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What does and doesn't matter about Apple shooting their October event on iPhone

300 points by robenkleene 3y ago

seec 3y ago
It reads like a fanboy's list of excuses for an extremely misleading statement. Considering everything he said, what you could call it, is "shooting on a top of the line Sony smartphone sensor, embedded in an iOS carrier, running a 3rd party software". Even ignoring all the massive amount of gear that is used to make this possible (and where the camera is in fact not the most crucial factor as is the case in most productions) it is not anything like what people think when you tell them shot on iPhone. You could tell them, "you need a bit more hardware to make this decent"; but imposing such limitations and specific settings/apps means it is nowhere near what Apple advertise as a camera and it doesn't match at all with what one would think when hearing "shot on iPhone. It is at best a gross mischaracterization of a minor detail but in reality, it is a massive marketing lie. The truth is that if you cannot mobilise such heavy production tooling, your money would be better spent on a better camera, because such camera would have much better results without entirely relying on those tools thanks to much better flexibility because of a wider native ability. A bigger sensor wouldn't have to rely so hard on lightning in the first place, since you could shoot at higher ISO without gaining to much noise. What he said about Final Cut is kinda funny. Considering recent Apple behavior I would not put it past them to deprecate Final Cut if it does not make enough money. Or do something like make a new version that would be required in the newer OSs but that you could only subscribe to, not outright buy. That would be on brand with the current Apple ways... I really do not understand the level of justification/excuses Apple get for their deceptions even though they are a trillion-dollar company. Especially when their competitors get teared a new ass for the most minors things, that routinely get mischaracterized by Apple fans... People need to wake up, Apple is not a startup, nor the weak challenger anymore, they should get zero sympathy for their deceptive behavior.
helf 3y ago
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simbolit 3y ago
"Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens." This.
- deleted 3y ago
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- ghaff 3y ago
  But often lighting is what it is. I can use a camera (and lenses) to compensate for a lot of crappy lighting that would otherwise make it tough to get a decent shot. I sometimes shoot photos at corporate events and the difference between "real" cameras and photos shot on phones is often pretty obvious. Sometimes it's a matter of the phones being too far from the subjects or not optimally used but not always.
duxup 3y ago
I thought this was going to be similar to all the hot take stuff it references at the start about the event being shot on an iPhone... but rather this is a nice technical walk through on some features and what they mean. Very good read.
- jzl 3y ago
  His resume is insane and he's been blogging for like 20 years. He literally wrote the book on "rebel filmmaking" with low-cost cameras before HD cameras became so cheap. https://www.amazon.com/DV-Rebels-Guide-All-Digital-Approach/dp/0321413644 https://www.amazon.com/DV-Rebels-Guide-All-Digital-Approach/...
amelius 3y ago
[flagged]
- chollida1 3y ago
  > Makes you wonder. When will someone in Apple finally win a Nobel prize? Win what specific version of the Nobel?
  - simbolit 3y ago
    Economics is not actually a Nobel Prize, which leaves us with 5: Literature - unlikely Peace - I can construe some scenario, but - again - unlikely. Physiology or Medicine - For the Apple Watch? Chemistry - unlikely, they don't do fundamental research Physics - same
    - culi 3y ago
      Nobody still knows why they gave Obama the Peace prize. Makes me think that's the most likely one
      - willsmith72 3y ago
        On the other hand, they also didn't anticipate the negative reaction to that, so I doubt they'd do the same thing again knowingly.
      - simbolit 3y ago
        Henry Kissinger won the Peace Prize 1973 for ending the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War ended in 1975.
  - caycep 3y ago
    historically, the Nobels seem to prefer basic research and stuff; an applied science/engineering company like Apple probably isn't on their radar. They would have to fund a basic science blue sky division like Bell Labs or one of the old IBM pure research centers to really be a player in the game; but those things rarely play well with corporate interests. W the media arm of the company, I think they do have a few oscar contenders, so a nobel lit prize if they ever get into written content creation is not a stretch...
user_7832 3y ago
I think there are 2 parts to this: One is "iPhone camera sensors are competitive with commercial offerings in some cases". I think this is what Apple was trying to go for with the entire thing including the behind the scenes. The other is "If you (edit: just) have an iPhone you too can make such a video". Which is what anyone who isn't affiliated with the film industry (aka 99% of the population) might think, especially if they didn't see the behind the scenes. "Shot on iPhone" hence has 2 perspectives.
- threeseed 3y ago
  > If you have an iPhone you too can make such a video You can though. What it showed was that the real limitation to making high quality content is skill and knowledge. You can get away with just your iPhone, iPad and cheap lighting from AliExpress for 99% of the shots. Having expensive equipment simply allows you to deliver that quality fast and at a consistent level. Which is what commercial clients demand.
  - ska 3y ago
    Professional photography and videography gear has always only been about that though. It broadens the range of shots you can get and/or the efficiency of the process (and usually puts up with more abuse).
    - chiefalchemist 3y ago
      It helps, sometimes. There are plenty of shooters running around with elite gear and getting slightly above average images of the classic (read: cliche) sunset, etc. Scarcity is the spark that ignites creativity. Put another way, look how many shite films Hollywood makes, and they have top gear. Great gear will never save a lack of creativity, lack of vision, etc.
      - ska 3y ago
        Other than robustness, 'pro' gear mostly expands the range of parameters you can push and still get a decent shot. It's not going to give you an eye. Elsewhere in thread it's correctly noted that in a lot of cases lighting is more important that cameras anyway. But similarly, you have to know how to set up - same applies though, the gear can't do the setup for you.
great_psy 3y ago
Of course there is more to it than just the phone. If I gave you a 100k Alexa camera, could you make the apple event without all the other gadgets? Sure the camera is capable, but there’s so much more around it. I think this tech allows the currently 18 year old next Spielberg to shot some cool video with relatively low budget. For 99% of people buying this phone they were not even thinking of making a film of the keynotes quality to start. So talking about the extra gear is a moot point. For the few that want to accomplish something like that, know they can buy a 1.5K phone, and film something that will look decent. Maybe not like the keynote, but good enough to be comparable with the quality of a movie shot 10 years ago. Which is pretty good especially if you’re not projecting it on a huge screen. The other thing that will be coming in the not too distant future is ai enhanced filming. You film in questionable quality, and you feed that to the machine model to spit out something in higher resolution( both pixels per inch, but also color/light depth) in which case this phone quality will be plenty.
