Your iPhone's camera is great for those wide-angle or panoramic shots, but the lens just isn't that wonderful for telephoto images. Daniel Fujikake and Mac Nguyen of HI Resolution Enterprises discovered quite by accident that by holding an iPhone camera up to a pair of binoculars, they could get some amazing video and still images of surfing action.
Out of that realization came the inspiration for a universal smartphone adapter that connects to binoculars, telescopes or spotting scopes to give your phone "bionic eyes." That potential product is now a Kickstarter called Snapzoom, just launched today and looking for your support. [The Snapzoom prototype was one of the competitors in our sister site Engadget's Insert Coin competition at the recent Expand conference. –Ed.]
Fujikake and Nguyen hope to raise US$55,000 towards the goal of making Snapzoom a reality. The adapter works with just about any smartphone, a nice feature when you hear Tim Cook making comments like "we'll make a larger iPhone when there are no limitations that arise by doing so."
Snapzoom is significantly different from the standard telephoto iPhone cases you can purchase from Photojojo and the like. Rather than fitting inexpensive optics to the iPhone, Snapzoom can take advantage of quality binoculars or scopes that you already own.
The duo has some spectacular video and still images on their Kickstarter page, and you can get a look at just how clear and impressive the view is through standard binoculars from the video embedded below. You can back the project and get a discount on the Snapzoom (it will normally retail for US$79.95) if you jump out there quickly; over a quarter of the $45 pledges were gone within about a half hour of the project going live.
Data source: via TUAW (By Steven Sande)
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