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A few of our favorite things: iPhone camera accessories

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:30:21 +0000

This holiday season, we’ll be running a series of weekly features called “A few of our favorite things,” where we round up some gift suggestions based on the gear that has passed through our offices either for review purposes or through personal purchases. We’ll tell you what we think is the best gear out there, for a variety of product categories and budgets.

For our second edition of the series (which is a bit late thanks to last week’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday), we’ll be looking at gear and software to make your iPhone the best camera it can be. Apple already helped out quite a bit by improving camera-related hardware with the iPhone 4S, and software with iOS 5, but these add-ons will definitely up your game.

Best iPhone tripod mount: The Glif. iPhone photography is a challenge at night, and if you want to snap shots of yourself that don’t look like Myspace profile pics, it can be tricky. The Glif is an elegant solution to this problem that has no moving parts, works exactly as advertised, and takes up virtually no space in your kit bag. Plus, Studio Neat, which created the Glif, now also offers two accessories that make your Glif keychain-compatible, and also keep a tighter grip on the iPhone should you be using the device in acrobatic circumstances. If you’ve got an iPhone 4 or 4S, the $20 Glif or $30 combo pack including all its accessories is a great deal.

Best iPhone camera app: Camera+. This app manages to keep upping its game, staying ahead of the redundancy Apple’s improvements to its own software have inflicted upon other third-party software. Camera+ consistently adds new filters and features, and its ability to stabilize shots and use the iPhone 4 and 4S LED flash as a fill light are amazingly useful. Camera+ is $0.99 on sale in the App Store now.

Best remote monitor solution: Camera for iPad. This is an old app designed for use with the iPad before the iPad 2 gained a camera of its own, and lets you remotely control an iPhone’s camera from your device. It’s still really useful if you’re trying to take studio shots with the iPhone however, since you can use it as a remote viewfinder while doing self-portraits or adjusting lighting, for instance. $0.99 in the App Store.

Most anticipated accessory: Belkin LiveAction remote. Belkin has a series of accessories coming out under the LiveAction brand, but the remote shutter control is easily the best. It works over Bluetooth and will let you snap photos from a distance, meaning less camera shake, and easier shots with you in them. It also lets you switch from photo to video mode with a dedicated on-device button. Coming in mid-December, for $49.99.

Best add-on for DSLR video/photographers: iPhone Hot Shoe Holder. If you don’t take photos that often with your iPhone, but you do use your DSLR for snapping pics and shooting video, this iPhone hot shoe adapter can be a welcome companion. Like the Glif, it’s a simple, one-piece design that hugs your iPhone and lets it slide in the hot shoe on top of your camera used for flashes and other accessories. You can then use it to display teleprompter text when shooting video, or use it in tandem with a light meter app. It’s $25 for one in either black or clear plastic.

That’s our list, but feel free to argue our picks or chime in with your own suggestions in the comments.

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iCam concept add-on for iPhone is a photographer’s dream

Darrell Etherington — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:46:23 +0000

My iPhone is so handy and so much better at getting good pictures than it used to be that I find myself taking out the DSLR kit less and less these days, and just doing a little more work on the editing side, something Annie Leibovitz says is the key to great shots anyway. But a new iPhone accessory concept brings the best of both worlds via a single device — albeit one that doesn’t exist, yet.

The iCam is a simple case for the iPhone 5 (yes, iPhone 5), as conceptualized by Italy’s ADR Studio. The studio used a mock-up it had created for the iPhone 5, featuring a larger edge-to-edge screen and oval home button, as the base device for the iCam add-on, but it’s not hard to imagine it working with the iPhone 4 either.

Basically, it provides a slim case you snap the iPhone into to gain access to an interchangeable lens system, as well as a front-facing small display for self-portrait shots, and a built-in pico projector to show off your slideshows. It also adds hardware controls and a preset wheel like you’ll find on most digital cameras these days, and looks terrific in aluminum. ADR posits that such a device could be made by Apple itself, and the quality of the design definitely lives up to that company’s standards.

It looks great, is actually thick enough that you might be able to believe that it could basically contain much of a 10.1-megapixel compact system camera’s guts, minus those parts the iPhone itself handles, and would really go a long way toward making the iPhone an acceptable semi-pro DSLR replacement, unlike some currently available best-fit solutions that likely won’t satisfy many. But, as mentioned, it’s a concept, so for now it remains a tantalizing, beautiful dream.

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Vid-Biz: Funding, YouTube, SNL

Chris Albrecht — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:44:09 +0000

Video Companies Raise $180.9 Million in Q3; Roku, Ustream, boxee among those who received influx of cash. (VideoNuze) And kicking off the next quarter is Delivery Agent, which announced today that it has raised $25 million to expand its click-to-buy applications for video. (paidContent)

YouTube Makes Sharing Private Vids Easier; quietly launched a few weeks ago, users can create a special URL for a private vid and send it to 25 people who, if logged in, can view it with just a click. (YouTube Blog)

SNL Intro Shot with a DSLR Camera; the Canon EOS 7d and 5d used for the new opening as well as for some studio sketches. (Philip Bloom)

SyFy Connecting with Fans; executives from the cable network plan to engage with fans on social networking sites as well as in person at meetups in LA and NY. (TV by the Numbers)

Cox Bumps Up Bandwidth Cap; cable co raises maximum data usage limits across all its packages, topping out at 250 GB a month. (Multichannel News)

Vook Launches Today; combines video with book reading and social interaction. (Vook.com)

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