We always wanted to make a video entirely filmed on an iPhone and here it is. After a few weeks of testing, The Verge’s supervising producer Vjeran Pavic talks about his experience making this video, shares his best practices to and reviews the new features of the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera including the new 48MP ultra wide lens, 4K 120fps slow motion and photographic styles.
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00:00The iPhone 16 Pro might just be one of the best iPhones for photographers and videographers ever.
00:06Look, this iPhone isn't finished. It's still missing a bunch of AI features, even the camera control button isn't fully functional yet.
00:14But if you're in it just for photos and videos, there is a lot to love here.
00:18The iPhone does this by giving you more choices than ever before and yes, a lot of this stuff was already available in the older
00:26iPhones, but the 16 Pro offers an unprecedented level of customization from that new button to new file formats and the ability to change the look of your photos for good.
00:36It's the kind of stuff you can nerd out on and dial into your own perfect precise settings,
00:41but also it's the kind of stuff that you can get lost in after falling down a rabbit hole and
00:47it is a lot. So after a few weeks of testing the camera and putting myself in many different situations,
00:53I want to help you and myself make sense of these choices and show you what works for me.
00:59You might expect me to start with photos and we'll get there pretty soon, but I really want to start with videos, specifically
01:05slow-motion 4k 120 frames per second. It is the new big feature this year and it is a lot of fun to use.
01:14Coincidentally, there was a skate event nearby and it felt like the perfect place to see how this camera performs in a fast paced
01:21environment where I want to switch between modes quickly, capture a variety of photos, videos,
01:26and of course, it is the perfect place to capture a bunch of slow-mo stuff.
01:30For this type of an event, I knew I needed some extra stability and support,
01:34so I brought out this iPhone rig with side handles and a top handle.
01:38I went with the small rig one, which clamps onto your phone versus using something with MagSafe.
01:43I tend to trust MagSafe, but this felt like a safer option in case someone runs into me or I run into them.
01:49I've also turned on enhanced stabilization in the camera settings for even more stable footage. Again,
01:55I wanted to film everything in Apple Log Color Profile.
01:57It is a flat, unprocessed color codec to give me more room for manually post-processing and color grading.
02:04This also means I needed an external storage for anything filmed in 4k 60 and 4k 120
02:09within the native camera app. And those file sizes are
02:14absolutely massive. Like, this isn't worth it type of massive. Unless you download some other camera apps, more on that very soon.
02:21So I got the hard drive mount on top, added this 4 terabyte SSD, and was ready to go.
02:27The event was great. I knew I walked away with some fantastic clips
02:30I could not wait to edit. Swapping between three lenses really helps to get a variety of clips quickly.
02:36But I do wish 4k 120 was available in all lenses.
02:40I was forced to make choices when to shoot 60 or 120 based on lenses. That felt limiting.
02:46There are also some minor user interface inconsistencies in the native camera app.
02:51So if you go to the slow motion tab, ProRes option isn't available there,
02:55but it's available in the main video tab. In the same tab,
02:58you can switch between frame rates by tapping through them on this tiny little icon in the top right corner.
03:03But if you miss your desired frame rate setting, you have to cycle through them all over again.
03:08And if you're not using a hard drive, you're constantly met with warning messages when cycling through your option.
03:14It also felt like I had to triple check each time that I haven't accidentally changed any other settings.
03:19Third-party apps like Blackmagic and Kino and Moment have better interfaces that are more streamlined for my type of work.
03:28Unfortunately at the time of this event, not all of those apps had 4k 120 frames per second support.
03:33So for now, I just used the native app and burned through my storage pretty quickly.
03:38And I know what you're thinking, like, dude, I'm not building out this rig.
03:43That's not how people use phones.
03:46You're right.
03:46Let's ditch the rig for now and just use the phone while walking around San Francisco and New York City
03:52and see how to get the best possible videos out of this phone.
