When the iPhone 5s came out, one of the first questions, at least I had, was, "How's the video?" Smartphones have been providing filmmakers a quick and easy outlet for making videos on the fly, but the tools at their disposal were pretty limited. But the iPhone 5s, with its new features, including the impressive 120fps setting, it's quickly becoming a great asset for filmmakers. Check out the slow motion short Streets of Milano to get an idea of what you can produce with the iPhone 5s.
With new camera upgrades, like a f/2.2 aperture, larger 1.5 micron pixels, and 33% improved low-light performance, the iPhone 5s is a pretty decent camera for quick and dirty filmmaking. The footage from Streets of Milano, by Flapp,a group of filmmakers, was shot handheld at 120 FPS 720p and then graded in post.
I've only edited iPhone footage on the iPhone 4 with an older version of FPC, so I don't know from experience how easy it is to transfer and edit data. However, according to an article posted by the Final Cut Pro resource site FCP, it's as easy as plugging your phone in, importing and optimizing your timeline for the media (which, if you're in a rush, is usually automatically detected.)
Check out Streets of Milano below and judge for yourself how the iPhone 5s performs:
In my opinion, this video convinced me that I should to go ahead and grab this phone (since I prefer the Apple interface.) And I think it's important to keep that in mind -- this is a phone. It's not a big sensor camera. The same device you'd use to check the time, play one of those addictive puzzle games, and call your mom can also be used to create some pretty impressive videos. Smartphones are perfect if you find yourself in need of filming something spontaneously, because you may not always have your DSLR camera with you, but you almost always have your phone on you -- and if there are options in terms of image capture, that makes it all the better.
What do you think of the footage taken from the iPhone 5s? What smartphone do you use to capture video? Let us know in the comments.
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