Shooting 4K ProRes Video Requires iPhone 13 Pro With at Least 256GB Storage

[rimbs]

For all those posting that "there is no reason why" I would be curious what they are basing that statement on? I do not yet know what flavour of ProRes is being used on the iPhone nor do I have any details on the internal storage or other technical factors that might influence this decision so I am quite surprised there are so many who apparently do have the information. Please share.

It is worth clarifying that ProRes will only be available on the Pro models, and as the article stated in order to record 4K ProRes you will need a 256GB or larger iPhone; you can still shoot 1080p ProRes on the 128GB. Where some see this as an evil conspiracy I am more inclined to think that anyone buying the 128GB version is likely not thinking about shooting 4K video in the ProRes format so probably will not care. You definitely should not shoot ProRes if you are shooting video of the dog doing silly things and posting it directly to the web which is what I suspect the vast majority of iPhone users are doing. I also suspect there really is a technical reason this is not available at 128GB. And for those who state that 256GB should be the new minimum, well, maybe so but at this point that is irrelevant. The base storage went up and the price did not, at least that is something.

As to the Cinematic Mode I am very curious about that. I have been looking at a number of cinematography websites and it is creating a buzz for sure. What I initially missed, but some others have noted, this is not depth-of-field as created by a lens but rather a computational depth-of-field. When the camera shoots everything is in focus but the processor will try to differentiate between foreground and background through some fabulously complex and truly cool processes but, as we have seen with Portrait Mode, with varying degrees of success. A $2000 iPhone will not be replacing a $50000 dollar camera with a $25000 piece of glass on the front BUT it might well replace some consumer and prosumer video cameras IF (and that is a big IF right now) the Cinematic Mode can be made to work effectively beyond 1080p30 at some point. For instance, how will it handle a CU over-the-shoulder like the example below where the foreground clearly intersects the background? I have watched the sample video a few times but did not see anything close enough to this common set-up to inform.

View attachment 1832123
(shot courtesy of Mobile Motion Film Festival Free Film School)

We do not know yet but I suspect the above example might cause some issues (what about a foreground cross, then what?). Again, it is also very important to point out that, at this time, Cinematic mode only works for 1080p30 and it is unclear whether you can record Cinematic Mode in ProRes. I also wonder if any of this technology will be available to third party video applications? Will Filmic's DoubleTake allow ProRes recording? At 24fps? In Cinematic Mode? Across multiple lenses simultaneously? There is so much we do not know yet. This is just the first pass at this technology and I look forward to where it goes but I am not expecting it to change the world anytime soon.

I do expect to see some students making films with iPhones and look forward to seeing the results. I will also be incredibly jealous. I want to wait just one more year before replacing my current iPhone.

IMO, since the synthetic rack focus in "cinema mode" doesn't actually adjust the focal plane with the glass elements, it will never be like pulling focus on a cinema lens. But it's cool.

As a filmmaker the thing that matters most to me is if I can control my shutter speed to shoot 24fps at 1/48 or 1/50. If I can't control my shutter speed I can't use this camera to make a movie.

 

[wigby]

Is that confirmed or speculation?

If the 256 and up models use faster SSDs, they should market that fact. It's not a bad thing after all.

It's speculation but they've never marketed that fact just lime they don't reveal RAM and CPU click speeds. It really won't affect anyone's experience so they don't feel obligated to tell everyone.

 

[samlikesmac]

We do not know yet but I suspect the above example might cause some issues (what about a foreground cross, then what?). Again, it is also very important to repeat that, at this time, Cinematic mode only works for 1080p30 and it is unclear whether you can record Cinematic Mode in ProRes. I also wonder if any of this technology will be available to third party video applications? Will Filmic's DoubleTake allow ProRes recording? At 24fps? In Cinematic Mode? Across multiple lenses simultaneously? There is so much we do not know yet. This is just the first pass at this technology by Apple and I look forward to seeing where it goes but I am not expecting it to change my world anytime soon.

Well said. The tech specs do make it sound like ProRes and Cinamtic are definitely mutually exclusive for the moment. Cinematic can do Dolby Vision HDR though so at least that’s something but I do not think it can do that a ProRes simply because the processing is not there for that type of datastream. Excited to see what the future holds for DoubleTake. Anything like this is great for amateurs like myself who want to have very good quality video.

