Apple posted an experimental video on its Youtube channel today that was edited using footage from 32 iPhone XR devices mounted on a circular bullet-time rig.
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In the video you can see all sorts of different materials and objects, such as dry ice bubbles, slime or burning metal balls, filmed from varying angles, using creative lighting techniques and a range of the camera's special modes, for example the 240 fps slow-motion mode.
A making-of video gives you a behind-the scenes look, showing how the rig is being assembled and how a team of technicians is working to achieve the desired special effects.
We'd assume most of the editing for the video done was done on a desktop or laptop computer rather than a mobile device, but still, the results are stunning and show in an impressive way what smartphone cameras are capable of these days.
This isn't the first video of this kind. Apple shared a similar video last year and back in 2014 photographer Paul Trillo and Microsoft mounted 50 Nokia Lumia 1020 on a rig to achieve a bullet-time effect.
Very creative objects (which are larger than I thought at first glimpse) but IMO wasting of usable area on cinematographic = landscape screens. Why not rotating the phones by 90 degree and make it compatible for whose who like to dive into a great (yes the video subjects are really great) video?!
Nice vid. Good use of vertical video. I wonder if vertical video will ever catch on. Probably not, it only exists because of phones, and when flip phones come back into fashion it'll die pretty quick and quiet
Unbelievably stupid comments here. This video was shot on iPhones; probably mostly watched on iPhones or competing smartphones. If any of you geezers were a few decades younger and had ever held an iPhone, you’d notice that they’re easier to hold with the long dimension oriented vertically. That’s why this video was shot vertically.
Seems pretty clear to me that the phones are vertical for good reason. First is spacing, vertical phones can be closer together. Second, many/most of the effects they were capturing involved vertical movement so better to use the longest edge of the camera vertically.
And this my friends is why we will very soon not be using conventional cameras. Everything you need for professional film work and it tucks into your trouser pocket! Thanks Apple.
@electrophoto. The X, XS and XS Max have two cameras and two focal lengths. Also, with a third-party camera app, you can adjust the aperture on pretty much any iPhone camera. With the newest iPhones, you can simulate changing the aperture after the photo has been taken--and it works really well, if not perfectly.
The real eye opener for me was the first time I put my Oly gear away, because in that particular situation, I could get a better shot with my iPhone. It's happened a few times--especially since I got my XS.
For absolute control and creativity, I will always own an ILC, and I will take it with me whenever I go out for the purpose of taking photographs. But my iPhone has replaced dedicated cameras for all other purposes. In fact--these days my digital gear gathers a lot of dust. I mostly shoot with medium format film and my phone. I can imagine a day in the near future when I don't own a dedicated digital camera (not counting things like drones, action cams, etc.).
Indeed phones have replaced the point-n-shoot, as long as you are ok with the focal length(s) available. I woudn't hesitate to print some (not all) shots from my iPhone X as big as 12x16". Maybe even bigger for something that is going to be hung in a place where you can't walk right up to it. But when you do need to pixel peep in order to critically determine quality for a large or important display, the phone simply does not stand up to a DSLR, not even close. The resolution and (equally importantly) the dynamic range simply aren't there.
@JackM - Photographers have spent the last 20 years proclaiming that only the latest digital camera has sufficient resolution and DR for anything but "snapshots". It's just not true. In the early 2000s, I printed large banners (measured in feet) from my lowly 4 MP Canon G3 for an event, and they looked incredible--still do, in fact--even though the last few models of iPhone have many times more resolution and DR. I've printed many shots taken on various iPhones over the years at 13X19, and those that are well-composed and exposed look beautiful at that size--even close up. I have one hanging up now that's a still grab from an iPhone 7 video, and it looks fantastic from three feet.
I'm not suggesting that you should take your iPhone to a paid photo gig--obviously, different tasks call for different tools. But the idea that it's below some arbitrary threshold for useful photos is silly. A good photo is a good photo. It's not the camera--it's the photographer.
When a scene and its lighting "fits" within the limitations of a phone, I agree the results are pretty darn good these days. However I notice that no serious landscape, event, or sports photographers are using phones.
I don't comment a lot, but I just want to say that I don't understand the criticism and negative comments here. I mean I'm also not too fond of the vertical orientation, but otherwise I was very impressed by how unique this video was, and at the effort that they put into it. Yes, it was shot on iPhone with all the Apple advertising/promotion blah blah blah-- but I'm gonna say right up that I enjoyed the video simply for how creative it is.
