I’ve been wearing transition eyeglasses for several years now. It’s become handy as I don’t need to bring sunglasses or have graded ones made to replace my eyeglasses when the sun is too high. However there are also some inconveniences to it as it sometimes takes long for it to turn back to “light” once I get out of the sun. I sometimes wish there was a way to control how much light gets in or out.
Designer: Lombell
Lombell has created sunglasses that utilize what photographers have been using for some time now: neutral density (ND) filters. Professional cameras are able to adjust the opacity of their lenses through these filters. So why not apply this technology to sunglasses? The titanium-frame sunglasses use ND filters to increase or decrease the amount of light that can pass through your eyewear, giving you more control over it.
The ND filter that they used has 9-stop variables and lets users adjust accordingly through the graded markings on the lens, making your sunglasses darker or brighter. It is also able to block more than 99% of UVA and UVB light no matter what level you’ve put the filters on. If you’re also like me that always need prescription lenses, you can replace the back piece of glass with one.
The ND filter sunglasses can also be a fashion statement as you exude a retro feel with them, especially for those who actually don’t know what camera filters are. It can actually even be cool when you’re adjusting the filter, like you’re a robot or android. And it’s also pretty cheap at just $89.99 for the regular lenses or $99.99 for prescription lenses.
Smartphone cameras have come a long way and have become quite capable tools in preserving memorable moments for posterity. There is, however, still a very good reason why they haven’t completely overthrown pro cameras. You can only squeeze so much hardware into a slim smartphone, and you can’t really have large lenses or even a lens mount bulging out from the back of the phone. There are admittedly a few accessories that try to bring some of that interchangeable lens experience but usually limit themselves to small lenses made just for smartphones. Bringing a true “pro camera” experience to mobile requires taking a few cues from pro cameras themselves, and that is exactly what the SwitchLens does to level up your mobile photography game.
SwitchLens is a complete pro camera system that not only takes the lessons learned from digital cameras but even the technologies employed there. In particular, it embraces the popular micro four thirds or MFT system that leverages large sensors and interchangeable lenses to create highly detailed and breathtaking shots. The large 20.75MP 1.33-inch CMOS sensor that SwitchLens uses is unmatched by even flagship phones, which means it can take in more light and record more details just with the hardware alone, no post-processing or AI touch-up required.
And just like the MFT used in compact digital cameras, you can also swap out lenses to get the best shot out of a scene, whether that’s a 25mm f1.8 portrait lens for closeups or a 12mm f2.8 wide-angle lens for sweeping panoramic shots. What makes the SwitchLens system even more impressive is that it can actually support MFT lenses from Panasonic or Olympus that you might have lying around. You are no longer limited to what the manufacturer provides, and you are definitely not limited to tiny lenses that compromise on performance in return for their pretty sizes.
Unlike other such accessories, SwitchLens is a powerful device that can function even when detached from the back of your phone. Using a stable and fast Wi-Fi connection, you can control SwitchLens remotely for more difficult shots, or magnetically stick it to the back of your iPhone or Android phone to recreate the experience of using a digital camera but with a much larger and clearer viewfinder. From selfies at extremely low angles to macro photography, SwitchLens gives you the flexibility to take a shot in the most comfortable and most convenient way.
The pro camera experience doesn’t end there. SwitchLens’s Peaking Focus assistance feature easily marks out which objects are in focus with vibrant, eye-catching colors to ensure sharp and in-focus images every time. With support for microSD cards up to 1.5TB in capacity, you have nearly limitless room for taking thousands of RAW photos and recording 4K 30fps videos without filling up your phone storage. With the SwitchLens MFT modular camera system, your phone is no longer a stumbling block for a pro photography experience and becomes the launch pad for taking stunning photos and videos like a pro.
Mixed reality platforms try to seamlessly blend physical and digital objects, but our current technologies have their limits. You can, for example, view a regular photo or video in this virtual world, but it’d be like seeing a TV float in front of you. Such content doesn’t fully convey the power and the possibilities offered by these technologies, for which you’ll require specialized tools that are often well beyond the reach of even the majority of professional content creators. Fortunately, the industry landscape is changing, and more accessible tools are becoming available, like this pair of Canon lenses recording at creating stereoscopic 3D photos and videos that don’t require you to buy a new camera, provided you already have a compatible Canon model.
Designer: Canon
To create a stereoscopic 3D video effect that doesn’t look fake, you’ll naturally need either multiple cameras working in sync or one that records in 3D from the get-go. Since there isn’t a huge demand for the latter, 3D or spatial cameras are rare and expensive. More importantly, they require you to set aside your existing cameras and settle for something unfamiliar and potentially less capable than your pro DSLR or mirrorless camera.
Canon’s solution is to actually equip its interchangeable lens cameras with optics designed to take photos or record videos directly in stereoscopic 3D or spatial video. This does mean using two lenses, which is what the upcoming RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens will bring to the table. Details are still slim on this particular lens, other than it’s designed with the Apple Vision Pro in mind, particularly its new Immersive Video capability. Best of all, this lens is compatible with existing cameras, though only the Canon EOS R7 has been named so far.
The RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens is, of course, also compatible with Canon’s own EOS VR system, as is a slightly odder RF-S3.9mm F3.5 STM DUAL FISHEYE lens, also for the Canon EOS R7. As the name implies, the lenses for this module are farther apart, allowing for a wider field of vision and a deeper 3D effect. It does make your camera look weird and could potentially block easy access to the grip or buttons on the front of the camera.
