Our Guide to the Best Accessories for Filming With Your Smartphone

Posted July 17, 2018

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There’s no doubt that the video quality you can achieve when you’re shooting with your smartphone is remarkable and if you’re using the Michael Rosenblum 5 Shot Method™ for filming your footage then you’ll have really professional looking raw material every time. However, it’s important to remember that for certain things, like recording really good quality audio, you’ll need to use some accessories in order to get the professional quality results you need.  We’ve put together a list of some of the best mobile shooting accessories that are available on the market.

STABILIZATION

The trick to getting really professional looking footage is to stabilize the camera as much as you can while you’re filming. For stabilization, we like the OSMO PIVOT which is a lower-cost, lightweight stabilizer. It has a single handle, a 225-degree articulating hub, and a cold shoe mount to attach a light or microphone. It’s also small enough to fit in your pocket.

For more advanced stabilization we like the OSMO MOBILE 2. It also has a single handle, cinematic zoom control, slo-motion functionality, timelapse and ActiveTrack sensors. It only weighs one pound and has 15 hours of battery life.

LIGHTING

When it comes to lighting, our philosophy is your footage should look the way your eye would see it so we are not fans of lighting just for the sake of it. However, there are times when lighting can make an incredible difference in the way your footage looks and you should always have a light available in case you need it. When it comes to a practical and reliable light for your smartphone, we like the iBOWER LED light that comes with eight levels of brightness along with a cold shoe mount and adapter to attach to a stabilizer. It has 18 hours of battery life, a 50- LED Array and comes with warm/cool filters as well as a diffusing filter and mount. It’s rechargeable via a Micro USB to USB.

AUDIO

If you’re going to invest in only one accessory for filming with your smartphone it should be a good quality microphone. Using the built-in microphones in your smartphone will not enable you to consistently record truly professional quality audio. In this area of tech, things change fast and it seems as though every other week new mobile options for recording audio are appearing. The good news is that means gone are the days of duct taping a mic to your phone, or using 3 different adapters with your existing audio equipment to get good sound. Here are some the microphones we’ve used and like. 

The SHURE MOTIV MV88 Stereo Condenser mic (iOS only) uses the free ShurePlus MOTIV App to access controls for speech, singing, acoustic, loud and flat. Its all-metal construction has a 90-degree hinge for left and right rotation, a cardioid condenser and it connects to your smartphone via a lightning port.

The RODE VIDEOMIC ME is a directional mic that works on both iOS and Android devices that have a frequency range from 100Hz to 20Hz and attaches to your smartphone via a 1/8” mini jack.

The SENNHEISER WIRED CLIP MIC DIGITAL (iOS only) is a wired lapel mic that captures broadcast-quality audio, comes with easy-to-use apps and even works with Apple Watch.     

The WIRED RODE SMARTLAV+ works on both iOS and Android devices, includes a pop filter and windshield, and is compatible with most audio apps.

The SAMSON GO MIC MOBILE DIGITAL WIRELESS SYSTEM is a great choice for when you need your subject to move freely without a wire attached to your smartphone. It has up to 12 hours of battery life and a 2.4 GHz frequency.

There are lots more mobile shooting accessories out there, and many at a very reasonable price, so choose the ones you think will work best for the filming projects you’re doing and you’ll see how they can really take your smartphone video up to the next level and try some of these out. 

Get the free guide here.