Simon Mills Photography

Just after Christmas I upgraded my phone to the iPhone 4S. Previously I had the old 3G, which had sported a rather fetching smashed screen and a glitchy camera for the best part of a year, something that had made any iPhoneography awkward and frustrating to do. To go along with the new phone, and to hopefully encourage me to actually use its camera regularly, I ordered the rather lovely POPA from Beep Industries.

POPA photograph courtesy of Beep Industries

First up, the POPA is no run of the mill, flimsy phone accessory. Everything from the beautiful packaging to the finish on the product itself is first rate. The POPA is made from solid metal with a textured leather grip. It has a great feel to it; solid, just the right weight and grippy enough to give you complete confidence holding it when connected to your phone. And yup, the big red button just begs to be pressed.

POPA photograph courtesy of Beep Industries

Connecting to the iPhone is simple enough. The first time you connect the POPA you will be prompted to download the POPA app - after you've installed it the app will launch automatically each time you connect the POPA. The app itself is clear and simple to use - I love the filmstrip/contact sheet which stores your photos until you want to send them to your photo album (the latest version of the app can be set to automatically save photos to your photo album if you prefer) - and has options for sending and sharing your photos via the usual social media suspects and a few iPhone post processing apps too. Another benefit of the app is its speed - the camera will shoot pictures almost instantly, without waiting for a focus lock like most other iPhone photo apps, and will let you keep shooting with almost no delay between shots. I'm no street photographer but I definitely agree with Greg Schmigel that the time saving here is a massive plus.

The biggest benefit for me has been how much more comfortable and accurate I can be when using the iPhone to take photos. I'm not the most dextrous of people; having already lost one phone to picture taking cackhandedness and finding more and more photo apps requiring multiple digits in every corner of the screen to take a photo, it comes as some relief to just have to think about pressing one (big) button. And whilst the POPA button only works within the POPA app, having the grip attached gives a much greater feel of control and accuracy when using almost every other iPhone photo app.

I'm genuinely loving the POPA, and everyone else who sees it is instantly hooked - if you're interested in getting a hold of one check out the POPA website for more info.

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