 

[iDento]

So then the base price would have been $1099 instead of $999....for marketing purposes that is bad....just like things are always $9.99 instead of $10.00

No. They should offer 256 GB for 999$ and get like few bucks less margin per phone. Because a Pro device with 128 GB should not exist in 2021.

 

[ActionFigures]

Sorry if already answered but what's the difference between prores vs cinematic mode?

 

[SR 7]

I'm slowly doing the same.
Ditching my apple watch except when doing workouts.
Got the bose 700 instead of the double the price airpods max
getting rid of my ipad and just using a kindle for reading.

My ideal would be just mac + iphone + airpod pros

i know many people that have done the same. Most are leaving the Apple Watch for garmins and the Apple TV for the firestick. What does Apple TV do at $180 that the fire stick doesn’t at $40?

I know people would full blown cracked iPhone screens that refuse to change the phone because of Apple being the nickel and dimers that they are. Apple can raise prices by $50 increments all they want but all they’ll do is push customers away especially with Amazon and Google bringing out great products.

 

[binaryfuneral]

Correct me if I've wrong (and there's a high probability of that), but didn't Apple under Jobs' reign operate under the core belief that each product should be easy to explain, easy to use and appeal to the average Joe? How many average Joe's see 4K ProRes and understand it, let alone want it? Seems like Apple is trying to sell something that very few people asked for.

iPhone PRO for...you know.... PROs

 

[BuddyTronic]

Can people with 128gb iPhones still record in 4K?

sure. Just not prorez stuff. If you gotta ask - maybe you don’t need it. If you simply want the best, don’t pinch pennies - go for the big one

 

[BuddyTronic]

Phones really should have started at 256gb it seems.

Imagine the bitching from people here if they did that.

if I was Tim Apple I’d make 1TB exclusively and grab the popcorn

 

[BuddyTronic]

1100 for a phone that can’t even do this feature lmao

boo hoo - it’s not so bad

 

[BuddyTronic]

And...to decide whether you really need to shoot at that resolution

Yes - it’s gonna take hard drive space

 

[twistedpixel8]

My sole disappointment is that base model is not 256GB. Android flagships has had 256GB 128GB base model for at least 2-3 years already.

Edit: Correction, Android flagships started having base models with 128GB as early as when the 2019 iPhone 11 Pro Max was 64GB. I was looking forward that Apple may have the iPhone be the first smartphone flagship base model with 256GB this year. Upon further review Apple appears to double the base storage of iPhones every 4-5 years so we may see a 256GB base model by year 2024 or 20225. A 1TB base model iPhone may appear by mid 2030s when 8K resolution video start becoming the norm?

The base model is 256GB, you’ve just misunderstood the lineup. There is, however, a reduced price model at 128GB but you don’t want that 😉

^ how Apple’s marketing people think.

 

[Craigwilliam]

For me, ProRes is the most exciting part of the announcement, outside of cinematic mode that is. Though it is unclear which ProRes it supports, whether it is the standard 422 ProRes or 4444 ProRes and if using cinematic mode allows for you to shoot with ProRes.
I would think any filmmaker would understand the importance of ProRes since it potentially takes the iPhone and turns it into a pretty solid B-Camera for productions.

 

[Hexley]

For me, ProRes is the most exciting part of the announcement, outside of cinematic mode that is. Though it is unclear which ProRes it supports, whether it is the standard 422 ProRes or 4444 ProRes and if using cinematic mode allows for you to shoot with ProRes.
I would think any filmmaker would understand the importance of ProRes since it potentially takes the iPhone and turns it into a pretty solid B-Camera for productions.

Image sensor size is really tiny. I don't expect it to be a quality equivalent to say a full frame Canon EOS R5 with L lens

 

[Moshe1010]

How much space does it take in terms of MB/min of recording?

 

[ender21]

Is there any indication as to which flavor of ProRes? At last check there are 7 different types, from ProRes Proxy (45Mbps at 1080p) all the way up to 4444 XQ (500Mbps at 1080p) and ProResRaw.

