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Ahead of the holiday season, Apple is sharing iPhone 16 ads highlighting the new functionality in an effort to entice customers to upgrade to the latest models. Today's ad focuses on the 4K 120 frames per second Dolby Vision video recording feature that is exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.


The minute-long ad shows several slow motion shots, including a wind storm, an astronaut floating in space, an arrow flying through the air, a car crash, and more. The spot ends with the tagline "Hollywood in your pocket."

An option to capture cinematic slow motion video at 4K 120fps is one of the major new features that sets the iPhone 16 Pro models apart from the standard iPhone 16 models. When recording video using the new 120fps mode, there is an option in the Photos app to change the frame rate later, so you can select from 60, 48, 30, or 24 fps in post processing.

Article Link: Apple's Latest iPhone 16 Ad Highlights Pro Camera Feature
 

orbital~debris

macrumors 68020
Mar 3, 2004
2,281
5,995
UK, Europe
Surprised to find I am not keen on this ad. Usually love a large majority of Apple's advertising even when many do not.
This one is weird in a bad way, not quirky.
Makes you guess as to what the 'punchline' is going to be, but the 'punchline' isn't satisfying.
Also, imagery that seems designed to grab attention but unlikely to create a positive association for the viewer.
 
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citysnaps

Suspended
Oct 10, 2011
12,735
27,483
Hollywood in your pocket? Hollywood uses professional cameras for shooting blockbusters, not wannabe professional cameras. Professional != Pro

It’s for creative people with imaginations, having the ability to dream and to tell stories. Not for people lacking those abilities and believing it’s all about gear.

That’s also true for making compelling photographs.
 

MiaBchDave

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2022
29
32
Because your average Joe is flipping a car to film on his iPhone. Just an inane concept. How about this, take regular videos that people make, like vacation shots or family team sports, or hikes, or anything familiar and elevate them with the new features to look "Pro" or whatever your carrot is. There's plenty of actual professionals on YouTube that have used the features this way to show what the phone is capable of... this commercial, not so much.
 

Mr_Ed

macrumors 6502a
Mar 10, 2004
851
1,083
North and east of Mickeyland
Surprised to find I am not keen on this ad. Usually love a large majority of Apple's advertising even when many do not.
This one is weird in a bad way, not quirky.
Makes you guess as to what the 'punchline' is going to be, but the 'punchline' isn't satisfying.
Also, imagery that seems designed to grab attention but unlikely to create a positive association for the viewer.
For me the punchline wasn’t “satisfying” because the ad seems aimed at a tiny fraction of the potential customer base who would might find this useful as an actual production tool. For the vast majority of people, an ad like this doesn’t move the needle one iota when making a purchasing decision.

I guess that’s what I find strange about ads like this. The narrow target audience seems counterintuitive to “we want to sell lots of these things.” However you feel about this particular feature, the vast majority of people who opt for an iPhone “Pro” model are probably doing so based on other features, like display technology or size (PM).
 
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MiaBchDave

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2022
29
32
For me the punchline wasn’t “satisfying” because the ad seems aimed at a tiny fraction of the potential customer base who would might find this useful as an actual production tool.
If that's what they were going for, they really messed up. Then they should show all day filming without overheating, log to color-grade, quick steady harness swaps to speed a shoot, and other film-guy stuff that would sell it. Not whatever this was.
 

btrach144

macrumors demi-god
Aug 28, 2015
3,011
7,500
Indiana
Have to agree with others. The ad is out of touch.

A lot of pro mac buyers are pros.

but

Most iPhone pro buyers are just normal consumers. I’m not flipping cars to make video on my iPhone. I’m taking family videos and such.

This ad leaves me feeling that I am not the target customer for a pro phone and next time I should get the regular iPhone.
 

MacAddict1978

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2006
1,764
988
Hollywood in your pocket? Hollywood uses professional cameras for shooting blockbusters, not wannabe professional cameras. Professional != Pro

None of these "Filmed on iPhone" ads are the products of iPhones. They use professional everything else - lights, boombs, gimbles... Somtimes there are disclaimers too and you learn some of the footage was shot on other cameras.
 

Octavius8

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2016
943
1,367
120 fps si Apple… the competitors have 960FPS!. Why Apple won’t let us choose????.
 

ZZ9pluralZalpha

macrumors 6502
May 28, 2014
305
464
I agree that the ad is a little surrealist for my taste, but I don’t see the issue in Apple highlighting the ability to use the camera in a pro filmmaking setting (whatever that means.) Advertising for “lifestyle” products is more often than not aspirational: neither carmakers nor customers expect every SUV buyer to immediately go ford a river at high speed or do donuts in powdery snow, but the imagery is used without complaint to highlight the idea that you could. And because it looks cool, of course.
 
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thatJohann

macrumors 68000
Jul 5, 2013
1,904
2,158
NYC
Not sure I’m using this feature right on my 16 Pro. When I shoot at 4K120 all I see is an option to change the speed of the video but it lowers the frame rate and becomes choppy. This Apple promo video looks super smooth in slow mo. What am I doing wrong? This is what I see:
IMG_0030.png
If I select a slower speed it just looks choppy and not smooth like in apple’s promo videos
 

howiemnet

macrumors newbie
Mar 2, 2020
2
0
Birmingham UK
That was surprisingly poor. Leaving aside the content itself (which was kinda bland), the video not only maxed out at 1080P on YouTube, but the grading and finishing (even with YT Premium's "enhanced bitrate" option) was very crude. Poor saturation control; no dithering or banding reduction -- and lots of harsh compression artifacts -- and the disclaimer line at the bottom of the screen at the end ("other eqpt used too") disappeared against the background on the right.

Just didn't feel Apple-y in either story or production values.

Don't get me wrong: I love my Apple stuff, with caveats (nothing's perfect but I wouldn't want any other devices in my pocket or on my desk right now), and I normally find Apple's marketing output to be pretty much best in class. Just didn't like this particular ad.
 
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howiemnet

macrumors newbie
Mar 2, 2020
2
0
Birmingham UK
@thatJohann - It can take a bit of care to do right (eg making sure there's enough light so the shutter speed can be fast enough to get motion blur just right without smearing) but if you're recording in Slow mo mode and seeing stutter when playing back at 24/25/30 it could be you need to reboot your phone and reshoot I'm afraid.

There's been a long-standing issue with Slow mo stutters (usually 2 or 3 stutters per second) with iPhones, especially noticeable with faster frame rates (240fps being a particular nuisance). Restarting the phone usually clears it. Suspect it's a contention or memory thing; mebbe the phone struggles to write that huge stream of data fast enough when there are lots of other things going on at the same time on the device
 
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