- simbolit 3y ago
  > ai enhanced filming. You film in questionable quality, and you feed that to the machine model that is a promised "coming soon" feature of the new google phone. as it is "coming soon" nobody knows whether it delivers on that promise.
  - great_psy 3y ago
    That’s ok. Even if Google phone does not deliver, there will be software that will deliver, if not next year in the next five. We already have the technology to do it for a single photo. Making it possible for a whole movie is just an optimization problem. I have no doubt we will get there.
- matwood 3y ago
  Someone who is into making movies can also build cheap lighting. High end photography/videography is more accessible than ever before.
  - great_psy 3y ago
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berkut 3y ago
One thing I'm curious about is how they avoided lens flair from small bright lights - the iPhone's lenses in my experience produce multiple very pronounced lens flares when shooting bright lights (and older iPhones used to produce one large green flare as well, but I think that's been reduced in the 14 and 15 - I'm sure other phones do as well, I'm just only familiar with iPhones these days). Very large light sources likely helped (as did the matte boxes), but maybe they carefully chose the camera angles as well to minimise this?
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- kergonath 3y ago
  > Very large light sources likely helped (as did the matte boxes), but maybe they carefully chose the camera angles as well to minimise this? All of it, I think. In my experience these ugly flares come mostly from point sources (things like streetlights), so large, soft light sources should help. Also, the matte boxes help controlling where the light that hits the lens comes from, so in effect it makes it easier to have a good angle, on top of making sure that nothing hits the glass at a small angle.
mortenjorck 3y ago
I previously had a rudimentary understanding of log, but the author's other recent piece devoted to it in the context of the iPhone 15 pro (https://prolost.com/blog/applelog https://prolost.com/blog/applelog) gave me a much better appreciation of its importance to professional-looking video. From that article: > But with this iPhone 15 Pro Max footage shot in Apple Log, I can recover all the detail — or just let it overexpose gracefully into this ACES output transform, for a smooth, film-like look. This soft highlight rolloff in the log-to-video conversion is called a “shoulder” in film, describing the upper part of the classic s-curve. A nice shoulder for your highlights is a big part of what makes footage look “pro” — especially when your grading happens underneath it.
- helf 3y ago
  Log does improve things a lot. Being able to do proper 10bit/14bit+ video recording is also a bonus. But you have had the ability to use various color spaces and various non-linear recording formats for awhile on various devices (multiple androids have had this from stock for years plus 3rd party software really unlocks the sensor potential). But Apple markets it better :P
- lm28469 3y ago
  > is called a “shoulder” in film It's called that no matter the medium
reqo 3y ago
>“Shot on iPhone” doesn’t promise “and you can do it too” any more than Stanley Kubrick lighting Barry Lyndon with candlelight means anyone with candles can make Barry Lyndon. What a beautiful way of describing the fallacy of the converse!
- drexlspivey 3y ago
  > anyone with candles can make Barry Lyndon Anyone with candles and NASA lenses
  - m463 3y ago
    I vaguely remember reading about special low f-stop lenses. Here it is: Kubrick was "determined not to reproduce the set-bound, artificially lit look of other costume dramas from that time." After "tinkering with different combinations of lenses and film stock," the production obtained three super-fast 50mm lenses (Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7) developed by Zeiss for use by NASA in the Apollo Moon landings, which Kubrick had discovered. These super-fast lenses "with their huge aperture (the film actually features the lowest f-stop in film history) and fixed focal length" were problematic to mount, and were extensively modified into three versions by Cinema Products Corp. for Kubrick to gain a wider angle of view, with input from optics expert Richard Vetter of Todd-AO. The rear element of the lens had to be 2.5 mm away from the film plane, requiring special modification to the rotating camera shutter. This allowed Kubrick and Alcott to shoot scenes lit in candlelight to an average lighting volume of only three candela, "recreating the huddle and glow of a pre-electrical age." In addition, Kubrick had the entire film push-developed by one stop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon#Cinematography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon#Cinematography
  - astrange 3y ago
    Very good lenses are more accessible than they sound; there are decent cheap f0.95 mirrorless lenses out there, and even if you want an expensive one you can rent it. Just don't drop it.
    - drexlspivey 3y ago
shepherdjerred 3y ago
Really interesting blog post! It seems like iPhones really can do serious filmmaking (with the help of the equipment mentioned in the blog post). I'm curious how this translates to photography. How much would you need to spend on a dedicated camera to shoot better photos than an iPhone can?
- xuhu 3y ago
  Wedding photography costs $600 to $1000 over here, the equipment is typically 4 to 8 years old and costs about $1500 (body + 24-70mm lens + flashes, MPB.com prices).
  - stephen_g 3y ago
    Where is over here? I’ve done a few weddings back in the day, the lenses I’d use (24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8) each cost over $2000 new in today’s US dollars… Then you have backup lenses, backup SLRs, etc. (but I’d usually borrow gear (still pro gear) as backup from people I knew which made things a bit cheaper, and I’d lend stuff to them when they needed)
  - deleted 3y ago
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- yieldcrv 3y ago
  I only use certain other cameras to get into some rooms and be taken seriously to photograph people I don't need them for anything at the moment, I haven’t taken a dedicated camera on a sightseeing tour or hike in 12 years despite my enthusiast interest in camera gear and my ability to appreciate focal lengths interestingly, if you do to the trendiest hipster hangouts, people have point and shoots now, having graduated from polaroids in the most contrived “Y2K” rerun possible
- mannyv 3y ago
  It depends on what kind of photographs you're taking and the conditions. If you're going to be taking pictures of people indoors with bad lighting you need a lens with an aperture of 2.8 or less, probably a 1.4. If you're going to be taking group pictures indoors you'll probably need a wider angle 2.8 lens. If you're going to be doing indoor sports a 70-200mm 2.8 is probably the minimum. If you're going to be doing outdoor sports with good lighting a 4.0+ is probably fine. If you're doing outdoor landscapes you just need a wide lens, like 10-30mm and a tripod. I'm not a pro by any means, so take this with as much salt as you want. Any camera that can handle this will do fine. There are tons of cheap full-frame cameras out there now. But lenses generally don't drop in price, even if they're really old - which is quite aggravating.
GeekyBear 3y ago
The biggest takeaways: > There is one single feature of the iPhone 15 Pro that made this stunt possible: Log. > They Used the [free] Blackmagic Camera App: Matters as Much as Log > Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens... Big, soft LED lighting is actually quite affordable these days. [with a specific product mentioned] Apple used the myriad options in the Blackmagic Camera App to prioritize image quality above everything else. > Apple decided that they must shoot at ISO 55 (the lowest, although possibly not the native ISO of the 1x camera) for the highest image quality, and with a 180º shutter for the most pro-camera look Apple had the log footage they shot professionally color graded.
