My Favorite Mobile Film Gear

Written By Tyler Phillips

I want to start by saying YOU DON’T NEED ANY OF THIS TO GO VIRAL!

My first post that passed 1 million views was recorded with just my iPhone. No external microphones. No lights. No lenses.

That said — if you are looking to step up the overall quality of your content and create a more polished look, these are some of my favorite iPhone filmmaking tools that I use daily as a social media manager.

Rode Microphones for iPhone social media content creation

MICROPHONES 🎤

I personally like the RODE brand. I use their shotgun VideoMic Go II for the majority of my filming. This is a directional mic so it will capture the audio it is pointing at and reduces background noise. But for even clearer audio, their WirelessME set will do the trick. I use this when doing interview/talking head content anywhere I cannot control the volume of noise in the room. It reduces the noise even more than the shotgun mic and you can clip this mic onto your talent and they can be as far as 300ft+.

Lenses by Moment for iPhone social media content creation

LENSES 📸

I rotate between three lenses by Moment. The 58mm Tele Lens is on my camera about 90% of the time I shoot. It captures a sharper image than the standard iPhone camera gets and it has a more natural depth of field than using the cinematic mode on your iPhone. The 14mm Fisheye Lens is my personal favorite because it’s just a FUN lens to play around with. This is for a unique, distorted perspective. It gives you a warped wide look on the outside and a bubbled closer look at the center. I recommend this lens to EVERYONE! And lastly is the 10x Macro Lens for capture those close up details. This lens will literally have you in awe. You won’t believe that an iPhone is capable of capturing these kinds of details.

LIGHTING 💡
I have a few different lights I film my content with but since we are talking about mobile phone gear I want to stick with what light I keep on my rig at all times. If you ever catch me on the job the light I’ll have on me is the the Digipower ‘The Streamer’ Compact Light. Most of the time I have enough light wherever I’m filming but this thing does come in clutch once in a while.

Content Creator holding iPhone Rig for social media video and photography

PHONE CAGE 📱

If you’re planning to use multiple accessories at once, a phone cage is a must. The cage will hold your phone in place and has multiple cold shoe attachments for you to clip on your mics, lights and any other accessories you might want to add. The cage I use is made by SmallRig. It’s an absolute workhorse, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking to build out a full iPhone filming rig.

Tyler Phillips
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