Moment, Inc.
Moment, Inc.
Moment, Inc.
Moment, Inc.
Moment, Inc.
Moment, Inc.
Let’s be honest: There are plenty of lens attachments for the iPhone. To put a finer point on it, there are plenty of good lens attachments for the iPhone, from the Olloclip to the pricey Schneider iPro Lens system. One of the better options is the existing Moment Lens lineup, which comprises well-built 18mm wide-angle and 60mm telephoto lenses.
With a new Kickstarter campaign, the Moment team is trying to make those lenses part of an interchangeable-lens camera system for the iPhone 6. The Moment Case—being designed first for the iPhone 6, then possibly the iPhone 6 Plus and popular Android phones later—will detect when a lens is mounted and communicate to the phone via Bluetooth LE.
As soon as you screw a lens onto the case’s bayonet mount and the pairing is complete, you can use Moment’s free iOS app to make extra-fine adjustments to the camera’s exposure and focus controls. The case itself looks slick and will make shooting with your phone more like using a standalone camera. It has a physical shutter button on top, a rubberized grip on the back, and the bottom has aluminum loopholes so you can fasten a strap and rock your phone around your neck, Flavor Flav style.
The app-lens-case combo is designed to make independent control of focus and exposure easier. Just like on a real camera, you can half-press the physical shutter button to lock focus, then use on-screen sliders to tweak exposure levels.
According to Moment’s Marc Barros, mounting a lens will bring up a bigger suite of options within the app tailored to its focal length; you’ll get different options for the wide-angle and telephoto optics. Barros also hints that a new lens will be released in the coming months. The app-lens-case combo is designed to make independent control of focus and exposure easier. Just like on a real camera, you can half-press the physical shutter button to lock focus, then use on-screen sliders to tweak exposure levels. Even without the case and lenses, the app lets you capture RAW-format images (as TIFF files) and receive “photo assignments,” instructional challenges that guide you through better sunrise and landscape shots.
The case will have a battery, but you won’t have to recharge it. Barros says it will be user-replaceable, and that it’s designed to last for about six months.
“The case has a coin cell battery inside,” says Barros. “The goal was a case that is connected without you ever really realizing it was connected. It doesn’t require a power button, and doesn’t take any power away from your phone.”
Keep in mind that this is just a Kickstarter campaign at the moment—one that will put the entire cost of the system squarely in the realm of a decent compact camera. Barros says there are three working prototypes of the Moment Case right now, but the $100,000 goal is intended to fund mass production of the cases. No matter what, Barros says that anyone who pledges is guaranteed to receive what was offered in their pledge.
Those pledges shake out like this: $49 gets you the Moment Case in all-black or white with a black grip, $129 gets you the case with one lens, $199 gets you the case with both lenses, and $299 gets a special wooden version of the case with both lenses. They’re slated to ship to backers in June. Since Moment is an established company with a hardware track record, we expect them to follow through on that promise.
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