- jojobas 3y ago
  The lighting/ISO bits are where I'd call it "deception". You use the same phone to snap your lil Johnny having breakfast and end up with just as grainy/blurry denoised picture as any other mom. Proper cameras with thousands of times the lens area are at least not trying to make you believe it's that cheap and easy.
  - mplewis 3y ago
    They were never claiming that the lens and sensor were magic, though.
    - jojobas 3y ago
      Yep, deception by omission.
      - kergonath 3y ago
        They did not mention that it would not make you rich and protect against the flu, either. And yet it does not! So unconscionable.
tehnub 3y ago
Great article! I'll definitely try playing with some of these settings in the blackmagic camera app. His practical examples like blocking the light with his hand are quite inspiring!
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
That was an excellent explanation of doing a pro video shoot/post-prod. As they noted, the camera, itself, was almost irrelevant (except for that ProRes Log thing). It shows how much work goes into video/movie production. The formula I heard from a video editor, was that every second of final, is about a half hour of post.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  And yet, while almost irrelevant, Apple fawned over that aspect of it. As did all the other usual sites, including this one, that decided that any negative take on the topic was "a bad one". Thanks, Prolost.
- GeekyBear 3y ago
  > As they noted, the camera, itself, was almost irrelevant (except for that ProRes Log thing). As mentioned, the "ProRes Log thing" was the single most important feature for enabling professional use cases. A prior post from the same author explaining the whole "ProRes Log thing" in more detail: https://prolost.com/blog/applelog https://prolost.com/blog/applelog
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    I know. I was being a bit "tongue in cheek" about it. I used to work for a camera company. I'm familiar with it.
mrbonner 3y ago
I don’t know how the pros use the iPhone to shoot such amazing photos. I have the iPhone 12 Pro and the photos I shoot are mediocre at best and out of focus or weird lightning at worst. Did they use a tripod everywhere they go?
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > Did they use a tripod everywhere they go? Yep, there's a whole world of tools designed to avoid camera shake¹: Tripods, monopods, gimbals, dollies, suction mounts, etc. ¹ Unless that's what you're going for, e.g. Blair Witch Project
- matwood 3y ago
  The classic shot on iPhone 3GS! behind the scenes. https://fstoppers.com/commercial/iphone-fashion-shoot-lee-morris-6173 https://fstoppers.com/commercial/iphone-fashion-shoot-lee-mo...
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  Have you taken a photography class? You don’t need an MFA or much experience, just a set of guidelines, how to conform to them and knowing when to break them
- macintux 3y ago
  I'd be curious what subjects you pick. I've been very happy with my iPhone photographs for the last 10+ years, to the point that I stopped using my DSLR. But, and it's a big but, lighting and subject and distance matter a great deal.
  - mrbonner 3y ago
    Everyday objects and street photos. I don’t shoot in a controlled environment.
- dheera 3y ago
  > out of focus or weird lightning at worst Yep that's the problem. Not the camera. Fix your focus and fix your lighting. That's 95% of professional-quality footage, in most cases. Good indoor lighting, by the way, isn't cheap, and that's the part they didn't tell you they probably spent tens of thousands on. Yeah, if you shoot with your IKEA lights and your bedroom mess in the background, it's going to look like it was "shot on a shitty phone" even if you have an Arri camera. Oh and here's the other killer thing pros don't tell you -- broad sunny daylight looks like shit on any camera. But it's the time 95% of the population likes to go outdoors. You want some dramatic clouds? Chase a storm. You want that crack of dawn effect? Get up 2 hours before the crack of dawn to set up.
RIMR 3y ago
Honestly surprised that none of these conversations have yet pointed out that Apple was one of the first large businesses to publicly engage in "dogfooding" with their February 1980 decision to purge all typewriters from their offices in favor of their own computers, and that this event nearly 34 years later continues the tradition of eating their own dog food quite successfully.
yieldcrv 3y ago
> Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens. Was essentially my comment, the log processing is pretty awesome though
ramesh31 3y ago
Regardless of the camera, these things have started to have such a bizarre visual quality to them. Like some kind of tech-bro fever dream of an AI imagined utopia. So far gone from the days of Steve standing on a stage and actually talking to people. Kudos to folks like Zuckerberg not doing product announcements from an alien spaceship orbiting earth. Just look at the contrast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpHrNNIzs4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpHrNNIzs4
linsomniac 3y ago
> They Used the [free] Blackmagic Camera App: Matters as Much as Log One thing I'm really excited about from this is timecode. I only dabble in videos, things like my kids performances, but I always like to have a couple cameras (gives some variety, in case someone walks or stands in front of one of the cameras). I've been using cheap action cams and syncing them is the bane of my existence. Being able to get timecode out of a couple iPhones would be fantastic! I've been eyeing the GoPros, they have "labs" firmware that can do time sync, and the latest camera has that built in. But it also sounds like they have overheating problems and can't really record more than ~20 minutes without a break.
- system2 3y ago
  I doubt you can shoot 20+ minutes on iphone when everything is maxed out. My iphone 14 was overheating after 10 minutes of 4k recording.
- Diti 3y ago
  You can already do timecode on iOS using an UltraSync Blue device and the MAVIS recording app.
adamredwoods 3y ago
This is all just marketing. Many cameras use log profiles, and Hollywood has been using non-traditional cameras for decades. Black Swan used a Canon 7D: https://nofilmschool.com/2010/12/darren-aronofskys-black-swan-shot-16mm https://nofilmschool.com/2010/12/darren-aronofskys-black-swa... The funny part is I would not want to shoot a professional film with a phone. How would I recharge it? Dedicated cameras offer pop-out batteries and storage. iPhone won't let you do that.
- strunz 3y ago
  Magsafe batteries make it pretty easy actually
- al_borland 3y ago
  Wasn't that part of the selling point of USB-C. Hook it right up to whatever other equipment to offload video as you shoot, hook up external batteries that can be swapped out whenever mid-shot. How is swapping a USB-C battery back any different than a pop-out battery, other than having a cable?
- deleted 3y ago
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- kergonath 3y ago
  > This is all just marketing. Many cameras use log profiles, and Hollywood has been using non-traditional cameras for decades. I think you completely misunderstood the message. It’s not “professional high-end cameras are going to die”. It’s “you can have a wonderful camera in your pocket”. > How would I recharge it? Dedicated cameras offer pop-out batteries and storage. iPhone won't let you do that. Batteries packs on the dollies. You’d know, had you read the article.
  - adamredwoods 3y ago
