App to lock telephoto lens for iPhone 11 Pro Max digiscoping?

[grappling_hook]

For those with an iPhone that includes the third (telephoto) lens, what app/strategy are you using to be able to select a single lens and set it to the telephoto? Would love to hear some of your experiences with different apps. I'm a camera and digiscoping beginner and want simple/auto controls mostly at this time, but need to be able to lock the telephoto lens and can't do it right now. At this point even locking the 1x lens would work, even though it leaves a scope silhouette. This time of year I'm shooting the moon (literally) and birds, but game will be very soon.

For those figuring out what this thread is about, in order to effectively digiscope you need to choose just one lens to center to your optics, whether binoculars or spotting scope, especially if you are using an adapter. The iPhone 11 Pro Max native camera app lets you touch .5x to select the ultrawide lens, 1x for wide, and 2x for telephoto; but often when you press 2x, the iPhone actually uses the wide (1x) lens with 2x digital zoom, rather than the 2x optical lens (telephoto), and there is no setting in the native camera app to stop that. It's really frustrating when it switches from the 2x telephoto lens to the wide lens with 2x digital zoom right before you are about to snap the pic, and prevents you from getting the shot at all.

A couple of old posts mention the Pro Cam app (but don't mention which, as there are a couple of different vendors selling "Pro Cam" such as Pro Camera by Moment, ProCamera by Cocologics, and ProCam by Samer Azzam) or Raw+, but there doesn't seem to be a newer dedicated thread to solving this problem or reviews of how different apps work for digiscoping hunters.

 

[grappling_hook]

Okay, went ahead and tried out the Pro Camera by Moment, and so far it's just what I'm looking for. Super easy to select between the three lenses for the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and can set it to auto beyond that.

Altogether, the setup is pretty amazing. It easily turns my 10x42mm binoculars into a 10x-20x42mm monocular by using either the 1x or 2x optical zoom on the phone. And turns my 25x-60x65mm spotting scope into a 25x-120x65mm spotting scope.

Took a bit of fiddling to get the exposure in the ballpark for the moon, and I don't have an adapter that fits yet, but I'm happy with this moon pic considering it was handheld up to the spotter, and my first attempt.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend the Moment Pro Camera if you're a beginner like me having the 3-lens alignment issue.

 

[Smokeslider]

That's impressive

 

[sjackson6715]

@grappling_hook those look great. Amazing detail from an iPhone and a pair of 10's! Another great moon watching week currently. What adapter are you running between your iphone11 and binoculars? And do you like it?

 

[grappling_hook]

Thanks. I use this $11 adapter for the binoculars: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08111G16N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this $36 adapter for the spotter (I could use this for the binoculars, but it's a little bigger): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CNL85TT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To clarify, the photos above were with the spotting scope, but the photos with the 10x binoculars were still really good.

 

[Huntersquest]

I currently have ProCamera and Moment. Both work great and make it easy to switch between lenses and lock onto a specific lens with my 11 Pro max.

 

[TTT]

How does this app handle raw files & export?