Apple has published seven videos in its 'Experiments' series, including four episodes and four behind-the-scenes videos. Each video is intended to show what's possible with 'an iPhone, simple materials, and boundless creativity,' according to the company. The latest video involves effects created by fire and ice; past examples include water and colorful objects.
The methods used to create Apple's newest Experiments videos are fairly simple and reproducible at home, including the use of dry ice, what appears to be isopropyl alcohol in a glass jug, a wire mesh covered in lint and caught on fire, a red hot piece of metal placed on dark paper and more. The majority of the shots were captured by hand.
Maybe we will eventually evolve eyes to be positioned vertically on our face. Until then any "portrait mode" video that doesn't feature a tornado, waterfall, or similar subject, is dirt in my eyes. Even then, more than a few minutes and "my brain hurts". Notice the "behind the scenes" was shot horizontal? just my 2 cents...
@Dpreview, Since when are you advertising this much for Apple? We have already seen several video posts, like this, on your website. Other cameras aren't receiving nearly as much attention as the iPhone 11...
I bet if other smartphone companies put out artwork videos with an included BTS, dpreview would have it up here as well. Apple is just really good at spending money on marketing relative to competitors.
I had my iPhone 11 Pro Max with me during my last US vacation (I'm from Germany), I usually use it as a selfie camera for me, my kids and my wife and it works pretty well. Also had a Sony A7R M4 with me, with a Sony 24-70 2.8 G lens, sometimes I use my A9 with the same lens during trips. What can I say? I got some very nice results with the Sony A7R M4 but some of the iPhone 11 Pro Max shots, I did more non-selfie shots than I had initially planned, were quite spectacular as well, especially in lower light conditions but also during daytime. So in the end, I seriously asked myself: Why do I carry a heavy and somewhat expensive camera with me if I could nail at least 90% of the shots I want(ed) with an iPhone?! I am serious. Looking forward to the next gen iPhone 12.
Beautiful subject matter and skilled editing can make any phone look great. Not to say the camera isn't fantastic for a phone, but I'm pretty sure most high-end phones could have captured the raw footage
It's up to the brands to invest in promotional content. Apparently Apple feels the need to prove themselves, while others rather invest in development. There are plenty of reviews. Just Google. ;-)
All feature used by Apple's iPhone 11 Pro are available on most Android phones. Even devices that sold at less than 30% of an Apple (in terms of price -e.g. Xiaomi's Mi 9-). Nothing new, nor groundbreaking.
Fun video, but the danger levels are very, very high. I hate to be the negative guy, but Apple is totally irresponsible in distributing this with a statement that these are things that can be done at home.
Take burning the isopropyl alcohol in a closed container, for example. There's a real danger of flashback and burns. The folks doing the video had equipment, but the home user likely would not.
I'm all for hands on learning and creative play. But it has to be done with some sense of safety and understanding. What they're doing here is inviting some potentially serious injuries.
Thanks, Einride. You're right that it was DPR that made the comment.
I just sent a note to the author urging her to remove any comment about doing these things at home. There are some truly hazardous outcomes ... handling dry ice in confined spaces, for example, can have disastrous results (https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/110/11/757/3979423). And don't get me started on the sparklers, or handling flammable vapors in confined spaces.
The folks doing this video have the personal protection gear, ventilation, and experience to do these things safely. Most people don't.
I'm Impressed, if it can help inspire the more casual users to experiment and be creative with their photography or videography rather than just taking pictures of their unmentionables, pulling duck-faces, and applying instagram filters without thought then I'm all for it. Obviously not suitable for final professional work, but as a creative tool to prototype a video storyboard for example a mobile phone (whatever the make) can be invaluable.
It's hard to tell what problems are the result of YouTube and what are from the phone, but looking at both this and the Tokyo video mentioned elsewhere here whilst undeniably very impressive, there was obvious banding, image noise, and motion stuttering (especially in panning shots) in places. Like I say, good for prototyping and casual work, but not for final production.
P.S. I love my iPhone XS Max, and I loved my Galaxy S9+ before it.
I’ve standard 8 cini film of my daughter (now 50) and the quality by today’s standard is appalling. But I’d rather have it than not. And while that’s not what the Apple video is about, it is what everyday people use their phones for.
Last spring I was in a pub and there was one of the grand 50s era dramas (Ten Commandments?) playing on the TV screens. What struck me was how much better video from a decent phone is now, both resolution and color.
OK, but who is the target for Apple? If you're a pro, you will use a proper camera for video anyway, if you're an amateur, you will use your phone. Is it for amateurs with a proper camera? Is it against Android phones? Sorry, but I don't get it...
Apple are trying to justify their exorbitant markup on their "Pro" phones on the basis of the new cameras. So this is just a creative marketing push to try and justify the high price in order to sell more units... they just try to do it in a creative way that makes you think you need an iPhone in order to create shots like that when in fact any high end phone could do the same... but obviously this is an Apple commissioned piece so they're not going to say that.
Remember the "pro" is iPhone pro is just a marketing label with no more significance than if there was a product called Brillo Pad Pro (now with extra stratchy bits).
