The Best iPhone Accessories for Photographers?

Thank you for visiting mybeloved.camera!!! Today's post has to do with the iPhone set up for photographers. As a photo geek, the only reason I started using iPhone back in the day was my desire to use Gizmon iCA case. However, Gizmon has not produced cases since iPhone 5, I was using "ugly" cases just to protect my iPhone. However, I finally came across a set up I was interested in last year. As I enjoy taking photographs with my iPhone as well, I would like to share my set up this time.

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My decision to upgrade to Canon R5

After 7 years with Canon 5D Mark III, I have made a decision to upgrade my camera. Not that I was not happy with Canon 5D Mark III, but I was intrigued by new technology (much better AF and image quality) and was fortunate enough to come up with some funds to invest in my hobby. While purchasing a new gear, especially a new camera, seemed fun, it was a lengthy process and many factors to consider. I wanted to share my experience making a decision on upgrading to Canon R5.

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Photo Ops: Shooting Budapest with Holga Lens Jan 2017

I had another opportunity to visit Budapest Hungary for work. This time, it was in January. It was cold, and we had little snow. Also, there were ice floating in the river. In this trip, I brought a plastic toy lens: Holga by Lomography.

Hungarian Parliament taken from Buda Castle in the morning. Shot with Holga lens.
Hungarian Parliament taken from Buda Castle at night. Shot with Holga lens.
Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Shot with Holga lens.

A restaurant window. Shot with Holga lens.

I took most of these night time photo while walking with my colleagues. For that reason, I did not have the opportunity to use a tripod and had to handhold resulting in high ISO and really noisy images. But for a toy lens with a fixed aperture of F8, it was not too bad and it produced images taken with a toy lens/toy camera on a film.

The Holga's low-cost construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. But just these characteristics endows it with distinctive vitality and unique effects. With the lens, the magic of Holga now is available for Nikon and Canon EOS DSLR cameras. It generates soft and dark angle images that cannot be duplicated! The Lens are with a near/far focus adjustment ring and a fixed f/8 aperture. Focal length is 60mm. Lots of fun at a very reasonable price!

DIY Camera Kit: Wooden Pinhole Camera: Pinhole Art 135

Another DIY film camera kit I found on eBay was Pinhole Art 135.  I believe Lomography sold theses long time ago; however, I have not seen this for sale, and I have not found one even on eBay since I got mine.

This kit came with all wood and metal pieces necessary to build a pretty cool looking pinhole camera.  There were two issues though.  First, maybe the kit was an old one, and some of the pieces were curved and made it little more challenging to put them together.  Second, the instructions were not that great....  I mistakenly glued the front piece upside down...

SAM_0269

For the "lens", I got a laser drilled pinhole on eBay.  To amount on a tripod, I used Reticam Smartphone Tripod mount (on eBay, on Amazon).

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Since this is a lightweight and pretty compact, I will be carrying this one to my upcoming vacations to try it out.  Also, building this gave me pretty good ideas on how to construct pinhole cameras with wood, and maybe I will try putting something together soon.

Pros

  • Good looking camera. 
  • Simple camera. 

Cons

  • Difficult to find. 
  • Maybe too old and conditions may not be great.

DIY Cardboard Camera ~Videre and Viddy~

When I got into building DIY cameras, I spent good amount of time search on the web for my next project.  There were a lot of instructions on matchbox pinhole cameras.  But cardboard HasselBlad pinhole camera caught my attention.

 

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DIY TLR film Camera ~GakkenFlex~

I was always a big fan of the look of TLR cameras. So when I first saw Gakkenflex DIY TLR kit from well-known educational publisher called Gakken in Japan, I was really excited. In fact, this was the first DIY camera kit I bought. I liked it so much that I painted and put leather cover as well.

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DIY Camera Kit ~Lomography Konstruktor~

Another awesome DIY camera kit is Konstruktor from Lomography. Lomography is known for its legendary medium format toy camera Diana and Holga. Lomography also makes pretty interesting cameras. Though Konstruktor is a DIY camera kit, it is definitely a solid film camera and fun to build.  I would say it was one of the easiest DIY camera kit to build.

 

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Still the coolest iPhone case ~ Gizmon iCA ~

People have said and many would agree, the best camera is the one that's with you. (Surprisingly, there is a book with the exact title: http://amzn.to/1PcD6xi) Smartphones have made taking much easier, and the quality of pictures have improved a lot over the years. Also, with the abundance of apps and improvements made with AI, taking and editing pictures into unique piece of art/expression made photography accessible and more attractive to many. But I was not a big fan of smartphones and did not convert to it until 2010~2011.

 

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Waterproof Camera ~ Pentax Optio W90 ~

As a camera lover, I like and have multiple interesting and good looking cameras. In general, I am not a big fan of compact digital cameras for various reasons. But I would highly recommend getting a waterproof camera.

 

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DIY Camera Kit ~ Superheadz LAST CAMERA ~ : A Journey into DIY and Analog Simplicity

Hello, photography enthusiasts and gadget lovers!! Thank you for visiting my site. Today, we're diving into a unique blend of nostalgia and modernity with the Superheadz Last Camera. I love photography. I love cameras. I love building plastic models. This DIY camera is a great combination. There are quite few DIY toy cameras out there.  Some are designed well.  Some are not designed very well.   Superheadz has done a pretty good job of designing this point and shoot camera called LAST CAMERA.  I would say this is my top 3 DIY camera kit.

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