03:59Since we're ditching that rig, I'd strongly recommend investing in some of those third-party apps.
04:03Those apps will enable you to film in Apple Log, but in smaller formats like ProRes LT or HEVC.
04:10Using those formats means we don't have to film straight to an SSD drive, but directly to the iPhone.
04:16So these are lower quality, but I promise you will not notice a massive difference.
04:20The point here is that we want to get rid of Apple processing and make these videos feel a bit more of your own.
04:27There are a bunch of apps out there right now, but Kino was my favorite since it has some nice LUTs or color grades to choose from
04:33that you can apply directly in the app.
04:35I find Apple's default processing just a bit too crunchy, over-sharpened, contrasty, and too saturated,
04:42especially when filming in HDR, which I wasn't.
04:44This whole video is just SDR.
04:46One other thing you miss out on when filming in ProRes Apple Log is Apple's noise reduction, which, although aggressive, is sometimes necessary.
04:54So, for example, some low-light clips look much cleaner straight out of the camera, even if they lack some clarity and detail.
05:00Without the noise reduction, the grain is very noticeable, especially with the ultrawide and the telephoto lenses.
05:08I did bring the rig one more time for our visit to the California Academy of Sciences.
05:13It allowed me to bound two phones together side by side so you can see the differences more clearly here between standard and Apple Log.
05:21Also, this place is amazing.
05:22So here's some footage of butterflies in slow motion, some cool fish and a cool looking albino alligator.
05:30And actually, filming in Log here helped me to adjust colors more accurately.
05:39Let's talk photography, and I want to focus on two things, photographic styles and the camera control button.
05:44Photographic styles are Apple's new way to apply different looks to your photos.
05:49You can swap between them in camera or select them after the fact for perceptually lossless edits.
05:55You can also pick your default in the settings app, too.
05:58After testing out several looks, there is one photographic style that became my new favorite and my new default.
06:04It's called Gold, and I love the subtle changes it makes to the yellows and the reds in the photo.
06:09I also set the tone setting anywhere between like minus 40 and minus 80, depending on the scene.
06:15The tone settings affects the tonality and mostly shadows of your image, which means you can finally let shadows be shadows and override Apple's aggressive HDR look.
06:25Finally, I also tend to prefer an underexposed look, mainly so I don't blow out highlights, which honestly isn't a problem with an iPhone.
06:34So I usually set my exposure anywhere between a third or two thirds of a stop down.
06:39Again, this is not a hard rule.
06:42It really depends on each scene.
06:43But for me, it is a great starting point.
06:45OK, so for my more creative and stylistic look, I've been using the quiet photographic style.
06:50I love the washed out gold look with a bunch of colors stripped out.
06:55It helps me turn some more boring photos into something more visually interesting.
07:00For nighttime and low light photos, I found myself gravitating towards the dramatic style with its green and blue look as my favorite.
07:08But I think actually a lot of these styles really pop in low light.
07:12So give them a try.
07:13More importantly, I noticed how the inclusion of these new photographic styles were influencing my process in a way that I wasn't expecting it.
07:21I found myself thinking more about how each photo will look with each style based on what I was about to take a picture of.
07:28It reminds me of how you pick different film stocks for different situations if you were shooting analog.
07:34I haven't used an iPhone in that way before, and I really enjoyed this cognitive shift that's happening.
07:39These styles are a much bigger deal than I initially thought.
07:42The other new feature with photos is that the 48 megapixel mode is now available on the ultra wide, but don't forget to turn it on.
07:48It's not on by default.
07:50The photos do look sharper, but don't expect a massive jump in quality.
07:55It is a good upgrade for your photos.
07:56And the more I use it, the more I'm noticing the details that you're getting out of it.
08:01That same ultra wide lens is used for macro photos, and those look awesome.
08:05I found myself using it a lot more than I thought that I would.
08:08The 5x telephoto remains the same as before.
