Allison interviews Benson Chiu from Shiftcam about their wide array of accessories for mobile phones including iPhones, Samsung, and Android.
Benson starts with their Planck SSD which attaches to the bottom of mobile phones with a USB-C port. They support 1 or 2TB of storage and can handle data rates over 1 GBps. This product is being offered through a Kickstarter project currently underway.
Next, Benson introduces Shiftcam’s Snap series starting with their SnapGrip Pro which magnetically attaches to the MagSafe or Qi2 connector on newer mobile phones. It provides an ergonomic handle to hold the phone while taking photos or video. The SnapGrip Pro contains a 5000mAh battery with 20W of power delivery for wireless fast charging.
Benson then shows the SnapStudio Light that also magnetically attaches to the phone’s MagSafe or Qi2 connector. It surrounds the phone with an LED light to illuminate photo or video subjects with up to 440 lumens of brightness. Its rectangular shape follows the phone’s outline and makes it more compact than a traditional ring light.
Benson goes on to show the SnapStand Max and SnapStand Selfie. Both are tripods that magnetically hold the phone securely and expand up to 180cm or 75cm, respectively. They both have a tiltable head and include a Bluetooth remote for remote triggering of photos from up to 10 meters away.
Benson concludes with their LensUltra Full Kit which is a bundle of lenses and filters designed to enhance photography shot on mobile phones. The LensUltra lenses attach to a specialized phone case designed to accept all of the lenses or to a universal mount. The Full Kit includes seven lenses (wide angle, telephoto, macro, and anamorphic) as well as three filters and a universal mount, all contained in an aluminum padded case.
Learn more at http://shiftcam.com/
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Transcript of Interview:
Allison: I’m in the ShiftCam booth and I actually came to hear about some camera gear, but we’re going to start in a completely different spot here. I’m with Benson Chiu.
Allison: Hi, how are you doing?
Benson Chiu: Very good, very good. How are you today?
Allison: I’m good. This is an audio podcast and a video, so describe in detail what you’ve got in your hand here.
Benson Chiu: Sure, sure, sure. What I’ve got in my hand right now is the smallest SSD in the world. It’s as small as some people describe it as like a bubble gum, so small. That is actually sit very flat at the bottom of your phone, so that it disappears in your arm when you’re holding it to shoot horizontally and it fits in your pocket as if you don’t have anything on the phone.
Allison: So it’s just connected through USB-C.
Benson Chiu: Exactly. And then it is 10 Gbps, which is the fastest standard on actually storage. You can store, you can shoot with like Apple ProRes, 4K, 120 frames without any draw frame, no problems.
Allison: All right, that’s very cool. What is that called?
Benson Chiu: It’s called Planck.
Allison: Planck?
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: That’s a good name.
Benson Chiu: Yeah.
Allison: And how much is the price on that?
Benson Chiu: We’re launching soon at Kickstarter. Super early bird start at $125 US.
Allison: Okay, very good. All right, what else do we have here? I am very interested in this camera grip that you’ve got here.
Benson Chiu: Yes. So this is called SnapGrip Pro. It’s a magnetic grip that actually is attached to your phone so that it doubles as a grip and then triple as a charger for your phone. So it’s now actually able to start charging your phone through Qi 2 wireless technology.
Allison: All right, I need to hold it.
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: See how this is. So he just grabbed what looks like a camera grip and he slapped it on with Qi 2. Connected it right up to the phone so it’s charging and it’s got a nice grip for taking photos. That is pretty slick.
Benson Chiu: Because it’s magnetic, and connected to the center of your phone, you can hold onto your phone vertically or horizontally without your hands changing your positions.
Allison: Ah that’s slick, very nice.
Benson Chiu: So this is called the SnapGrip Pro. But it’s part of a system called Snap Series in here. It has a lot of other accessories such as the snap shoes that actually magnetically also attached to the systems. And you can have any kind of combination in modularized systems.
Allison: So they just added essentially in series another magnetic connector. And now he’s got a cold shoe on top.
Benson Chiu: Yes. Or you can actually choose maybe what we call a pocket lights, a very small lights that actually serve as a floodlights for the phone. Snap it on so that you can actually illuminate any frame that you’re shooting with. Or you can actually rotate and flip it up so that it actually can do it as a selfie to light up yourself as well.
Allison: Nice. So that’s all adding together. Now you could use this light without the grip, right?
Benson Chiu: Correct. All the products in the Snap Series works independently or in combination with each other.
Allison: That’s really slick. Okay. What else is I see some other things here.
Benson Chiu: Awesome. So this is actually what’s new today on CES. This is called the studio lights. Think about a ring light. It’s quite bulky to carry. We string down the ring light to like the size of your phone around the rims so that it is actually able to fit in bags. It also fit with your phone.
Allison: It is. I’ve never heard this. So it looks to me about the size of maybe an iPad mini. He’s got a phone mounted in the middle. I can’t quite see. Oh, of course it’s connected with MagSafe. And you’ve got…did the light just come on for you, Steve?
