- I'm Jennimai, a tech reporter here at Mashable
and an aspiring, but very amateur photographer
and videographer.
I recently moved to New York City, and I want to be able
to take really cool photos and videos
while I'm out and about exploring my new home.
I've dabbled in taking photos and editing videos before,
but I really wanted to take it to the next level,
so I reached out to Cody Turner, a Moment gear guy.
Moment is a company that makes photography
and filmmaking accessories for smartphones.
- I use this for group shots and group photos,
or like vlogging.
Throwing on a fisheye, you're going to know you're
in the shot, regardless of what you're doing.
Wherever you are, you are always going to be in that shot
because that field of view is just so vast.
Taking like crazy night photography,
if you want to get the whole sky,
the fisheye is going to help.
Or if you're filming like a straight up
Beastie Boys music video, where they're all like, "yo!"
That's like the fisheye,
it's going to get that look for you a hundred percent.
This lens is useful for getting that cinematic look.
And depending if you have the blue or the gold flares,
that's where you're going to notice those...
Hold on. Let's see if I can get it.
Anyways, there's a blue line going through it.
People go "flare hunting," is what they call it,
so like finding lights that hit the lens at a certain point.
You'll get that kind of sci-fi streak all across your film.
Very cool effect. Very kind of specific to the genre,
of like the sci-fi movies or something like that.
I think that's why we put out the gold one as well
'cause that really works for like a sunset or some fun.
Once you put it on our lens,
once you open up the Moment app
and make sure that the footage is automatically de-squeezed,
because when you put this on,
you'll notice that like it's really wonky.
That's just the kind of aspect ratio that happens.
Within the app, it automatically de-squeezes it.
You can use it without our app.
You'll just have to de-squeeze it in post.
You have that telephoto lens. - Mm hmm.
That lens is great for taking shots
of like wildlife in the distance
because it's going to give you that optical zoom
without scrolling with your fingers.
Do you know what I mean? - Yeah.
That pinch zoom, never do that.
You're going to lose all the resolution.
Throw on the tele instead,
you'll get that much closer you're looking for.
The image is going to be super crisp.
But when you take that tele lens,
and put it on the tele lens on your phone,
you're going to get twice the amount of zoom.
Now, this works in some cases,
but you definitely need to have like a tripod
or a self-timer, a very steady hand,
'cause any kind of camera shake
at twice the optical zoom, like good luck.
- Hi, everyone. It's a new day. Jennimai here.
And today we are going to try out all
of the amazing advice that Cody gave me
using the three Moment lenses that I have for the iPhone 12.
I have the anamorphic blue lens,
the telephoto lens, and the fisheye lens.
And to do that, we're going to head out,
explore the great city of New York,
and I'm going to bring my boyfriend along with me
to do some fun things in front of the camera.
Putting my amateur skills to the test.
See you out there.
So to use any of the Moment lenses,
you have to have a Moment-compatible case,
and not only do you have to have the case,
but you have to have the little lens mount,
which is this black part right here.
It has a little raised flip, as you can see,
which is where the lens actually attaches.
This is the telephoto lens,
and I'm going to show you guys how it goes on.
The back of the lens just has like a little bit
of a raised edge that clicks into the case.
And all you have to really do is put it on
in the right spot and twist it.
Really not that complicated,
but you do have to put it on on the right spot.
And if you're not used to doing it, like I'm not,
it takes a couple tries, usually,
but once it's on there, it's really stable.
Whoo. Okay. So after running around New York city
for a whole day,
testing out these amazing lenses from Moment,
boy, do I have some thoughts.
So I'm going to do a power ranking
of my least to most favorite Moment lenses
and give you my honest experience using that.
First up, I'm going to go
with my least favorite of the three,
and that's going to have to go to the anamorphic lens.
The reason it's my least favorite is that
I had a really hard time getting it to do any
of those things.
When I shot with the anamorphic lens,
I did it on just my iPhone camera
and not through the Moment app,
hoping that I could mess with the aspect ratio
in editing like Cody mentioned.
But, while I tried to follow his advice,
the results still weren't perfect.
The footage still ended up
looking a little bit stretched out,
but if I were to try it again,
I would definitely shoot through the Moment app
and mess with that aspect ratio on the app settings
before shooting.
I'm going to need a lot more practice
before I can really say that I've mastered this guy.
My second most favorite lens has to go
to the telephoto lens. That's this guy,
and he's genuinely just a gigantic lens.
When I put it on my phone, onto the camera,
it looks huge, and it looks really cool to be honest.
And that's probably because it needs to be big
to do its job.
It zooms up super, super, super, super close.
And, at first, I wasn't really sure
if the difference was all that noticeable.
I was like, "oh, like, can't I just use my camera zoom?"
Is it really that much more?
Since it zooms in so close,
and I think this is something Cody said,
you cannot have a shaky hand.
And by which I mean, you can't really use it handheld.
I had to have a tripod to really have stable shots.
I took a lot of shots where I was trying to walk
or just hold it in my hand.
And I feel like I have pretty steady hands.
I don't think they're particularly shaky,
but because of how zoomed up this lens goes in,
every like small tremor
in your hands is really, really visible
in what you capture on a screen.
And that means my most favorite lens
of the three had to be the fisheye lens.
Here is that. It doesn't look super special
by any means when you look at it,
but as an amateur, as a beginner,
I love that the fisheye lens was really easy to figure out.
Like Cody said, it really does kind of give you
that Backstreet Boys, vlogging, fishbowl look.
And I thought that created some really cool images,
especially with buildings around New York.
It made things look more circular than they were.
It just kind of gave me a different viewpoint
than just pointing and shooting my regular camera.
Overall, did I turn
into an amazing, gorgeous, professional filmmaker
just by using these lenses?
No, definitely not.
But I definitely got more comfortable
with using my phone's camera
in ways I never would have and picked up some techniques
that I definitely didn't use before.
Whether it's with these fancy schmitzy lenses
or just my regular old iPhone camera,
I can't wait to keep practicing
out and about in New York.
Hey, I can only get better from here, right?
And if you want to see the final products
that came out of all this,
keep watching, because here it is.