One of the big appeals of GoPros has always been the versatility of their mounting options, but some new iPhone MagSafe accessories have landed to bring some of that flexibility to your iOS smartphone.
The accessory maker Moment made some of the first MagSafe tripod mounts for the iPhone 12, back at the dawn of Apple’s magnetic system. But now the company has made its most powerful add-ons yet, which include extra-strong magnets to keep your iPhone secure.
Like GoPro’s Mod accessories, in particular its Media Mod, the Moment Mobile Filmmaker Cage ($99, or around £75 / AU$135) is designed to help you add various accessories – including microphones and lights – to your iPhone, while bringing extra stability to complement Apple’s already impressive image stabilization.
It’s the first video cage with MagSafe compatibility (which is built into the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series) and comes with a proprietary magnet array called (M)Force that’s apparently significantly stronger than the standard MagSafe connection.
Alongside two cold-shoe mounts for your mics or lights, the Cage is studded with 1/4-inch mounts (28 of them in total), so you can mount it on mini tripods in various ways. There are also four 3/8-inch threads that are compatible with accessories like Arca Swiss tripod plates.
With the ability to stand flat on a surface without a tripod and built-in cable management, it looks like the ideal MagSafe accessory for vloggers and YouTubers – particularly if you already have some of Moment’s lenses and filters, and don’t have the budget for a dedicated setup from the likes of GoPro or Sony.
Joining the Filmmaker Cage are a couple of other new MagSafe mounts – the Strap Anywhere Mount ($39, around £30 / AU$55) and Stick-on Adapter ($9.99, around £8 / AU$13). The latter is a 3M sticker accessory that makes any iPhone compatible with Moment’s (M)Force mounts, even if you don’t get wireless MagSafe charging.
And the Strap Anywhere is much like GoPro’s Tube Mount, letting you add a magnetic phone mount to fitness equipment like Peloton bikes, ellipticals or pretty much any tube-shaped surface. It looks particularly handy for more casual filmmaking or an easy way to FaceTime while you’re mid-workout.
Analysis: The mobile filmmaking wars heat up
The latest iPhones are already powerful filmmaking tools, but MagSafe accessories like these from Moment are improving their versatility – even pushing them towards being a rival to GoPro, albeit with slightly more fragility.
The Filmmaker Cage in particular looks like a particularly useful accessory for capturing B-roll footage, or turning your iPhone into a main camera for vlogging or YouTubing. The MagSafe component is more about usability and convenience than improving your videos, but if it makes you take shoot more movies that that’s a good thing. If you don’t trust the magnets, it’s also compatible with traditional phone clamps thanks to its 1/4-inch threads.
Moment’s other MagSafe mounts also make it easier to attach your iPhone to objects for more interesting compositions and angles that you’d otherwise get from nervously holding a slippery rectangle.
So while iPhones have arguably slipped behind rivals like the Sony Xperia 1 III when it comes to pro-friendly filmmaking features, accessories like these do boost its appeal for videographers, particularly when you combine them with some of Moment’s lenses.
With the iPhone 14 now strongly rumored to be arriving with a 48MP for 8K video later this year, it seems the smartphone battle against the best vlogging cameras from the likes of GoPro, DJI and Sony is going to heat up later this year.
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