    I read the article, they used a lot of adapters. Does that fit in your pocket? I think you miss my point. There's fancy tech but really nothing new, therefore it's all marketing. GoPro can be used for movie magic, as well, and it fits on a helmet. I've edited on reel-to-reel film once, so I've seen the digital evolution. It's been great! Also, my other point is Apple will keep designing it as a multi-use touch device, so it won't EVER be a dedicated device for movie making. When will the device be antiquated? When will the apps and OS need updating? When you use it, is there telemetry?
nerdbert 3y ago
One question: couldn't the 180° look be created algorithmically after the fact, freeing them up to use a wider ISO range?
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Fake motion blur? Seems challenging.
  - tehnub 3y ago
    I've heard that it is indeed challenging: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34065048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34065048
jkepler 3y ago
Back in 2010, these two stop-motion shorts were each shot on the Nokia N8: Dot [1] Gulp [2] Then in 2011, a short film and a feature-length were shot on the Nokia N8: Splitscreen: A Love Story [3] Olive [4] Oh, and back when Apple announced their first iPhone, Steve Lichfield was already filming his Phone Show episode 22 on a smartphone, the Nokia N93. [5] For years he filmed with an N8, then a Nokia 808, and eventually Apple's camera tech caught up and he finished out his Phone Show filming on an iPhone. [1] https://www.aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-dot/ https://www.aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-dot/ [2] https://aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-gulp/ https://aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-gulp/ [3] https://vimeo.com/25451551/description https://vimeo.com/25451551/description [4] http://blog.gsmarena.com/olive-is-the-first-full-length-feature-film-shot-completely-on-a-n8/ http://blog.gsmarena.com/olive-is-the-first-full-length-feat... [5] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMHcG-M_FY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMHcG-M_FY.
incognition 3y ago
Where's the ablation chart. Desk reject
shalmanese 3y ago
I'm almost certain that everyone has this story entirely backwards because people are used to thinking in a linear sequence of this happened, then that happened. Apple famously works backward from that process. Reading the story behind the story, I think what happened is that several years ago, Apple execs were looking at a range of plausible technologies that were becoming feasible and were trying to find some kind of coherence among them through the story they wanted to tell. The story that was really speaking to them, as Gruber identified [1], was that finally the professional and consumer market were about to merge in really interesting ways. I think what happened was at that point in time, they decided that the iPhone 15 Pro was going to be used to film the keynote for the iPhone 15 Pro and that this was the target given to all teams to give them clarity and focus to deliver a coherent end product. Even tiny things like, why did they delay the introduction of USB-C for so long? Start making sense under this framework. If you're not used to this mode of thinking, a lot of the things I'm saying can sound like a stretch but if you adopt the framework, a lot of tiny things they mention suddenly make sense. People are focusing on the specific output which is a single video but the power comes not from the output but from understanding the process that resulted in that output. Apple knows that other companies will always struggle to reproduce their exact process which is the core source of a durable sustaining advantage. [1] https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/downplaying-shot-on-iphone https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/downplaying-sho...
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  So under this framework, why did they delay the introduction of USB-C for so long?
  - Aloha 3y ago
    Because they promised thr connector wouldn't change again quickly when they introduced lighting.
    - smoldesu 3y ago
      And consequently broke that promise by not using Lightning on Mac?
Animats 3y ago
Much classical production equipment is bulky. You need stability, but not support for fifty kilos at the camera end.[1] Here's a Louma crane from 2012. It's beautifully controlled, but huge. It looks like something you'd use to move bricks to an upper floor of a building site. That was needed with a Panavision camera and a TV camera for aiming at the business end. Now you can lighten up. Half of those Louma crane shots could be done today with a DJI Mini 4 drone. What do pros use today when you need a precisely controlled boom for quiet indoor use and the camera only weighs a few hundred grams? There must be something more compact than the Louma monsters. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q_Dam9nD0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q_Dam9nD0E
seydor 3y ago
And yet i find the videos entirely cheesy. But Apple will probably release the iCrane, for only $99999
rickdeckard 3y ago
I think this fuss about this "Shot on iPhone" event is completely overblown, and while Log-support et al is great, it's yet another achievement of orchestrated Apple-Marketing. The much simpler conclusion of all this "Shot on iPhone" event is: If you have a full video production setup including the necessary (post-)production workflow, you MAY be able to replace the camera with one or many iPhone 15 Pro now. In reality, your mileage will vary, for example due to the unspoken matter of iPhones overheating when constantly recording AND charging AND streaming video to USB-C.
dontlaugh 3y ago
"on an iPhone"
victorbjorklund 3y ago
The skills of the photographers are way more important than the small difference in the quality of Iphone camera sensor vs sensor in some high end camera. I used to work with producing professional videos for companies and was fascinated by how some small details made so big difference. I remember once we sat up the camera and lights for an interview. The camera guy asked me to adjust the light literally like a few millimetres and I thought it was silly because how can that matter? Made the picture at least 50% better. I would never hade made that call.
rrgok 3y ago
A little bit of tangential, but I sometimes wonder if HN has any bias against Samsung or Android in general. Samsung showed they shot short movies with their latest flagship and yet I didn't see that much discussion here about it. Now, Apple does a miserable keynote with their flagship phones, and here we are with 146 comments about it. Even searching S23 doesn't bring that much results. If HN or its users has any bias it should be clearly stated. Bring on the downvotes....
- Someone1234 3y ago
  I noticed you yourself didn't post any articles about that. Why is that, if you want to see more of it on HN?
  - rrgok 3y ago
    That's a good question. I don't usually create posts about products in general, but I can comment in one. Having said that, when I create posts it is more understanding things for my knowledge.
- luigi23 3y ago
  because HN is predominantly american and most use iphones
fennecfoxy 3y ago
Hasn't Apple been caught before saying "shot on iPhone" but really it was in a studio with a modified iPhone with a proper lens on it? https://www.dpreview.com/videos/7189460551/video-those-shot-on-iphone-ads-are-not-what-they-seem https://www.dpreview.com/videos/7189460551/video-those-shot-... etc Although for this one from the pictures I've seen it does seems like they used the phone + lighting equipment which is fine. I think I'll still stick to my mirrorless + large & heavy but absolutely stellar lenses. I like getting actual raw footage from a sensor and not computational photography (which is only really good for out & about shots aka "the best camera you have is the one you have with you").

