Moment's T-Series Lenses aim to balance professional quality and everyday convenience. Whether you're an aspiring photographer or a social media enthusiast, the T-Series lenses give a tangible approach to transforming your mobile photography or videography into something that takes full advantage of your devices’ full camera capabilities. But for most people, they're probably overkill.

Moment T-Series

7 / 10

Moment's T-Series lenses stand out as a collection of specialized tools for those deeply invested in mobile photography. They blend professional-grade quality with the convenience of smartphone use, significantly enhancing the photographic capabilities of your device.

They excel in delivering superior glass quality and offer diverse focal lengths, making them particularly valuable for retaining image quality. However, for the average smartphone user satisfied with their device's built-in camera, these lenses might be an extravagant addition. Overall, the T-Series is an impressive upgrade for photography enthusiasts and professionals, but may not be a necessary investment for casual photographers.

Focal Length

14, 18, 58, 10x Macro, 1.55 Anamorphic

Compatible Mountings

Moment T-Series Lens Mount

Brand

Moment

Pros

• Very easy to mount on and off
• Images look great
• Excellent build quality

Cons

• Expensive
• Dust accumulates really quickly near the cameras

See at Moment

What Are the Benefits of Mobile Lenses?

In a world where smartphone photography continues to push the boundaries in software and hardware, we have access to more robust mobile camera systems than ever before. Today, almost every phone has more than one camera—usually an additional telephoto or ultra-wide lens. So this begs the question—why would anyone need a dedicated lens for their smartphone?

When you see devices with two or three or even more focal lengths, it can be difficult to understand why anyone would consider getting additional hardware for their phone’s camera systems. However, there are certain benefits to getting a dedicated lens for your phone that might not be very obvious.

One of the most significant advantages of using mobile lenses is their ability to utilize your smartphone's main sensor, typically the largest and highest quality sensor on your device. By mounting different focal lengths, such as telephoto or macro lenses, directly onto this primary sensor, you can capture much higher-quality images and videos. This setup often surpasses the quality of your phone's built-in secondary sensors that might offer similar focal lengths but with inferior sensor quality.

Beyond just telephoto and ultra-wide options, mobile lenses also open up stylistic choices for your photography. For instance, the 14mm Fisheye lens can introduce a whimsical, distinctive aesthetic that is hard to replicate through software alone.

These lenses allow photographers to experiment with unique visual looks and perspectives that can create a distinctive identity and character for your final product.

For most people, the quality and imagery of modern-day smartphones are more than sufficient for capturing photos for social media or other mediums. But these lenses shine when you want to be intentional with how you capture photos. For photographers who want to take their work more seriously without spending money on a dedicated camera, a mobile lens can be an excellent first step.

The Moment Lens Mounting System: A Mixed Bag

When it comes to using the T-Series lenses, you first need to buy one of Moment’s cases with their pop-in lens mount adapter or buy their universal lens mount to get started. For the most part, this system works wonderfully, but there are certain limitations when factoring in convenience.

The mounting system is easy to use, with a highly convenient twist-on and twist-off mechanism, allowing quick lens changes. This ease of use allows you to stay within your setting without fiddling too much with the camera itself, especially when you’re in the middle of a shoot and need to switch lenses swiftly.

However, the case itself leaves room for improvement. One of the main issues is that the cameras tend to accumulate dust more easily than expected. This is because, mounting the lenses, the cameras have elevated ridges, and catch on more dust than you would with a normal case. This necessitates frequent cleaning, which involves removing the case to wipe down the cameras properly. This was a bit of a hassle, especially if you leave the case on while putting it in your pocket, as lint will quickly accumulate.

Additionally, for users of the iPhone 15 Pro series, there’s another issue to consider. The Action Button cutout on the case is quite recessed, making it difficult to press. If you frequently use the Action Button, that'll get annoying.

And of course, we have to talk about cost. These cases start at $50, and if you frequently switch your phone year-to-year, you will need to keep buying new cases to ensure you can still use your lenses with your new phone. Moment offers a universal lens mount that alleviates many of these issues, but that takes away from the convenience of having the mounts already there in your case.

