Let's take a Moment

Introducing Moment

I first heard about Moment Lenses randomly on Instagram.  They were a kickstarter campaign that was a sensation.  They required $50,000 and were eventually pledged a whopping $451,868.  This was clearly something the mobile photography world was crying out for.  I pledged enough to be in the first wave of orders dispatched to the UK and I received both my 60mm and 18mm lenses in the post a few weeks ago.  There are a few things to note here.  They aren’t cheap.  They are $100 each (approx. £62) and I had about £30 import duty to pay.  However, as a Kickstarter backer, I had paid $100 for both - a kind of early adopters discount!! BUT - and it is a BIG but… Once you open the beautiful boxes up and take a look at these beautifully made lenses, they are absolutely worth it.  The are not cheap but they are great value.  They are large(ish) and surprisingly heavy due to the amount of beautiful glass that has gone into them.  You also get an introduction card featuring one of their photographers - a different one in each box.  They come with a mounting plate that will stick (permanently) on your phone to which they attach with a bayonet fitting.  This is absolutely genius.  The plate is so thin, the genuine Apple case still fits over the top and the lenses can be removed and re-attached without removing the phone from the case - one of the major pitfalls of the Olloclip.  

I have owned all the versions of the Olloclip (at approx. $70 for the normal one and $100 for the polarising filter and telephoto set).  The first one I gave away as I rarely used it but then, strangely missed it.  Some of the images I took using Olloclips can be seen in the VSCO blog post form 20th Jan 2014.  However, by comparison, the quality is very poor, with the exception of the useful polarising filter and the adequate macro lens, I cannot see in light of Moment’s stellar lenses how Olloclip can justify their prices any more.  They are promising something big for the iPhone 6(+) but I won’t be following it up…

I just want to work out how to get a polariser onto my sexy Moment Lenses.

“Long live the picture taker”

18mm

I think my favourite lens of the two is the 18mm.  It is  W   I   D   E  and refreshingly different on the iPhone which is approximately 30mm (equiv.) as standard according to Flickr.  It was great to have such a wide field of view in a building like Wells Cathedral.

The most staggering thing about this lens is the lack of distortion.  lines are straight and the image is sharp.  A little soft in the corners but who really cares about that … really, on an iPhone - it’s amazing!! The cameras aperture remains the same at f2.2 so infinite depth of field is not possible but due to the small sensor, the depth of field is adequate for mot things.

60mm

The 60mm lens is larger and heavier than the 18mm but not enough for it to make much difference.  Again, it’s sharp and yields great results.  It even allows for a little Bokeh in some images - something that is hard to achieve from small camera sensors.

Some more examples

Here are some additional images shot on the iPhone 5s using the Moment Lenses.

Processing

As outlined here, in my post about VSCOCam I always shoot directly into the app as the image produced (TIFF) has less compression and is therefore, better quality - retaining more fine detail and highlight/shadow information.  There are other apps that do this too.  My only criticism is the lack of support in VSCOCam for using the the volume button as the shutter.  This can (and should) be implemented.

However, VSCO’s real strength lies in the beautiful filters they have developed.  They sell large packs for Lightroom and Photoshop which give remarkably close matches to ‘film of old’ and they really add a nostalgic feel to an image.  VSCOCam - the iPhone app offering a similar but watered-down range of filters provides an experience unlike the run of the mill, low-grade Instagram ones or the native Apple filters in the standard crappy camera app.

It also allows for non-destructive editing and keeps the crap out of your camera roll as they remain in the app until exported as a finished article.  I absolutely love this feature. It allows for better organisation and re-edits are possible should the mood take you.

The iPhone 6 and 6+

I’ll be honest… As soon as apple announced the 6 and 6+, my first thought was that the 6+ was too big and I didn’t like either of them really.  And also, I had only just paid the extra import duty for my Moment lenses - to have the camera changed on the next phone.  I thought this would lead to yet more expense in getting the 6(+) lenses from Moment in due course.

I have no experience with the 6 in the real world but Chris Cardwell, a friend and fellow photographer has just got an iPhone 6+.  It is big.  Very BIG. But it is also incredibly nice to use and I think it will remove the need for an iPad - for me anyway.  It also has image stabilisation built in and an increased dynamic range over the 5s.  I really enjoyed the few shots I took on it.  The VSCOCam app does run on iPads but only by scaling the iPhone app up so there is no real benefit - although there has been mention of an iPad app but nothing timetabled according to VSCO as yet.

Below are some of Chris’ images of me making use of the Moment lenses

For the iPhone 6(+)ers among you…things are looking up… http://momentlens.co/store/iphone-mounting-plate/. 

Now… When is my contract up?