Creative? Influencer? Social Snapper? The “Moment” for you is now….
Depending on who you follow on Instagram, you may or may not have come across Moment during your endless scrolling escapades and like us, you we’re probably stopped in your tracks to learn a little more about the company that’s taking creativity to the next level online.
Now dubbed as the “The Marketplace for Creatives”, that’s not exactly how the story for Moment started, its where they position themselves now and we’re pretty sure its not where they’ll end.
Moment Lenses
Moment started off in 2013 as a Kickstarter campaign, recognising the future of mobile photography and jumping onto the scene with their innovative module attachment lenses at the time.
Just like DSLR’s, Moment’s smaller lenses are designed to empower creatives to take better pictures (and soon to be video’s) keeping the convenience but not sacrificing the quality of the pictures being taken.
The lenses were and still are modular, created with high-end materials so they’re easy to stow away and pop back on whenever you’re ready to turn your phone back into a camera again.
By 2017 they had successfully hit the target of $500k for a campaign and had it overfunded to $768k from 5000 backers. The project at the time was the release of Moment cases plus new wide-angle lenses for iPhone 7 and Google Pixel series smartphones which were photography powerhouses of their time.
This was a taste of what was to come with Moment as they continued to kickstart and continued to innovate their product portfolio to mirror the way in which people use smartphone photography and adapt to the size, form-factor and technologies in smartphones.
Fast forward to 2019 and Moment even started making lenses for drones, notably for the market-leading DJI Mavic at the time.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on the 25mm Macro Lens and Anamorphic Lens Kits with Moment’s MagSafe case. A bit more on that below.
25mm Macro Lens
The 10x M-series is an absolute joy to use for you to be able to get that close up shot that you’re smartphones are unable to do.
We’ve all been there time and time again trying to get as close to your subject as possible only for your phone to blur out on you out of focus. With the 10x Macro lens you can now capture full focussed images from less than 1-inch away.
Moving back from your subject and panning in and cropping is now a thing of the past.
Like all of Moment’s lenses, we love the build quality and packaging of the product. Whilst its extremely small, the Macro lens feel heavy due to the aerospace-grade material its made out of and that extra weight actually adds a nice sense of balance to your smartphone when you’re shooting.
In terms of packaging, the lens comes with a Microfiber carrying case which doubles up as a lens cleaner, a diffuser good to aid lighting and also a rubber protective cover.
We are really looking forward to using this lens regularly and we’ll no doubt be using it to photograph other products on CRISP. in the future.
Anamorphic Lens
Before we go into a bit more detail about this lens, it probably makes sense to break down what an Anamorphic lens is.
In short, the Anamorphic lens is a modular add-on to turn your video’s into cinematic masterpieces, essentially adding true black bars onto your video without having the need to shoot and cut them in after. The lens does this by turning the usual 16:9 aspect ratio a 2.40:1 ratio without giving you the “fisheye” look like other wide-angle lenses do.
You don’t need to stop at video either, as the lens will also work for still photography. In order to use the lens to its full capacity you’ll need to use it in Moment app turning the lens to “Anamorphic”.
The beautiful thing about the Lens is that you have the option to buy it with two different filters. The lenses are available with blue flare or a gold flare which is essentially a coating on the lens itself. If you catch your subject in the right light you’ll get those beautiful cinematic flares overlaid on to image.
The packaging is pretty much the same in that it comes with a microfibre cloth but the Anamorphic lens comes with a tiny allen-key type addition on the case, this is so that you can turn then lens itself around to suit whichever smartphone you’re using it on.
We’ve been having a lot of fun with the Anamorphic lens as it opens up so many more angles and composition to what you previously would have had access to. We’re still yet a stitch a video together but an example of a still can be seen below along with some brilliant cinematography from others in the Moment community using Anamorphic.
Apps and Accessories
In order to use the lenses for your phone, you would need a specific case for your phone to mount it onto. With Apple devices, the cases come courtesy of new MagSafe technology which allows you to stick new Moment accessories onto the back via a magnet (also doubles up as a car holder if you have one of those)
Cases are also available for the latest Samsung, Oneplus and Google Pixel devices if you’re running android.
Whilst you can use some of the lenses without it, In order to get the most of your photography its highly recommended to download and use Moments pro app to get full manual control of your photography and videography.
Not only can you take advantage of the presets set for particular lenses, but you also get to take advantage of the new Slow shutter feature added into the app to get you to get those creative light trails and motion blur.
The Marketplace for Creatives
Following its success in Mobile camera lenses, the Moment movement naturally led the company to embark on a new journey taking their community along on the way.
Moment now stock product to aid creatives across all spectrums of creativity photography selling cameras, lenses, accessories bags and even drones.
The company have even gone as far to build a creative manifesto which is:
- In for more moments, less stuff.
- In for following our camera.
- In for connecting more.
- In for keeping it real.
Two of our favourite parts of Moments digression outside of camera lenses are its online courses which we’ll no doubt be enrolling in in the future. There is a lesson for everyone both beginner and advanced and cover everything from Photography, Videography and Editing and is not just limited to their own products but photography as a whole.
Another thing we learnt of (and absolutely love) is the Moment Invitational Film Festival. Yes, its exactly what it sounds like, Moment’s 6th annual film festival dedicated to creative work made on mobile cameras and there are even grants available to get budding photographers the gear they need to submit a movie.
We’ll let the trailer below speak for itself in terms of the talent on offer and the work photographers are putting. This truly opened our eyes to the world of Mobile photography.
All of the accessories and lenses featured above can found and purchased on Moments site.
You can find more about Moments Invitation Festival here and Book Lessons here
