tomastancredi

I got my iPhone 15 Pro Max (upgrade from 13 Pro Max) and some early observations:
 
Quality is good when in shooting good conditions but breaks quite quickly if you miss exposure, in low light, etc.
Log files can be graded easily and have no over-sharpening, can take some post processing but way less than R5c RAW files, the difference imo is night and day as it should be. The same for details compared to R5c is just worlds apart.
BMD does not allow you to use 2x lens, zooming 2x with the 24mm lens the quality is quite bad (very blotchy, full hd at max). I did not test yet with the apple camera and the 2x “cropped” lens to see if is better.
No Log + Cinematic in either Apple Camera or BMD
H265+Log is a good compromise size vs. Quality and you can record all fps internally.
120mm lens I find it a bit better quality than the 77mm of the 13, and a more useful focal range for what I normally cover.
I have BMD set to save to Files, then I connect a USB-C CFexpress or SSD and move the files in Files, is the quickest and easier method for PC users. Much better that the previous phone that was a nightmare to get the footage out from a PC.
Action button is useful as you can set to start or even start recording in the BMD.
Still need to get use to the BMD UI, with no hw button/wheels changing things rapidly is a bit of a pain for me.
 
Overall, with Log and the 120mm is big update and I will use it even more than my previous phone, especially as B or C cam.
Using it as a main camera is a big stretch and I think I will be mostly disappointed.
 
Frame grab 4k Log 120mm.

Thanks but I am hoping for something that will keep it on pocket. Otherwise Ill use my camera. 

this design is closest I saw but probably not so good. It is terrible that there is a always a huge imagetic industry of people showing off their rigs and things are really cumbersome. 
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005005066512401.html?src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=768-202-3196&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&albcp=17283575038&albag=&trgt=&crea=pt1005005066512401&netw=x&device=c&albpg=&albpd=pt1005005066512401&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjMKqBhCgARIsAPDgWlwMKj4hJWeKLAWHLzRknXDDVPTeSN4rkrnvqitahpu-zYYYa3YUT4gaAgLNEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&aff_fcid=4a6efd8e6754473297cf1d451e700c5e-1699796407150-01741-UneMJZVf&aff_fsk=UneMJZVf&aff_platform=aaf&sk=UneMJZVf&aff_trace_key=4a6efd8e6754473297cf1d451e700c5e-1699796407150-01741-UneMJZVf&terminal_id=ed021bd9ce8e43198ef17c8d6f1aa4ec&afSmartRedirect=y
 
this one would be interesting if their UV was their ND 

https://www.polarpro.com/products/iphone-15-case

 

OK, I just came back from a 2 day one-man band shooting in the amazon. I shoot with a c100 doc style and have a Eos R for b roll. I had found myself in similar occasions with a iPhone 13, many times  before,  occasionally using it for a b roll scene and always regretted it because it was rarely usable. Seeing the footage I got with the 15pro max in log now I was really happy to see it will be useful for my kind of work. Specially the 120mm and 24mm. Having the action button to the black magic app and quickly recording in log was very nice. I actually didn't use the eos R. Ill share it here once I've edited it. 
by the way does anyone has a nice nd filter minimal solution for iPhone? 
 
P.S: usb c also made by life much easier both for offloading footage directly to SSd and getting imagens from people on the road

Thanks but I am hoping for something that will keep it on pocket. Otherwise Ill use my camera. 

this design is closest I saw but probably not so good. It is terrible that there is a always a huge imagetic industry of people showing off their rigs and things are really cumbersome. 
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005005066512401.html?src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=768-202-3196&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&albcp=17283575038&albag=&trgt=&crea=pt1005005066512401&netw=x&device=c&albpg=&albpd=pt1005005066512401&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjMKqBhCgARIsAPDgWlwMKj4hJWeKLAWHLzRknXDDVPTeSN4rkrnvqitahpu-zYYYa3YUT4gaAgLNEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&aff_fcid=4a6efd8e6754473297cf1d451e700c5e-1699796407150-01741-UneMJZVf&aff_fsk=UneMJZVf&aff_platform=aaf&sk=UneMJZVf&aff_trace_key=4a6efd8e6754473297cf1d451e700c5e-1699796407150-01741-UneMJZVf&terminal_id=ed021bd9ce8e43198ef17c8d6f1aa4ec&afSmartRedirect=y
 
this one would be interesting if their UV was their ND 

https://www.polarpro.com/products/iphone-15-case

 

OK, I just came back from a 2 day one-man band shooting in the amazon. I shoot with a c100 doc style and have a Eos R for b roll. I had found myself in similar occasions with a iPhone 13, many times  before,  occasionally using it for a b roll scene and always regretted it because it was rarely usable. Seeing the footage I got with the 15pro max in log now I was really happy to see it will be useful for my kind of work. Specially the 120mm and 24mm. Having the action button to the black magic app and quickly recording in log was very nice. I actually didn't use the eos R. Ill share it here once I've edited it. 
by the way does anyone has a nice nd filter minimal solution for iPhone? 
 