Overall, I think that this mounting system serves its purpose well with these inevitable limitations. However, this is certainly not a case that balances its utility with its aesthetics to the best of its ability.

Cinema Quality Glass on Your Phone

During our testing, we tried out three of the six currently offered by Moment, featuring some of the most common focal lengths: a 58mm Telephoto, an 18mm Wide, and a 14mm Fisheye lens. In terms of build quality, these lenses feel quite premium, with an all-metal casing and noticeable heft.

Compared to the previous M-Series lenses, the T-Series are 20% larger and have 25% more glass, and Moment says that this is to allow these lenses to support the larger sensors of modern smartphones and increase compatibility for phones well into the future.

Having used these lenses in various settings, the quality of the images captured has made them feel like an extension of the already capable camera system of flagships. I used the iPhone 15 Pro alongside these three lenses, each capturing some incredible-looking photos.

58mm Telephoto

Starting with the 58mm, the telephoto focal length was my favorite and most used alongside the iPhone 15 Pro, and that is because it allowed for a 2x optical zoom without cropping into the sensor. For all the photos I captured, I had Apple’s ProRAW Max enabled, and that allowed me to use the full 48MP sensor to capture photos at 48MP without resorting to using the phone’s native 2x zoom, which would reduce the quality to 12MP.

The lens did an excellent job at creating the compression you’d expect from a telephoto focal length, but more interestingly, because it was using the entire 48MP sensor, the bokeh achieved with the 58mm was very nice for portraits.

18mm Wide

The 18mm Wide was the next lens that I used most frequently, and with this focal length, you’re going to see the biggest uptick in image quality. The 18mm allows you to get the ultra-wide focal length in full resolution with your main sensor and without lens distortion. In usage, the 18mm allows you to easily capture expansive landscapes and architecture; more noticeably, the absence of lens distortion ensures that your photos maintain a natural and realistic perspective.

I believe for video, the 18mm works great for creating very stable shots without relying too heavily on image stabilization through the phone, giving videos a more natural feel.

14mm Fisheye

Finally, the 14mm Fisheye lens gives the most unique-looking shots with its accentuated distortion. While I didn’t find much utility in using this lens, artistically, if you want to get this look out of your smartphone, you can only achieve this degree of quality by using an optical solution like this lens, compared to an app or other software that can only mimic it digitally.

Should You Buy Moment’s T-Series Lenses?

For those who are passionate about mobile photography and seek greater control over their images without compromising on quality, these lenses are an excellent addition. I think, compared to the cheaper clip-on options you’d typically see on Amazon, these have glass and build quality that are simply unmatched. They also provide a significant advantage in terms of versatility and image quality, particularly for tasks that demand precise focal lengths and superior sensor utilization, such as portrait photography or capturing expansive landscapes.

However, outside the realm of serious photography enthusiasts or professionals, the necessity of these lenses becomes less clear. For the average everyday photographer, who relies on the convenience and competence of the built-in camera systems of modern smartphones, the Moment T-Series lenses may not present a justifiable investment.

While the Moment T-Series lenses are undeniably a valuable asset for enhancing the photographic capabilities of a smartphone, their recommendation is largely confined to a specific user group. These lenses are an excellent addition for those dedicated to mobile photography as a serious hobby or professional endeavor. But for the casual photographer who's content with their phone’s built-in camera already, they're entirely uneccessary.

Moment T-Series

7 / 10

Moment's T-Series lenses stand out as a collection of specialized tools for those deeply invested in mobile photography. They blend professional-grade quality with the convenience of smartphone use, significantly enhancing the photographic capabilities of your device.

They excel in delivering superior glass quality and offer diverse focal lengths, making them particularly valuable for retaining image quality. However, for the average smartphone user satisfied with their device's built-in camera, these lenses might be an extravagant addition. Overall, the T-Series is an impressive upgrade for photography enthusiasts and professionals, but may not be a necessary investment for casual photographers.

See at Moment