Moment’s iPhone X cases turn it into an interchangeable lens camera

Even though smartphones have gotten good enough to compete with DSLR or mirrorless cameras in certain everyday scenarios, they still have one big disadvantage: fixed focal lengths. Despite smartphones now occasionally sporting two lenses, they don’t quite have the flexibility of a real interchangeable lens camera.

That’s where accessories like Moment’s smartphone lenses come in. The company today announced it’s bringing its add-on glass and cases (which serve as lens mounts) to the iPhone X.

Moment currently makes four compatible optics that cost $90 or $100: A wide angle, a 2x telephoto, a fish-eye, and a macro lens. These are attached to your shiny new iPhone X with either a regular rubberized case or a battery case, both of which support wrist straps.

I’ve been trying some of Moment’s lenses on the Pixel 2 for the last couple of weeks and so far, so good. Where many smartphone lenses can be too blurry to use regularly or introduce annoying aberrations, the wide-angle and fish-eye lenses I’ve tried are sharp enough to be comparable with the standard camera – except, of course, with a wider field of view.

That said, the iPhone X’s implementation isn’t quite as exciting as the Google Pixels, as the dual-camera system means you can’t use portrait mode with a lens attached. But if you don’t always need super-blurred backgrounds, Moment’s lenses could greatly increase the flexibility of the iPhone X’s camera while keeping it a bit safer from drops too.