300 points by robenkleene 3y ago

seec 3y ago

It reads like a fanboy's list of excuses for an extremely misleading statement. Considering everything he said, what you could call it, is "shooting on a top of the line Sony smartphone sensor, embedded in an iOS carrier, running a 3rd party software". Even ignoring all the massive amount of gear that is used to make this possible (and where the camera is in fact not the most crucial factor as is the case in most productions) it is not anything like what people think when you tell them shot on iPhone. You could tell them, "you need a bit more hardware to make this decent"; but imposing such limitations and specific settings/apps means it is nowhere near what Apple advertise as a camera and it doesn't match at all with what one would think when hearing "shot on iPhone. It is at best a gross mischaracterization of a minor detail but in reality, it is a massive marketing lie. The truth is that if you cannot mobilise such heavy production tooling, your money would be better spent on a better camera, because such camera would have much better results without entirely relying on those tools thanks to much better flexibility because of a wider native ability. A bigger sensor wouldn't have to rely so hard on lightning in the first place, since you could shoot at higher ISO without gaining to much noise. What he said about Final Cut is kinda funny. Considering recent Apple behavior I would not put it past them to deprecate Final Cut if it does not make enough money. Or do something like make a new version that would be required in the newer OSs but that you could only subscribe to, not outright buy. That would be on brand with the current Apple ways... I really do not understand the level of justification/excuses Apple get for their deceptions even though they are a trillion-dollar company. Especially when their competitors get teared a new ass for the most minors things, that routinely get mischaracterized by Apple fans... People need to wake up, Apple is not a startup, nor the weak challenger anymore, they should get zero sympathy for their deceptive behavior.

helf 3y ago

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simbolit 3y ago

"Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens." This.

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ghaff 3y ago
But often lighting is what it is. I can use a camera (and lenses) to compensate for a lot of crappy lighting that would otherwise make it tough to get a decent shot. I sometimes shoot photos at corporate events and the difference between "real" cameras and photos shot on phones is often pretty obvious. Sometimes it's a matter of the phones being too far from the subjects or not optimally used but not always.

duxup 3y ago

I thought this was going to be similar to all the hot take stuff it references at the start about the event being shot on an iPhone... but rather this is a nice technical walk through on some features and what they mean. Very good read.

jzl 3y ago
His resume is insane and he's been blogging for like 20 years. He literally wrote the book on "rebel filmmaking" with low-cost cameras before HD cameras became so cheap. https://www.amazon.com/DV-Rebels-Guide-All-Digital-Approach/dp/0321413644 https://www.amazon.com/DV-Rebels-Guide-All-Digital-Approach/...

amelius 3y ago

[flagged]

chollida1 3y ago
> Makes you wonder. When will someone in Apple finally win a Nobel prize? Win what specific version of the Nobel?
- simbolit 3y ago
  Economics is not actually a Nobel Prize, which leaves us with 5: Literature - unlikely Peace - I can construe some scenario, but - again - unlikely. Physiology or Medicine - For the Apple Watch? Chemistry - unlikely, they don't do fundamental research Physics - same
  - culi 3y ago
    Nobody still knows why they gave Obama the Peace prize. Makes me think that's the most likely one
    - willsmith72 3y ago
      On the other hand, they also didn't anticipate the negative reaction to that, so I doubt they'd do the same thing again knowingly.
    - simbolit 3y ago
      Henry Kissinger won the Peace Prize 1973 for ending the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War ended in 1975.
- caycep 3y ago
  historically, the Nobels seem to prefer basic research and stuff; an applied science/engineering company like Apple probably isn't on their radar. They would have to fund a basic science blue sky division like Bell Labs or one of the old IBM pure research centers to really be a player in the game; but those things rarely play well with corporate interests. W the media arm of the company, I think they do have a few oscar contenders, so a nobel lit prize if they ever get into written content creation is not a stretch...

user_7832 3y ago

I think there are 2 parts to this: One is "iPhone camera sensors are competitive with commercial offerings in some cases". I think this is what Apple was trying to go for with the entire thing including the behind the scenes. The other is "If you (edit: just) have an iPhone you too can make such a video". Which is what anyone who isn't affiliated with the film industry (aka 99% of the population) might think, especially if they didn't see the behind the scenes. "Shot on iPhone" hence has 2 perspectives.

threeseed 3y ago
> If you have an iPhone you too can make such a video You can though. What it showed was that the real limitation to making high quality content is skill and knowledge. You can get away with just your iPhone, iPad and cheap lighting from AliExpress for 99% of the shots. Having expensive equipment simply allows you to deliver that quality fast and at a consistent level. Which is what commercial clients demand.
- ska 3y ago
  Professional photography and videography gear has always only been about that though. It broadens the range of shots you can get and/or the efficiency of the process (and usually puts up with more abuse).
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    It helps, sometimes. There are plenty of shooters running around with elite gear and getting slightly above average images of the classic (read: cliche) sunset, etc. Scarcity is the spark that ignites creativity. Put another way, look how many shite films Hollywood makes, and they have top gear. Great gear will never save a lack of creativity, lack of vision, etc.
    - ska 3y ago
      Other than robustness, 'pro' gear mostly expands the range of parameters you can push and still get a decent shot. It's not going to give you an eye. Elsewhere in thread it's correctly noted that in a lot of cases lighting is more important that cameras anyway. But similarly, you have to know how to set up - same applies though, the gear can't do the setup for you.

great_psy 3y ago

Of course there is more to it than just the phone. If I gave you a 100k Alexa camera, could you make the apple event without all the other gadgets? Sure the camera is capable, but there’s so much more around it. I think this tech allows the currently 18 year old next Spielberg to shot some cool video with relatively low budget. For 99% of people buying this phone they were not even thinking of making a film of the keynotes quality to start. So talking about the extra gear is a moot point. For the few that want to accomplish something like that, know they can buy a 1.5K phone, and film something that will look decent. Maybe not like the keynote, but good enough to be comparable with the quality of a movie shot 10 years ago. Which is pretty good especially if you’re not projecting it on a huge screen. The other thing that will be coming in the not too distant future is ai enhanced filming. You film in questionable quality, and you feed that to the machine model to spit out something in higher resolution( both pixels per inch, but also color/light depth) in which case this phone quality will be plenty.

simbolit 3y ago
> ai enhanced filming. You film in questionable quality, and you feed that to the machine model that is a promised "coming soon" feature of the new google phone. as it is "coming soon" nobody knows whether it delivers on that promise.
- great_psy 3y ago
  That’s ok. Even if Google phone does not deliver, there will be software that will deliver, if not next year in the next five. We already have the technology to do it for a single photo. Making it possible for a whole movie is just an optimization problem. I have no doubt we will get there.
matwood 3y ago
Someone who is into making movies can also build cheap lighting. High end photography/videography is more accessible than ever before.
- great_psy 3y ago

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berkut 3y ago

One thing I'm curious about is how they avoided lens flair from small bright lights - the iPhone's lenses in my experience produce multiple very pronounced lens flares when shooting bright lights (and older iPhones used to produce one large green flare as well, but I think that's been reduced in the 14 and 15 - I'm sure other phones do as well, I'm just only familiar with iPhones these days). Very large light sources likely helped (as did the matte boxes), but maybe they carefully chose the camera angles as well to minimise this?

