Tag Archives: Sandmarc

SANDMARC’s $335 Probe Lens takes ‘Shot on iPhone’ to a completely new level

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The probe lens, which became the talk of the photography town in 2018, is now going to become a staple of smartphone photography too. After seeing Shiftcam debut their probe lens for the smartphone (although it hasn’t officially been launched yet), SANDMARC has joined the ranks with its own probe lens for the iPhone. Priced at $349.99 along with the mounting case for your phone, SANDMARC’s Probe Lens promises to deliver a new perspective that gives you a tiny critter’s POV, making the world around you seem much larger than life!

Designer: SANDMARC

The lens measures an impressive 12 inches long, and comes with that signature probe-shaped design that lets you poke your camera into tiny spaces and capture things from a small PoV. Essentially, it builds itself on the aesthetic set by Laowa and Shiftcam after, and sports a wide DoF, a focus wheel, and LEDs on the front to let the lens gather as much light as possible (tiny lenses do require higher light capture because of their small design).

More importantly, this release from SANDMARC promises to change iPhones and smartphone photography as we know it. Humans are used to the human perspective, which is why we’re so enamored by drone footage. The Probe Lens brings yet another perspective to how we capture the world, and it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal to see what creators do with it.

At its $335 price tag (for just the lens), this isn’t something everyone can or even should buy. The Probe Lens is designed mainly for creatives, filmmakers, and nature documentary folks. The lens has a focal length of 16mm, a magnification of 2.1x, and the ability to focus on objects with stunning bokeh and also a wide FoV. You truly feel like you’ve been shrunk 100x and you’re now exploring the world in a new, tinier body. SANDMARC hasn’t specified whether this probe lens is waterproof (Shiftcam’s upcoming lens is), which means you may not be able to prod your lens into a glass of water, or a pond to observe wildlife inside. There is, however, a set of shadowless lights on the rim, for low-light photography, and a USB-C port that lets you charge your Probe Lens. The lens ships with a pouch, front and back lens caps, a charging cable, and even a mounting case for your iPhone (compatible with iPhone 14 and above).

The post SANDMARC’s $335 Probe Lens takes ‘Shot on iPhone’ to a completely new level first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sandmarc’s new iPhone lens gives you a bonkers 6x optical zoom AND an adjustable focus wheel

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You call that a camera bump? Hold my beer…

The smartphone camera is officially the most popular camera in the world today, accounting for a staggering 92.5% of all images taken in any given year. Conventional photographers (who make up the remaining paltry 7.5%) will argue that smartphone photography isn’t ‘real photography’, but that’s only because digital cameras offer tonnes of more variety in terms of being able to shoot on multiple types of lenses. Batting for the mobile photography team, however, is SANDMARC with their newly unveiled whopping 6x telephoto lens for the iPhone. Not only does it boost your smartphone camera’s existing zoom (which is around 30x for the iPhone 15 Pro) by an additional 6x, it also gives you the benefit of an adjustable focus wheel – probably the first for any smartphone camera lens – bridging the gap between phone and traditional camera photography.

Designer: Sandmarc

Even though a smartphone camera is ridiculously powerful for its small size, there are certain things you really wouldn’t do with it, like take wildlife shots, telephoto shots of objects far away (architecture, birds, etc.), or ultra-low DoF portrait shots. Well, maybe you’d take the latter, but that’s a legitimate gray area because artificial bokeh can never compare to the real deal. SANDMARC’s Telephoto 6x Lens wants to change that. Designed to be good enough to take on a wildlife photoshoot or to capture objects from far away because they aren’t really accessible, the zoom lens does a phenomenal job of enhancing your smartphone’s vision without causing any sort of loss in quality because of the limitations of smartphone lens structures.

Aside from extending your zoom range, the Telephoto 6x Lens prioritizes superior image quality over the limitations of your phone’s digital zoom. Crafted with high-quality, multi-coated glass, this lens promises to deliver noticeably sharper images with enhanced detail, even in challenging low-light conditions. Unlike typical add-on lenses that can be cumbersome and offer limited functionality, the SANDMARC lens boasts a unique feature: an adjustable focus wheel. This empowers you to take complete creative control over your photos. By fine-tuning the focus, you can ensure intricate details in close-up shots are captured with razor-sharp precision, adding a whole new dimension to your mobile photography repertoire.

