Connect with us

Accessories

Do You Want To Mount the iPhone on a DSLR?

Published

on

I am not exactly sure why anyone would want to mount their iPhone to their DSLR, but there has to be a reason. Right?

Steve Sande over at TUAW shares the Flash-dock, a new iPhone and DSLR accessory that attaches to the hot-shoe mount on the top of most DLSR cameras and explains why the developer of the Flash-dock thinks you need this iPhone accessory.

The how to is the easy part to understand, it’s the why that intrigues me.

The maker of the Flash-dock tells us that their product can help you do two things your DSLR can’t do, Geo-Tag and share pictures. Let’s take a look at these DSLR shortcomings and how this product can be used to get you out of these situations.

Sharing Pictures

The method to sharing pictures that they are suggesting is to use an Eye-Fi to send the photos from your DLSR to your iPhone via Wi-Fi. After this, which could be done with your iPhone in your pocket, the iPhone uses your precious data limit to send large DSLR sized photos to the online photo storage service of your choice. That’s a lot of pain if you ask me. Why not wait just a wait and upload them at home or when you get to a Wi-Fi signal? Unless you are live streaming something important, I can’t see the urgency.

Geo-Tag Photos

I am going to leave this one alone. I know this is important to some, but again, you don’t need this product to provide a Bluetooth connection, as suggested on their website, between your DSLR and iPhone.

Level

Now here is a legitimate reason to buy this hotshoe iPhone mount. Use your iPhone, along with this app, to provide a level for your DSLR. There are other solutions that this product can help with too!

I might sound as if I am not giving the product a fair shake. It might appear that way, but I am sure there is someone out there that can find a good reason to use this hotshoe mount and sharing provides that person the info they need to make an informed buying decision.

I am thinking about grabbing one myself so I can watch my AAPL stock continue to grow while I am shooting a sexy swimsuit model set.

Steve said it best though:

Like some of the other dubious products we see from time to time here at TUAW, the Flash-Dock appears to be a solution in search of a problem.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Ritch Simpkin

    04/26/2012 at 6:24 am

    just wanted to say everywhere i read this seems to diss this as useless but last night i saved myself some money and hassle using my HTC one X duct taped to a flash bracket for video in a night club and was more pleased with the end result than with some video lights i’ve tried in the past. I think this solution may have found its problem 

  2. Andrew Whyte (@longexposures)

    10/06/2012 at 6:20 am

    Video/ fill light is one application but the main appeal for me (shooting long exposures & light painting images) would be to record BTS/ making-of videos, rather than needing to carry a second tripod.

  3. Apolinar Fonseca

    10/10/2012 at 2:03 pm

    I am a newspaper photographer and for some stories we are asked to shoot a short video from an iPhone besides shooting stills. For a quick and dirty video I can see mounting the iPhone onto a DSLR when you can’t switch between still and video modes on your camera constantly or have time to properly shoot video separately.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.