ProRes is interesting (especially for editing purposes), but I would imagine that the two biggest differences between iPhone and a professional cinema camera with professional lenses are 1)control over depth of field and 2)dynamic range. How much does ProRes help make an iPhone 13 Pro look like a $50K Alexa Mini setup? I’m skeptical that it does much to narrow the gap.

That said, I hope to be proven wrong once the phone is released and we’re able to see what people create.

Editability and lower compression at acquisition is what will narrow the gap, rather than the acquisition codec being a delivery codec. Those aren’t worthless advantages. The rest of your points I agree with.

 

[ender21]

Ugh, trying to find where I can delete a dupe post.

 

[Christian Schumacher]

How much space does it take in terms of MB/min of recording?

ProRes has several compressions and file sizes. Starts with proxy and goes til raw, and all of them not for the faint of heart. I would like to know if it will have time-of-day timecode and/or have clip custom naming? Having clip 001 00:00:00 and then clip 002 00:00:00 and so on will definitely suck big time...

 

[Apleeseed84]

I have backed up my 1tb ipad pro to itunes just for a hard reset using the USB C, seamlessly all data was transferred in 20 minutes, I had close to 1tb of video so of course file transfer speeds would be slow, for the record using a high capacity wireless modem with a mesh network and to wireless transfer my data the same before I realized my PC had a USB C port literally took close to 8 hours and the backup was "stuck" after 3 times. Wired for me all the way but still A lot of forum users have brought up good points about the iphone screaming to need USB C for the high capacity files. My Photos and Music size on the cloud is close to a 1tb so imagine the download and back up everytime i upgrade or get a new phone

 

[Craigwilliam]

Image sensor size is really tiny. I don't expect it to be a quality equivalent to say a full frame Canon EOS R5 with L lens

Your instinct is to immediately compare it to an 8k full-frame camera that costs something like twice the price without the lens? ProRes helps you get the most out of the image rather than having the compression fill the image with artifacts. It's not about making the image an exact equivalent of camera x.

 

[Craigwilliam]

Is there any indication as to which flavor of ProRes? At last check there are 7 different types, from ProRes Proxy (45Mbps at 1080p) all the way up to 4444 XQ (500Mbps at 1080p) and ProResRaw.



Editability and lower compression at acquisition is what will narrow the gap, rather than the acquisition codec being a delivery codec. Those aren’t worthless advantages. The rest of your points I agree with.

My guess is that it will be ProRes 422, possibly HQ I doubt it would be Proxy as that would be a bit pointless. It's possible that it'll allow the option to go all the way up to 4444 but I'm not counting on it. Maybe iPhone 14 for that one.
I speculated that this could mean the new Macbook Pro will have ProRes decoding and encoding built into the processor similar to having the afterburner built right into the SOC and that this is a precursor to that technology.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

I suspect they are. Wireless transfer is the only viable option for transferring those big files and need a router of some sort on the go.

rav power hub can be good as long as you use 5ghz and connect to ssd not sd card

 

[Hexley]

Your instinct is to immediately compare it to an 8k full-frame camera that costs something like twice the price without the lens? ProRes helps you get the most out of the image rather than having the compression fill the image with artifacts. It's not about making the image an exact equivalent of camera x.

The point I am trying to get across is that ProRes will not magically make it as good as a dedicated camera.

Often times the marketing reality distortion field is such that it goes beyond common sense.

 

[Craigwilliam]

The point I am trying to get across is that ProRes will not magically make it as good as a dedicated camera.

Often times the marketing reality distortion field is such that it goes beyond common sense.

Ive worked with a lot of different camera formats over the years going back to Mini DV and if you don’t think that ProRes is going to make a difference then I suspect you don’t know what you are talking about. There is a lot that goes into making a good picture.

 

[Stromos]

You can get USB 3.0 transfer speeds on the newer iOS devices with a USB-C to Lightening cable. I believe that started with the 2nd gen iPad Pro 12.9.

heres’s my source: https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/12/ipad-pro-lightning-port-usb-3-0-speeds/

Just rewatched the video segment 10x faster than lightning...

Lightning is limited to USB 2.0 speed. They added a usb 3.0 Host controller that can read 3.0 devices but only their proprietary camera adapter so laptop connections are still 2.0.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1460711