Kickstarter turns your iPhone into a modular, vintage-style camera

The RetroVa Vintage Image Kit features a slide-on camera grip with real buttons, modular telephoto optics, film filter presets, and support for external storage. Here are the details.

Interesting project, with a few catches

If you follow the Chinese smartphone market, you’re likely familiar with Vivo and Oppo, which rank second and third in shipments, behind Apple.

Both companies’ flagship phones feature an official photo extender made by PGYTECH, the same company behind this new iPhone-focused Kickstarter project.

The RetroVa Vintage Imaging Kit is currently offering a 20% early-bird discount for backers, with versions available for the iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, and pledge tiers ranging from $72 to $184.

According to PGYTECH:

“Smartphones made photography easy, RetroVa makes it meaningful again. A mechanical grip, real controls, and a powerful telephoto extender revive the soul of classic cameras and turn your iPhone into a focused, cinematic shooting experience.”

As the company explains on the Kickstarter page, the telephoto extender (which is included only in the more expensive Kickstarter tier) features a 13-element lens system, divided into 3 optical groups. It is optimized for the iPhone’s f/2.8 aperture, with distortion kept to just 2%.

Here are a few extra details provided by PGYTECH:

The 2.35× Master Telephoto Extender unlocks a focal range previously impossible on a smartphone. Reach up to 235mm (4×) optical on iPhone 17 Pro, or push to a staggering 2350mm equivalent. From the subtle details of wildlife to the raw energy of a concert stage, RetroVa brings the distant world into razor-sharp focus—without the digital noise.

iPhone 17 Pro Series: 235mm (4×) Optical | Up to 2350mm Equiv.

iPhone 16 Pro Series: 282mm (5×) Optical | Up to 1410mm Equiv.

Two items included in the box of any tier are the Phone Grip and the Phone Case, which offer both aesthetic and practical advantages.

In addition to making the iPhone look like a vintage camera, the Phone Grip features physical buttons for easier and more granular camera control, as well as a microSD card slot. Notably, external recording doesn’t support 4K60 ProRes, though PGYTECH says it supports ProRes and HEVC recording with some limitations.

Another particularly big caveat of this project is that the entire setup works exclusively with PGYTECH’s camera app, as the hardware can’t integrate as deeply with Apple’s built-in Camera app.

That app, however, does offer some meaningful controls, including the ability to apply vintage or film-style looks at capture time, full manual control over shutter speed, ISO, and white balance, and reduced sharpening.

If you do decide to splurge and get the more expensive kit, in addition to the phone case, phone grip, and telephoto lens, you’ll also get the lens adapter ring, a tripod, a strap, and a lens pouch.

PGYTECH says the first kits are scheduled to ship next month, and some options seem to be selling out quickly. If you’d like to take a closer look at the Kickstarter project, follow this link.