Add-on lenses for smartphones have been around for a long time, but optical quality has underwhelmed on inexpensive lenses, and others that have delivered strong image quality have been hampered by convoluted attachment mechanisms. Moment's system, which is available on an á la carte basis, includes four lenses, the New Wide, New Tele, New Macro, and the New Superfish ($89.99), which we're reviewing here. The New Superfish gives your phone an ultra-wide field of view, but comes with the fish-eye distortion that its name implies, and takes a bit of detail away from images. If you crave the widest field of view possible with your phone, it's worth checking out.

Compatible Phones

Because the system requires a fitted case, it's not compatible with every phone. But it works with a bunch. A standard case, priced at $29.99, is available in your choice of textured black finish or a wood grain walnut brown. It's available for the most popular phones from Apple (iPhone 6/6s, iPhone 6/6s Plus, iPhone 7/8, iPhone 7/8 Plus, iPhone X), Google (Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL), and Samsung (Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+).

I received the black case for the iPhone 8 Plus for testing. It's nondescript, so if you prefer a flashier look you'll probably want to go for the walnut finish. It's also a bit bulky. It probably protects my phone a bit better than the normal Apple leather case I use, but the Moment case is thicker all around, in part because there has to be enough depth to support the bayonet lens mount system.

If you're an iPhone user you can opt to spend $99.99 on a battery case, available for the iPhone 7/8 or 7 Plus/8Plus. It's finished in black, and obviously adds more girth to your phone due to the battery. Moment says it can charge your phone to 90 percent capacity. The battery case also adds physical shutter button, so your phone feels more like a point-and-shoot, and it includes an external Lightning connector rather than micro USB. Unfortunately, the Lightning port on the case does not work with Apple's headphone dongle, which is a big downer for anyone who still uses wired headphones.

You can certainly use any of the Moment lenses with your standard phone camera app without issue. But Moment offers an iOS app—nothing for Android—that tunes the camera settings for the add-on lens you're using and adds EXIF data, so you know which lens you used for a specific shot. Adding EXIF info requires you to do some work—you have to remember to set the app to match the lens you have attached.

Image Quality

Moment makes four lenses as part of its New series—the New Macro, New Superfish, New Tele, and New Wide. These replace the company's first series, which now bear the Original moniker, and are on sale at closeout prices. Because the lenses are available individually you can opt to pick and choose. If you're not a fan of a a tight field of view you can skip the telephoto option, and some photographers may feel that carrying both ultra-wide and fish-eye lenses is redundant.

For shots where a wide-angle lens isn't wide enough, there is the New Superfish ($79.99 at Amazon) . It captures a huge swath of the world with a single click of the shutter, although it adds the rounded distortion you expect from a fish-eye design to get there. There's also some sacrifice in resolution; a close look at our test shots shows some softness across the frame. It's not something that's apparent at the image sizes you'll use to share images on the web, but will be a concern if you want to make big prints.

Conclusions

Going whole hog with the Moment lens series is a costly proposition—you can get an entry-level SLR or mirrorless camera for around $400 if you shop around, after all. But thankfully each lens is sold separately, so you can pick and choose which optics are best suited for your shooting style. The smartphone has all but replaced the entry-level point-and-shoot camera in the marketplace, and the latest models can do a bunch—portraits with a shallow depth of field, in-camera panoramas, 4K video, and Raw capture to name a handful.

Add-on lenses can expand those capabilities. We've looked at a few through the years, but each has had its own set of issues. The Imvio kit was inexpensive, but really murdered image quality. Photojojo's Iris was better, but a weird elastic string mounting method made it an impractical accessory. The Moment lens system sidesteps most problems we've seen with smartphone lenses. Optical quality is quite good overall, and the bayonet mount system is secure and practical.

The New Superfish turns your smartphone's main lens, typically a 28mm wide-angle prime, into an ultra, ultra-wide fish-eye. If you're backed up into a corner trying to get a shot, or if the scenery in front of you is simply too vast for to be captured by anything narrower, the Superfish will come in handy. It does introduce some curved distrotion, but that's simply the nature of a fish-eye lens. It also sacrifices some detail to get there, but not nearly as much as lesser fish-eye add-ons we've seen, like the one from Imvio.

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