Fstoppers Review The Moment Phone Lens Selection

I received the new Moment 58 mm Tele lens a week ago to test, to test so I set up a home studio and got some shots. I also received some other Moment gear, which is also reviewed. 

The Tele Lens

It’s a very well made portraiture lens and it'll get you closer to your subject when you’re shooting photos or video. The team at Moment has redesigned the optics from the ground up to support single and dual-lens phones. The lens is also now optimized for portrait mode if your phone has this feature too. When you mount it on the lens of the phone's camera, you get 4x the optical zoom. It basically gives you a 100 mm+ lens when using the one camera on your dual-lens equipped phone, and a 58 mm lens on the other. You can mount the lens on either of the cameras, and by using the Moment App, choose which one you want to use. (One camera will be blocked by the lens.)

Overall features:

• The lenses are easy to mount. It slides into the cover easily and fits securely, so you won’t ever get it knocked off.
• The lens has six elements, which delivers edge-to-edge clarity
• The lens can be mounted on single lens or dual-lens phone cameras. 
• With the single lens camera, it's a 58 mm equivalent., and on the tele lens, it can be a 100 mm+ depending on the phone. 
• The lens increases bokeh to give that classic SLR look. 
• The new portrait mode function of the Pixel 3 and iPhone XR is enhanced with this lens too. 

Technical Specs:

• All glass optical design with 6 elements. 
• Lens coated with multi-layer, low flare, broadband ant-reflection coating
• Designed for f/1.8 lenses. 
• Weight: 73,1 g
• Height: 27,58 mm
• Diameter: 39,5 mm

Some of My Portraits:

These images are not color-graded, yet it contains some retouching. I used natural window lighting with a black poly board on the side. 

What Phones Work

I tested it on an iPhone X, and it also works with the latest iPhones, Samsung Galaxy models, and the Google Pixel phones.

The Other Lenses

The Wide Angle lens

This lens is my favorite. It has almost no distortion, and when shooting from the hip when I do some street photography is fun and I can really “hide” the camera to not distract or influence the passers-by. 

It’s good with photos, but with video it gives that professional, almost cinematic wide-angle look which portrays a scene, and you can really change your viewer’s interpretation and get more perspective, more context, by shooting wider and by giving your subject a space to move in. 

The Fish Eye

I haven’t used the fish eye lens much, because I’d rather use the GoPro Hero 7 Black to shoot wide video shots with the stabilization the GoPro gives me, but it’s just as well built with some weight and great materials. 

The Moment App

The Moment app works well and you can set it up according to the lens you’re shooting through. It’s easy to flip between photo and video modes and the pro features give you manual exposure control, the ability to set White Balance and what ISO to shoot at. It’s like a professional camera, with haptic responses to give you the sensation of actually turning knobs and pressing buttons. The app also works well with the stock Apple Photos App, so when you favorite or delete a photo in the app, it does the same in the Photos App. 

I mostly shot in TIFF file format, but you can shoot using the raw file format, or HEIF, all of which gives better dynamic range and a larger image to work with. 

The Covers

The Charging Cover

It’s not just your regular cover. It has a battery, yes, but it does so much more. It has a red shutter button, which might feel cheap and plastic, but when you press it, it launches the Moment app. This is a step ahead of Apple’s swipe-left to camera, and makes it a pleasure to use when you see a shot but time is limited. When you use the cover for the first time it also gives you the ability to activate the pro mode of the app, with no additional cost or subscription fee, which, according to me, is a sweet deal. 

The Regular Covers

They are well made. You have a cover you won’t need to take off and replace with another, when you’re not using the lenses. They look smart, feels like they’ll save your phone from a drop, and can carry any of the moment lenses. The one cover I received had an added card holder slot which I use for my metro card. 

The Lens Case

The lens case has space for two of any of the lenses, and you can fit each lens in a bag with the lens cover, and use the case for extra protection. When considering it’s ability, it’s a very small case holding two great lenses. 

What I Liked

I had fun using these lenses. I used the tele photo lens for some portraits, and I use the wide angle to shoot video on my iPhone. It's almost always on the phone when I'm shooting video. I liked the way the lenses fit onto the phone cover. I like the quality of the lenses and I like the fact that they're so small. 

What I Didn't Like

The lenses don't have covers for the back side of the lenses. It means dust collects, and it can get scratched over time if not put into the bags they come with. I would prefer a rubber cap that could protect the lens whether they're in the little bag or not. 

Conclusion

Overall, I am just as excited about these lenses as I was the day I got them. They are always in my bag and they weigh almost nothing. This is great for when I haven't planned on going out shooting, but end up exploring the afternoon walking around the city, and its great to pack when going on a trip. 

I don’t use it for photography, but I do use my phone to shoot video, and with the Moment kit I have, it’s much lighter, more fun, and easy to use. It’s almost as if the simplicity of attaching a lens gives me more time to go out and shoot without having to think about which lens to use. And, I don’t have to run back to my bag to swap lenses. These lenses are so small, all of them fit in my jacket pocket. 

You can also pre-order and get some more detail on their site.