Moment’s Portable Lenses will Capture Every Moment in Detail
It happens to everyone. You’re out and about for the day and you decide to leave your DSLR at home because it’s too much to carry. And then you see it. That one thing you’ve always wanted to photograph. You quickly whip out your phone, shuffle around with the zoom, neglect any knowledge of composition, and take a blurry photo. A photo is a photo, right? The designers at Moment say no. Why not have a compact system for your phone that gives your DSLR a run for its money?
The creators of Moment Lenses are photographers, designers, gearheads, software engineers, and entrepreneurs. They had a simple idea: have a small lens kit that can greatly improve your mobile photography. Their ingenuity and need for perfection has landed them quite a bit of success. On Kickstarter they had a goal of $50,000 which they smashed to smithereens with a final total of over $451,000 back in February. With this money they have continued to perfect their products- and it shows. Moment adds to your need for all things portable and can attach to the most popular phones on the market.
Moment’s system is very simple as there are only two parts: the mounting plate and the lens itself. The lenses are attached to the mounting plate by a sturdy magnet and a locking mechanism.
There are currently two lenses by Moment: Wide and Tele. Wide can capture everything for your city- and landscapes just like your 18mm while Tele gets to the top of skyscrapers and mountains with 2x zoom (without toggling on your phone). It’s easy to switch between the two lenses which makes this even more compatible with your mobile lifestyle. There is also a lens case for carrying them around safely between photos. Moment says their lenses are the best on the market for phones and your photos will have no distortion or blurring. You can pop your Moment lens on, attach your phone to a 360 degree wallet-sized phone stand, and film and photograph high quality in no time.
The mounting plates, which are available for a variety of the most popular phones on the market, are attached to the phone with a safe adhesive. Extra adhesive is available which comes with the lens kit along with a cloth sleeve for secured carrying. Moment Lenses and Plates are available for iPhone (4s and up), Galaxy (S4, S5, and Note 3), Nexus (5), and iPad (Air and Mini). They anticipate their kit working with iPhone 6 and Plus, but will need to wait until they’ve tested it.
Moment have even managed to get the lenses to work with a variety of phone cases. However, as journalist Michael Frank mentions in his hands-on review, “[o]utdoor enthusiasts who love their armored cases aren’t going to be able to mount” these lenses.
The creators say the design of the lenses was a way of maximising the quality of the images while being as proportional in size and weight to the phone as possible. While some people may be skeptical of a mobile phone’s ability to capture images, photographer Jorge Quinteros asserts on Twitter that “[u]sing Moment lenses literally feels like using a Canon L glass on your iPhone. And it’s built like one too.” Moment are so confident that their lenses will be the best you’ll use for your phone that they attach a warranty (12 months for the US and 24 months for the EU).
You can soon test it yourself; each piece of gear will begin to ship on September 19th, although the lenses are currently available for pre-order for $99.99 (~ £61). You can check out Moment’s Instagram @moment_lens to see the lenses in action and their Twitter @moment to get the latest updates.
Although I cannot wait to get my hands on the Wide and Tele, I hope Moment do a macro next.
