X

Moment lenses are ready for your iPhone 7

The mounts won't be ready until November, though.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
moment-bothphones.jpg
Moment

If you consider having dual cameras with different focal-length lenses "optical zoom", then adding a third-party lens to your phone's camera gives you even more optical zoom! Moment has done some testing and figured out that its iPhone lenses will work on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus -- which is great, since its lenses are pricey at $100 (directly converted, about £76 and AU$130)-- though the company has to redesign the mounting plate and case for the new phones. The new plate will ship at the end of November for $10 (directly converted, about £8 and AU$13), but the cases are going to take an indeterminately longer time.

According to the company, on the iPhone 7 Plus the lenses are only suitable for the 28mm camera (which makes technical sense, since they were designed to work with the wide-angle lens), and its 60mm Tele doesn't resolve as sharply on the 28mm side as the phone's built-in 56mm. That's due in part to Apple boosting the image quality by using computational tricks that third-party lenses can't take advantage of. But wide-angle lenses (including the new Super Fish with a 170-degree angle of view) should be great.

The really good news is that since Moment's lenses will work, then most high-quality add-on lenses should probably work as well (such as the Zeiss Exolens system), though they'll also probably require updated mount designs.

Moment Lenses for iPhone product photos

See all photos