iPhone 13 Pro

[Thomas Smet]

It's a fingernail sensor size so even if you had full control across the light field it wouldn't matter much besides in the most separated situations.

It's just exciting they are doing this because it will once again force others to be better.

When people are complacent the result is having 8-bit 4K/30p cameras for 8 years.

___

Apple doing this pushes Google and Microsoft to be better.

Apple, Google and Microsoft pushes RED to be better.

RED pushes Blackmagic to be better.

The Japanese sit back and watch.

I don't have a problem with them doing it and I welcome it. I am a iPhone user and I love how each new model becomes less useless.

I'm only stating I don't plan on selling off my Canon R6 just yet and I'm not sure I ever will. Portrait mode has been on the iPhone for a long time now and I just don't see photographers shooting professional work on a phone. Almost every person I know that started off with a phone eventually got a real camera. Maybe that will change in the future and I will cross that bridge when I get there.

I hate to say it but the behind the scenes video of the film maker using the iPhone 13 for some very nice shoots looked ridiculously comical to me. I mean its amazing what can be done but if I had to choose I still would not choose shooting a production like that with a phone over the many other affordable options we have. Just too much that could go wrong and I don't want my personal communications device being tied up all day on a shoot. I don't think a ton of people are going to rush out to buy a second iPhone just to use it for video. Plus I recently bought a iPhone 11 Pro Max and it works great. Not about to rush out and replace it for this. We are a few generations behind cinematic mode becoming a normal feature across most iPhone users and right now it is limited to HD which feels like taking a huge step backwards.

[NorBro]

Ok but now you're talking specifically about microtargeting of advertisements, presumably with different visuals constructed from CGI.

I buy that...

BUT - there's still some number crunching human in a board room deciding on the big picture campaign they want to launch. The broad strokes.

AND - I'm not sure how much of my work specifically gets dislodged by that tech. I'm sure that some will, just not along the lines you're describing because web ads are not currently a big part of my business.

What's more likely to displace me specifically is camera robots and editing software that is easy enough for a producer to command

I would never wish this for you, but IMO you're in a very dangerous place to be replaced as phones continue to get better.

I honestly do not see the purpose for wedding videographers if more and more people continue to use their phones and locations have high-resolution cameras installed and offer it as a feature to pull frames from your big day.

It will never be the same thing as an experienced, passionate, talented man/woman on their own 2 feet, but it could be good enough (along with other footage from phones).

[NorBro]

I don't think a ton of people are going to rush out to buy a second iPhone just to use it for video.

You sure you know who Apple is? It's already sold out. lol

[NorBro]

We are a few generations behind cinematic mode becoming a normal feature across most iPhone users and right now it is limited to HD which feels like taking a huge step backwards.

P.S. Totally agree with that. I always said the phones aren't there just yet...and I still think that.

So much closer though after yesterday.

Their roadmap probably has 8K ProRes and better sensor technology in the 15 or 16.

These incremental improvements and patience are a part of why they are worth a couple trillions. But they reward us with things like the iPhone and M1 so let them be whatever comes after trillions.

[ahalpert]

I finally watched "Whodunnit". Pretty cool but I was surprised by how bad it looked, just in terms of focus breathing, compressed gradients, color, distortion, etc. But awesome...for a phone...

[ahalpert]

I would never wish this for you, but IMO you're in a very dangerous place to be replaced as phones continue to get better.

I honestly do not see the purpose for wedding videographers if more and more people continue to use their phones and locations have high-resolution cameras installed and offer it as a feature to pull frames from your big day.

It will never be the same thing as an experienced, passionate, talented man/woman on their own 2 feet, but it could be good enough (along with other footage from phones).

I don't give a hoot and a holler about your opinion about the future of the wedding videography business because you don't know the business and you don't understand the customer. Anyway, weddings are only 1/3 of my business by revenue. If they become less than that, so be it. Just keep moving

But I got a chuckle thinking about people relying on installed venue cameras for their shots... do you know how much shooting takes place in fields, by waterfalls, train tracks, etc? All the good stuff ("couples portraits"). And talk about labor - weddings are some of my hardest shoot days. Because I'm running around so much. Amateurs won't be putting themselves out like that even if they had a clue where to place the camera

[NorBro]

ha, fair enough, straight to the point, I like it.

I'm glad because I was dreading to hear more whining about new technology taking over.

[Tom Roper]

Wedding cameras can be replaced by iPhones but for as long as there is value for long form documentary and highlights, wedding videographers are as safe or as at risk as they ever were. Having tons of iPhones at events now is already very common, and has not changed the dynamic of the pro videographer.

Kind of similar but funny, the popularity of photo booths has never been greater at wedding receptions, easily all those pics could be replaced by the iPhone, yet people line up to touch the screen to begin laughing their asses off. It's more than the camera, it's the experience. One last stupid anecdote, I had a friend in the '90's who had a patent on table game for bars played with a 1 inch steel ball and leather paddles. You had 3 open goals to defend and only two paddles. He once told me if you hung a box on the wall with a $0.25 slot, that people would put quarters in it just to see what it did.

