This is the Ladibird, and it might just be the answer to the question, “What the hell are the camera makers going to do now that we all have iPhones?” The Ladibird is a camera case that slides onto your iPhone 5/s and lets it take great portrait photos, complete with the blurred backgrounds characteristic of a fast lens.
Is the Ladibird from Nikon? No. Canon? Uh-uh. Olympus, Fujifilm, Polaroid? Nope. The Ladibird comes from some Singaporean entrepreneurs via Indiegogo, aka the Poor Man’s Kickstarter.
The camera is just that, an actual camera complete with large sensor, fast 50mm (equivalent) ƒ1.8 lens and a Lightning connector to hook into your iPhone’s brain. It slides on like a battery case, and has a single button for taking photos – the rest is all handled by the companion iPhone app.
I love this idea, as the only thing I miss when snapping photos on my iPhone is the ability to throw backgrounds out of focus and make the subject pop. But I’ve been disappointed before when great hardware has been paired with poor software, so even though I could save a bunch by pre-ordering the Ladibird for $167 now instead of $300 when it launches, I’ll wait (unless the fine folks at Ladibird want to send over a review unit that is…)
In the meantime, I’ll continue to fret about just how I’m supposed to incorporate the pictures from my X100S into my iPad and iPhoto for iOS “workflow.”
Source: Ladibird