@mad823 - just a mention that, iPhone 6s (those "old ones") were used in the filming fo the movie MadMax. They were used tot film individual elements to compose into the bigger film for some debris/effects because every time in a dangerous situation they lost an Alexa camera I was $$$$ vs the phone.
Just because some Android phones like to dis Apple to market their phone, doesn't mean Apple has to fall to that level. Apple is just putting out nice things. They are a company that cares about aesthetics, that's what they are marketing.
I lost faith in Apple a year ago now, went out and replaced an iPhone 5 with a Oneplus 6. Fantastic upgrade. I still feel the clunkiness in software and hardware on a daily basis using this phone though and it might be fine for a lot of people but for me, I just like the aesthetics over highest specs. Next phone will be an iPhone and seeing ads like this just reminds me of why I will be choosing it. So there you go, they just lined up one more sale from this video. It's working.
It's been fun, but this aging body (64) is tired of lugging around an 80D and backpack full of lenses.
Similar to the difference between a constantly emerging musician and the independently wealthy audiophile addicted to barely discernible differences of sound, I am not a professional photographer or gadget geek. And certainly not wealthy.
Rather than upgrading my gear, I am increasingly following the maxim that the best camera is the one I have with me ... my iPhone.
And if I want to indulge in greater flights of visual fancy, I'm going drone.
Show me the newest format, spec-topping handheld that can get more of a 'wow' factor, for landscapes or events, than the far cheaper, 4K-on-a-gimbal-drone a couple of hundred meters overhead.
DPReview, I've loved this site for years. But along with the too-big-to-fail camera makers, take notice. The times, they are a changing.
I understand a lot of what you're saying... Indeed, the best camera is what you have with you. I have a Sony, Canon and iPhone in my arsenal (and a waterproof Nikon for watersports)... all have their strengths and weaknesses. I found that for landscape photography the full-frame have the best results... but for candid / street photography, a good smartphone is the best (strange to see how people react.... people get very quiet if you pull out a large camera... however if you pull out a smartphone, no one takes notice). I think as technology moves forward, we'll see a merging of technologies towards a travel-all camera that involves computational photography with better (and smaller than full-frame) sensors in a very small form factor that we won't think twice about carrying with us. It's an interesting time, and one that is certainly fun to watch.
@helraiser: All compacts already have computational photography in them. Making Jpegs out of raw data is already considered computational photography. But there are other forms of computational photography : Like night shot modes that take several exposures and combine them into a more noise free image as well as HDR modes that combine several images with different exposures to shoot high contrast situations. Thera are also filters built in. Some of these functions might not work as good as they do on phones but there is computational photography in compact camera’s
I bought a new iPhone 7 less than a year ago for about two hundred dollars and am happy with the visual results, intended for sharing on laptop computer screens at the most.
I also play bossa/jazz guitar and use iOS software for backing tracks, music study and composition ... as well as for listening to music or watching movies. I'm a retired academic with nearly 50 books on Kindle. The screen is quite readable for even these aging eyes. I stream news, weather, location, and emergency information. I check my mail, and occasionally even chat on the phone.
Looking at Canon's newest flagship, I don't see very good price-performance for my photographic needs, much less ticking the boxes above. For Facebook, YouTube, or e-mail buddies, if I can't take an interesting photo or tell a compelling video narrative with my current iPhone, I don't think the latest camera will dramatically improve my skills.
The dedicated digital camera ride has been fun, but time for me to get off.
I hear you. I have much more invested in glass, primes and zooms, than the 80D, and maybe it's just the places I go and people I hang with, but I don't miss lugging all that glass around.
Between the convenience of the iPhone and its optical limitations, I seem to have adjusted my photographic eye to the moment and the means, and automatically take more photos from which to choose the best.
But then again, I am not a professional. Even when taking photos and videos at college events and speech contests, for community volunteer activities, or vacation landscapes/seascapes and memories here in Japan, I was a pro-sumer at best.
Maybe it's just my age, and I'm scaling down aspirations as well as gear. But I can see I am not the intended market for those YouTube videos touting the cutting-edge, latest and greatest.
Japan ... meh, a great place to visit. Not so great to forge a career. Few foreigners ever accrue social capital. I ended up resigning from a tenured position because being the lone token foreigner was suicidally dehumanizing. In fact, a colleague showed me the rope burns around her neck from an attempted suicide — about 3 months before she died in a 'mysterious' car accident. And she was Japanese.
But my best friends are here and I've lived more in Japan than in the U.S. The states ain't quite what I left behind in the early 80's. The food is great and I'm thankful for the national health care and public transportation. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I fit well in either country.
But the offshore fishing is quite good here. For that, I keep a little Olympus Tough TG-5. Great macro shots.
If I could afford to keep a walk around, I think I'd go your route, and rather than upgrade to the 90D, go to the Canon mirrorless. Great lenses, but gotta watch my wallet now.
@spitfire31 'Vertical video is anathema' Who cares which way up video is? That's so stuck in an imaginary rule-book. @ J A C S Sensor cropping. Again. Who cares?
