Beastgrip is Ready for your Smartphone

When it comes to holding a smartphone for that picture perfect moment, we do so without much thought of the device as it was never meant to be held in the manner that is suited for photography. Years ago, during the time of the iPhone 4, there was a rig for it called the OWLE Bubo. It was a great way to hold your iPhone steady and that seemed like a great accessory. But it never made it past the iOS world thanks largely to its inflated pricing.

The Bubo for the iPhone

Then came the mCAM rigs by Action Life Media, who reproduced the same concept of a rig but with room to accommodate a one Android device—namely the Galaxy S3.

The mCAM for Galaxy S3

This meant you could not use the mCAM for any other Android devices except for Samsung. Bummer. But some cool folks who decided to take the Kickstarter route are now ready to serve a global market with the Beastgrip, a one size fits all smartphone rig that will be buddies with almost any iPhone or Android device of your choosing.

Beastgrip

Alright, it might not look like much but what it does is pretty awesome for mobile photographers who want to add on external lenses to further enhance the picture capture capability of their mobile devices.

Features

• universal and adjustable, works with most phones
• provides with comfortable grip for more stable hand held shots
• simple and convenient in use, works with or without protective phone case
• fast and easy setup, mount and remove your phone in a matter of seconds
• allows to attach any conversion lenses and filters commonly used with camcorders and dslr cameras
• can be used as a surface mount  in both vertical and horizontal positions
• standard cold shoe mount for mounting additional accessories such as LED light, microphone, and etc…
• five standard ¼”-20 threaded mounts allows to attach it to supportive photo/ video gear such as tripod, stabilizer, slider, and etc…
• easy access to a phone buttons and ports with most phone models

Mounts and Lenses

What I like most about this grip or rig is that you can add conversion lenses and lens mounts to suit your needs. For example, 35mm full frame lenses have a much larger image circle than the one on the mobile device camera so when you mount these SLR lenses onto the Beastgrip rig, you are essentially getting the best image circle possible around the center of the frame.

The DOF adaptor is an important element to this and though it might fuzz up the sharpness of the image, it will nevertheless give you a more film look. You could of course use the 37mm conversion lenses often found for video cameras and get possibly avail yourself to better imagery but that is subjective of course. Not all glass lenses will give you the optimum quality as the coating of the glass is what will eventually determine the contrast quality.

Bokeh quality will also depend on the quality of the glass used, so you may need to experiment on what works best for you.

The whole deal will set you back US$75 bucks. Which is far lower than the other rigs I mentioned earlier. Thanks to its modular design, you don't have to worry about the size of your smartphone though I would caution that it won't fit those new fangled 6 inch devices or tablets for that matter.

Right now it is only available on preorder as they are still fulfilling their Kickstarter project backers.