Smartphone camera accessories for travellers

Advice from techspert Derek Adams on everything you need to upgrade your phone’s photographic capabilities in time for Christmas gifting (and those all-important holiday-season selfies…)

Glass action

The iPhone’s camera is good, but in some instances could do with a turbocharge. If you need more focal length or a wider angle try the Olloclip Active (£89.99). This small, unobtrusive clip-on dual lens is perfect for both wide-angle selfies and telephoto snaps. The latter is ideal for travellers shooting sports or adventure pictures. Olloclip is available for the iPhone 5, 6, 7 and iPad.

Snap zapper

Muku’s cheap-as-chips Shuttr (£19.95) is an extremely useful remote for taking smartphone selfies and videos from up to nine metres. Simply flick the Shuttr’s switch to your Android or iOS icon, pair via Bluetooth and take your snap. No embarrassing selfie stick necessary. The Shuttr is so small it even comes with a key ring attachment, plus a support stand that attaches to the phone’s headphone socket (sorry, iPhone 7 users.)

Spider cam

The Megaverse Anti-Gravity Case for iPhones (£34.99) makes shooting through glass much easier, as the millions of nano suckers on the case ensure that it sticks like a limpet to anything smooth and flat. There are plenty of other uses, including Skyping with friends, selfies, in-car satellite navigation and watching movies hands-free. Just be sure the case has a very firm grip before leaving it to gravity.

Pixel peeper

Google’s forthcoming Daydream VR headset (£69) promises a much better mobile virtual reality experience than what’s currently available, with all media accessible from a single portal. It’s essentially a more sophisticated version of Google’s simple Cardboard viewer, only it’s more comfortable, looks better and comes with a handy remote for instant portal navigation. It’s currently only compatible with Google’s new Pixel phone, but other models will be announced soon.

Take placid

If you’re tired of shaky smartphone footage and yearn for butter-smooth cinematic visuals, add a DJI Osmo Mobile (£289) to your armoury. The Bluetooth-enabled device features a three-axis gimbal (pivot) and a slick adjustable clamp to accommodate any Android or iOS phone up to the size of an iPhone 7 Plus. It works brilliantly: on-the-move shooting produces remarkably fluid visuals, while panning is smooth as silk. And there’s more: switch it to ‘active tracking’ to capture a person’s movement without blurring, or choose ‘motion timelapse’ to create fully automated hyperlapse movies.

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This article has been tagged Technology, Travel Tips