The lens design incorporates a shallow depth of field, a technique beloved by professional photographers. This means realistic bokehs that highlight your subject beautifully, without any of those errors or artificial blurring created as a result of computational photography done by smartphone algorithms. This setup, in its truest sense, is the closest thing to bringing conventional camera tools to smartphone photography. Sure, professional camera evangelists would still say this isn’t ‘real photography’, but they also won’t deny that the results from this phone and lens setup are just immaculate.

While the $159.99 price tag might seem steep, it’s worth considering the significant enhancements it offers. The extended zoom range, improved image quality, and creative flexibility the lens provides can elevate your mobile photography to a whole new level.

The post Sandmarc’s new iPhone lens gives you a bonkers 6x optical zoom AND an adjustable focus wheel first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sandmarc’s gorgeous Titanium band for the Apple Watch Ultra is a design match made in heaven

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It feels almost like destiny that Apple launches great products, but leaves the onus of designing great accessories to third parties. Sandmarc is one such company that’s benefitted greatly from this arrangement, rising to prominence for their pro-quality photography and videography accessories for the iPhone… but the company isn’t stopping there. After designing some of the best-in-class camera lenses and filming rigs for the iPhone, Sandmarc is giving the Watch Ultra something it truly deserves – a great complementary strap/band.

Not everyone who owns the Watch Ultra buys it because of its high-endurance sports and training features… so the idea of having a watch strap designed for trekking or deep-sea diving doesn’t really appeal to the average consumer who just wants to be able to flaunt their high-end smartwatch. In comes Sandmarc’s Apple Watch Ultra Band, an Oyster-style band made from grade-2 titanium with just the right color and finish to match the Watch Ultra perfectly. Slip the band on and it honestly looks like it was designed by Apple, and turns your extreme smartwatch into the luxurious-looking haute timepiece you need it to be! After all, who in their right state of mind would want to wear a silicone band into a boardroom meeting, am I right?!

Designer: Sandmarc

The luxurious Grade-2 titanium band quite literally turns your Apple Watch Ultra into a Rolex or Tag Heuer-style haute timepiece. Its finish matches the slight champagne color of the Watch Ultra perfectly, blending in so well you’d think Apple designed the band too.

The band’s wide body complements the Watch Ultra’s large-ish design perfectly too, doing a far better job of visually integrating with the timepiece than any of Apple’s own watches. After all, it isn’t purpose-built for function – it’s purpose-built for fashion.

Machined from grade-2 titanium with a scratch-resistant glass film coating, the watch band is lightweight, waterproof, and just as durable as the Watch Ultra. The entire band measures 190mm (7.48 inches) and weighs 2 ounces (57 grams), being nearly 40% lighter than its stainless steel counterparts. Each band relies on stainless steel connectors that allow you to attach it to the Watch Ultra, and the band also ships with an adjustment tool that lets you remove one of the Oyster-style links to fit your wrist perfectly.

The Sandmarc Grade 2 Titanium Watch Ultra Band starts at $199, which shouldn’t sound like much if you already splurged $799 on the smartwatch, to begin with. Each titanium band is also rigorously tested at a third-party lab for quality and chemical analysis, so the bands can endure everything the Apple Watch Ultra was designed for… whether it’s a lavish boardroom, the snowy tundras, a desert trek, or even the depths of the sea!

The post Sandmarc’s gorgeous Titanium band for the Apple Watch Ultra is a design match made in heaven first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sandmarc’s clip-on polarizing filter for the iPhone camera helps reduce glare to make your photos pop

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Have you ever tried taking a photo of fish in a pond only to realize that your camera is catching the reflections on top of the water instead of the fish IN the water? Or how about trying to take a photo from your airplane window at night, but struggling with the fact that your phone’s reflection keeps coming in the photo? Reflections can sometimes really enhance a photo, but at other times, they’re just a hindrance. Think back to the time when you tried taking a selfie while wearing spectacles and all you got were reflections of things around you instead of the camera capturing your eyes… The way you eliminate those reflections is by using what’s called a polarizing filter – a special piece of glass that can selectively block out reflections and allow certain wavelengths of light to pass through. Designed to do precisely that, Sandmarc’s Drama Polarizer Filter comes with a clip-on feature that lets you easily attach it to iPhone cameras or practically any other smartphone camera. The Drama Polarizer Filter covers all three lenses on the iPhone camera and can be rotated to help you allow certain wavelengths to pass through to your camera. The Drama Polarizer Filter is perhaps the easiest, quickest hack to better photography. You can use it to cut reflections, accentuate colors, and even boost contrast to create photos that just look better because you’ve now got control over the light that makes it into your camera’s lens!