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kergonath 3y ago
> Very large light sources likely helped (as did the matte boxes), but maybe they carefully chose the camera angles as well to minimise this? All of it, I think. In my experience these ugly flares come mostly from point sources (things like streetlights), so large, soft light sources should help. Also, the matte boxes help controlling where the light that hits the lens comes from, so in effect it makes it easier to have a good angle, on top of making sure that nothing hits the glass at a small angle.

mortenjorck 3y ago

I previously had a rudimentary understanding of log, but the author's other recent piece devoted to it in the context of the iPhone 15 pro (https://prolost.com/blog/applelog https://prolost.com/blog/applelog) gave me a much better appreciation of its importance to professional-looking video. From that article: > But with this iPhone 15 Pro Max footage shot in Apple Log, I can recover all the detail — or just let it overexpose gracefully into this ACES output transform, for a smooth, film-like look. This soft highlight rolloff in the log-to-video conversion is called a “shoulder” in film, describing the upper part of the classic s-curve. A nice shoulder for your highlights is a big part of what makes footage look “pro” — especially when your grading happens underneath it.

helf 3y ago
Log does improve things a lot. Being able to do proper 10bit/14bit+ video recording is also a bonus. But you have had the ability to use various color spaces and various non-linear recording formats for awhile on various devices (multiple androids have had this from stock for years plus 3rd party software really unlocks the sensor potential). But Apple markets it better :P
lm28469 3y ago
> is called a “shoulder” in film It's called that no matter the medium

reqo 3y ago

>“Shot on iPhone” doesn’t promise “and you can do it too” any more than Stanley Kubrick lighting Barry Lyndon with candlelight means anyone with candles can make Barry Lyndon. What a beautiful way of describing the fallacy of the converse!

drexlspivey 3y ago
> anyone with candles can make Barry Lyndon Anyone with candles and NASA lenses
- m463 3y ago
  I vaguely remember reading about special low f-stop lenses. Here it is: Kubrick was "determined not to reproduce the set-bound, artificially lit look of other costume dramas from that time." After "tinkering with different combinations of lenses and film stock," the production obtained three super-fast 50mm lenses (Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7) developed by Zeiss for use by NASA in the Apollo Moon landings, which Kubrick had discovered. These super-fast lenses "with their huge aperture (the film actually features the lowest f-stop in film history) and fixed focal length" were problematic to mount, and were extensively modified into three versions by Cinema Products Corp. for Kubrick to gain a wider angle of view, with input from optics expert Richard Vetter of Todd-AO. The rear element of the lens had to be 2.5 mm away from the film plane, requiring special modification to the rotating camera shutter. This allowed Kubrick and Alcott to shoot scenes lit in candlelight to an average lighting volume of only three candela, "recreating the huddle and glow of a pre-electrical age." In addition, Kubrick had the entire film push-developed by one stop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon#Cinematography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon#Cinematography
- astrange 3y ago
  Very good lenses are more accessible than they sound; there are decent cheap f0.95 mirrorless lenses out there, and even if you want an expensive one you can rent it. Just don't drop it.
  - drexlspivey 3y ago

shepherdjerred 3y ago

Really interesting blog post! It seems like iPhones really can do serious filmmaking (with the help of the equipment mentioned in the blog post). I'm curious how this translates to photography. How much would you need to spend on a dedicated camera to shoot better photos than an iPhone can?

xuhu 3y ago
Wedding photography costs $600 to $1000 over here, the equipment is typically 4 to 8 years old and costs about $1500 (body + 24-70mm lens + flashes, MPB.com prices).
- stephen_g 3y ago
  Where is over here? I’ve done a few weddings back in the day, the lenses I’d use (24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8) each cost over $2000 new in today’s US dollars… Then you have backup lenses, backup SLRs, etc. (but I’d usually borrow gear (still pro gear) as backup from people I knew which made things a bit cheaper, and I’d lend stuff to them when they needed)
- deleted 3y ago
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yieldcrv 3y ago
I only use certain other cameras to get into some rooms and be taken seriously to photograph people I don't need them for anything at the moment, I haven’t taken a dedicated camera on a sightseeing tour or hike in 12 years despite my enthusiast interest in camera gear and my ability to appreciate focal lengths interestingly, if you do to the trendiest hipster hangouts, people have point and shoots now, having graduated from polaroids in the most contrived “Y2K” rerun possible
mannyv 3y ago
It depends on what kind of photographs you're taking and the conditions. If you're going to be taking pictures of people indoors with bad lighting you need a lens with an aperture of 2.8 or less, probably a 1.4. If you're going to be taking group pictures indoors you'll probably need a wider angle 2.8 lens. If you're going to be doing indoor sports a 70-200mm 2.8 is probably the minimum. If you're going to be doing outdoor sports with good lighting a 4.0+ is probably fine. If you're doing outdoor landscapes you just need a wide lens, like 10-30mm and a tripod. I'm not a pro by any means, so take this with as much salt as you want. Any camera that can handle this will do fine. There are tons of cheap full-frame cameras out there now. But lenses generally don't drop in price, even if they're really old - which is quite aggravating.

