The 3 Best Lenses for iPhone Photography in 2025

The Moment Anamorphic 1.33x Mobile Lens is our recommendation if you want an accessory lens for your smartphone because it does something that your phone can’t otherwise do: create wide, cinematic video (or stills) using all the resolution of your phone’s sensor complete with long horizontal lens flares that look dramatic and natural.

This lens is also well made, doesn’t noticeably degrade your images, is small enough to bring with you anywhere, and is easy to attach to and detach from your phone quickly, when used with the required Moment Case. It’s available for a wide range of phones since it comes in both T-series and M-series versions.

The images and videos it produces look great. Moment’s lenses are very sharp in the center of the frame, and while you may notice some softness in the corners, we found that these lenses preserved more image detail than any competing lenses we’ve used so far. Colors pop and images still show as much contrast as we see when we don’t use the lenses.

Because the image is squeezed down initially (you use Moment’s app to un-squeeze the final results), out-of-focus light sources have the same kind of oval shaped bokeh you see in movies, and lens flare stretches out horizontally into long tendrils.

It’s well built. Moment uses the same kind of optical-grade glass that you’ll find in lenses made for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, and the company says that the lens housings are made of aerospace-grade metal. This makes them heavier than other add-on lenses—about 1.5 ounces for the T-series anamorphic lens—but in the years that we’ve used them, they’ve never broken.

It’s also small. We carried individual lenses in men’s jeans pockets or a small bag with no problem, and the storage pouch they come with can be safely used to clean off any smudges you might get while using the lenses.

You have to use a Moment case, but they’re nice. Moment’s cases are understated, with classic-looking designs. They’ve protected several generations of our phones from falls onto metal, pavement, and concrete.

We prefer a case-based system to other lenses that we’ve tested that are made to fit on a specific phone. If you switch to a new phone, you’ll be able to get a Moment case that fits it (the company has a good track record of keeping up with new phone releases) and keep using the lenses.

Choose your series wisely. The bayonet mount that you attach the lenses to is a separate piece that drops into Moment’s case, so you should take care to make sure you order the version (T- or M-series) that corresponds to the lenses you plan to use.

The newer T-series lenses throw a larger image circle onto the physically larger lenses and larger sensors in newer phones and also work great on some older phones (Moment provides a compatibility chart), providing sharper results across the frame. But they’re larger and more expensive than the older M-series.

If you’re a longtime Moment system user and have recently upgraded to a new phone, Moment offers a trade-in program that gives you $25 of store credit per lens for simply providing a proof of purchase for each of your M-series lenses, or $50 per lens if you send your M-series glass back to the company in like-new condition. You can then put the funds toward buying the new T-series lenses.

It’s part of a larger system. Moment makes a variety of accessories for videography and photography that work with its lenses. These include adapters for 67mm filters in case you want to add neutral density, diffusion, circular polarizers, or any other optical filters. You can also buy replacement parts if you lose an included lens cap or storage pouch, or if you want to add a back cap.

Moment’s app is well designed. Though the app now costs a flat $9 instead of being free, it has a well-designed interface that lets you switch between the company’s lenses and see the effect of the anamorphic lenses while you capture video or shoot photos and frame them accurately. We wish that they would make the app for Android, but the Filmic Firstlight ($20 per year or $1 per week) and Filmic Pro ($60 per year or $5 per week) apps for shooting stills or video, respectively, serve that community well.

When the apps de-squeeze the image, you end up with an ultra-widescreen, more cinematic aspect ratio of 2.40:1 instead of the phone’s native 16:9.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s a bit pricey. The initial buy-in cost of about $150 for the anamorphic lens, $50 for a case, $5 for the snap-in bayonet mount, and $9 for the app makes Moment one of the most expensive lens systems we tested (at least $214, before tax). It’s also a signal that this is a tool for serious photography enthusiasts. If you count yourself in that category, the quality of the Moment system justifies the cost.

It blocks your flash. As with nearly all of the lenses we tested, you can’t use your phone camera’s flash when using the Moment system, since the lens attachment covers it up.