08:10It is a sharp lens with lots of reach and a quite bitter compression.
08:15At times, it feels a little bit just too flat.
08:18But if you tap to focus, it will save depth data, which can later be used to add some artificial bokeh.
08:24Cutouts aren't always perfect, but I like having that option when I want it.
08:29Between the three lenses, the main fusion lens remains the best one, but all three are capable of great results in good light.
08:35And now it can be perceptually losslessly edited for even better looking photos.
08:41I only wish we could also control a few other things, mainly sharpness.
08:45I often find that all iPhone photos just are a bit oversharpened.
08:51For those who want to avoid that look, you can always shoot in RAW,
08:54which now supports a much smaller and lossless JPEG Excel file format.
08:58I know a lot of people are excited about that.
09:00But using RAW also means that you're missing out on photographic style.
09:03So that choice is up to you.
09:06Do you want to let your iPhone edit your own photos or do you want to edit them yourself?
09:11Personally, I'll use HEIF about 99% of the time, and I prefer to use my real camera to take RAW photos.
09:19Smaller file sizes and built in options are more than enough for what I want out of the phone.
09:25But the option is nice to have for the rare occasion when I decided to take RAW photos with my phone instead.
09:31And if you want a fully unprocessed file, you can always get Halide and then shoot process zero,
09:36which strips out just everything.
09:38You may have noticed I haven't really spent a lot of time talking about the camera control button,
09:42so I guess we should talk about that.
09:44So I've been using the iPhone 16 Pro for a number of weeks now,
09:49and I swear I kept trying to use this button more and more, but I just can't.
09:55Every time I attempt to use it, I just end up feeling like I'm getting very little use out of it.
10:01The placement of the button when taking horizontal photos is fine, even though it's not how I hold my phone.
10:05I hold it one hand, pinky underneath for support and just tap away.
10:10I also found it more difficult to use when taking vertical photos, especially on the bigger Pro Max.
10:16I also found that the shutter is way too stiff and changing settings on it is just cumbersome.
10:22It takes forever.
10:24If there is a setting that you like, you can keep it on there and that'll be OK.
10:28But most adjustment controls I want to access are just easier to control on the touchscreen, for me anyway.
10:35And I'm not entirely sure if the announced half press focus tracking that's coming later will make up for it.
10:40I truly believe that this button will be a lot more useful as an AI scanner.
10:45As of right now, I don't think this is ready yet.
10:47That said, I did find myself using it to launch the camera, and that's about it.
10:51But even then, you'd need to wake up your phone first and then click the button to launch the camera.
10:56There were many times where I would just pull out my phone out of my pocket,
11:00press the button and expect it to be in camera mode.
11:03And it just wasn't.
11:04If anything, the camera button now frees up your action button to be assigned to something else,
11:09like a dedicated video camera app.
11:11I think that's pretty cool.
11:14As soon as I started making this video, I knew I wanted to do two things.
11:18Set myself out on a mission to see how to utilize this phone for the type of professional work I do all the time.
11:24And I also knew I wanted to film everything in this video on an iPhone, which I did.
11:29Not a single frame in this video came from a different camera.
11:32Even this Vergy product B-roll and this two camera section that you're looking at right now,
11:37all filmed on an iPhone.
11:38But this part, it was a nightmare to set up.
11:43So first, it was nearly impossible to fit it into the teleprompter.
11:46Second, the camera and sensors are off axis, so everything is just slightly off to the side.
11:53This also meant that it caught corners of the teleprompter in this shot.
11:56So if I zoom out, you will see some corners here.
11:59Third, monitoring your framing as you're setting up is just impossible if you're doing this by yourself,
12:05unless you have like a separate monitor plugged into the iPhone or you're mirroring your phone onto a Mac.
12:12Try using the Apple Watch to control and see my framing.
12:17But that thing just never, ever, ever works.
