Yesterday, Apple released the new M3 Silicon iMac and Mac Book Pro computers. In my article for the release, I mentioned how the event was shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. We knew this because Apple included this info at the end of the video presentation. I think that was the most impressive part of the presentation.
Now, we all know it takes a lot more than just an excellent camera to capture quality images. These days, you can almost use any camera on the market and get great results. However, mobile phones, while they have been used for feature films, looked like lower quality cameras because they are, but today, the cameras in mobile devices are very good. They can easily pass as a production tool.
Like many cameras, it’s the user interface and IO that make them more practical, plus ergonomics. The iPhone 15 Pro with the USB-C IO allows the phone to have an external drive attached so you can easily get the media into the post-production process quickly. It is not fun to plug a device into a computer and offload many gigs of video, and an iPhone 15 Pro would have to have a lot of Terabytes to use on a production, especially shooting ProRes. With external drives, you don’t have to stop production to offload. Just swap out the drive.
Lighting Makes The Magic
You can have the latest and greatest camera on set, but if the lighting sucks, so will the production. Lighting is the key to great images, and the proof is in the pudding. The video presentation that Apple did looked great. Yes, the depth of field was deep, but that is one of the drawbacks of such a tiny sensor.
I think it was wise not to add artificial shallow depth to the image on this presentation, as it would have stuck out. That tech is good, but not so much with video. Yet.
Blackmagic Camera App
You must give some love to Blackmagic as the new FREE Blackmagic Camera app is making a big splash. The app gives you much more control over the settings, and you can use the Tentacle Sync E for timecode sync when shooting multi-cam. Did I mention the app is free?
Check out Matt’s article on using the Tentacle Sync E with the Blackmagic Camera App. It’s a good one!
Edited on a Mac
Interestingly, Apple didn’t use Final Cut Pro as the main NLE system to edit with. Instead, it focused on the Mac being the computer used. While this comes as a bit of a surprise, it’s smart to sell your products to all editors, and it looks like DaVinci Resolve was used in this video presentation.
It’s fun to see how things are progressing, but also it’s important to remember how much gear was used and the crew size to pull it off. The techno cranes alone require several talented people to operate. The camera may be small, but the crew was large.
