Moment Tele 58mm Lens Review: Enhancing Smartphone Photography

The enhancement of smartphone photography has taken a giant leap as many companies are creating these phones with more than one lens. This allows users to take impeccable photos without the need of having some sort of professional camera.

But another alternative to enhancing your photography is external lenses for smartphones. Over the past years, these lenses have been selling but there has never been the smartphone lens that is worth the purchase. Most are usually overpriced or lack in image quality. Until Moment decided to create their variety of lenses that serve Apple, Samsung, and Google phones.

Moment does have a collection of lenses, like the macro, super fisheyes, wide angle, and anamorphic. But late last year, the Moment Tele 58mm lens was announced which is an improvement from the 60mm Tele lens that was released in 2014.

Design and Quality

When you take a look at the 58mm lens, you will notice that it is physically larger than the 60mm lens. This is due to match the larger sensors of today’s smartphones that produces much sharper images.

Even though the Moment Tele 58mm lens captures incredible photos, there is some distortion which is common with a conversion lens. This is evident when focusing on a close subject and the depth of field is extremely shallow. You will notice that the areas just outside the focal points are a bit smeary. The effect can be fixed depending on your aperture or the distance between you and the subject.

In regards to the bokeh, there is no issues and is impressive.

Imagery and Types of Photography

The Moment Tele 58mm lens works best for two types of photography: portrait and landscape. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect when shooting for these types of images.

Portrait

Many smartphones have their own Portrait mode that allows you to shoot professional-like portraits. With the Moment 58mm telephoto lens, it will zoom you into the subject two times closer and give you more bokeh without having to go through post-production. Even with the main camera your phone has, the sensor is smaller. This makes your photos lack quality in low-light environments and produce less bokeh in the background. Putting the telephoto lens creates a higher-quality portrait than what your camera does on its own with its built-in telephoto lens.

Most phones have the Portrait mode which functions through the dual-camera. This second lens allows phones to measure the depths and blur the background. But when it comes to dual-camera smartphones, the Moment lens will block the second lens.

Landscapes

Many landscapes photos are shot with a telephoto lens. Sometimes focusing on a certain surrounding is more important than shooting the entire scenery. And because of that, a telephoto lens is the perfect tool to do so, especially the 58mm lens.

Unlike portraiture, where you focus on one subject most of the time, landscape photography needs to be focused and sharp throughout the entire frame. Moment’s 58mm lens does just that were it remains sharp with little softness around the corners and no distortion like the 60mm lens.

How Does the Moment Tele 58mm Compare?

Conclusion

Buying an external lens for your smartphone can be tricky because nowadays, it is not necessarily essential. There are many factors that can determine the purpose of your purchase. For those not looking to buy a mirrorless camera, DSLR, or a point-and-shoot, but also want better quality and extend your phone’s features, then an external lens can be useful.

The Moment Tele 58mm lens only works on three smartphone devices – iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy. Aside from that, it works great when it comes to portraits and landscapes so it is perfect for adventurers or anyone into fashion. If you are looking for something to capture action or sports, the 58mm lens does not zoom enough. It also does not capture moving objects well.