The Smartphone DSLR Mount Is Absolutely Ridiculous

The Smartphone DSLR Mount Is Absolutely Ridiculous

Introducing the latest and not so greatest product from PhotoJojo, the Look Lock. The Look Lock allows you to attach your smartphone to your hotshoe mount using a large and out of place aluminium arm, proving once again, that the camera accessory market is completely out of ideas.

The Look Lock is “an adjustable arm that holds a smartphone above your camera's lens to keep your subject's attention, and your favorite apps at the ready.” The greatest downfall of this idea is, why are you browsing apps when you should be photographing your subject?

The counter argument of course is that you can use it when photographing children, to gain their attention. However, the aluminium arm appears to be so bulky and large, that you’ll end up with photos where the child is looking slightly off camera, much like you’d see in 80’s Olan Mills family portraits. This argument also encourages you to not engage your subject, which is ludicrous, and lazy.

And the greatest downfall of all? The $75 dollar price tag. A similar design could be made using flash mounts, and hot shoe adapters with a $20 B&H Photo gift card.

In the past I've really loved PhotoJojo's products. Their Camera Lens Bracelets are an awesome idea, and I absolutely love my Photoshop Fridge Magnets. However, the Look Lock is an impractical and expensive solution to a problem that 99.9% of photographers never face.

 


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Zach Sutton's picture

Zach Sutton is an award-winning and internationally published commercial and headshot photographer based out of Los Angeles, CA. His work highlights environmental portraiture, blending landscapes and scenes with portrait photography. Zach writes for various publications on the topic of photography and retouching.

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43 Comments

I think it's completely stupid as well.....BUT, that being said, it could also be used as a teleprompter if you're shooting video.

 A smartphone mount for a DSLR is the stupidest idea I have ever heard (and probably can be accounted to the fact that today's trends brainwash us to think that smartphones are something heavenly, that answer all the questions of Life, and you MUST have one, and MUST carry everywhere and MUST use for everything... P.s.: I don't have one, and don't want one. My phone can make calls an do text messaging - I don't need anything else from a phone).

However, the clip is pretty universal, so you might be able to use it for something meaningful. But I wouldn't give more than $10 for it.

cool

Why I would actually purchase this....
- Help shooting photos of kids, especially babies and children with special needs- Shoot HD video of your photo shoot
- Jam to some tunes while on the go

Why I wouldn't purchase this...
- $75 freekin' dollars!

So ... how do you mount your flash unit or trigger your strobes?  What are you doing jamming to tunes when you should be paying attention to your subjects ( this thing is marked to portrait photographers )?  Wouldn't the HD video be all jerky and promote vomiting?

I think this is a good idea for video maker who use dslr.there is some
Problem about focusing video.we can not see well on the
Original screen size 3 or 3.2 inches .so we need to view on the
Larger cmmonitor screen

Same thing can be had over at P&C for $30-40. http://www.photographyandcinema.com/collections/accessories

There are android apps that let you use the screen as a monitor... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUNNqDxTTe8

I use something similar as a teleprompter but use a iPad mini (so you can actually read the text at distance)

Seriously. Anyone who wants to use an iPhone as a teleprompter would be very disappointed. Unless you're a foot away from the screen or the font size is set to have one word appear on the iPhone at a time, it's going to be too small. 

I think Alan has eagle eyes.

this is completely SMART !!!!  And if you want to make a million bucks... make a DSLR screen that allows the subject to see themselves as the camera seems them.  Of course it wouldn't work from far away... but the reason cheesy cell phone pictures tend to flatter people a little bit is because people are essentially able to find angles they like best of themselves.  a person inherently poses in front of the mirror in a way that makes them look good... no mirror, and they don't know what to do and they don't know how to look... Of course as a photographer you're supposed to be able to direct people... but isn't that a waste of time when it's ulitmately the subject's opinion of themselves that matters most if you're doing the photos for the subject.  IDK... but this idea isn't too far off from what I'm talking about, which is essentially shooting through a mirror.  

you could buy a 60D

If they shoot a kid with dora playing above the lens the photos will all look like webcam images with no eye contact.

