Kickstarter: Fjorden grip for iPhone adds physical camera controls to your smartphone

Norwegian company Fjorden has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Fjorden, the ‘world’s first pocketable, professional iPhone camera grip.’

Mobile photography is a big deal. iPhone photos have been featured on the covers of major publications, including Vogue, National Geographic and Time Magazine. Fjorden enhances iPhone’s impressive photographic capabilities by adding ‘professional-quality camera controls.’

The Fjorden grip has a two-stage shutter button. Like the shutter release on a dedicated camera, you half-press to focus and full-press to shoot. The Fjorden includes a customizable control dial that can adjust exposure, shutter speed, ISO, portrait mode aperture, focus and more. A multi-function button can be used to change shooting modes, adjust flash modes and more. Finally, the Fjorden includes a zoom level to switch between iPhone lenses or zoom in and out quickly.

While the Fjorden adds a grip and controls to your iPhone, it doesn’t dramatically change the overall form factor of the iPhone. Fjorden is 10.7mm (0.39″) deep. Attached to an iPhone 12 Pro, the total depth is 21mm (0.8″), which should be easily pocketable into most pants. The grip also doubles as a kickstand, which could prove useful for many users. If you don’t want to have the grip on, it quickly detaches via a quick-release clip from the Fjorden MagSafe case.

Fjorden is compatible with a very wide range of iPhone models and Fjorden states it will work with future phones, too.

Fjorden works with the Fjorden Camera App. The camera app is designed for fast, intuitive one-handed shooting. The app’s user interface is fully customizable, allowing the user to assign features or control parameters to Fjorden’s hardware controls. The app is compatible with all iPhone models running iOS 14 or newer.

Fjorden Camera App (in development)

Fjorden Camera App features include full exposure controls (including EV, shutter speed, ISO, AE-L), focusing modes, white balance, lens switching and digital zoom, film simulations, file formats (including ProRAW on compatible iPhone models) and more. Kickstarter backers will be able to beta test the application, allowing them to influence its development.

While Fjorden has been designed with the Fjorden Camera App in mind, the grip is compatible with other leading camera apps and lenses, including ProCamera and Obscura apps and Moment lenses. Fjorden is teaming up with ProCamera for a special edition version of Fjorden.

Fjorden ProCamera special edition

Fjorden’s iPhone cases for iPhone 11 and 12 are MagSafe compatible. The Fjorden uses a standard CR2430 coin cell battery and promises up to 12 months of battery life. The battery is user-replaceable. Fjorden comes with a two-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You can back Fjorden for as little as €119, which is just over $140. This ‘early bird’ special price is 25% off the eventual retail price of €159 (just under $190). The Fjorden includes the Fjorden Grip and Fjorden Universal Back Plate Adapter (which allows the grip to be compatible with all iPhone models that can run iOS 14 and future iPhone models). Shipping is expected to begin in February 2022. For more information on Fjorden, visit Kickstarter.