[NorBro]

Definitely true, but "Hollywood In Your Pocket" just started yesterday.

Let's bookmark this thread and revisit in 5 years if we have the privilege to do so and see how the thinking has or hasn't changed.

Now that Apple is officially pushing video quality more than ever before, trust it will become a problem for small freelancers.

"No, we don't need him this time, just use your iPhone, it's fine. I'll import the clips into FCP Mobile and start an AI edit on the drive home. We'll watch it during dinner."

[Tom Roper]

Now that Apple is officially pushing video quality more than ever before, trust it will become a problem for small freelancers.

"No, we don't need him this time, just use your iPhone, it's fine. I'll import the clips into FCP Mobile and start an AI edit on the drive home. We'll watch it during dinner."

It's happened. You can drive your own bus to shuttle the wedding party between venues, you can design and bake your own cake, do your own catering, DJ your own dance music. You can do your own makeup, do your own auto repair and perform elective surgery on yourself. At some point, hopefully realized before you self medicate, you realize there is something to having a professional do these things for you that you could do yourself, on the day of your wedding. That's the opportunity and I don't worry about it going away. Why worry? Everything ends. Get the dinner rolls while they are still warm in the basket.

Even somebody using the iPhone, importing to FCP Mobile and AI edit, gets a faster edit, gets a faster share, for a video that likely never leaves the mobile phone network, doesn't have the same opportunity for quality shooting from his place in the audience, doesn't have audio feeds, doesn't hold the camera throughout the dinner blessing, the toasts, dances, doesn't know what or who he missed, and it's the bride's call in the vast majority cases who's used. There is nothing to worry about for the pro videographer from these people. Eventually if they stay with it, they become pros themselves, or they disappear into the morass of people who will claim they did wedding videos before giving it up to become millionaires in their other fields of expertise, engineering, architecture, health care, finance and investment banking. Everybody is an expert at everything, so you just go with it and get your share.

[NorBro]

On a side note, it's funny how every videographer has shot a wedding at some point in life.

I swear I haven't met a camera operator in 12 years who hasn't. It's like a rite of videographer passage.

And all of them always exhibit the same love-hate energy towards them.

The "I'll do it if you need me but I'd rather do something else" energy if you ask them if they can help out, ha.

Has any DVXuser reading this not filmed a wedding yet?

[ahalpert]

.

Kind of similar but funny, the popularity of photo booths has never been greater at wedding receptions, easily all those pics could be replaced by the iPhone, yet people line up to touch the screen to begin laughing their asses off. It's more than the camera, it's the experience.

I did read a couple years ago that there is a robot photo booth that is being deployed to weddings. But, as you said, people come to it and it takes the same shot set-up every time. The least demanding photo application. I have not yet seen one in the flesh

But there is typically also a panoply of props and costume pieces for people to play with while they take their shots. I don't see how there isn't a human involved in bringing the machine and setting the whole display up. Which means deploying a robot camera is little different from a guy who comes and sets up a camera with the same settings he uses every time

[ahalpert]

Btw the real money in weddings is running your own studio. Seems to be more common with photographers than videographers, but they can basically make $200k/year working part-time (on average) if they build a successful brand

As far as the work itself - it has its ups and downs. You're not shooting scripted drama and the only people who will watch it already know and care about the couple. But you're not shooting a 12-hour day plus surprise overtime. You're witnessing the happiest moments in someone's life and people usually treat you with a bounty of respect and goodwill. The food is usually good. Some of the bands are great. The pay can be very good. And any day that you're working with a camera is a day you're not working, as far as I'm concerned.

Different things are soul-sucking in different ways. Right now I'm editing a video that's pitching a novel type of fine art auction to rarefied collectors and the interviews are just So. Much. Capitalism. All in all, I'd rather be filming couples in love. (But the filming and editing of actual art is great.)

[DLD]

Big lavish (first) weddings are likely to keep pro quality production. There, smartphones will provide the extra oomph - friends and family, etc.

But one hundred smartphones can't be wrong either. That's hundreds of photos free of charge.

[ahalpert]

Big lavish (first) weddings are likely to keep pro quality production. There, smartphones will provide the extra oomph - friends and family, etc.

But one hundred smartphones can't be wrong either. That's hundreds of photos free of charge.

There are 2 issues here. first is that people who don't shoot weddings seem to think of it as strictly a documentary affair. and second is that unless your guests are going in the aisle, behind the chupah, right up to the front within 4 feet of you putting on your rings...then they ain't getting the shots the pros are getting.

Have you recently observed a wedding photographer in action?

On the low end, sure. I shot a cheap wedding where there was no photographer hired because the couple said they could only afford either video or photo and they reckoned their friends could get some photos but they'd never get a music video production without hiring a pro. But it was a very cheap wedding

And talking about venue cameras - yeah, if you go to the chapel of love in Vegas, I can totally see a standard snapshot, even from numerous angles, getting taken of your ceremony, both video and photo. If you go to a catholic cathedral? Under a big tree overlooking a lake? What's the venue gonna do when the bride says she doesn't want the ceremony to be at their designated camera location but wants to set up on the other side of the ballroom