This is a parody, right? No? Serious? Come on.....you must be kidding! 

I like how the photog using Dora isn't even touching her lens. Nice and stable. 

What difference does it make? It looks a lot like a D90 with an 18-105mm it probably weighs about 800 grams.

I see people doing this all the time and I wonder if they bought the camera because it will take better pictures.

There are tons of these things. Who will fix the camera when the hot show comes off? That is quite a fulcrum that can prpbbaly genertae several foot ounds at even the slightest touch. Thiough not as bad as someone who actually makes a handle that goes on the hot shoe.And where do you put the flash/trigger?

I could see this being useful to shoot video while shooting photos. Easy promo video. It does seem a bit useless otherwise. 

The same thing is used by filmmakers (like moiself) to hold up small cameras and other things. (sold by photographyandcinema.com with the clamp and by many other places without the clamp)

This is funny though. :)

If you really want to have someone look at an image, hook your camera up to a monitor. Much larger screen and a lot more stable.

The only way this thing could be useful, is if it had tethering capabilities to immediately upload or email. otherwise it's just kitchy 

I usually do not reply to these articles, but I think there are some ideas overlooked worth mentioning. However, the price tag is, I agree, expensive and makes any other point null. That aside:
1) I have found my smartphone to have the ability to have an impressively bright light an with the arm you can use it as a very flexible on-camera light. Obviously, one would not use it for certain applications (weddings come to mind, it would not have enough reach nor look that professional in my personal opinion), but it may help in other areas such as macro perhaps? As a note, I have only dabbled in macro a few times so it may in fact be totally unhelpful there too, but maybe not.
2) On the same note using a flashlight, the phone on the camera could
help me focus my camera in the dark without having to hold the phone and
mess with settings (again, simplifying my life). Obviously, it would
have a limited distance but what flashlight does not?
3) I have a really cool app called "Photo Tools." It is a great combination of almost every other photo app idea out there and includes a variety of checklists with pre-built ones for weddings, but also my custom checklists for preparing for a shoot, time lapses, star trails, and other processes. I have a tendency to forget some step or my parameter settings for star trails and having the checklist above my camera could be pretty nifty rather than trying to handle the camera and checklist. I am a big fan of simplifying my work (hence checklists).
4) There are also apps I believe that show stars/constellations in the sky and I could easily, by using the arm, angle my camera to those (it would need fine-tuning but may just be a great way to get it angled close).
5) I *think* I have read articles before where you can use your smartphone as a remote, interval timer, etc. for your camera but I am not 100% certain so this may or may not be applicable.
6) And just for kicks, your own radio/media/entertainment on top your camera when you are out shooting landscapes! Seriously, I do a bit of landscapes and usually will play some music on my phone. I would never pay much, if any, just to put my phone on top my camera so I can change my music easily while shooting. But if I had it for some other purpose, I just might use it for that... However, that is a personal quirk and really has no bearing on the actual value of the product. (For the record, I usually do not have people anywhere close to me so music would only bother the grass).

Otherwise, photographers are a creative bunch (kinda goes with the territory) and I am certain one could find a way to use it. After all, if a photographer could do a fashion shoot with an iPhone (previous Fstoppers article - very cool), or Joey Lawrence (young photographer, 23 years, who has worked for National Geographic, Coca-Cola, Forbes, etc.) can do a shoot using cardboard and foil for lighting, one can find a way to put it to some use... However, I still agree that all of those ideas are completely null considering the price tag. The brilliance behind the iPhone or foil lighting is that it did not cost much (okay, the iPhone did but what does that matter when you buy it regardless?) whereas the Smartphone DSLR Arm costs, well, an arm?

We had a customer use our GripTight smartphone mount with a hot shoe adapter to do the same thing to help get kids' attention. Total cost: $25 . http://www.momswhoclick.com/2013/02/take-better-photos-grip-tight-micro....

