K&F Concept ND1000000 Phone Solar Lens Filter review: a simple smartphone filter for souvenir shots of the solar eclipse

Photographing the partial phases of a solar eclipse with a smartphone is traditionally rather basic – you clumsily hold the lens of a pair of solar eclipse glasses over the smartphone’s lens, then snap away. However, with modern multi-camera phones sometimes switching lenses at exactly the wrong moment, everything can get a bit too DIY. The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is designed to solve all of that by delivering a clip-on solar filter that covers all smartphone lenses without any fuss.

It’s important to note that the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is not a certified safe solar filter, but merely an ND1,000,000 filter. However, while it should not be used to visually look at the sun, it reduces the sun’s brightness enough for photography and is perfectly safe for a smartphone.

Rather than using a fragile piece of solar film taped over the camera, this kit combines a 58mm or 67mm ND1,000,000 filter screwed onto a plastic smartphone mount. It’s basically a clip-on solar photography filter for phones, aimed at eclipse chasers who want a straightforward way to record the partial phases – the changing crescent sun – of any solar eclipse.

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A much more limiting imaging platform than K&F’s standalone ND1,000,000 filter – which uses the same optical idea and performed well on a manual camera – I am reviewing the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter as a practical phone accessory rather than a specialist astronomical filter, but it's nevertheless one of the best solar filters if you're a dedicated smartphone shooter.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Specifications

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Price

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter comes in two sizes – 58mm ($35 / £27) and 67mm ($40 / £30). The 58mm version works fine for an iPhone, which bunches lenses in one corner, while the 67mm is aimed at Android (including Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel) phones, which can have a strip of lenses less suited to a circular filter. Given the tiny savings, the 67mm version is the one to choose if you plan to share the filter while observing a solar eclipse with a group.

At this price, the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter sits in a useful space. It’s more polished and durable than taping eclipse glasses or loose solar film (such as Baader AstroSolar Safety Film) over a phone camera, but much cheaper and more portable than building a dedicated eclipse-photography kit around a mirrorless camera, a telephoto lens, and a solar filter.

However, value depends on expectations. If all you want is a simple souvenir image of the crescent sun during a partial eclipse, the asking price is reasonable. If you are expecting crisp sunspots, a large solar disc, and publication-quality results, the money is better spent on a standalone filter for a proper camera setup.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Design & Handling

The design is straightforward. The filter, packed separately, screws into a plastic press-on clip mount, which clamps onto the phone and positions the glass over the camera lens. That simplicity is the product’s biggest strength, but there are a few caveats. A smartphone may have wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto sensors, and the camera app may switch between them automatically as you zoom.

Before eclipse day, it’s best to know which lens your phone uses and to make sure the filter fully covers that lens. However, if you buy the 67mm version of the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter, it’s likely going to be able to cover all of the lenses on your phone.

I was able to leave a phone case on both iPhone and Android smartphones when I tested the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter, though thick, rugged cases may need to come off. That is worth knowing in advance, because removing a case while an eclipse is underway is exactly the kind of avoidable faff that leads to missed shots.

Safety when imaging the sun is essential. The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is for filtered smartphone photography through the phone screen, not for direct visual observation. It is not a substitute for certified solar eclipse glasses, and it should not be used for looking directly at the sun.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Performance

Optically, this filter is closely related to K&F’s standalone ND1,000,000 filter, which performs well on a manual camera. In that form, mounted on a telephoto lens, the filter produced pleasing solar images with visible sunspots, solid contrast, and a neutral-to-slightly-warm yellowish-white sun that was easy to adjust in post-processing.

On a smartphone, the experience is more limited. I tried using the K&F Phone Solar Lens Filter handheld, and it worked in the most basic sense: the sun was filtered, visible, and I was able to take an image. However, the resulting images were very simple. The solar disc was small, framing was fiddly, and the overall image quality was governed far more by the phone’s camera system than by the filter. In short, it was blurry and not worth having.

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter can reduce light and allow a phone to capture the sun, but it cannot give a smartphone the reach of a 400mm lens or the manual control of a mirrorless camera. Handheld shots are fine for proving you were there, or for sharing a quick image of a partial eclipse, but they should not be judged against dedicated eclipse photography.

Cue a tripod. Once the phone was stable in a clamp on a tripod, it was much easier to zoom in on the sun, refine framing, and avoid accidental movement. It still took practice, and it was hot work. The sun drifts through the frame, the clip can be nudged during handling, and some phones become awkward when digital zoom and automatic lens switching get involved.

The only sensible approach is to test the entire setup days before the eclipse, and absolutely not during first contact, but it’s not complicated. After 10 minutes of experimenting, I had images that were as good as I was going to get.

Shooting in Raw is technically worthwhile if your phone supports it – just for added flexibility in adjusting exposure, contrast, color temperature, and sharpening later on in post-processing – but that kind of user is not the market for the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter. My shots featured a reasonably sharp solar limb, but no sunspots or any surface detail.

It would definitely work for the partial phases of a solar eclipse, and with your phone already on a tripod, you’ll be ready for totality if you’re in the path (which is in Greenland, Iceland, and northern Spain on August 12, 2026) – just remember to remove the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter when it gets dark. And turn off your flash…

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Verdict

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter with Press-on Mount Kit is best understood as a souvenir-shot accessory. It’s ideal for people who do not own, and do not want to buy, a manual camera, but want souvenir shots of a solar eclipse, which almost everyone does once it’s underway. It’s compact, affordable, and much more elegant than improvising with tape and eclipse glasses, though the biggest difference you can make is a tripod, which will vastly improve images.

Learn how your phone handles zoom and lens switching before the eclipse begins, don’t expect a perfect shot, and the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is a practical and well-priced eclipse accessory for casual smartphone users.

Alternatives

Daystar Universal Lens Filter
The Daystar Universal Lens Filter uses Thousand Oaks SolarLite film in a practical slip-on design that packs flat. Purpose-built for solar observing and photography with manual mirrorless cameras, it delivers a pleasing warm-orange solar disc straight out of the camera.

Certified solar eclipse glasses
For the simplest DIY phone solution, one lens from a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses can be taped over a smartphone camera. It is less elegant and less durable than a clip-on filter, but for basic partial-eclipse shots, it can achieve a similar result.