iPhone 12 mini & Optical Zoom

Jud Valeski

Jan 30, 2021 • 2 min read

If you're like me and had been longing for an iPhone 4S sized iPhone for the past several years, you were stoked when the iPhone 12 mini arrived on the scene a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, the iCamera lens setup in the mini doesn't support optical zoom, which is pretty darn important if you like taking pictures. As good as the ML is behind all the digital zoom code these days, it still sucks in comparison to the real, analog, thing.

I turned to my friends at Moment for an iPhone 12 mini telephoto lens, but, they don't have a mount for the 12 mini body, so I decided to make one myself. While it's bulky, I can now get 2x optical zoom on my mini.

If you want to 3d print your own mount, you can download my .stl file here. The lens I'm using is Moment's 58mm telephoto. I'm also using Moment's drop-in lens mount. I printed the body mount with PLA filament.

Here are pics of the finished product.

The Moment drop-in mount (black piece) was removed for this photo. It fits tightly in the grey body mount and can be left in during day-to-day use.

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