The mCAM is the best video
accessory for iPhone ever

IF YOU HAVE an iPhone, preferably an iPhone 4S because it records full HD 1080 video, and you’re serious about shooting video with it, you just have to get the mCAM. It may cost you $170 but it will make the video shooting both more versatile and more rewarding, so it’s money well spent.

By (Mac talk with Magnus Nystedt)

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Published: Sat 3 Mar 2012, 10:23 PM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 1:56 AM

Basically the mCAM is a big, solid piece of aluminium, built so that you can get a solid grip of the iPhone while taking photographs or filming video. Your iPhone slides into the included soft rubber casing, and then you place it into the back of the mCAM. It takes quite a bit of force, but once it’s in there, it sits tightly in place.

Placing the iPhone in this piece of aluminium does mainly two things: it adds considerable weight to the iPhone, and it gives you better grip. Combined, these two things mean smoother and better quality video. You can hold the iPhone securely in a comfortable grip with both hands, which means you can move the iPhone around — pan in video lingo — and accomplish some really professionally-looking video.

The mCAM comes with a 37mm threaded lens mount and a combined macro and wide-angle lens. The macro means you can get much close to something and still the iPhone can focus on it, and wide-angle means you can capture more in one take. Any threaded lens with 37mm mount should work, and I plan to buy a telephoto lens in the near future, for example.

In the mCAM kit you also find a small external microphone, which connects to the iPhone’s 3.5 mm input. Using it means the audio quality on the video will improve dramatically. I should also mention that the mCAM has four tripod mounts, which I find great to use to get steady video, a hallmark of great looking movies.

What’s also great about the mCAM is how it in an instant makes the iPhone part of an ecosystem of different accessories. Obviously you can get different lenses, but there’s also a cold shoe, to which you can attach a video light, a microphone, etc.

It’s unusual for me to not have more things that I’m not happy with when I write about a product. But with the mCAM, the only thing I miss really is that there is no way to press the power/lock button when the iPhone is inserted. That means you have to rely to the iPhone to time out before it locks the display, which is a bit annoying. But overall, that’s a minor detail in an otherwise excellent product.

To take better photos and video with your iPhone, get the mCAM. It’ll be one of the best investments you’ve ever made. You may think $170 seems expensive for a piece of metal, but consider that it makes the iPhone as close to a professional level DSLR as you can get, at least if you already have an iPhone, you’ll see that it’s really quite a bargain.

Magnus Nystedt @mnystedt


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