Adding a Sandmarc or Moment Wide Lens may sound unnecessary as a mobile content creator, but the benefits of one of these bad boys is that ultra-wide look without a triple-camera smartphone.
So, check out this Sandmarc Wide Lens vs Moment Wide Lens Shootout either via the video or this written post to help in your iPhone lens decision.
Sandmarc vs Moment – Smartphone Wide Lenses
Adding either the Moment 18mm Wide Angle Lens or the Sandmarc 16mm Wide Angle Lens will give you additional focal lengths to work with when shooting both photos and videos. Focal length, or adjusted/estimated focal length for smartphone camera lenses, has to do with the amount of the scene that you’re capturing.
Learn more about wide lenses for your smartphone.
A wide lens such as these is going to capture between 50-60% more scene than the wide lens native to your phone’s camera. It’s worth noting that smartphone focal lengths aren’t adjustable like on a traditional camera.
Wide lenses are, unsurprisingly, great for smartphone landscape photography because they’re able to capture a more complete scene.
Moment 18mm Wide Lens
So, the Moment Wide Lens is going to be more expensive than the Sandmarc offering. At the same time, if you know anything about Moment the company then this isn’t a shock. They spend a lot of money on product support and customer service after all, and their budget is effected accordingly.
Learn more about Moment the company to feel more comfortable with your purchase.
At the same time, does a Moment lens cost anything near a traditional zoom lens? Absolutely not. So, while the costs are high compared to their direct competition, they aren’t high compared to their traditional competition, savvy? You will need to purchase an M-Series Case in order to use your lens. They’re available for the latest Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, and Pixel devices.
Included with the Moment Wide Lens
- 18mm wide lens
- Lens cap
- Microfiber carrying bag
Sandmarc 16mm Wide Lens
Now, as plainly as possible, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good of the Sandmarc Wide Lens is clear –
- Cost effective
- Wider
- Multiple mounting options
But when a company sends me five of the wrong, old phone case, the good of a product is quickly overshadowed by the bad. Unfortunately for Sandmarc, this is where I am after three rounds of testing their gear.
Sandmarc isn’t quite as big a deal as Moment. As such, you may want to learn more about them. The Sandmarc Lens Review will tell you everything you need to know!
If the mounting system for the lens that you’re using is poor, then the experience with the lens – no matter how impressive it is – will probably be poor. I’ll tell you, my experience with this mounting system has been so bad that even in the instances where the Sandmarc lens outperforms Moment, I still lean towards the Moment offering.
Since writing this post I’ve gotten my hands on the Sandmarc Pro Case. Does upgrading to the Sandmarc Pro Case change the user-experience of the lenses?
Included with the Sandmarc Wide Lens
- 16mm lens
- Rear lens cap
- Front lens cap
- iPhone case of your choice (kind of)
- Carrying bag
- Cleaning cloth
- Clip-on option
