Designed by a photographer and filmmaker, Brandon Hoe just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a chassis that will make it much easier to travel and still take great pictures with your iPhone. Thoughts? Would you use something like this?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brandonhoe/helium-core-the-basic-building-block-for-iphoneogr

I'm always a fan of smartphone journalism, so something like this sounds great. That said, I can't help but feel if you're going to the hassle of rigging up an iphone (however basic) you may as well pack a camera. THAT said, people that would have a camera are people like us, the average consumer this may be aimed at usually doesn't know about capturing audio, lighting and building rigs... and maybe they don't want to know.

I can see that might be useful as a basis for a rig.

There are some products like the iKlip A/V (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/iklipav/) already available, or you can easily make one of your own which takes accessories like a radiomic receiver, but they all have their limitations.

I have two rigs I use a lot - the first (the sensible one) uses a PAGlight extension bracket I already had and a Joby iPhone clip. It takes a Sennheiser G2 or G3 receiver with an iRigPre underneath. (2nd photo)

The other (the ridiculous one) uses a Rycote extension bar again with an iRigPre underneath and a Joby iPhone clip to attach the iPhone to a Rode Blimp. Looks preposterous, but it works really well outside. (3rd photo to follow - haven't got one handy) The iRigPre has a headphone output for monitoring.

An example using these taken under tricky field conditions can be here Queen Street Works 16th April 2016 (Full edit) on Vimeo

Warning: it's aimed at enthusiasts - others will find it tedious :-)

I can't help but feel if you're going to the hassle of rigging up an iphone (however basic) you may as well pack a camera.

Now that you mention it, I can see how this rig would be useful as an intermediary setup for an enthusiast who has yet to invest in a camera. He does say in the video that you can leave a lot of equipment behind with this chassis. Is that benefit enough to overcome the hassle of setting up the rig?

Now that you mention it, I can see how this rig would be useful as an intermediary setup for an enthusiast who has yet to invest in a camera.

That's exactly how I see it. For me, I'd rather just use the bare iPhone, because its usefulness is the fact that it's always in my pocket. If I tried to work with a rig, I would, more often than not, leave it at home due to its bulk. My A7R II isn't that much more of a setup (sometimes even less so), and so I would just bring that instead if I was going to deal with bulk on my person.

However, if you don't have any other camera and want to play with shooting some actual projects (as opposed to, say, vacation montage videos), then this would be a fantastic stop gap for you to see if you really want to get into this whole "filmmaking" thing. I think the interchangeable lens mounts is less of a necessity than mounting a shotgun mic or wireless receiver though.

I have used the ALM one available from BH Photo and Video

ALM Pro Lens Pack With mCAMLITE for iPhone 6/6s 701047 B&H Photo


which is nice because it has a cold shoe built in for mics. I do however really like the design of the one to which you have linked. The attachment for supplementary lenses is important because of the reduced field of view that iPhones have in video mode.

I am really tempted by the Moment case and lenses though because it is such a nice solution, and the optics are purportedly very good. But it is more designed for photo than video. Their app is good though, and free, and offers TIFF capture.