Despite the ever-increasing video quality of smartphones, the devices still aren't optimized for video production. That's where the MagCool OmniGrip comes in, as it adds more power, lighting, cooling, connectivity and storage to your existing phone.
Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the OmniGrip is made by Hong Kong electronics company JSAUX. The device was designed primarily with ProRes-capable iPhones in mind, but it's said to be compatible with any make/model of smartphone.
First of all, the OmniGrip does indeed serve as an adjustable-angle one-handed phone grip. A central pushbutton is used to start and stop recording, while a quarter-inch threaded hole on the bottom allows the device to be mounted on a tripod.
The phone is quickly and easily connected to the OmniGrip – in landscape or portrait orientation – via a round magnetized mount. This means that the phone will need to have a built-in magnetic ring (such as the iPhone 12 or newer), an add-on adhesive magnetic ring, or a magnet-equipped case.
By additionally cable-connecting the phone to the OmniGrip, users can access the latter's 6,000-mAh lithium-ion battery. It should reportedly be good for 2.5 hours of runtime, over and above whatever the phone's own battery provides.
The grip also has an M2 SSD (solid state drive) slot that supports up to 1TB of storage at 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) transfer speeds. This is an important consideration when shooting in ProRes, as the huge video files require a lot of memory space and processing power.
Speaking of which, phones can quickly heat up when shooting ProRes or other high-quality formats. For that reason, the OmniGrip has a disc-shaped semiconductor cooling plate and fan on the backside of its magnetic phone mount. This device can be manually switched on via another pushbutton on the grip, when the phone starts overheating.
Surrounding the cooling plate is an LED ring-type fill light. It's switched on and off via a third button on the grip, and can be set to white, natural or warm color temperatures.
Some of the OmniGrip's other features include a USB-C data port, a shock-absorbing microphone mount and a 3.5-mm audio-in jack, the latter for recording microphone audio onto the SSD-stored video. The whole rig weighs a claimed 179 g (6 oz), and folds down to a length of 159 mm (6.25 in) when not in use.
Assuming the MagCool OmniGrip reaches production, a pledge of US$59.99 will get you one – the planned retail price is $89.99. Its functions are demonstrated in the video below.
Source: Kickstarter
