What Apple means when it says "shot on iPhone" | Hacker News Reader

What Apple means when it says "shot on iPhone"

theverge.com

35 pointsthunderbong15 comments

Every photographer that earns his/her salt knows that the secret to a good shot does NOT lie in the camera alone.

I do have to say that Apple's constant improvements in iPhone camera technology is to be applauded - they make for some compelling reasons to stay upgraded even while telephony itself is somewhat mired :P . But there is so much more than the camera involved in capturing an image. We tend to forget that cameras can only sense light, and the computer behind it can only work with the raw material fed to it. Providing that light, and the shadows that accompany it, continues to add to the artistry and skill of the cinematographer's work.

Yup. Conversely, shooting with a $60,000 camera and lens is not going to automatically make a shoot look great unless the camera operator, director, and lighting are skillfully utilized.

Anyone galled by the realization that an iPhone camera still requires skill, taste, and auxiliary equipment (not to mention a great subject) doesn't understand what it takes to produce a good video.

In music production it's common for people to debate over the best microphone to the detriment of more influential factors. A great microphone is probably the sixth most important factor in making a great record. Generally speaking, the most influential factors are (in order of importance):

1. A great song

2. played by a great performer

3. on a great instrument

4. in a great acoustic environment

5. with tasteful microphone placement

6. captured with a great microphone

7. through a great pre-amp

8. through great A/D converters

And so on.

The article is specifically making a point around the sheer quantity of equipment used by Apple, vs Olivia Rodrigo.

The point of the article is that Apple Keynotes "shot on iPhone" are still big budget shoots with high end production crews that are "still required to make iPhone footage look this good." The Olivia Rodrigo comparison is a tacked-on thought at the end of the article.

Whatever the case may be, I don't know why you think it's necessary to make a distinction, since it makes no difference to the point me and OP are making about what matters in a quality film shoot or record production.

I’m not mad about all of the external hardware and setup. Those would be the same had they used a traditional camera. I do, however, feel like it’s cheating to use a custom, more powerful and likely lower level, app rather than the regular Camera app. It means that even with all that hardware, no one else would be able to get those results from an iPhone.

Edit: actually it looks like they’re using the Blackmagic Camera[1] available on the App Store

[1]: https://apps.apple.com/app/blackmagic-camera/id6449580241

Looks like reds new camera app, anyone could just download it

It’s black magics new app. It’s free and FANTASTIC.

I clicked expecting special glass in front of the lens or something, but no the phone was bog standard and bolted into a rig for movement: that's about as "shot on iPhone" as you'd imagine.

It just means that it is good enough to replace a professional camera. Did people think that it'll be just random dude taking some shaky videos?

People (and the author perhaps) seem to think professional video production is just about having a fancy camera. They couldn't be more wrong.

Maybe this is an improvement. They used to allow cinema lens rigs. At some point it is just having the iPhone film the viewfinder of a professional camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkPter7MC1I

There have been movies shot on GoPro (notably scenes from The Martian), so I cease to see the novelty of "shot on iPhone".

https://goproessentials.com/3-films-utilized-gopros-filming/

There's a real difference between the amount of space for the lens on a gopro vs _any_ phone camera.

The point that Apple (and Google, Huawei, Samsung, etc) are making is that filming on a phone is qualitatively better now than it ever has been. The reality is that modern phones have cameras vastly superior to phone cameras of the past, or more importantly even things like camcorders of a few years ago.

That said, I think there would be more interest in things that are shot with widely varying angle of view, distance, etc. Rather than "person standing in front of a camera", "person in a room standing in front of a camera", "person walking in an approximately single focal plane in a room", etc

Honestly who cares, at least they use the iPhone unlike Huawei which tried to pass off DSLR photos as a phone pic:

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/8/20/17759038/h...

> It’s a neat way to promote the recording quality of iPhone cameras, but it’s not like everyday folks can recreate these kinds of results at home unless they happen to own a shedload of ludicrously expensive equipment.

Damn, i don't know about you, but my dream of shooting movies with the new iPhone, was totally crushed. /s

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