Benson Chiu: Not yet. You have to press long press to turn it on. And then you can change temperature so that it’s from warm to cold colors. And you can change intensities from dimmer to brighter.
Allison: So this would be for your Zoom calls and that sort of thing with a nice camera.
Benson Chiu: Yes. It’s built-in batteries so that it lasts for on average, couple of two to three hours on depends on how bright you’re using it.
Allison: Okay, great. And does that charge over USB-C, I assume?
Benson Chiu: Yes, and it has different mounting points to extend to different accessories and mount on tripods as well.
Allison: And what do you call this?
Benson Chiu: This is called Studio Lights.
Allison: Studio L ights.
Benson Chiu: Yes, Snap Studio Lights.
Allison: I like that it’s a rectangle, not a circle. I’m tired of seeing the circles on everybody’s eyeballs.
Benson Chiu: I agree. I agree.
Allison: Now, I’ve got curiosity. I’ve got something else. It’s a cylinder that appears to have another MagSafe connector on it, a G2 charger.
Benson Chiu: This is actually what we call a Snap Stand Max. It opens and actually mount your phone magnetically, but at the same time, extends as a six-foot tall tripod.
Allison: Six foot tall. Oh, holy cow. He’s extending this thing. Oh, wow. And this whole thing was only what, about six or eight inches long when he started. And it’s six feet tall now.
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: Can you see the stand? Let’s go all the way up so he can see.
Benson Chiu: It’s on the left actually on here.
Allison: Oh, it’s right here. You can see it as well. Wow. Let’s see you fold that back up. So he’s sliding it back together. That is a really slick design.
Benson Chiu: And then you can close it. And there’s actually a remote magnetic attachable shutters with it, rechargeable with USB-C. Put it back, close it, and it will lock.
Allison: It’s a shutter for your phone?
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: So it’s connected over Bluetooth?
Benson Chiu: Yes, exactly. So that you can have a group. Think about when you’re on vacations with a group, you are tired of asking people to help you shoot. And you can just click, set it up, everybody smiles, and use a remote to take everybody in the pictures.
Allison: It’s beautiful. And what’s this product called again?
Benson Chiu: It’s called SnapStand Max.
Allison: SnapStand Max.
Benson Chiu: Yes. And there is a SnapStand selfie. There’s a smaller version of it.
Allison: Little stick there. Those are adorable. So the company is called?
Benson Chiu: ShiftCam.
Allison: ShiftCam..
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: And we’ve got the Plank, and we’ve got the Studio Light. We’ve got all these different products. Oh yeah, talk about lenses. Sorry, Steve just reminded me. So we have that mount over there, but you’ve also got lenses to attach to the iPhone?
Benson Chiu: Yes. We actually started off our business seven years ago by producing lenses. So lenses is our strength. This is called the Lens Ultra. We released it about last year, working with everything with the phone. We require our phone case to do it. All you need to do is to click on it, rotate it, and that’s the lenses.
Allison: So he’s got a specific case of theirs, and a little bayonet mount, and he just put what looks like a fisheye lens on it?
Benson Chiu: This one is a macro lens actually.
Allison: Oh, macro.
Benson Chiu: It’s a 5mm long range macro. So now you can actually start shooting microscopic things with these lenses. And we have seven different lenses, from macro lenses, telephotos, wide angle, and even anamorphic lenses.
Allison: Wow. How big is the zoom of the telephoto?
Benson Chiu: The telephoto is 2x. It’s more like a portrait lens, where it’s perfect to shoot on a person interview, like now what we’re doing.
Allison: Okay, but not get the picture of the eagle in the tree.
Benson Chiu: No, not yet.
Allison: That’s the one I want. That’s the one I keep looking for.
Benson Chiu: We are actually coming out with it.
Allison: Why is that so hard?
Benson Chiu: Because the problem is that the bigger the zoom, the much bigger the lens. And sometimes when you shoot with your phone, you don’t want to bring a very, very big, like bulky lens with it. So by actually making a very big lens on the phone, it started to be counterintuitive. So that’s why…
Allison: And counterbalance too.
Benson Chiu: Yes, but then we are actually coming out with lenses that goes on your zoom lenses on the phone, so that you can easily achieve 10x zoom without problem.
Allison: So if you’ve got a 5x lens on the iPhone 16 Pro, 15 Pro Max, and you put the 2x, isn’t that 10x?
Benson Chiu: That one is actually needed a different kind of optic design to actually work with the 5x on the iPhone. So we are coming out with another one that actually allows you to put it on the 5x lenses.
Allison: Okay, so right now none of these attached to the 5x.
Benson Chiu: Yes, mainly it’s got… well, the macro can work.
Allison: Just not the telephoto yet. Okay, that makes perfect sense. So again, if people want to find this, they go to shiftcam.com.
Benson Chiu: Yes.
Allison: Very good. Thank you.