iPhone 16 Pro Camera-Centric iPhone Cinema Edition

[ColonelShaun]

I’ve been a video producer for almost 20 years and I use cinema cameras (RED and Sony, mostly).

We’ve had a few projects in 2022 where we tested filming with iPhone 14 Pros, and we were impressed. Then in Sept 2023, we filmed a whole kids show episode using only five iPhone 15 Pro’s.

This wasn’t that thing where we put an iPhone on a $100k robotic arm with a 50 person crew and make it look “cinematic.” We were embracing the limitations of the phone and its true strengths: portability/size, ease of use, and auto focus (made easier by iPhones deep depth of focus).

We used Final Cut Camera and FCP iPad Live Multicam (when we could, it was sadly too inconsistent to rely on as much as we had hoped).

Our only real complaints were some software bugs and battery life (we lasted our full day, but could see the end was in sight).

So, I dream, but I’d LOVE to see a camera focused Apple iPhone (or iPod touch?!) that was twice as thick as the Pro, but offered even better cameras, battery life, and maybe even an extra port or two.

I get that this won’t happen, but the iPhone’s sensor size is the only real thing keeping it from truly competing with some of the Prosumer camera bodies available. I’d love to see it unleashed and made available to the world.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Telephony is just an app... like Maps or Flashlight. Why limit your physics to only 2X thicker? How about Apple attempting to make a full DSLR without limitations and, among the apps included on it, include the phone app?

No, this doesn't have people holding a full camera up to their ear. Instead use buds as many do now with iPhone "as is" so they can seek information on screen WHILE communicating via phone.

I don't own an iPhone. Instead, I use cellular iPad with VOIP app and buds to also cover my telephony needs. That works just fine for me. At times, I've used VOIP app + buds to make a Mac stand in as a phone too. We've all probably used zoom, Skype, FaceTime or similar to make any of the major computing devices become "phones." Making a true camera form factor also offer telephony is only making one able to run a VOIP app on it.

All of the physics problems of "thinner" vs. what cameras need for best picture/video are resolved if a new product line puts the camera first and makes the phone the "add-on" functionality. VOIP apps + buds work fine on tablets & computers. They would work just as fine on a camera body.

 

[eyoungren]

SMH.

At what point does the iPhone cease to be a consumer product for individuals and become a commercial product for industry professionals and production studios?

OP, to me that is what you are advocating. I'm an individual and don't really concern myself with pro level stuff for making TV shows or movies. That's not what I'm interested in. If I take pictures/video it's for personal reasons/use.

If this is or will be Apple's direction, then I'm buying the wrong product and I'm in the wrong forum.

 

[cateye]

SMH.

At what point does the iPhone cease to be a consumer product for individuals and become a commercial product for industry professionals and production studios?

OP, to me that is what you are advocating. I'm an individual and don't really concern myself with pro level stuff for making TV shows or movies. That's not what I'm interested in. If I take pictures/video it's for personal reasons/use.

If this is or will be Apple's direction, then I'm buying the wrong product and I'm in the wrong forum.

Exactly this. The iPhone is able to float its limitations because it does not pretend to be what it is not. It is a multi-purpose portable computer in your pocket that happens to take really quite good photos and videos. It is the endgame of the maxim "the best camera is the one you always have with you." Using it professionally within the boundaries of its limitations is a neat parlor trick, but also succumbing to Apple's marketing to an extent. Right tools for the job and all that.

Were Apple to pivot it toward being an actual professional tool, then it would need to compete with those professional tools and their established ecosystems, support communities and the degree to which their flexibility and design is aligned toward practical/functional need rather than defined by marketing. The iPhone is a consumer electronics product from its foundations up. Any use beyond that is aspirational gravy, not its purpose.