If you've come to love photography by shooting with your iPhone, now might be the moment to take the plunge and treat yourself to a camera.Whether you consider yourself a photographer or not, you probably use your phone to shoot photos. So, even though this photo snob came away impressed with Moment's premium kit, I'm still unconvinced it's for everyone looking to further explore photography. However, even the best lens attachments can't juice up an iPhone's small sensor to achieve the levels of detail you can get with mirrorless or DSLR cameras, and even the best camera apps can leave creative opportunities on the table. Sure, shooting with a phone is remarkably convenient and, with the help of lens attachments, can produce some great results. $300 could get you an older, used DSLR-and at that point you could save a bit more and spring for a new Sony RX100 point-and-shoot. Throwing no shade on the miraculous state of miniaturized mobile cameras, a way more powerful photo setup could easily be within your budget for that much green. If you love photography that much, you should seriously consider getting a standalone camera. The Moment Battery Photo Case for iPhone, the two wide lenses, and lens carrying case cost around $300 together. As someone who's shot with tens of thousands of dollars' worth of photo equipment over the years, I understand that there's a direct connection between optical quality and price. I guess I expected it to work whether or not it had a charge, but in my experience, it won't. Unbeknownst to me, the case had lost most of its charge just hanging around in my bag for a few days, rendering the shutter button absolutely useless. For instance, one time I went to go shooting with the battery case disconnected from the Moment app. Other lens options include a 60mm-equivalent 2X telephoto lens made for shooting portraits, and a 25mm-equivalent macro lens for close-ups.Įverything wasn't perfect. Image quality itself is also surprisingly good-even though the two wide lenses I carried had an expected amount of distortion, both acquitted themselves very well. Made of metal and glass, and including a front lens cap, these attachments feel excellent to carry inside a hoodie pocket, and solidly mount and detach from the case. One surprise with this package of Moment gear was the high quality of the lenses. I found the easy-to-use app reminiscent of my favorite alternate iOS camera, Halide. You can shoot in JPEG, TIFF, and even DNG RAW. Not only does it come with a gaggle of shooting aids, it also lets you pick your file format. it's a good thing then that it has other useful features too. Since the app is the only way to get the most out of the shutter button. On the bottom of the case are two handy lanyard attachment points so you can wear the assembly around your neck or wrist, and there's a standard Lightning port that lets you charge up with your regular, run-of-the-mill iPhone charger. It's the only way to get the half-step autofocus from the shutter button, and the Moment app also lets you select which battery you want to be active-the one in your phone or the one in the case. Though the shutter button works with the stock iOS camera app, you get way more features out of the case when you use Moment's own app to control the camera. Most importantly, the Battery Photo Case adds a two-stage shutter button. Unlike some battery cases, it's neither ugly, nor does it make your iPhone look like it's carrying tiny, lithium-ion stuffed backpack. Made from a dark charcoal silicone permeated with some kind of silvery fleck, it boosts your iPhone's battery to almost double its normal runtime (with Moment bragging a 90-percent additional charge). The Battery Photo Case is a pretty nice piece of kit. If you want to get a wider or narrower field of view, or if you want to zoom in on a subject without resorting to resolution-killing digital tricks, you'll need to snap a supplemental lens on top of your phone's built-in camera. That's not too wide, but also not terribly "zoomed-in." With that typical lens, it's more likely that you'll need to step closer to your subject than back away when framing a shot on a smartphone. That's why attachment lenses for phones are still relevant-products like the Moment lenses I recently got to use are the perfect example of why that is.Ī typical smartphone has a slightly wide-angle lens, usually with a 28mm equivalent focal length. But, if you want to greatly improve the technical quality of your pictures, software can only get you so far. Software is largely to thank for the explosion of great-looking photos spewing out of our mobile devices. Unlike in the early days of mobile photography, the cameras inside phones are now so darn good, they easily meet the needs of the serious hobbyist. As much as it makes photo enthusiasts grit their teeth, iPhoneography is a thing.
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