I hope that they start making films for cinemas in vertical. I mean, who cares that the screens are horizontal. That is so stuck in an imaginary rule book. Everyone can flip the cinema screen vertical, like everyone can do that with their desk monitors, can't they. Sheesh.
Can't wait to go to the cinema to watch the next iPhone ad!
More serious note. Most people use smartphones to view videos these days. Vertical video is becoming more and more common. Apple are just jumping on the train early as usual.
Yes, I to would like to see the comments after watching a full-length movie shot in portrait mode. The frustration that builds in your brain from being denied sight to the left or right will leave folks with muscle strain and migraines. People will leave the theatre with an unspecified anger waiting to be directed at someone or something.
“fairly simple and reproducible at home”....,”a wire mesh covered in lint and caught on fire, a red hot piece of metal”...etc. etc...Make sure your homeowners insurance is up to date and hope the video evidence is consumed by the fire.
Well since they have always shot horizontally in the past then I guess my message ends here? They are targeting a market that is more often then not viewing videos on phone in vertical orientation.
They forgot to mention that the less important thing in this footage is iphone itself. Any phone that can shoot 1080p/120fps can do this. What are they start, at $200?
People will see what they want to see. I see a wonderfully creative effort. Pixel peepers and gear collectors only inspect insignificant details. Speaking of details in a different but very relative manner. For decades graphic illustrators could draw or paint subjects with extraordinary detail and at times replicating photographic images. Good? sure but they earned about the same as warehouse workers with no seniority. while virtually any artist could sell his works for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Why? Because creativity is more important than detail. That is what people in the real world think.
"...creativity is more important than detail. That is what people in the real world think."
<<< This.
When I was a young man learning guitar, I met an older friend who could play Edward Van halen's "Eruption" note for note. I noted how amazed I was at this, and he commented, "Playing it is not that hard..just takes some practice. It's writing it that is difficult."
Nice piece of art. Pitty it was shot in portrait orientation. Maybe it is to hide some of the compression artifacts ... I have this iPhone and the video quality is quite decent for a phone, if You have lots of light. As soon as You get in a shade, there is plenty of noise. Hi-speed shooting in 120 or 240fps 1080p has unusable quality. Using some app which allows You to increase the bitrate is always a good choice.
How would it hide compression artifacts by being in portrait? I want to take a guess and believe that you think it is somehow a smaller image? You can right click > View stats and see that it is still at full 1080p res just in a vertical orientation 1080x1920@24. It's literally rotated, if you turn your screen it will be landscape. Most people will view this video on a smartphone as has been a trend for almost a decade now.
One other thing is... Do you think Apple wouldn't use lights for their video? lol, they're professionals.
Also bitrate won't reduce noise. Bitrate increases colour information. What you have said in your post can be applied to any camera, it is just physics. You may as well copy paste your post on every camera ad you can find today.
"How would it hide compression artifacts by being in portrait?"
Maybe because the image will be much smaller on a computer monitor which is mounted in landscape orientation, the way almost all computer monitors are.
This leads people to think a phone can be same level of a professional camera. It is same thing if you take raw photo with the phone, edit and say it is native jpeg.
Every time Apple does this kind of advertisement they use edition to vastly improve footage. How am I supposed to know of the phone is capable of when they do this?
Except 4K60, none of other iphone modes passes 47Mbps. Also it cannot do 10bit.
Neither can a lot of the new Sonys... Guess they are fail too?
Remember, this is a phone. If someone wants to create Hollywood films, they generally are not going to suddenly wish their phone had 10bit 4:2:2 raw output. They will buy a cinema camera. Your reasoning is like saying to Toyota, why would I buy your car if it cannot beat a McLaren in a race. I'm going to go with a Mazda instead because they haven't put out an ad yet promoting their car so it might go faster than a McLaren! You are terrible Apple!
On on a more serious note though User123456789 - Don't like it? Don't buy it. It's a phone..... You are acting like it is meant to be replacing a GH5. Think about the reason someone would buy a phone and then think about a reason someone would purchase a GH5.
How do you know they "Vastly" improved the quality in editing? They had proper lighting set ups. You must not know much about photography and videography. Just an Apple hater that gets triggered by seeing quality from them>
Sony phones do 4K30 10bit since 2018. Six devices. 24fps HDR HLG.
This is not first time Apple says iphone was used for movie. They have admitted before footage was edited to make it better.
This is the advertisement of the phone. When you record a video with it and perform professional edition to improve quality, you are getting something costumers are not.
When you publish a phone was used to record a movie, people will believe they are going to get blockbuster quality image in their pockets when they are not. But how are they supposed to know?
This is so silly. Nikon and Canon D3500 images are processed in Lightroom, and Apple iPhone videos are processed, too. Even though both are entry level consumer devices. No one thinks this video was "straight" from the iPhone with no extraighting, just like people don't think that camera advertisement model shots are done with the dinky onboard flash and straight JPEGs.
Mmmmm look at all that horrible compression. The iPhone already has super mediocre compression and with the YouTube compression on top of that. Macroblocking galore.
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