GeekyBear 3y ago

The biggest takeaways: > There is one single feature of the iPhone 15 Pro that made this stunt possible: Log. > They Used the [free] Blackmagic Camera App: Matters as Much as Log > Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens... Big, soft LED lighting is actually quite affordable these days. [with a specific product mentioned] Apple used the myriad options in the Blackmagic Camera App to prioritize image quality above everything else. > Apple decided that they must shoot at ISO 55 (the lowest, although possibly not the native ISO of the 1x camera) for the highest image quality, and with a 180º shutter for the most pro-camera look Apple had the log footage they shot professionally color graded.

jojobas 3y ago
The lighting/ISO bits are where I'd call it "deception". You use the same phone to snap your lil Johnny having breakfast and end up with just as grainy/blurry denoised picture as any other mom. Proper cameras with thousands of times the lens area are at least not trying to make you believe it's that cheap and easy.
- mplewis 3y ago
  They were never claiming that the lens and sensor were magic, though.
  - jojobas 3y ago
    Yep, deception by omission.
    - kergonath 3y ago
      They did not mention that it would not make you rich and protect against the flu, either. And yet it does not! So unconscionable.

tehnub 3y ago

Great article! I'll definitely try playing with some of these settings in the blackmagic camera app. His practical examples like blocking the light with his hand are quite inspiring!

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

That was an excellent explanation of doing a pro video shoot/post-prod. As they noted, the camera, itself, was almost irrelevant (except for that ProRes Log thing). It shows how much work goes into video/movie production. The formula I heard from a video editor, was that every second of final, is about a half hour of post.

FireBeyond 3y ago
And yet, while almost irrelevant, Apple fawned over that aspect of it. As did all the other usual sites, including this one, that decided that any negative take on the topic was "a bad one". Thanks, Prolost.
GeekyBear 3y ago
> As they noted, the camera, itself, was almost irrelevant (except for that ProRes Log thing). As mentioned, the "ProRes Log thing" was the single most important feature for enabling professional use cases. A prior post from the same author explaining the whole "ProRes Log thing" in more detail: https://prolost.com/blog/applelog https://prolost.com/blog/applelog
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  I know. I was being a bit "tongue in cheek" about it. I used to work for a camera company. I'm familiar with it.

mrbonner 3y ago

I don’t know how the pros use the iPhone to shoot such amazing photos. I have the iPhone 12 Pro and the photos I shoot are mediocre at best and out of focus or weird lightning at worst. Did they use a tripod everywhere they go?

CharlesW 3y ago
> Did they use a tripod everywhere they go? Yep, there's a whole world of tools designed to avoid camera shake¹: Tripods, monopods, gimbals, dollies, suction mounts, etc. ¹ Unless that's what you're going for, e.g. Blair Witch Project
matwood 3y ago
The classic shot on iPhone 3GS! behind the scenes. https://fstoppers.com/commercial/iphone-fashion-shoot-lee-morris-6173 https://fstoppers.com/commercial/iphone-fashion-shoot-lee-mo...
yieldcrv 3y ago
Have you taken a photography class? You don’t need an MFA or much experience, just a set of guidelines, how to conform to them and knowing when to break them
macintux 3y ago
I'd be curious what subjects you pick. I've been very happy with my iPhone photographs for the last 10+ years, to the point that I stopped using my DSLR. But, and it's a big but, lighting and subject and distance matter a great deal.
- mrbonner 3y ago
  Everyday objects and street photos. I don’t shoot in a controlled environment.
dheera 3y ago
> out of focus or weird lightning at worst Yep that's the problem. Not the camera. Fix your focus and fix your lighting. That's 95% of professional-quality footage, in most cases. Good indoor lighting, by the way, isn't cheap, and that's the part they didn't tell you they probably spent tens of thousands on. Yeah, if you shoot with your IKEA lights and your bedroom mess in the background, it's going to look like it was "shot on a shitty phone" even if you have an Arri camera. Oh and here's the other killer thing pros don't tell you -- broad sunny daylight looks like shit on any camera. But it's the time 95% of the population likes to go outdoors. You want some dramatic clouds? Chase a storm. You want that crack of dawn effect? Get up 2 hours before the crack of dawn to set up.

RIMR 3y ago

Honestly surprised that none of these conversations have yet pointed out that Apple was one of the first large businesses to publicly engage in "dogfooding" with their February 1980 decision to purge all typewriters from their offices in favor of their own computers, and that this event nearly 34 years later continues the tradition of eating their own dog food quite successfully.

yieldcrv 3y ago

> Lighting matters more than any camera, more than any lens. Was essentially my comment, the log processing is pretty awesome though

ramesh31 3y ago

Regardless of the camera, these things have started to have such a bizarre visual quality to them. Like some kind of tech-bro fever dream of an AI imagined utopia. So far gone from the days of Steve standing on a stage and actually talking to people. Kudos to folks like Zuckerberg not doing product announcements from an alien spaceship orbiting earth. Just look at the contrast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpHrNNIzs4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpHrNNIzs4

linsomniac 3y ago

> They Used the [free] Blackmagic Camera App: Matters as Much as Log One thing I'm really excited about from this is timecode. I only dabble in videos, things like my kids performances, but I always like to have a couple cameras (gives some variety, in case someone walks or stands in front of one of the cameras). I've been using cheap action cams and syncing them is the bane of my existence. Being able to get timecode out of a couple iPhones would be fantastic! I've been eyeing the GoPros, they have "labs" firmware that can do time sync, and the latest camera has that built in. But it also sounds like they have overheating problems and can't really record more than ~20 minutes without a break.

system2 3y ago
I doubt you can shoot 20+ minutes on iphone when everything is maxed out. My iphone 14 was overheating after 10 minutes of 4k recording.
Diti 3y ago
You can already do timecode on iOS using an UltraSync Blue device and the MAVIS recording app.

adamredwoods 3y ago

This is all just marketing. Many cameras use log profiles, and Hollywood has been using non-traditional cameras for decades. Black Swan used a Canon 7D: https://nofilmschool.com/2010/12/darren-aronofskys-black-swan-shot-16mm https://nofilmschool.com/2010/12/darren-aronofskys-black-swa... The funny part is I would not want to shoot a professional film with a phone. How would I recharge it? Dedicated cameras offer pop-out batteries and storage. iPhone won't let you do that.

strunz 3y ago
Magsafe batteries make it pretty easy actually
al_borland 3y ago
Wasn't that part of the selling point of USB-C. Hook it right up to whatever other equipment to offload video as you shoot, hook up external batteries that can be swapped out whenever mid-shot. How is swapping a USB-C battery back any different than a pop-out battery, other than having a cable?
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kergonath 3y ago
> This is all just marketing. Many cameras use log profiles, and Hollywood has been using non-traditional cameras for decades. I think you completely misunderstood the message. It’s not “professional high-end cameras are going to die”. It’s “you can have a wonderful camera in your pocket”. > How would I recharge it? Dedicated cameras offer pop-out batteries and storage. iPhone won't let you do that. Batteries packs on the dollies. You’d know, had you read the article.
- adamredwoods 3y ago
  I read the article, they used a lot of adapters. Does that fit in your pocket? I think you miss my point. There's fancy tech but really nothing new, therefore it's all marketing. GoPro can be used for movie magic, as well, and it fits on a helmet. I've edited on reel-to-reel film once, so I've seen the digital evolution. It's been great! Also, my other point is Apple will keep designing it as a multi-use touch device, so it won't EVER be a dedicated device for movie making. When will the device be antiquated? When will the apps and OS need updating? When you use it, is there telemetry?

nerdbert 3y ago

One question: couldn't the 180° look be created algorithmically after the fact, freeing them up to use a wider ISO range?

