PhotoJoJo

It’s basically a case, +20 diopter, a DOF adapter, and DSLR lens mount. With the different mounts you should be able to attach a wide array of Nikon and Canon lenses to capture various depth of field shots and use the optical zoom on your lens.

Sure the case and adapter combo is ridiculously sized – but what other device can take a photo, edit it on the fly, and share it on the internet? The purists can scoff all they want at this one. Score one for the iPhone hackers.

Now there are still going to be some draw backs:
1) In my experience, I’ve found that you’ll loose 1-2 F-stops when using the DOF adapter but this can be addressed by using a lense with a manual aperture ring.
2) DOF adapters use ground glass as a projection screen so you may experience grainy images due to the glass
3) Vignetting is a common problem when creating setup like this. I’m curious to see how they address this.
4) Because this setup uses a DOF adapter, you’ll find that the images take with it are flip-flopped. Using an app called AlmostDSLR may fix it but in my experience it was cumbersome to use.
5) The images will still have to go through the poor quality glass on the iPhone – so image quality will be hindered by the iPhone’s glass
6) The iPhone still has to procress the images and as of now, image processor is so small that it struggles to get high quality images out.

That’s my commentary for now!

iCanon - iPhone Canon

This rendition made by Aniebres combines an iPhone 4 with a Canon DSLR body to form the “iCannon 4″ This quite frankly is the most impressive looking hack that I’ve seem to date. The iPhone 4 snaps in with a click and it shifts the lens mount to line up with the iPhone camera lens.

By my analysis, this rig will still have the same problems that any device using a DOF adapter will face: vignetting, image distortion, image flipping etc. But overall, I’d say this is a great mod!

For those of you who have been keeping track of iPhone DSLR hacks and mods, I realize that this is hardly a new contraption. However, I thought I would give it a shout-out as it is impressive.

Cost: The cost to make my iPhoneDSLR lens kit is so high that it would be difficult to sell it at any reasonable price point. Right now I’m using an OWLE case, Encinema DOF adapter, Canon EF mount, and several intermediary optics to make it all work together. All-in-all the cost of this whole kit is over $300. If someone found cheaper alternatives to the parts I used it may be done at a more reasonable price, but I don’t feel like negotiating with manufacturers for a product that doesn’t seem to have that big of a market.

Flipped Image: The iPhoneDSLR uses a ground glass reflection screen which means that when you capture images through the device, it flips the image upside down. While there are several applications that effectively remedy this problem, I still have not found a cost effective way to correct it using intermediary lenses.

F-Stop: Because the lens mount uses a DOF adapter and several intermediary lenses, light passing through this setup is diminished significantly. It results in the loss of 2-3 F-stops. To remedy this issue you’ll have to use a lens with a manual aperture ring. I designed my lens kit to fit Canon EF mount lenses, and unfortunately, it appears that Canon only made lenses with manual aperture rings with FD mounts. In order for me to use an FD mount, I’d have to redesign the lens kit to fit an FD mount, or use an EF to FD mount conversion kit. And honestly, who has one of those?

Manual Focus: There’s no automatic focus ring so you’ll have to focus on everything manually. Its nice if you’re trying to do some artistic depth of field shots, but it’s more troublesome than it’s worth if you’re just taking normal shots.

Those are just some of the main issues I found with the iPhone DSLR lens mount. There are a plethora of other issues, but as you can see there are some serious problems that need to be dealt with in order to make this kit useful.

If you’ve got any insight on how to address some of these issues, let me know! I’m more than willing to explore some other solutions. Cheers!

1) Bought a condo in Burbank – we found a great deal on a condo in Burbank and with these incentives it was the perfect time to buy for us

2) Renovated the condo – we gutted the condo pretty much floor to ceiling and renovated just about every part of the space. (We’ve still got a few projects left to go)

3) I got married! – being married is great my beautiful bride and I had been together for 3 years and since we both finished college we decided it was time. I wish I had taken the plunge much sooner!

4) Went to Hawaii – our honeymoon was in Hawaii. It was gorgeous there and oh so relaxing.

5) Moved in – what a process this has been. Getting all of our stuff together and moving in to the place has been a real experience. But one thing’s for sure, every since day one of our marriage I’ve been on cloud nine. Those of you who have ever been newly weds know exactly what I mean…

So as you can see, I’ve been a little busy and, in all honestly, I’ve been putting this little project/hobby of mine on the back burner. And to tell you the truth, I kinda got bored tinkering with the the thing. I figured I got the “iPhoneDSLR” working and it’s got some pretty decent output. Tweeking and improving upon it was last on the list of things to do for me.

The sand is composed of volcanic stone and coral. Its the darkest I’ve ever seen! So I thought this could be an opportunity for an “iphoneograph” or an iPhone photograph

Here are some images taken with my iPhone!

Right now I’m looking at an iPhone telescope kit. It has 6x optical zoom but what interests me the most is the lens attachment. Could one hack the clear case and a lens attachment and rig a DSLR lens?

If I figure out a way to do it, I’ll let you know!