When it comes to smartphone photography, the biggest brands in the industry gained their popularity for a reason. However, if you’re looking for something new to try, look no further than Shiftcam.
This relatively new company is making waves in the mobile photography and filmmaking fields. Their products are consistently ranked among the best in the industry time after time. Shiftcam hasn’t been around long, but they’re definitely here to stay.
Who is Shiftcam?
Shiftcam was founded in 2017 with the goal of creating the best tools for smartphone photographers and filmmakers alike. They wanted to make professional quality films and photos accessible for creators without the budget for professional equipment.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been creating content for years, Shiftcam has a tool to enhance your content and make your job easier.
They’re also big believers in customer satisfaction. Shiftcam offers a 12-month Warranty to cover all manufacturing defects and failures or breakages that render the product unusable. To make things even easier, warranty claims can be submitted directly from their website.
Shiftcam’s Best Products
Shiftcam’s products are frequently listed among the best brands in the field of mobile photography and filmmaking. Their products are hand assembled and high-quality, ensuring that your photos and films have the professional look you’re aiming for.
One of the best features of Shiftcam’s products is the price. Their lenses, cases, and grip are all reasonably priced to suit the mobile creator on a budget, without sacrificing quality.
Whether you’re shooting fashion, portraits, food, or just want better candid photos, Shiftcam has a product to help you achieve your goals. Though the brand mainly caters to iPhone creators, they also have plenty of products for owners of other devices.
Shiftcam ProLens Review
The ProLens by Shiftcam is a universally adaptable product, thanks to the unique universal mount. The ProLens can be attached to an iPhone, Samsung, OnePlus, or Pixel. It can also be used with iPads and laptops.
The ProLens has won many awards including the Reddot Design Award in 2018. For this award, Shiftcam competed with 6,300 other innovations from 59 different companies. The competition was judged by 39 professionals, who declared Shiftcam the best in the business. The ProLens also won the CES Innovation Award in both 2018 and 2020.
The ProLens comes with a microfiber lens bag and magnetic lens cap to ensure your new lens stays clean and safe from harm while traveling to your shoot location. You can stash your lenses in your gear bag without worrying about the normal bumps and jiggles of travel.
Shiftcam’s ProLens is available in a range of options including a 1.33x Anamorphic, 12mm Ultra-Wide Angle, 75mm Long Range Macro, 18mm Wide Angle, 230 Degree Fisheye, and 10x Macro.
These lenses are lightweight and easy to transport. Depending on which ProLens you choose, it will weigh between 33 and 80 grams. They’re made from high-quality aluminum and DSLR-grade glass. The lenses are also nano-coated to ensure a scratch-resistant surface.
These lenses are guaranteed to be distortion free with incredibly sharp details. They’re designed to enhance the features already contained in your phone such as optical stabilization and low light functionality.
Shiftcam does recommend using the ProLens lineup in combination with the mobile app Filmic Pro or the desktop software Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro for the best results.
The ProLens series ranges in price from $79.99 to 129.99, depending on which option you choose. The prices of Shiftcam lenses are most comparable with Sandmarc lenses, while Moment lenses are slightly more expensive and BeastGrip lenses are the most expensive.
Shiftcam MultiLens
If you’re a mobile creator that needs more than one lens at your fingertips, the Shiftcam MultiLens is for you. This versatile case is designed for use with iPhones only, so if you have an Android device, you’ll need to use a ProLens instead.
The MultiLens case protects your phone from damage due to dropping and gives you multiple lenses to choose from, without having to dig through your gear bag and attach them to your iPhone.
The MultiLens includes a Circular Polarizer Lens (CPL) the help eliminate reflections, reduce glare, and up the contrast on your ultrawide shots.
You also get a 4x telephoto lens with the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max cases. This powerful lens doubles the abilities of your existing 2x telephoto lens without sacrificing the quality of your photos.
The MultiLens also includes both 10x and 20x Macro Lenses. You’ll be able to get closer than ever before to capture crystal clear images of objects too small to shoot with a regular iPhone lens.
The final lens in the MultiLens case is a 180 Degree Fisheye Lens. This lens will let you express your creativity however you’d like from a fun and unique perspective.
As an added bonus, the MultiLens case features a ProLens adapter for your front facing camera. Your selfies will never look the same once you pair this case with the perfect ProLens.
The MultiLens case is also available in three color options: black, matte black, and transparent.
Shiftcam Progrip
The newest addition to Shiftcam’s incredible lineup is the Progrip. The Progrip is the grip of your dreams. Not only is it ergonomically designed with a non-slip and perfectly angled grip, but it also contains a built-in battery to keep your phone charged for the duration of your photoshoot.
The Progrip is designed to make your smartphone feel like a camera, closing the usually wide gap between traditional and mobile photography.
This grip also allows you to effortlessly switch between landscape and portrait orientation. Additionally, you can dock and charge your phone in either orientation so you can multitask and keep your phone charged while filming or reviewing your footage.
The Progrip also features a cold shoe mount adapter so that you can use any accessory you’d like such as lighting, a microphone, and more. It’s also capable of being mounted to a tripod to ensure your shots are as free from camera shake as possible.
The Progrip is available in three stylish color options: Charcoal, Ash, and Putty.
Mobile Photography on ShiftCam
ShiftCam is a proven winner and there’s no reason to expect them to stop winning any time soon. Mobile photography and filmmaking with ShiftCam is a breeze – the ecosystem is well thought out, cleverly designed, and produced with quality materials. While ShiftCam isn’t frequently mentioned in the same breath as Moment, Sandmarc, and BeastGrip they may be soon enough.
What’re your thoughts on ShiftCam gear? Have you tried the Pro Lenses, the Multi Lenses, or the ProGrip? Let us know about them in the comments.
60mm lens and wide lens are not suitable to use on iPhone 13 pro max. I check the different camera settings, different lens mounts- normal and tele, however camera does not want to adapt to lens attachments, unable to properly focus, jumps to other lens mount. It’s disappointing, considering very good and practical pro grip and perfect phone case with in-case lans mount.
Vladimir, great points but I have solutions for you. If you use a third-party camera app you can bypass Apple’s software forcing the camera to jump all over the place. You can also set and lock focus as you would on a traditional camera. I had similar issues when I first started using Moment lenses on my iPhone 11 Pro.
I recommend trying BeastCam or Moment Pro camera apps to solve these problems. I hope this helps!
I bought the 18mm lens w the universal mount for my Samsung. I don’t like the way the adapter screws on the glass of my phone and want to return it. Guess what? No return address on the website and putting in a ticket hasn’t worked. I feel they are using delaying tactics to get past the 30 day return window. Not happy w customer service.
Dana – oh no!! That’s not great to hear. I’ve also not had much luck communicating with ShiftCam. Perhaps I will adjust this review to reflect the fact that their customer service leaves something to be desired. I hope this gets sorted for you!
Hi Joe,
Thank you for the article. A big question I kept asking myself as I read through the product description was “who are the people behind Shiftcam?” Haven’t found where they are based, what materials they use and any data that would rank them against other known brands like Moment or Sirui. Any leads to where this solid information might be? It would be comforting to know where the support is before and if a problem arises.
Brent – super solid points. I’ve just perused their website again and can confirm that everything about the operation is shrouded in mystery. I’ve tried to contact the company numerous times about purchasing their entire catalog and have been given the run-around. I’m starting to get the vibe that I should be more wary of recommending ShiftCam products.
The system use thread mount is it?
Is the mount compatible with Moondog’s older thread mount anamorphic lens? Got one, but sadly they no longer sell the adapter for newer phone model and instead move to Moment’s bayonet mount.