Moment began their business by selling lenses for iPhones and recently added photography gear for a wide variety of cameras. Yet, they still excel at creating great accessories for iPhone photographers. The Moment Pro Tripod Mount with MagSafe continues that line of iPhone photo gear using the MagSafe magnets in the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The mount promises a quick and easy solution for taking steady photos and videos with the iPhone 12. How well does Moment deliver on that promise? Did they make another great accessory for iPhone photographers?
Moment Pro Tripod Mount with Magsafe for iPhone 12 – Design
The mount comes in two varieties, one for use as a landscape-only device. The other works in both landscape and portrait and has a longer shaft. I bought the one that works in both landscape and portrait modes.
The Moment Pro Tripod Mount with Magsafe connects to the back of your iPhone 12. The magnet in the MagSafe connector snaps onto the mount and holds it firmly. The round disk holds a cold shoe mount screwed onto the back of the mount. There’s a short piece coming down out of the disk. There’s a 1/4-20 connector so that the photographer can attach it to a tripod, whether it’s something like a professional tripod or the small feet that came with my Joby GripTight tripod. The pad on the disk that snaps onto the back of the phone has a softer material. This keeps the metal on the mount from scratching the phone’s back.
I also connected it to a clamp mount that I recently bought on Amazon. The Slow Dolphin Tripod Clip Clamp Mount screws into the 1/4-20 connector on the bottom of the MagSafe Tripod Mount. The two hold the iPhone in place for photography or for just viewing videos on Netflix, YouTube, or some other content (see below).
Users can swivel the holder to watch content in the landscape, as seen above. Or you can use it in portrait for those fantastic TikTok videos you shoot.
On top of the mount you’ll find a cold shoe mount. Put a light or a mic like the Rode Wireless GO II Microphone.
Moment Pro Tripod Mount with MagSafe for iPhone 12 – Quality
Moment did a great job designing the Moment Pro Tripod Mount with MagSafe for iPhone 12. I’ve only had it a few days and used it for a few tasks plus every night for streaming Netflix. It works exactly as designed and probably will not fall apart easily. The disk holds the shaft with the 1/4-20 securely and firmly.
The cold shoe mount also serves to secure the phone in place. Press the cold shoe mount down against the phone to keep both in place.
On the back of the mount you there’s a screw that holds the cold shoe mount to the MagSafe disk. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to screw tightly. You have to press it against the phone, or it becomes loose. I’m not sure if that’s by design or a design flaw. It doesn’t seem to keep the cold shoe mount from working for now, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
I do not use my iPhone with a case unless I’m taking photos with the set of Moment Lenses I own. I’ve tested it with my Moment Thin Case, and it does not hold the phone very well at all. That’s a huge problem. You can see in the video below that it fall off the mount far too easily with the case on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Moment promises that it will work with any MagSafe compatible case. In fact, the magnet in Moment’s tripod feels like it snaps to the phone more securely than Apple’s own MagSafe products when I don’t use a case. However, it’s coming off too easily, so you can’t confidently mount your iPhone 12 Prom Max with Moment’s own case needed to use their lenses.
The mount sits on my nightstand so I can quickly throw it in my bag. The metal design means I need to be careful where I put it because I don’t want to scratch my MacBook or iPad.
Recommendation
Moment Pro Tripod Mount with MagSafe for iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max works as designed on my naked iPhone 12 Pro Max. It’s made of quality materials. At $60, it better work well. I love the idea of MagSafe and hope we see some other equally creative accessories. I wish the screw on the back held the cold show mount more securely, but it does work. I also wish it held my phone in a case more securely.
Moment makes several different MagSafe devices including…
- The landscape tripod mount – $59.99
- The landscape and portrait tripod mount – $59.99
- A wall mount that fastens to a magnet stuck to a wall – $19.99
- A car vent mount that holds onto the vents of your car’s heater/air conditioner – $39.99*
- A cold shoe mount which is like the one I reviewed, but it doesn’t have the shaft with the 1/4-20 connector – $39.99*
- A version of the tripod mount without the cold shoe mount – $49.99*
- A multi-threaded mount with 7 threaded holes on the back and no shaft or cold shoe mount – $39.99*
The items above with the asterisk (*) are either pre-orders or back-ordered. In other words, don’t assume you’ll get one within the next few weeks. It could take many months like mine did.
I didn’t particularly appreciate having to wait for as long as I did to receive the mount. I ordered it soon after they announced that it was available for pre-order. It took many months to show up. Moment always has trouble getting things sent out, and new products often end up back-ordered. They promise that if you order today, you’ll get it shipped starting the next day. You should receive it within a week to ten days depending on where you live instead of in 4 months.
