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The Moto Z Hasselblad camera mod is used to create SI magazine cover

A smartphone camera was used for the first time in Sports Illustrated's history to take the picture of its magazine cover, with the Moto Z Hasselblad mod.
By
November 30, 2016
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While smartphone cameras have come a long way in the past few years, they still lag behind professional stand alone cameras for serious work. That gap may be getting smaller, however, thanks in part to Motorola’s support of Moto Mods for its Moto Z family of smartphones. Indeed, the Moto Z was used with its Hasselblad True Zoom camera mod to take the cover photograph for the latest issue of Sports Illustrated’s print magazine.

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The subject of the latest SI cover just happens to be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who started as a college football player and pro wrestler and is now arguably the most famous movie star in the world right now, not to mention People magazine’s latest “Sexiest Man Alive”

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The photo shoot itself was taken on Nov. 14 in Beverly Hills by photographer Mike LeBrecht. Motorola says that he was able to use the Hasselblad Mod’s professional settings with the Moto Z to create an image that looks as good as one made with a high-end camera. Of course, LeBrecht already knows his way around a photo shoot, and there are also other factors in this image such as lighting that the normal smartphone owner would not have. However, it does show that Motorola’s support of Mods to add extra functions to smartphones may be getting some traction.