In spite of the earth-shattering scandal that is "Bend-gate," early adopters of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have already shot some outstanding footage with the improved cameras on the new devices, most notably some first-person perspective hyperlapses as well as some stunning 240fps slow motion.


Of the many features added to the iPhone camera in the latest hardware/software update (timelapse and super slow motion being among the most notable and flashy of them), there's one feature in particular that might put the iPhone 6 Plus is a class all its own in terms of video capture. I'm talking of course about optical image stabilization. Lack of stabilization of any kind has always one been one of the biggest issues and dead giveaways smartphone video. Hopefully a well-implemented OIS technology could begin bridging the gap between phones and dedicated cameras, and making smartphone video more palatable.

A recent video from Uncage the Soul Productions shows off all of the new features of the iPhone 6 Pus and then some.

Here's what they had to say about the footage and the capabilities of the phone in this short video.

Is the iPhone 6+ amazing? YES. Would I bring it to a job shooting for a client? No. It will shoot 240fps, but it degrades and is not what you’d want full size in a polished video. The in-camera stabilizer in the Instagram Hyperlapse app is AMAZING, but it exports final video in 720 not 1080. Timelapse looks great when the conditions are stable, but changing light has the phone struggling to smoothly change exposures following the light.

Nature footage is all well and good, but how does a wine pour look at 240fps, you ask? The folks at Osbourne Images have you covered.

And a little bit of footage from the Apple folks themselves:

As much as I'm not fond of the idea of using a phone as a primary camera for making films (unless there really is no other option), it's getting harder and harder to deny that the technology has progressed to a point where many phones are more capable image capture devices than the professional digital cameras of 10 years ago. When combined with apps that ostensibly make the most of those hardware advances, like the hotly-debated $1,000 4K video app Vizzywig 4K, it's clear that smartphone filmmaking is not a passing fad, as many have claimed, but instead an extension of the democratization of filmmaking technology that was spurred by cameras like the Panasonic HVX and the DSRLs that would follow.

As much as we may not like it, smartphone filmmaking is here to stay. The technology will continue to progress and the image quality will continue to inch closer to the cameras that we consider suitable for professional video production work.