The iPhone 13 has taken the smartphone photography game to a whole new level with its fantastic camera upgrades. With a new high of 1TB storage, who wouldn't want to fill up their gallery by capturing their favorite moments?
Here are six reasons why every videographer and photographer should want to get their hands on an iPhone 13.
1. Cinematic Mode
Thanks to the powerful A15 Bionic chip, the iPhone 13 series now has a brand new Cinematic mode.
In the simplest of terms, Cinematic mode is the video version of Portrait mode. While you're taking a video, the iPhone will use artificial intelligence to identify points of interest and focus on them while blurring out the background, it will then switch between subjects using an effect commonly known as "rack focus," to give your videos a cinematic effect.
The best part is that the camera will automatically shift focus when a new subject comes into the frame instead of you having to tap and shift focus manually. If the subject in focus shifts their line of sight, the camera will even detect this and shift its focus in direction with their line of sight.
This has to be one of the best features of the iPhone 13, hands down. It definitely makes recording some movie-like clips a whole lot easier.
2. Sensor-Shift Optical Image Stabilization
This feature was limited to the iPhone 12 Pro Max in the previous generation but is now available on all the iPhone 13 models. With sensor-shift optical image stabilization, your iPhone's camera sensors are stabilized, instead of the lenses. What does that mean for you?
Well, when you're recording a video while you walk or run around, your video is going to look seamless and stable instead of bumpy because of the movement. It also means better low-light photography as the sensor can keep itself steady to capture more light with longer exposures.
3. Macro Photography
Only available on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, macro photography is a feature that allows you to take detailed photos, videos, slo-mos, and time-lapses of objects as close as 2cm from the camera. The ultra-wide camera lens is what allows this new technology to run on the iPhone 13 Pro models.
This is a brand new feature not found on any of iPhone 13's predecessors.
4. Video Quality
You can now record 4K HDR Dolby Vision videos at 60fps rather than the 30fps that was available on iPhone 12 models. This drastically increases the video quality on an iPhone. In fact, this is the highest video quality offered by an iPhone yet.
It will be available on all four iPhone 13 models.
5. ProRes Video Formats
The feature hasn't been released yet, but it is expected to be available for the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max in the near future with an iOS upgrade. ProRes is a video codec that compresses the video file while retaining the high quality of the video along with all the file data you might need for professional editing, making it the video version of AppleProRAW.
It is widely used by cinematographers in the film industry when shooting videos. On the iPhone, you can actually shoot and edit ProRes videos. This will help immensely in post-production, giving the user much greater control over the quality of their footage.
ProRes may just be the most exciting iPhone 13 Pro feature for videographers out there.
6. Smart HDR 4
HDR stands for high dynamic range and refers to the ability of a camera to blend images together, mixing highlights, contrasts, tones, and shades to create a perfectly exposed image.
With Smart HDR 4, the iPhone 13 can recognize up to four people in a frame and perfect the lighting and contrasts to go with their skin tones. This means everyone should look their best regardless of their position in the picture. The feature is available across all four iPhone 13 models.
Record a Movie in the Palm of Your Hand
Cinematic mode helps you to record movie-like videos with rack focus and seamless focal transitioning, while sensor-shift optical image stabilization keeps your recordings more stable, even when moving around.
Macro photography lets you focus on up to objects as close as 2cm from the lens, and ProRes (to be released later this year) compresses video files without losing quality or metadata. Moreover, the iPhone 13 has the highest video quality in any iPhone model and boasts Smart HDR 4, optimizing the exposure for up to four people in a frame.
What more could videographers and photographers ask for in a smartphone?