Better Get a Better Lens
The iPhone has a fixed-aperture 4mm lens. The 5C has an aperture of f/2.4, and the lenses in the 5S, 6 and 6 Plus have apertures of f/2.4. Accounting for the small size of the iPhone’s sensor, this works out as equivalent of a 30 or 35mm lens on a "full-frame" SLR camera.35mm is a great focal length. Traditionally, it’s the focal length used by photojournalists and documentary photographers as a "wide normal" lens. It gives a semi-wide field of view that’s perfect for capturing street and real-life scenes. This is one of the reasons it is the focal length your iPhone’s camera emulates.
35mm isn’t perfect however. If you want to take portraits or have something fill the frame, you need to get close to your subject. For some things this is fine, but there is a reason sports and nature photographers use 400mm lenses: sometimes it’s just not possible. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 35mm is at the very edge of what can be considered wide-angle. If you want to capture the full breadth of a scene you normally need something with a focal length shorter than 24mm.
A number of companies have started producing lenses that mount over the iPhone’s built-in lens . These add-on lenses give you a lot more flexibility with the kind of compositions you can make. They are great for both photographers and videographers.
Both olloclip’s and Photojojo’s lenses are high quality. I prefer olloclip’s mounting system but the Photojojo lenses are slightly cheaper for a full set. Photojojo's super-fisheye is a personal favourite. With either set, you’ll get the most use from the wide-angle and the 2x telephoto: they have equivalent focal lengths of roughly 24mm and 70mm, respectively. Along with your iPhone’s standard 35mm equivalent lens, with these two add-ons you'll be able cover a broad range of photographic situations by changing focal lengths.
A Little Support: Tripods and Mounts
You can take great photos by hand holding your iPhone, especially when you use an app like Manual to control your shutter speed. Taking great video without support is much harder. If you’re serious about getting good footage with your iPhone you'll need a tripod.One of my favourites is Joby’s GripTight GorillaPod Video. One of the reasons the iPhone is a great camera is because it’s easy to carry everywhere. If you are bringing a big tripod you might as well bring your DSLR, right? A GorillaPod is really light and portable. The flexible legs mean you can attach it to something and get a far more stable camera platform than you’d expect from a small tripod.
If you do want to mount your camera to a regular tripod, there are countless adaptors available. I like the Glif by Studio Neat. It’s simple, well made and attaches to a keychain. It’s easy to keep in your photo bag so when you’re on shoots and you want to use your iPhone to capture video, or a time-lapse, you can easily mount it to your tripod.
More Stable Motion
Shooting static video with an iPhone is easy if you use a tripod, but sometimes you need to do motion shots. The Steadicam has been the standard in Hollywood since it was invented in 1975. In 2012, they brought out the Steadicam Smoothee designed for portable cameras like the iPhone and GoPro. With the Steadicam Smoothee you can shoot video with dynamic camera movement without having to worry about camera shake. If you want to get smooth motion shots without resorting to huge rigs, a stabiliser is the only way to do it. At the moment it only works with the iPhone 5C and 5S but a 6 and 6 Plus version is in development.For hand-held recording, the GorillaPod again comes in handy. The flexible tripod makes a very convenient grip. For increased stability try this: point the legs into your chest, hold the phone with both hands, and push the top of the phone up into your chin. You won't be able to see the screen, but with four points of contact you'll get much more stable shot. This is a great trick for walking shots.
Magic Microphones
The biggest barrier to making high quality movies with your iPhone is not the quality of the video footage but the quality of the sound. The iPhone’s built-in microphone is fine for phone calls but it just can’t capture high quality audio, especially if there is any ambient noise. Fortunately, the iPhone has great support for external microphones. Any that output sound through a standard 3.5mm jack should work.
Conclusion
You can get some amazing shots with your iPhone if you use it properly, however there will always be things it cannot do unaided. In this tutorial I’ve taken you through some of the hardware add-ons available for the iPhone that make it possible to do things you otherwise couldn’t. In particular, the external lenses from olloclip and Photojojo really expand the type of images and video footage you can capture.If you think I’ve missed any important iPhone hardware add-ons please let me know in the comments.
