https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fjorden/fjorden-iphone-photography-reinvented
A surefire way to absolutely annoy a photography purist is to bring up the DSLR vs. Smartphone debate. If there’s a group of people who absolutely hate smartphone cameras, after celebrities, it’s probably photography enthusiasts. While celebrities hate the fact that they can now randomly be photographed by anyone, anywhere, shutterbugs have a different gripe with smartphones – that they’re just not as precise, powerful, and hands-on as DSLR cameras.
However, it’s safe to say that there’s a certain detachment from reality there, because today, smartphone cameras account for nearly 90% of all photographs ever taken. Even YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who shoots all his videos in 8K on ridiculously expensive RED cameras, alludes to the fact that “the best camera is the one you have on you”, and that’s almost always your smartphone camera. Your smartphone camera’s image processing engine is arguably powerful enough to click photos as well as a DSLR, and the only thing really missing is precision and that hands-on experience… that’s where the Fjorden comes in.
Designers: Frost Produkt & Victor Henning
Click Here to Buy Now: $149 $190 (18% off). Raised over $500,000.
The world’s first pocketable, professional iPhone camera grip adds professional-quality camera controls.
The Fjorden turns your iPhone into a hybrid DSLR. It physically snaps onto the back of your iPhone, giving you analog camera controls including a two-stage shutter button, a jog dial, a zoom slider, and even an extra multi-function button you can use to do stuff like trigger the flash.
The overall form is comfortably tactile and grippy (and comes with the same texture found on cameras), and orients the buttons in a way that’s intuitive and easy to use (so you don’t have to sprain your thumb to reach the shutter button while holding your phone with the same hand). Moreover, the actual physical buttons allow you to use the camera with gloves on, an understated-yet-impressive upgrade to the iPhone camera experience). Smartphones are sleek and portable, but try using the camera with one hand you risk serious nerve damage (or a broken phone). DSLRs, on the other hand, are ergonomically designed… but they don’t fit in your pocket, don’t have a selfie feature, and they don’t do 99% of the other things your smartphone can do. Fjorden finds the middle-ground between the two experiences, striving to create a no-compromise solution for both audiences. For the smartphone enthusiast, the Fjorden attachment is still portable and sleek (attached to the phone, it’s about as thick as an AirPods case, which means it’s still pocket-sized), and for the DSLR-junkie, it gives you the precise controls you need.
Aside from the tactile buttons, Fjorden’s own camera app is about as feature-laden as a DSLR’s interface, allowing you to manually control your settings, while still relying on the iPhone’s own features like Portrait Mode, HDR/Deep Fusion, and ProRAW. Moreover, the case is even designed to support Moment’s smartphone camera lenses, giving you about as much power, versatility, and control you could ask for… and some more.
The Fjorden device attaches to your phone either via a backplate that sticks to your phone, or its companion iPhone case using a quick-release clip. The clip-detail has a pivot-hinge that allows you to swivel the Fjorden 90°, letting you use it in both landscape and portrait mode, and the Fjorden even angles outwards, doubling as a kickstand for your phone.
The DSLR-controls are powered by a single CR2032 battery that lasts for 12 months, and while the controls work perfectly with Fjorden’s own camera app, they’re compatible with existing apps like Obscura and ProCamera (which notably has its own Night Mode – a feature missing from the Fjorden camera app for now), and the shutter button works with Apple’s native camera app.
The MagSafe-compatible case that comes as an optional add-on with your Fjorden allows you to easily pop the DSLR control panel out when you need to wirelessly charge your phone, and since the controls communicate with your iPhone via Bluetooth, they can be used remotely too (without being attached to your phone) for those perfect ‘Shot On iPhone’ moments. Each Fjorden device also comes with a 2-year warranty, which really hits the sweet spot because you can easily upgrade your iPhone to the newer model and still use the Fjorden with the new phone!
Click Here to Buy Now: $149 $190 (18% off). Raised over $500,000.