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Moment Tele 58mm lens: Achieve 2x or 4x optical zoom with your iPhone, Pixel, and Samsung Galaxy phones

Many dual rear camera phones today come with 2x optical zoom and thanks to Moment's new Tele 58mm lens you can add another 2x to those phones or enable 2x zoom on phones that do not have telephoto capability.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer

Last year I purchased a Moment wide-angle lens and photo case for my iPhone X. The Moment lens is extremely well constructed of high quality materials and has performed well over the past year.

In November, Moment announced the Tele 58mm lens, which improves upon the previous 60mm Tele lens thanks in part to an improved Moment camera app. The Tele 58mm lens provides up to 2x zoom (100mm zoom lens equivalent) and 4x zoom (200mm zoom lens equivalent), depending on whether or not your phone already has 2x optical zoom capability or not.

With single lens phones, like the Google Pixel 3 and iPhone XR, supporting portrait mode effects you can use this Tele 58mm lens and enjoy enhanced bokeh with your phone.

See also: Moment anamorphic lens and photo case for Samsung Galaxy Note 9: Make cool movies with your phones

Over the past couple of months, I've been able to test the Moment Tele 58mm lens with the Apple iPhone XR, iPhone XS, Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3XL, and Samsung Galaxy Note 9. In every situation, the Moment lens has improved the photographic capability of the phones and is well worth the $100 price. Compared to the previous Tele 60mm lens, we see less edge distortion and fewer flares.

Moment Tele 58mm lens: in pictures

The new wide angle lens has a 12-month warranty. Technical specifications of the wide angle lens include:

  • Lateral Chromatic Aberration - <1px at edge
  • Design - All glass, six elements, and four groups
  • Lens coating - Multi-layer, low flare, broadband anti-reflection
  • Magnification Ratio - .63X
  • Resolution (Axis) - 300+ LP/MM
  • Resolution (Corner) - 200 LP/MM
  • Low distortion - <0.75 percent
  • Weight - 73.1 grams
  • Height - 27.58mm
  • Diameter - 39.5mm

As with all Moment lenses, it is rather heavy at 73.1 grams, but is designed and built with high quality materials. It is held very securely in the Moment photo case and I was always confident in its ability to stay in place while shooting photos.

A substantial rubber lens cover is included to protect the lens with a handy drawstring microfiber pouch to carry the lens when not in use.

See also: Moment wide lens and photo case for Apple iPhone X: Enhance your creativity with a twist

When you mount the new Tele 58mm lens over the telephoto camera on the iPhone XS, X, or XS Max (bottom lens on the back of the iPhone) and then try to use the camera app on the iPhone then you will just see black on the viewfinder. You need to use the Moment app in order to use this Tele 58mm lens and obtain 4x optical zoom. The Moment app is also a full functional camera app that you may prefer to use daily since it provides full access to the cameras with full manual control over your iPhone's cameras.

In other Moment news, the company just released its updated Android app that now integrates support for the anamorphic lens so you no longer have to mess around with various apps in order to de-squeeze the video for proper formatting and viewing. The Moment app is an excellent application for providing you full control over your Android phone cameras and various external lenses.

The Nomad Moment Rugged Case is an excellent option for using Moment lenses with the elegance of a Nomad Horweenn leather case.

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