This is a website and forum for photographers. I.e., people who care about images and viewing them. There is a reason real cinema by professional cinematographers is shot anywhere from 16:9 or as wide as 2.35:1. It is simply more enjoyable, and immersive, and that is an immutable fact dictated by the orientation and function of our eyes. Vertical video is an accident caused by careless, unobservant, obtuse amateurs and laypeople who are simply too numb to turn their phone the right way. The only reason it is being accepted or even encouraged by Apple and others, is that there are so many of these mediocre people shooting terrible videos, vertically. The sheer number of these people and their videos is making vertical video seem normal to them. To people who actually care about image and video quality (most of the readers of this website) this is dismaying and even offensive.
@JackM - Seems like a disproportionately strong reaction. I agree that, in almost every case, vertical video is annoying. In this case, the composition benefits from vertical video. It's an artistic choice, and it's fine. Like any piece of art, you may not like it, and that's also fine. If it causes you dismay and offense, I think the problem lies with you.
@Jason, yes, VV can get you closer to a naturally vertical subject, like a person jumping on a trampoline, or a lighthouse, if you are viewing it on a phone. However Apple specifically contrived this video for the vertical format. They could have just as easily and effectively made a proper horizontal widescreen video. This is dismaying and offensive to people who give a damn. It would be like a music/hifi company promoting cassettes over vinyl.
Also, I love Apple. I use an iPhone X and a 5K iMac at home. It puts my work PC to shame.
Apple is apparently getting desperate in trying to boost interest in its (reportedly) slow-selling iPhone XR. I'm anxious to see the rush of people going out to buy 32 phones.
kubrick was right all along. the monolith was vertical. and the remake should have the second greatest video edit ever after the flying bone to spaceship....the new movie should be monolith to iphone. copyrighted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApCPkJopI9I
And their 55in mega res super flat OLED TVs are all screwed to the wall in portrait. I wonder how they manage at the cinema with all that picture to the left and right. If vertical video was good, we'd have our eyes positioned one above the other. We don't. So it's wrong.
For christsakes, why can't video be in portrait mode. Who is so conventional that they feel everyone has to follow some assumed, unwritten 'rule' about video formats?
Everyone shooting portrait videos should be held responsible for the annoyance and suffering they cause. Two slaps on the rear at least would be appropriate for this indecent criminal behavior.
Would have been more interesting if they used a cam like Sony FDR X3000 or some cheap Amazon action cams or a PI cam and actually do a proper horizontal shot.
Why would Apple promote another companies product???
BTW I worked in Hollywood for 30 years. Some were feature films, some were MOWs. I also did many TV commercials and point of purchase movies. P-O-P and commercials that will be watched would work well as vertical-video. So would Vlog and DIY.
Nothing wrong with 10x8. The British army taught me how. (Not really - just wondering if you sleep horizontally or vertically whilst on watch, does that make a difference? ;)
I very much dislike the vertical video look people use with smartphones. PLEASE turn the phones sideways and go for that 2:1 AR look instead of the 1:2 look.
tbsic.......the point I was trying to make was that "I" think apple could be making better use of their resources that could possibly be of more benefit to them, and the general population (cyber security, education, etc.........maybe even poverty).
Used to be a time when corporations actually advocated improving the social conditions of its work force, "and" those around them.
A fuddy-duddy comment from someone old and irrelevant. Crawl out of your cave into the sunlight where vertical-video is common. Adult, advertising, fashion and food videos. Produced by amateurs, influencers, professional videographers and Vloggers.
@cdembrey - I wonder when the vertical videographers and filmakers alike will take over Hollywood and the cinema chain owners will have to adjust and re-build the theaters for vertical movies. This is also a challenge for the Chinese designer babies geneticists - start designing people with eyes vertically aligned on the head. Humanity at last will be ready for vertical video/movie once these things are done.
cdembrey - Videos aren't shot in portrait because it is some newly discovered, better technique. It is because the most natural way to hold a phone is vertical and naive phone users aren't taking the extra step to rotate the phone to landscape. Convenience over quality.
Except for unusual cases, landscape mode is more fitting for video. It is no random accident that TV and movie screens are oriented horizontally. That's intentional design.
@cdembrey: horizontal/landscape is not "old-fashioned". It is how human eyesight is oriented. I challenge you to watch a 2 identical videos, one shot in portrait mode, the other landscape, on a big screen. Unless it's a close-up of a tornado - which one leaves you feeling irritated and with a measure of anxiety. Hey, wait a minute, maybe that will now be a "thing" to create "tension" in the viewers mind!!!
@cdembrey.... what a stupid thing to say. Our vision is naturally horizontal. Being young and “relevant” can’t change that, no matter how many fusbol tables there are at work. When Tv’s went widescreen, they went horizontal for a reason. Movie theatres... horizontal for a reason. Phone videos are the only medium that people insist on watching things vertical. It’s has nothing to do with being young and relevant is f’ing lazy. If you can’t do that, it’s you. Not “old” people. Lol. Fk.
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