Designer: Sandmarc

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The filter either clips onto the back of your phone, or if you’re using a Sandmarc iPhone case, it screws into the special mounting system built into the case’s camera cutout. To use the filter, just fire your camera app, compose your shot, and rotate the filter to choose what wavelengths to let through. Rotating the filter changes what wavelengths the filter allows, and just the way you’d turn the ring on a camera lens to focus on an object, you turn the polarizer filter to focus on a wavelength. Once you notice a difference and when you feel the composition looks good, click away! Or hey, you could record videos too…

Designed as a part of Sandmarc’s existing line of smartphone camera filters, the Drama Polarizer Filter fits directly onto other Sandmarc lenses, like their Telephoto, Anamorphic and Wide Lenses.

The filter does a variety of things, although cutting glare is probably one of its prime functions. Whether you’re taking photos of someone through a glass window, or of a friend (or yourself) wearing spectacles or sunglasses, or even of a lovely lake or pond, you can now use the filter to eliminate reflections entirely to allow for crystal clear photos with zero glare and great detail.

Sometimes multiple wavelengths of light clash with one another, creating a ‘haze’ of colors. With the Drama Polarizing Filter, you can cut down on unwanted wavelengths to get better color reproduction and higher dynamic range. You could take photos of brilliant blue skies by eliminating all the non-blue frequencies, or take incredible green landscapes by focusing on the green wavelength. The lens does much more than just eliminate glare, it eliminates wavelengths you don’t need either, allowing your camera to capture just the right photo by accentuating and focusing on certain colors and wavelengths… so you can take some truly beautiful photos that look like they were shot on camera, but essentially, they were shot on your smartphone!

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These iPhone 12 attachable lenses + photo filters bridge the gap between your phone and DSLR

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You might be wondering, why would you want a lens attachment for your phone when its embedded camera already has HD resolution? Although it’s possible to capture and edit beautiful images on your smartphone, those devices have their limits. If you’ve tried to snap a zoomed-in photo without compromising on the resolution, you would understand the struggle.

Take your phone photography skills to the next level with the SANDMARC lenses and filters, made for all the iPhone 12 models. The set includes macro, anamorphic, telephoto, fisheye, and wide-angle lenses — lenses that you’d find in a professional photographer’s bag. Additionally, there are four SANDMARC filters to help enhance your photo’s beauty — replacing the need for Instagram or Snapchat filters.

Aesthetically, the SANDMARC lenses give users the look and feel of operating a traditional digital camera. Users can experience the satisfying sensation of rotating a lens to fine-tune the camera’s focus — a small joy that amateur photographers (like me) can attest to. More importantly, the SANDMARC attachments work almost as well as professional photography equipment. This product makes this expensive hobby more accessible to the general public — not to mention aspiring Instagram stars. It will be interesting to see how the photography industry and profession will change, as smartphone cameras and accessories improve their quality to compete with traditional cameras.

Designer: Sandmarc

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Sandmarc’s portable rig helps you get cinema-quality camera control with your smartphone

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The Film Rig, as its name quite aptly suggests, allows you to film content on your consumer-grade camera, while minimizing the hand-jitter that often comes from handling small, lightweight equipment. The way it works is simple… With two grips for better control, spaced apart so your jittering hands don’t translate onto the video you’re capturing, the Film Rig helps videos appear more stable. Just like you’re much more likely to hold a tray full of glasses much more efficiently with two hands than with one, Sandmarc’s Film Rig gives you the dexterity and control you need to operate your smartphone camera or action camera, getting you videos that don’t need digital stabilization.

The Film Rig is ergonomic, robust, and versatile. The two grips come with textured surfaces, while the rig itself adds a tiny bit of weight to the entire setup, giving you something to control, while being light enough to walk or run with. The universal clamp on the front works with all smartphones, as well as action cameras like the GoPro, and mounting systems on the base and the top allow you to connect various other accessories to your the rig, from microphones, to external flashes/lights, and even tripods so you can rest your rig after you move around with it. Designed to bring a level of control to your sufficiently powerful pocketable camera, Sandmarc’s Film Rig works almost like a gimbal, but without breaking the bank!

Designer: Sandmarc