Are cell phone extended lenses worth buying?

Are you wondering if cell phone extended lenses are worth buying?
I was. So I bought one from eBay for just under $15.
8x Zoom is how the lens was labeled. Not so sure how they came up with that number.

Took forever for the extended lens (telescope) to arrive but when it did, first thing I did was run out and and take photos of local band in Houston playing at a local club. Since it was the band’s CD release party, I had high hopes of getting good photos for my website (TruXter.Org).
Of course the packaging says “Mobile phone telescope” and has a picture of what looks like a blackberry on the cover.
What came inside the package was an actual telescope about 3 inches long and about 3/4 inch wide. The actual lens is about the size of a dime. A mounting frame that is spring loaded with an adjustable plate that locks by the turn of a screw to make sure the lens mounts directly over the cell phone There was also a small cloth which we can assume is for cleaning the lens of the telescope.

Here’s a sample of the photos in a dark setting (I have saturation issues I need to work out)

That photo was taken from about 20 feet away with zero zoom. The lady is Staci Butler from the Staci Butler Band

The next day, I took a trip to an place near Houston that has this old time feel to it and had hopes of taking some good pictures to share. Here’s a sample of the day time photos I took.

That photo was taken from somewhere between 80-100 feet away, without using zoom.
Any photos taken under 20 feet just come out horrible. This is definitely not an extended camera lens and is clearly a telescope for cell phones. The further the object is, the better the picture turns out.
No matter what your iso setting is, the dark settings for your pictures don’t have as good of a chance as you would have just taking the lens off and getting closer.
The focus feature just blows out my cell phones auto-focus. I tried tapping screen first then manually focus. I tried manually focusing then tapping screen and manually focusing again. Nothing made the pictures any better. I got a whole lot of shaky images that looked like I over zoomed the digital zoom and the blew the image up to pretend it was optical zoom. It definitely is not optical zoom. That setting on the side of the telescope is just for focus.

But bang for the buck, there is plenty good use for the telescope lens. I just currently haven’t much purpose in it. Not saying I won’t because I certainly will be looking for a good reason to use it. but fact is, this will not make you a better photographer.

Full review score of the Extended telescope lens for a cell phone.
Function: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Look: 10/10
Value: 10/10
Useability: 3/10
Total score: 7/10