Moondog Labs 1.33x Anamorphic Adapter

• Anamorphic Adapter by Moondog Labs
• Fixed Focus
• Mount: N/A

There's a version of this adapter with 37mm rear threads.

This is an unusual adapter in the sense that most people taking photography and cinematography seriously these days wouldn't think of shooting with their phones, no matter how many articles come out praising their cameras and capabilities.

One of my favorite parts of experimenting with MoondogLabs' lens was the reduced amount of control I had over the resulting image. All I could do, literally, was point the camera towards what I wanted to shoot and press record. From this point on, you start exploring the kind of things you wouldn't (or couldn't) do with a regular camera. This lack of control permitted me to focus less (pun intended) on the gear porn part of the tests and more on the shots I was trying to get.

I think one of the biggest selling points of this adapter is the feature "Tangerine", featured at Sundance Festival in 2015, shot entirely on an iPhone and the MoondogLabs' adapter. I'm not gonna say the shots are incredible and clean but they have a character that matches the film perfectly. They're gritty, and noisy, and free moving. There is very little subject separation from the background, lots of wide-angle shots - including close ups - and clever use of lighting. Tangerine is not the usual film as well, telling the stories of two transgender women in a busy Christmas eve, with the type of representation we need to see in film today.

The adapter is tiny, weighing 48g. They come in several different versions, compatible with many other phones beyond the original iPhone 5. It's a two element, fixed focus construction that relies on a small sensor in order to keep things in focus and deliver good image quality.

The adapter has 1.33x stretch and fits perfectly around the corner of the phone and over the rear camera. There's no way to misalign it. It's not the type of thing you can leave attached and put the phone in your pocket, as the setup has a weird shape and there is nothing made to protect the front of the lens. This little switch on the back loosens/tightens the adapter around the phone, but even with it engaged, it's still pretty easy to slide it off.

The lens comes with a neat case, which makes it super easy to just carry it around in your pocket until the moment of photo-taking or video-making arises.

I don't know how to assess resolution here, but check out some charts! I don't see much difference in performance wether the adapter is attached or not.

Testing for vignetting was also confusing, since this is not the standard lens, so I switched through the various camera modes I could find and got no black edges. The adapter clearly covers the lens.
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When it comes to flares, this 1.33x adapter is incredibly similar to the Anamorph-X I used on the GoPro. It's also similar (but in a lesser scale) to other 1.33x adapters. The flares are not as long and not as prominent, but they are there. They take the color of the light source, which indicates the coatings on this adapter are fairly simple.

As it was the case with the GoPro Anamorph-X, this lens is an attempt to expand the reach of our beloved format into different devices, and not restrain it to the complex systems we have when using DSLRs, mirrorless cameras or real cine cameras. This type of setup eliminates issues such as double focus, trains of lenses and heavy fronts. True, you have less control and the image quality is capped by not-so-great cameras, but at the same time it all becomes a lot simpler and you just shoot. My only criticism to this adapter is that putting the lens on and off constantly to shoot made me feel uneasy and afraid to drop it.