Unofficial 3-in-1 Lightning Camera Connection Kit Supports USB, SD, and MicroSD

MacRumors · Dec 6, 2012

The folks at iPhone5mod continue to churn out unofficial Lightning accessories to fill the void left by Apple's slow rollout of official products under its own label and licensed to third-party manufacturers. iPhone5mod's latest offering is a 3-in-1 Lightning Camera Connection Kit, a dongle priced at $23.90 that provides camera support for SD and microSD cards, as well as USB.

Apple offers a $29 kit containing a pair of dongles supporting USB and SD connections for its original 30-pin dock connector, but for the new Lightning standard Apple has moved to separate cable-based SD card and USB adapters priced at $29 each.

iPhone5mod also released a 3-in1 Cable Pro product last week, packaging micro-USB, Lightning and 30-pin connectors with a retractable USB cable. The product may offer some convenience for users with multiple types of devices, but the implementation appears somewhat awkward with users having to remove either the Lightning or 30-pin connector in order to properly attach the other one to the micro-USB connector for use.

Article Link: Unofficial 3-in-1 Lightning Camera Connection Kit Supports USB, SD, and MicroSD

ncaissie · Dec 6, 2012

This looks so cheap.
I would be afraid to use it.

LimeiBook86 · Dec 6, 2012

I'd be more inclined to order the USB/SD/MicroSD adapter if I wasn't afraid Apple would release a software update to disable it from working.

apfeljonas · Dec 6, 2012

ncaissie said:
This looks so cheap.
I would be afraid to use it.

According to lots of reviews, they seem to have great quality at an ok price. I'd buy them.

APlotdevice · Dec 6, 2012

Tempting for when I finally upgrade my iPad. I have the official kit for my iPad 1, but it ticks me off that Apple decided to split the new adapters up and charge as much for one as the two original ones together cost.

rmwebs · Dec 6, 2012

ncaissie said:
This looks so cheap.
I would be afraid to use it.

Worst case scenario: it doesnt work.

You cant really blow up the iPhone with a cable. For one thing the USB voltage is only 5v. Then you've got the fact that power contact isnt made with the iPhone until the cable is identified, only then does power turn on.

ncaissie · Dec 6, 2012

rmwebs said:
Worst case scenario: it doesnt work.

You cant really blow up the iPhone with a cable. For one thing the USB voltage is only 5v. Then you've got the fact that power contact isnt made with the iPhone until the cable is identified, only then does power turn on.

Yes you can.

Maybe not the lightning one but the old one shorted out my 3GS. That's what Apple told me anyway. Could have been dust or something but I kept getting a message over and over saying this device doesn't support charging. And that was when there was no wire connected to the phone.

I believe something similar happened to my daughters iPod Nano 4G. The click wheel would not work unless there was a cable connected and the center button didn't work at all.

rmwebs · Dec 6, 2012

ncaissie said:
Yes you can. Maybe not the lightning one but the old one shorted out my 3GS. That's what Apple told me anyway. Could have been dust or something but I kept getting a message over and over saying this device doesn't support charging. And that was when there was no wire connected to the phone.

I believe something similar happened to my daughter’s iPod Nano 4G. The click wheel would not work unless there was a cable connected and the center button didn't work at all.

I was referring to the new iPhones - they arent affected by it. Given that this is a LIGHTNING cable for the NEW products I thought that much was clear.

macs4nw · Dec 6, 2012

ncaissie said:
This looks so cheap. I would be afraid to use it.

I'm also a bit leery about using third party accessories, after the LaCie supplied Thunderbolt cable, that came with my new 'Rugged USB3/Thunderbolt drive' conked out after only 20 minutes of use. The fact that it came with the cable, influenced me to buy that particular drive in the first place. Bought the APPLE Thunderbolt cable, and the drive now works fine.

hchung · Dec 6, 2012

rmwebs said:
Worst case scenario: it doesnt work.

You cant really blow up the iPhone with a cable. For one thing the USB voltage is only 5v. Then you've got the fact that power contact isnt made with the iPhone until the cable is identified, only then does power turn on.

According to the teardowns of the official cable, part of the switching for the power appears to be in the cable connector. I don't know whether or not the safety aspects of the design require both the cable and the phone to support it. If so, then part of the concern is if the unofficial cables have the same safety mechanisms. I'm waiting for a teardown of these.

At any rate, I'd be less concerned about blowing up the phone and more about damaging the contacts of the phone's dock connector.

haruhiko · Dec 6, 2012

ncaissie said:
This looks so cheap.
I would be afraid to use it.

An iOS update will easily disable these knock off adapters saying it "consumes too much electricity"

weckart · Dec 7, 2012

macs4nw said:
I'm also a bit leery about using third party accessories, after the LaCie supplied Thunderbolt cable, that came with my new 'Rugged USB3/Thunderbolt drive' conked out after only 20 minutes of use.

A LaCie product failing? Who woulda thunk?

macs4nw · Dec 7, 2012

weckart said:
A LaCie product failing? Who woulda thunk?

Well it wasn't the drive, but a third-party cable that came with the drive, a $49 savings, or so I thought. I have an older 256GB 2Big FW400/800 drive that is very quiet, and hasn't given me any problems over the last five years or so. The last thing I was expecting to go wrong with this new drive was the supplied Thunderbolt connecting cable.

Just goes to show you that what appears to be a good deal, isn't always what it seems.

Berserker-UK · Dec 7, 2012

rmwebs said:
Worst case scenario: it doesnt work.

You cant really blow up the iPhone with a cable.

You may not 'blow up the iPhone', but you could cause physical damage to the dock connector (depending on how robust it is). I snapped the dock connector on an old PDA while using an unofficial cable. I'd hope the design is sufficiently robust to make this unlikely, but I'd never say never.

I should add that I have plenty of unofficial 30-pin cables and never had trouble with any of them.

ncaissie · Dec 7, 2012

rmwebs said:
I was referring to the new iPhones - they arent affected by it. Given that this is a LIGHTNING cable for the NEW products I thought that much was clear.

But if you look at the image it has the 32 pin end as well as a USB end.
If you buy it only for lightning then why not just get a lightning only cable.
I thought that much was clear.

Edit: And I can only see the bottom image. The top one if filtered by our servers.

Nat Mayhew · Dec 11, 2012

Not quite sure what the hold up is with an official Apple product or why Apple insists on marketing USB support as a Camera Connection Kit when it serves so many other useful purposes. Apple makes and endorses products that need usb devices such as Midi Keyboards (Garageband) so one would think that they would have a simple solution for the new iOS devices by now. I don't want a cable hanging from my iPad nor do I want a 3rd party adapter that will probably be made obsolete by whatever Apple decides to release. Do they seriously expect real musicians to use the GUI for making music? I do expect whatever they release for lightning to USB support to be radically different (at least marketing wise) now that usb has pretty much won the format war between itself and firewire and more and more serious musicians are turning to the iPad as a real instrument.

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