JKCalhoun 3y ago
Fake motion blur? Seems challenging.
- tehnub 3y ago
  I've heard that it is indeed challenging: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34065048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34065048

jkepler 3y ago

Back in 2010, these two stop-motion shorts were each shot on the Nokia N8: Dot [1] Gulp [2] Then in 2011, a short film and a feature-length were shot on the Nokia N8: Splitscreen: A Love Story [3] Olive [4] Oh, and back when Apple announced their first iPhone, Steve Lichfield was already filming his Phone Show episode 22 on a smartphone, the Nokia N93. [5] For years he filmed with an N8, then a Nokia 808, and eventually Apple's camera tech caught up and he finished out his Phone Show filming on an iPhone. [1] https://www.aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-dot/ https://www.aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-dot/ [2] https://aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-gulp/ https://aardman.com/short-form-commercials/nokia-gulp/ [3] https://vimeo.com/25451551/description https://vimeo.com/25451551/description [4] http://blog.gsmarena.com/olive-is-the-first-full-length-feature-film-shot-completely-on-a-n8/ http://blog.gsmarena.com/olive-is-the-first-full-length-feat... [5] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMHcG-M_FY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMHcG-M_FY.

incognition 3y ago

Where's the ablation chart. Desk reject

shalmanese 3y ago

I'm almost certain that everyone has this story entirely backwards because people are used to thinking in a linear sequence of this happened, then that happened. Apple famously works backward from that process. Reading the story behind the story, I think what happened is that several years ago, Apple execs were looking at a range of plausible technologies that were becoming feasible and were trying to find some kind of coherence among them through the story they wanted to tell. The story that was really speaking to them, as Gruber identified [1], was that finally the professional and consumer market were about to merge in really interesting ways. I think what happened was at that point in time, they decided that the iPhone 15 Pro was going to be used to film the keynote for the iPhone 15 Pro and that this was the target given to all teams to give them clarity and focus to deliver a coherent end product. Even tiny things like, why did they delay the introduction of USB-C for so long? Start making sense under this framework. If you're not used to this mode of thinking, a lot of the things I'm saying can sound like a stretch but if you adopt the framework, a lot of tiny things they mention suddenly make sense. People are focusing on the specific output which is a single video but the power comes not from the output but from understanding the process that resulted in that output. Apple knows that other companies will always struggle to reproduce their exact process which is the core source of a durable sustaining advantage. [1] https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/downplaying-shot-on-iphone https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/downplaying-sho...

soulofmischief 3y ago
So under this framework, why did they delay the introduction of USB-C for so long?
- Aloha 3y ago
  Because they promised thr connector wouldn't change again quickly when they introduced lighting.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    And consequently broke that promise by not using Lightning on Mac?

Animats 3y ago

Much classical production equipment is bulky. You need stability, but not support for fifty kilos at the camera end.[1] Here's a Louma crane from 2012. It's beautifully controlled, but huge. It looks like something you'd use to move bricks to an upper floor of a building site. That was needed with a Panavision camera and a TV camera for aiming at the business end. Now you can lighten up. Half of those Louma crane shots could be done today with a DJI Mini 4 drone. What do pros use today when you need a precisely controlled boom for quiet indoor use and the camera only weighs a few hundred grams? There must be something more compact than the Louma monsters. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q_Dam9nD0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q_Dam9nD0E

seydor 3y ago

And yet i find the videos entirely cheesy. But Apple will probably release the iCrane, for only $99999

rickdeckard 3y ago

I think this fuss about this "Shot on iPhone" event is completely overblown, and while Log-support et al is great, it's yet another achievement of orchestrated Apple-Marketing. The much simpler conclusion of all this "Shot on iPhone" event is: If you have a full video production setup including the necessary (post-)production workflow, you MAY be able to replace the camera with one or many iPhone 15 Pro now. In reality, your mileage will vary, for example due to the unspoken matter of iPhones overheating when constantly recording AND charging AND streaming video to USB-C.

dontlaugh 3y ago

"on an iPhone"

victorbjorklund 3y ago

The skills of the photographers are way more important than the small difference in the quality of Iphone camera sensor vs sensor in some high end camera. I used to work with producing professional videos for companies and was fascinated by how some small details made so big difference. I remember once we sat up the camera and lights for an interview. The camera guy asked me to adjust the light literally like a few millimetres and I thought it was silly because how can that matter? Made the picture at least 50% better. I would never hade made that call.

rrgok 3y ago

A little bit of tangential, but I sometimes wonder if HN has any bias against Samsung or Android in general. Samsung showed they shot short movies with their latest flagship and yet I didn't see that much discussion here about it. Now, Apple does a miserable keynote with their flagship phones, and here we are with 146 comments about it. Even searching S23 doesn't bring that much results. If HN or its users has any bias it should be clearly stated. Bring on the downvotes....

Someone1234 3y ago
I noticed you yourself didn't post any articles about that. Why is that, if you want to see more of it on HN?
- rrgok 3y ago
  That's a good question. I don't usually create posts about products in general, but I can comment in one. Having said that, when I create posts it is more understanding things for my knowledge.
luigi23 3y ago
because HN is predominantly american and most use iphones

fennecfoxy 3y ago

Hasn't Apple been caught before saying "shot on iPhone" but really it was in a studio with a modified iPhone with a proper lens on it? https://www.dpreview.com/videos/7189460551/video-those-shot-on-iphone-ads-are-not-what-they-seem https://www.dpreview.com/videos/7189460551/video-those-shot-... etc Although for this one from the pictures I've seen it does seems like they used the phone + lighting equipment which is fine. I think I'll still stick to my mirrorless + large & heavy but absolutely stellar lenses. I like getting actual raw footage from a sensor and not computational photography (which is only really good for out & about shots aka "the best camera you have is the one you have with you").