Clip these filters on your iPhone for truly striking images

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Filtering your photos old school.
Filtering your photos old school.
Photo: SANDMARC

That line, the best camera is the one that’s always with you, gets associated with the iPhone. SANDMARC says its newest product is the camera accessory you will always want with your iPhone.

It’s vying for that place with a claim of adding “cinematic drama” to your iPhone photos with a set of clip-on polarizer and neutral density filters that will improve dynamic range, reduce glare and reflections, enhance color and add motion blur.

SANDMARC gets high marks with photographers, drone pilots and action athletes for its filters and other accessories for GoPro and DJI, but this is its first product for smartphones. It is on Kickstarter, where a polarizer filter can be pre-order for $29.

There are various filter bundles available that reduce exposures between two and four stops priced between $59 and $79 on the Kickstarter page.

Polarizer and neutral density filters are common accessories in a photographer’s bag, especially those that shoot landscapes or video.

iPhone filters
SANDMARC’s polarizer filter it calls Drama.
Photo: SANDMARC

When I mentioned to my colleagues I was writing about these filters, it took a moment for them to realize I was writing about something that wasn’t a filter app, like Snapseed, that these filters are a kind of analog solution to what we’ve grown accustomed to fixing later in the digital photography era.

There are several situations, especially when shooting video when software in post-production won’t salvage a lousy shoot, so an on-the-spot solution like a neutral density filter is the best way to resolve lighting problems.

Like polarized sunglasses, a polarizer lens filter can make a scene rather dynamic by darkening the sky while managing glare and reflection. SANDMARC’s polarizer, which the company calls the Drama Filter, will also make colors pop.

iPhone filters
SANDMARC’s Scape Filter, a neutral density filter that reduced the brightness of this sky.
Photo: SANDMARC

Neutral density filters, which the company calls Scape filters, can decrease the intensity of light coming into your lens.

SANDMARC’s filters are multi-coated glass the company says renders accurate transmission of light and colors and the filter frame is a durable aluminum.

The filter is large enough to cover both lenses on the iPhone 7 Plus but can fit any iPhone. A company spokesperson said they will even work when the phone is in a protective case, nothing that is too bulky.

If the company hits its fundraising goal and production deadlines, early backers could receive their kits by September.

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