I think this article is missing the point. An Iphone/Android Phone coupled with this mount can be used to preview photos form a eye-fi SD card easily in Retina Display. That is a very valid usecase got older DSLR or Mirrorless Cameras that have vary crappy non articulated displays. 

Also HDMI Out to small 1080P LCD screen?

Or you can use a LED light panel on that? For videographing? or a infrared LED light panel :p

Most LED panel have a hotshoe mount on them. I have 4 of them sitting on my desk right now that I'm hoping to review this weekend...and all of them are hotshoe mount, so no need for a $75 bracket.

Oh I see...Looking forward your review then :)

Just wait for a few month, and there's a Made In China version with cheaper price coming out lol

Call me crazy, but I see maybe a dozen uses for this. None of which is the intended one.

This is already out there already for only $59  https://www.daisygrip.com/daisystore/daisygrip-store/#.USwkNYVU-mc

3 GREAT USES: the functionality of a tool is often determined by the ingenuity of it's user. In this case, it probably also depends on what camera you're using it with, in which case this could be an incredibly sweet little tool for nature photographers and wedding videographers! Think about it. If you were to pair it with a  Panasonic GH3 or Canon 6d that has built in wifi, this could be super useful.

3 MAIN USES:
1) super cheap articulating screen during live view for picture taking
2) larger screen for videographers
3) could be used as a portable hotspot for live uploading with better signal than in your pocket (think: live events where speed to upload is critical)

- Travis
http://www.fridayweddingphotography.com

Not to mention for all those people who try to do a timelapse or video of their photoshoot (lots of tutorial people) could use the Arm with their phone rather than a go-pro or a second camera/tripod setup. Nor do you need high quality pictures to do time lapse in most cases so a phone could, arguably, work quite well for that.

Dumb! and where am I suppose to put my Pocketwizard??? 

In your pocket, Wizard. =P

I think everyone is missing a key point here: this could be used as a 'swivel screen' for the Canon 6D when using the wifi camera control app. That's the primary reason I grab the 60D first when shooting video. Throw a 5"+ smartphone in there and you have a very large preview image, potentially killing the need for an external video monitor. 

If that's indeed the selling point for the device, it's not visually marketed very well from the images shown. 

It strikes me as a 'mom' product, purely from my interpretation of their pictures. It's obviously not designed for any serious photographers/videographers use, purely because it sits on the hotshoe. 
The worst thing is they seem to have priced the average mother out of the market with the ridiculous $75 price tag, 

Exactly. And for those of us who love the articulating screen of the 60D it allows for that use - coupled with the Wi-Fi capabilities of the 6D, etc.

I feel embarrassed just to be on the same page as it. (Shudder)

 With the 6D this thing could be a sense.

Hi guys im disable and unable to fly, a very useful thing people are doing with these is, virtual photo walks this means i am able to go to a far away country and take photos. With this and the apps available i can take control of someone camera set and adjust everything chat to the person who is with the camera and ask him to adjust composition for me to where ever i want take a few photo's and the photographer can then email me the shot's i took to edit and print so for some this may seam a bit silly but for others its a way to travel the world

I am looking for a device exactly like this. Why? Because I want an articulating screen solution for a Canon full frame (6D/5D Mark III) much as what exists on a 60D or 70D. As you know,
the 6D and 5D Mark III do not have articulating screens, however, with the 6D's Wi-Fi capabilities and an iPhone this becomes a possibility. When shooting landscapes, I like to shoot from down low - a foot off the ground and sometimes less. Currently with my 60D I just setup with a tripod, go into Live View, flip the screen up and out and compose and shoot - all without having to lay down or assume some contorted position on the ground just to see the LCD or use the Viewfinder. A device like this may very well be the key to me moving to a 6D or 5D Mark III without having to sacrifice my knees, back and elbows in the process. I love it! Maybe I'll find something a little less pricey, but this device is just about perfect for what I’m looking for. I thank you for making me
aware of it (and my knees thank you, too!).

The bottom line and food for thought: Often times, just by thinking outside the box, one can adapt a particular solution to solve completely different problems well beyond the intended application for a particular device.