IndieVice Kickstarter Aims to Turn Smartphones Into Pro Video Cameras

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by Kevin AlexanderJuly 12^th, 2015

IndieVice turns your smartphone camera into a handheld camera complete with lens adapters for your DSLR lenses.

It’s no secret that smartphones are now capable of taking some pretty great looking videos. Sure, they have their limitations. But what if you could actually use one and get some professional results? Well, here’s an interesting Kickstarter campaign to check out. IndieVice allows you to handhold your smartphone camera to get stable, professional shots.

Your smartphone slides into this unit and it allows you to get stable handheld shots. Of course, the viewfinder eliminates sun glare, but since you can’t touch the phone’s screen they have added a BlueTooth zoom and record button controller to the unit. But IndieVice also allows the phone to swivel out and allow you to make adjustments to the camera app when necessary, or simply to use the screen instead of the viewfinder when shooting. IndieVice also has various lens adapters available, allowing you to use virtually any lens you already own. And you can also attach a GoPro to the unit, allowing you to shoot handheld while using the BlueTooth record button controller.

Granted, there are no professional audio inputs on this device. You can certainly use adapters to connect your mic to your smartphone, but it’s definitely limited in its audio capabilities. Still, we live in an era of rapid democratization of video production gear. Not only can a newcomer easily gain access to gear, but professionals have many more options open to them for their projects. This device looks like it might inspire newcomers to use their smartphone to start making their own videos. And perhaps professionals might have another option for gathering b-roll on the fly. Regardless, it’s always nice to see some innovative ideas coming to fruition.

IndieVice has already met its funding goal and will begin shipping in March 2016. But you can still pledge and preorder your own unit for around $145.