ShiftCam's new 240 mm telephoto lens adds 10x zoom to your iPhone camera

Hong Kong based accessory maker ShiftCam has made a name for itself with its professional-grade iPhone lenses that attach onto the back of a compatible case. Its newly announced LensUltra Explorer Series has a 240 mm equivalent periscope telephoto lens at its centre, which offers roughly 10x zoom when attached to the iPhone's main or 'wide' camera.

ShiftCam suggests that the lens would be useful in concerts, and for travel and nature photography. Its ultra-compact design certainly helps make it a more appealing option than carrying a mirrorless camera with an equivalent telephoto lens, or even a compact camera with a built-in zoom lens, like the Canon PowerShot ELPH 360.

Apart from the telephoto lens, the LensUltra Explorer series also includes a macro adapter that adds 2x magnification, and you can stack multiple adapters to get even more up-close to your subject. Then there's a circular polariser filter, as well as two variable ND filters that cut the incoming light by either 1-5 or 6-9 stops.

Finally, for the more prolific shooters, the series includes ShiftCam's Planck—a tiny dongle-like SSD that plugs into your phone's USB-C port to make sure you don't run out of storage just when you need it. Given the long focal length of the lens, we would highly recommend adding the ShiftCam Grip Pro to your arsenal, which would help stabilise the shot while also acting as a 5,000 mAh power bank.

ShiftCam's entire product range focusses exclusively on the iPhone. To use the lens, you can choose either the fabric-backed camera case, or the clear camera case which is also available for the non-Pro iPhones.

The LensUltra Explorer series will be available starting October 1 this year, but will also be showcased at IFA Berlin (September 5-9). Pricing details have not been revealed yet.