The iPhone 11 Pro clearly indicates that mobile filmmaking has become a serious art form in our industry, and Apple has given mobile shooters the tools to take their films to the next level.
This is a professional filmmaker's smartphone camera, and it may be the first time that mobile shooters will have a smartphone made just for them, rather than using a consumer smartphone to create a niche film style.
We're pretty used to buying new cases and lenses when the iPhone gets redesigned.Īnd while this version of the iPhone 11 Pro seems more like a Tock part II in the tick-tock development cycle, it is without a doubt a HUGE update. It certainly means that we're going to have to buy all those lenses again. One thing is certain, I'm sure all the lens manufacturers, including Moment, are burning the midnight oil to redesign their product lines to take advantage of how Apple is changing the game. The new version of FiLMiC Pro will be available later this year. Mobile filmmakers can now shoot twice as much footage, reducing their set times. That's something Apple didn't mention in the presentation, but still, I was gobsmacked by this.
According to FiLMiC, If using the selfie camera as one of the camera selections, then the video can be composited together with an inset for the selfie camera or can be recorded as discreet files. The current Apple API for this feature supports up to 1080p video when recording with multi-cam. There's also a refined director's viewfinder, which will enable users to zoom into each focal length from the SuperWide camera to the 2x telephoto, all while recording at 4K at 60fps.įiLMiC Pro also has a nifty picture in picture (PiP) option, which will give documentarians a unique perspective for interviews with two separate cameras recording streams at the same time as discreet files.
Now a cinematographer will be able to not only switch between shots in real-time from all four cameras (including the Selfie camera) but will have a kind of video switcher to see each image and choose it with a simple touch of the screen. Apple invited FiLMiC Pro to the Steve Jobs Theater to highlight an upcoming build of the app, which gives mobile filmmakers some game-changing new features. That's awesome.Īnd here's where the new FiLMiC Pro turns things up to 11, literally. In the iPhone camera app, users will not only be able to take multiple pictures but will also be able to change from camera to camera while recording video in real-time. And that is an excellent way to look at it. Video is no longer available: youtu.be/cVEemOmHw9YĪ friend of mine said it reminds him of the 16mm Bolex camera, which had a three-lens array that a shooter could instantly switch from lens to lens to grab a shot, rather than take time to reset and change out the lenses. And there's also a low light "Night Mode," which is clearly Apple's answer to the Google Pixel's Night Sight camera. And they also have a new micro mode for up close and personal portrait photography. In addition, the still camera can preimage 9 still shots between two cameras, and then when you press the shutter for the image you want, the computational machine learning will analyze all 10 images in a microsecond, combine them and give you an image that has details at just about any area of the photo. The still image capability of all three is damned impressive, being able to grab the same image simultaneously from all three cameras, and then zoom out between them to reveal up to four times more of the image in the ultrawide mode. Now the iPhone comes with a 1 2mp 26mm f1.8 wide angle camera, a 52mm f2.8 2x Telephoto, and a Super Wide 13mm f2.4. The major thing to notice about the iPhone 11 Pro is the third lens. And thanks to an upcoming release of FiLMiC Pro, that's not going to just be hype. That's because after we saw the demo, it became abundantly clear that mobile filmmaking was a thing, and Apple was dead set on giving them a cinema-grade camera to shoot with. When Phil Schiller said that the new iPhone 11 Pro was the first mobile device that Apple has ever given the name "Pro" to, there was a reason.
The new version of FiLMiC Pro offers video switching and simultaneous record of multiple cameras.