Apple the iPhone 12 Pro Max with ProRAW photos, LiDar and Dolby HDR

sleekmedia said:
Not sure if this is legit or not but I saw this music video a while ago which it's entire theme is built around filming with an iPhone. As an owner of over 100k in production gear and two RED cameras, lately I have been taking a few steps backward and looking at what is possible with something so simple as an iPhone 12. Makes one appreciate talent in terms of lighting and creativity versus thinking you need a special camera, lens, or production equipment to make high end moves and good pictures. There is something so beautiful about simplicity.

Click to expand...

Unless someone brings in the most amazingly organic looking cine sensor, that just totally blows the Alexa out of the water, i doubt i will buy any new traditional cameras going forward. I feel like in two to four years, no innovation besides the phone is going to change the way i work all that much, and after 4 years, who really knows exactly. Certainly will have all the same things available, but CMOS hit a ceiling back in 2010, so i don’t see much changing other than resolution to noise floor ratios improving a little.

This smart phone music video is pretty great. Funny that the bts video is kind of cheap looking, despite being shot on a larger sensor with likely Canon L zooms.
 
James0b57 said:
This smart phone music video is pretty great. Funny that the bts video is kind of cheap looking, despite being shot on a larger sensor with likely Canon L zooms.
Click to expand...

Are all of those shots supposed to be from the phone camera? The shot where it's rolling from the ceiling fan is interesting because it's in portrait but the end result is wide. I don't think they actually shot those shots with the phone camera. Same thing with the peephole image. It's not the same.
 
I have a commercial shoot coming up using an iPhone to record the video. I was thinking of trying to use an external recorder, to be able to easier monitor and playback takes. Do you know if this is possible through the lightning to HDMI adaptor?
 
Last edited:
Gary T said:
The first reviews are coming for the iPhone 12 and Wired has crowned it "The Night King." It will be interesting to see more of the video centric reviews.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is the Apple has a lot more headroom with the hardware. Hopefully that will translate into software improvements in the coming months.

https://www.wired.com/review/apple-iphone-12-pro-max/

https://www.theverge.com/21555901/iphone-12-pro-max-review
Click to expand...

Got to be the most exciting iPhone since the 5 series. Kind of felt that the improvement jump in cellphone cameras between the 4 and the 5 was pretty big. Pushed into the P+S replacement territory. Now the iPhone 12 is pushing into the DSLR replacement in both image and video.

Seems the artificial DoF is much improved in the 11 and 12 over the X series.
 
Clermond said:
It's a Insta camera. Good and expensive and limited to 12MP which is very much fine for Insta.
Click to expand...

I find in this digital world, 12MP is plenty for almost everything digital. I know that there are many photographers and videographers that enjoy the extra resolution for cropping and options, or maybe prints and vex etc, but I am a pretty simple shooter, and rarely do much to what I shoot, unless messing around.

I think it was the D90 that really sold me on 12MP being ok. The Nikon D40 at 8MP was a little limiting. 1DC at 18MP was probably my favourite sweet spot for CMOS.

Though, there are certainly plenty of reasons for higher resolution. Just in my personal use, I find 12MP the 90% sort of thing for me. I do love super high resolutions too. I can't wait to shoot something on a BM12K someday, or even just a Monstro, and then play that back on an 8K screen. I've already seen 8K on a 80"+ screen at tradeshows in 2019, and that was a very awesome sight.
 
I don't 12MP stills is enough for many stills shooters. It depends on if they crop a lot and use different aspect ratios (and also on their retouch process). But I feel like most probably do
 
ahalpert said:
I don't 12MP stills is enough for many stills shooters. It depends on if they crop a lot and use different aspect ratios (and also on their retouch process). But I feel like most probably do
Click to expand...

12MP is more resolution than most images in the world are ever viewed. So, yes, people do enjoy higher resolution and all of the benefits, but 12MP is "enough" for most digital content created today. The Arri Alexa is 2MP (ok, 3 if we go raw), and we have had plenty of discussion about resolution surrounding that. But most images are viewed on 1080 and 4K screens in a window, not even full screen. Only the photographers themselves are typically panning and scanning at 100% and re-cropping.

I would never advocate that Canikony restrict all cameras to 12MP. That would be stupid. But I can claim, on some level that at the end of the day, if someone were using a 12MP camera, and they use it correctly, they can create digital content that will generally keep up with anything else viewed on a phone, computer, or TV today. Am I being unreasonable here? There is preference and there is practical evidence. I would love to shoot video at 100MP and 100FPS, but I don't do it mainly because it is not necessary and probably still pretty expensive to do. Whereas that is not the case with Stills. It is very cost effect to shoot at 24, 36, 50, 80, 100MP. Even amateurs can. So why not, right?

We're not really arguing about the same thing. Yes, more resolution is better.
 
Last edited:
I think 12MP is almost always enough for publication and printing (if anyone still does that). But sports/journalists seem to have settled into the 20-24MP territory so they have a bit of croppability but small file sizes and rapid fps. Landscapes and even editorial are congregating in the 40MP+. With that much resolution, you can pull a close-up from a wide shot.

But we as cinematographers are used to framing compositions in-camera (except David Fincher a bit).

I'm just contemplating other people's behavior. I could do a lot of damage with 12MP. And I like to frame in-camera.

And sometimes people are resistant to new possibilities because they have a tradition of how to do things. And/or they have a value system of craftsmanship that may benefit their work as much as it holds it back.

I showed my B camera operator today the first dance footage I shot on A7SIII at 85mm f/1.4. The conversation went like this:

Him: "Yeah, but nobody ever shoots full-frame 85mm f/1.4."

Me: "I just did."

Him: "that doesn't even look that shallow DOF."

Me: "it's shallow enough that I would never pull it manually."

Him: "why would you even need it to be that shallow?"

Me: "for one thing, people in the background can make distracting faces or even be on their phones."

Him: "just get a wireless follow focus and pull it manually."

Me: "I have one. I'm not good enough to pull focus as consistently as the camera can with so little DOF..."
 
The Fro dude on YouTube took 12 MPX stills with a new iPhone, then made large prints off them. He says you can't tell whether it was made by a DSLR or a mobile phone camera.

The full video is on his channel.

One man's opinion, I know.
 
Obviously I'm a big supporter of this particular future, but they don't look good...

Video harshness with everything in focus (screaming GoPro)...while the quality looks like it's going to fall apart any second.
 
dadoboy said:
Because Dolby Vision metadata is best generated in finishing and color grading, not in aquisition. Usually you have no need for metadata even if you encode in PQ, you just need to know what your clip level is. Dolby Vision metadata in delivery is then used to scale and tone map for certain target distributions. I think what is lost in the FB translation, is that Dolby Vision metadata can be generated in the editing Apps that you can use on the phone. Once you edit it, color grade it and decide on the delivery path, then yes dolby vision metadata is useful. Additionally without a a Dolby external or internal licensed encoder, the metada generated is usually static, not dynamic tone mapping. fmwhatsapp
Click to expand...

Hey, I have a question. Is there a way to delete HDR metadata on a mkv file and only keep DV metadata ?

To make the file readable by devices like Apple TV 4K which only supports single layer.

Thanks in advance!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top