gear into the field, the verdict carries a weight that no spec sheet can match. That's exactly what happened with the DIVEVOLK +18 macro lens: the French diving publication Chercheurs d'eau tested it underwater with a smartphone housing during a trip to the Philippines, then published both a written review and field footage. For English-speaking divers, the most useful part of the review is not just that the lens worked - it explains why a dedicated macro optic and proper lighting matter so much for small subjects.
A French Dive Magazine Tests Smartphone Macro
Chercheurs d'eau is a French scuba diving magazine known for destination features, field reportage, and hands-on equipment tests. In its issue n°89, Fabrice Boissier reviewed the DIVEVOLK macro lens for smartphones after taking it into the water in the Philippines. The article appears in the magazine's Inf'eau Photo section and is accompanied by a sample nudibranch image made with the lens.
The DIVEVOLK macro lens review in Chercheurs d'eau issue n°89, photographed from the magazine page.
What the Review Actually Found
The French article starts with a practical problem every smartphone macro shooter recognizes: even when a phone switches into macro mode, small marine life can still look too small in the frame. Fabrice notes that a phone may show its macro icon at roughly 15 cm from the subject, but animals under about 7 cm can still feel distant in the composition. Moving closer is not always the answer, because the phone and housing can block ambient light; relying too heavily on digital zoom can also reduce image quality.
His preferred solution is the same one experienced underwater photographers use with larger camera systems: add a quality macro lens in front of the camera and pair it with a dive light that produces even illumination. In the field test, he used the DIVEVOLK 18-diopter macro lens mounted on the housing support to photograph a nudibranch measuring about 3 cm. By moving in until the phone's macro mode activated, then adding only a little zoom for framing, he kept enough working space between the lens and the subject to position the light properly.
The conclusion is encouraging for divers who want serious close-up results without carrying a traditional camera system: Fabrice found that the DIVEVOLK macro lens offered high magnification while remaining easy to use with a smartphone. He also highlighted the optical quality, with the important reminder that the photographer needs to stay within the lens's focus-distance range for the best results.
Watch the Footage
The clip below is the magazine's own field footage - a real-world look at what the lens resolves up close, in the water, on a phone.
Video by Fabrice - Chercheurs d'eau Magazine, filmed in the Philippines.
Why Macro Is the Genre That Rewards the Right Lens
Macro is where underwater photographers separate a snapshot from a frame worth printing. The subjects are tiny - nudibranchs, shrimp, blennies, the eye of a frogfish - and the margin for error is measured in millimeters. It's no accident that the magazine's test footage comes from the Philippines: the country's muck-diving sites are among the world's richest hunting grounds for small, strange critters. To shoot them well you need to get close, hold steady, and resolve fine detail, which is precisely the job a dedicated macro optic does for a smartphone.
Smartphone Macro, Done Right
A phone alone struggles with true close-up work underwater. Pairing a macro lens with a rigid underwater phone housing changes that: the housing keeps your phone dry and fully controllable to depth, while the macro optic lets you fill the frame with a subject the size of a fingernail. Built around the DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max system, the setup stays compact enough to travel with and intuitive enough that the camera you already know how to use becomes your underwater macro rig.
Lighting is the other half of the equation. Macro subjects sit close to the reef where ambient light falls off fast, so a steady, continuous beam from a pair of underwater video lights brings out color and texture without the harsh hotspots of an on-phone flash. Just as importantly, it lets you frame and shoot while keeping a respectful distance from the animal. The best macro images come from patient, hands-off observation, never from moving or crowding a subject for the shot.
Read the Full Review
The video is only the supplement. The complete French-language test of the DIVEVOLK macro lens appears in issue n°89 of Chercheurs d'eau, where Fabrice walks through the lens in detail. If you read French, it is well worth the read; if you do not, the field footage and sample image still make the core point clear: a smartphone can become a capable underwater macro tool when the optics, lighting, and working distance are handled correctly.
Ready to try smartphone macro yourself? Explore our SeaTouch 4 Max kits and lenses and filters, or contact us to build the right setup for the critters on your bucket list.
Coverage, review page, and video courtesy of Chercheurs d'eau Magazine (France), issue n°89. Reproduced with attribution to the original publication.
