The iPhone’s camera is good enough that it can be most people’s only camera — including professional photographers. The iPhone is a multi-purpose computer, though, not just a camera, so it can sometimes do with a little help when it comes to ergonomics, or to adding a little extra reach with a telephoto lens. These are the iPhone 8 camera gizmos you should buy:
Fortunately, the iPhones 8 and 8 Plus are pretty much the exact same size and shape as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. That means that, if you already have any camera accessories for your iPhone, then they should continue to work just fine. Some of there makers of our favorite accessories have already announced that they are updating to iPhone 8-compatible cases, so if you’re buying new, you may prefer to wait until they have fine-tuned their products for any small changes.
Moment lens and case
Photo: Moment
Moment makes high-quality lenses for iPhones, concentrating on quality instead of trying to make the smallest, lightest clip-on lenses. All of the current lineup fits the new iPhones 8.
Moment offers four lenses, a telephoto, a wide-angle, a macro (close-up) lens, and a fisheye for some crazy distortion, priced at either $90 or $100 each. It also makes a couple of cases, and you’ll need to buy one of these to attach the lenses.
There’s a plain case for $30, and a combined battery/photo case which offers a backup battery along with a shutter button that will trigger the iPhone’s camera. I prefer the modular design of Moment’s gear, because you can keep uses the same lenses year after year, only buying the occasional new case to make them fit a new iPhone.
Price: From $90
Buy from: Amazon
Olloclip
Olloclips are the best known iPhone lenses, and they’re great. In our tests, the lenses aren’t as good picture-quality-wise, as the Moment, but they are a lot more convenient. An Olloclip is a little widget that clips over the lenses on your iPhone, and holds the accessory lens in front. Each clip comes with two related lenses, so you can flip them to choose which one to use. The Olloclip also works with both the front and rear cameras of the iPhone.
The Olloclip has two disadvantages. One, you can’t use it with a case. It clips direct to the bare iPhone. Second, you have to toss away the whole unit whenever you buy a new iPhone, because they are custom made to fit each model. However, it looks like the iPhone 8 is close enough to the iPhone 7 that you won’t have to “upgrade” this time.
Price: From $100
Buy from: Amazon
Kenu Stance tripod
Photo: Kenu
I have an earlier version of the Kenu Stance pocket tripod, and it’s still going strong. The little aluminum tripod folds small enough to slip into the little “special” pocket on your jeans, and yet splays its legs wide enough to support your iPhone without a wobble. The business end slips into your iPhone’s Lightning port, so you can use it with or without a case.
The little tripod also works as a horizontal stand, and even has a bottle opener bolt into one of the legs. The only thing it’s not good for is taking long time-lapse videos, because you can’t plug the iPhone into power.
Price: $25
Buy from: Amazon
Zoom iQ5
Photo: Zoom
With its image stabilization and amazing 4k video capture, the iPhone 8 is an incredible movie-making machine. But its microphone doesn’t match the camera in terms of quality. The good news is that there’s a very quick way to improve your recorded sound — add an external microphone. The Zoom iQ5 has all of Zoom’s famous high-quality sound, only it comes in a package tiny enough to hang on the iPhone’s Lightning port.
You can use the Zoom with its own companion app, which also lets you change some of the internal settings for the microphone. But you will probably just use the iQ5 with your regular apps. Plug it in and it takes over duty from the internal mic. This means that it works with any app, from the Voice Memos app to the camera. The mic has several manual controls, but you can also just leave it on auto for great results. There’s also a microUSB port to charge your iPhone while the mic is plugged in, a headphone jack for monitoring, and the mic ball can be rotated to point in the direction of your choice.
Price: $100
Buy from: Amazon