At $1,099, the RF-S3.9mm F3.5 STM DUAL FISHEYE isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s also within reach of pro content creators. More importantly, they won’t need to buy another camera and can stick to the powerful Canon EOS R7, presuming they already own this model. The price for the RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL for the Apple Vision Pro will most likely be revealed closer to its launch this Fall.
It might sound like an oxymoron, but your run-of-the-mill sunglasses don’t actually use glass. To comply with certain legal regulations, “shades,” as we sometimes call them, have to use plastic or resin materials that are more resilient but have poorer optical quality. That’s true even for those expensive sunglasses, which will probably make you feel a bit cheated, especially when you notice how unclear your vision behind these plastics really is. Thankfully, the optics industry has reached a point where we can have the best of both worlds of durability and optical clarity, creating the industry’s first modern sunglasses made from actual glass, designed to deliver clarity, comfort, and protection to your eyes with an accessible price point.
Designer: Ilija Melentijevic, PhD (founder of Kolari Vision)
These ‘plastic’ and ‘resin’ lenses come with a lot of responsibilities, given the fact that they’re tasked with protecting your eyesight. When you wear tinted sunglasses outdoors, your pupils dilate to let more light in – which effectively also exposes your eyes to more harmful rays… and while most lenses will block out UV rays, current sunglasses (even the expensive ones) aren’t designed to block infrared light from hitting your retina. It’s ironic that you can find IR-blocking lenses for your expensive cameras… but not for the most priceless camera we have: our eyes.
Enter Kolari Shades, a pair of sunglasses that is shaking up the market by bringing the highest-quality materials to a product you can actually afford. Harnessing more than a decade of experience in the photography space, Kolari brings a new kind of lens that is actually made of glass, providing the optical clarity that your eyes need all the time, whether you’re wearing sunglasses or not. But it’s not just plain glass, either, but the same ultra-strong Corning Gorilla Glass that has been protecting smartphone displays for years. And with 51 layers of anti-reflective and anti-smudge coating, your new premium specs are protected against scratches, dirt, dust, and more. Plus, it’s easy to clean the smudges off, too!
Kolari Shades are truly color-neutral and protect your eyes from all damaging wavelengths of light.
But while Kolari Shades’ glass lenses provide extra-clear vision, it doesn’t forget the protection that sunglasses are expected to bring. In fact, it levels up this aspect by blocking not only high-energy UV light but also low-energy infrared, both of which can be harmful to your sensitive eyes. It can even protect your privacy by blocking security cameras that use IR for face recognition. And it brings this superior protection without turning your world into a dreary shade of gray or brown. By using color-neutral coatings, you can stop worrying about those harmful and blinding rays and continue enjoying the world in full color.
Corning Gorilla Glass and titanium frames make the Kolari Shades extra tough.
The best part about the Kolari Shades is their affordable price tag, even though Kolari Shades are more costly to manufacture because of the premium materials used in the frames and lenses. It’s significantly less than luxury sunglasses that use plastic lenses, offer poorer optical quality, and strain your eyes in the long run. Why settle for plastic products that harm rather than protect your eyes when you can enjoy the optical quality that real glass lenses have to offer? With the Kolari Shades, you can enjoy durability, clarity, and protection in stylish sunglasses that don’t change the colors of your world.
Smartphones are wonderful tools that enable a great deal of functionality, from productivity to gaming to creativity. Their cameras, in particular, are powerful enough to threaten even point-and-click and entry-level cameras, but there are still some things that aren’t possible to achieve because of limitations in size and price. DSLRs, for example, have a wider variety of applications because they can swap out lenses depending on the need. That’s impossible with smartphone cameras, but a compromise has been developed that lets you augment or change the way those cameras work by attaching a separate lens, like this new accessory from Moment that enables a powerful macro shot that’s not normally available on the iPhone.
Some Android phones advertise having a macro camera, but those really don’t do justice to what macro lenses are truly capable of. Not only are the magnification levels low, the imaging sensors are also so substandard that it might be better to have no macro camera at all. The only way you’ll be able to pull off a pleasant or dramatic close-up shot is to pair an appropriate lens with a decent sensor.
That’s exactly what the new Moment macro lens brings to the table by attaching a lens with a 75mm focal length equivalent to the powerful wide or ultrawide camera of a smartphone like the iPhone 15 Pro. This kind of lens allows the mobile photographer to capture crisp foreground details with pleasant blurring in the background, even from a distance of four inches from the subject. With a 10x magnification, you can achieve an intense shallow depth of field while still including more of the background in the shot.
Normally, you wouldn’t be able to attach a different lens on a smartphone, but Moment’s T-Series lenses use an innovative yet easy-to-use system to make that possible. In a nutshell, you put a special protective case on the iPhone and then attach compatible lenses on the specially designed mounts to expand the camera’s capabilities using lenses that would have never fit inside the cramped space of a smartphone. This ingenious design means that this new Moment macro lens can also be used on other phones, including the Pixel 8 or Samsung phones, provided you use the matching case or special mount made for the T-series lenses.
With the Moment 75mm macro lens, you can take breath-taking close-up shots of natural objects or even moving subjects, allowing you to create better memories or even win some awards. The $119.99 price tag is a bit tough to swallow, but professionals will probably be able to justify such an expense if they can get more stunning images in every shot. Of course, there’s also the hidden cost of requiring that case to always be on, at least while you’re using the lens, and the lens jutting out from the phone’s back awkwardly, but these are the things that your social media followers will probably never see anyway.