12:20Lastly, I just used the Final Cut camera app that was synced with my iPad,
12:25which made things a little bit easier until I lost connection.
12:28At that point, I could not get the connection to reestablish itself ever again.
12:34I think it's broken forever.
12:35Finally, once I got my framing nailed, I switched back to the Kino app.
12:39And in retrospect, it was probably more hassle than it was worth.
12:42I think this looks OK.
12:44We're at 800 ISO, by the way.
12:47And the 24mm lens isn't something that I typically use when filming a talking head.
12:53Also, this is like my third time trying to film this two camera section.
12:58First time is a test run.
12:59Second time was the actual stand up, and I really liked it.
13:03But the file was about an hour and 17 gigabytes big, which isn't terrible.
13:08I tried airdropping it.
13:09I tried uploading it to iCloud and tried transferring it over with a wire transfer.
13:13None of it worked.
13:15I finally got it to transfer just to find out that the file was corrupted.
13:20Like the phone was doing so well up until this point,
13:24I even brought it out with me to some recent big shoots,
13:27and I was satisfied with the results that I got, especially with video.
13:31But I can't sit here and tell you that I've always enjoyed the process.
13:35Even when it excels at some task, it's still a phone,
13:38and that form factor will come with some limitations.
13:41Non-swappable batteries, one USB-C port, thick screen,
13:45issues with large files and so on.
13:48But it also has some advantages.
13:50It is your phone and it can perform pretty good stuff.
13:53It has a plethora of apps available for it,
13:56and the accessory ecosystem is growing pretty strong.
14:00We're kind of, of course, here, so let's just recap some of the settings here.
14:04So for video, I strongly recommend some third party apps with some built in looks.
14:09Film in Apple Log in HEVC or ProRes LT to save space.
14:14Slap a lot on it if you don't want to make your own,
14:16and this will drastically elevate your videos.
14:18If you're looking to build out a rig, you can do that without spending too much money.
14:23The rig I used was around 100 bucks and had almost everything I needed,
14:26except the hard drive mount.
14:28One thing I was missing from my setup are ND filters,
14:31which you'll need on a bright, sunny day.
14:33You probably notice that some clips look a little bit choppy.
14:36As far as photos go, just go ahead and play around with each style
14:40and with settings within each style and see what works for you.
14:44Gold works for me, but whichever one you use, don't forget to lower the tone setting
14:48and you'll get a lot more contrast out of your photos.
14:56But at the end of the day, your camera is a tool,
14:59a tool that helps you achieve whatever vision you set up for yourself.
15:03And sometimes you want that tool to make you feel a certain way.
15:08For example, I don't love to use Sony cameras.
15:12I'm sorry. They just feel a bit soulless to me.
15:15But I absolutely love the images that come out of an FX3
15:18or the dynamic range of Sony's photo cameras.
15:21It is just another tool I will use based on certain situations.
15:25And now more than ever, it feels like the iPhone can adapt to many different
15:29situations, and it is a new useful tool.
15:32I will go in and utilize more going forward.
15:34You'll probably see a lot of iPhone clips in videos.
15:38Will it replace my camera?
15:39I don't like that question because I don't think that's going to happen
15:42anytime soon.
15:44But during this review process, I started to appreciate
15:47how much modern smartphones can actually do.
15:50The depth sensor that you can adjust your bokeh after the photo is taken.
15:54The three lenses you can just quickly swap between.
15:57The four axis stabilization is pretty good.
15:59And then there's the action with stabilization.
16:01That's kind of mind blowing.
16:03And there's 120 frames in 4K and ProRes.
16:07And we haven't even talked about all the new audio processing tools.
16:11All of those features make the iPhone unlike any other DSLR
16:15mirrorless camera.
16:17Could you see yourself using this to replace your camera?
16:20Are you already using iPhone for mostly everything?
16:24Secondly, let me know about your settings.
16:25I'm curious about your photographic styles and what works for you.
16:30Talk soon.