P.S: usb c also made by life much easier both for offloading footage directly to SSd and getting imagens from people on the road

I found that the BM app had a bit of lag while using it on really hot conditions. Sometimes it was 2 seconds behind. Not sure if the same would have happened standard. It may also be related to shooting h265 and log. I don't know. 

OK, I just came back from a 2 day one-man band shooting in the amazon. I shoot with a c100 doc style and have a Eos R for b roll. I had found myself in similar occasions with a iPhone 13, many times  before,  occasionally using it for a b roll scene and always regretted it because it was rarely usable. Seeing the footage I got with the 15pro max in log now I was really happy to see it will be useful for my kind of work. Specially the 120mm and 24mm. Having the action button to the black magic app and quickly recording in log was very nice. I actually didn't use the eos R. Ill share it here once I've edited it. 
by the way does anyone has a nice nd filter minimal solution for iPhone? 
 
P.S: usb c also made by life much easier both for offloading footage directly to SSd and getting imagens from people on the road

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjlvuSPyL6CAxXoS0cBHSSnDlsYABANGgJxdQ&ae=2&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjMKqBhCgARIsAPDgWlzQYZ_HfYVTBwi-egOvjMzdFeUkllaXPl28F0MVosbJ41DHSt5L6EsaAl8FEALw_wcB&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVeD2XfM3irqE9M93UhizXblk495KelCQV2CKWQArdp4OPlOsnOqBilFvGjLjVnkoujL5xawqo9LMvT589ZL9xKgwiBD-CBawI6b5bf3CeRP0nq0wWOo&sig=AOD64_1wCOgWjMU6ZookOaSCUls0JZYt8A&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwivpdyPyL6CAxX7lYkEHam5BMgQwg8oAHoECAQQDA&adurl=

I enjoyed this showcasing that the iPhone 15 pro can be your phone and an excellent travel camera. 
 
BM app has now updated to include internal and baked in LUT which is also enhancing this as a solution for many. 

OK, I just came back from a 2 day one-man band shooting in the amazon. I shoot with a c100 doc style and have a Eos R for b roll. I had found myself in similar occasions with a iPhone 13, many times  before,  occasionally using it for a b roll scene and always regretted it because it was rarely usable. Seeing the footage I got with the 15pro max in log now I was really happy to see it will be useful for my kind of work. Specially the 120mm and 24mm. Having the action button to the black magic app and quickly recording in log was very nice. I actually didn't use the eos R. Ill share it here once I've edited it. 
by the way does anyone has a nice nd filter minimal solution for iPhone? 
 
P.S: usb c also made by life much easier both for offloading footage directly to SSd and getting imagens from people on the road

Hey @SRV1981, im interested in your posts about 15pro,  but won’t check every video. So if you can just point what interested in each video it’s nice for us to decide wether to watch it.. thanks! 

great breakdown 
 

The quality of posts in this thread is not necessarily equivalent to the quatity. Dropping youtube videos without any lovely written expression of soul, heart or mind is kinda wordless and to me worthless for a forum. But maybe that is just because of the shiny new product. Older tech ist dicussed with much more love and passion.

Colors looked like a overly graded GH1, muddy bloody hell. I had to stop the video after the 1st half. Why? Please don't ask. Too many things.😅 But thanks for posting, so we can reflect on it.

For non paid I’m taking a break from dedicated cameras and will be looking to upgrade to iPhone 15 just shocked 

I found a good test video of h265/LOG vs ProRes/LOG with the Blackmagic App.... for most cases you probably can get away with h265/LOG saving the clumsy SSD that defats a bit the concept of using a phone. Files are much smaller and you can do 4k 60p LOG internally.... good to have options

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpO06mdN7mk

I don't see anything wrong a/'the' due balance won't solve, really : )
This is SIMPLY amazing for a cell phone capture device at this point of the course. Hard to resist, we're going in the right direction.
Overprocessing (not processing, actually ; ) have always killed my interest to use these toys and now that we cannot call it like that or we're just justifying why we're not in the mood to spend over a grand (!) for it, I believe there's not much to tell other than celebrate it, finally.
I've tended to see film as oil painting realm, so I am OK with. Once people or object in the frame (because there are those outside : P) are well shot, why to portrait the lines of the imperfections of the subject?
Brain must build up the leftover from the 'oil painting' we give to the viewer. We have the other cell phone cameras for the remainder as we need it. I don't.
EAG :- )

Use Blackmagic App for free and record in h265. And recording to an SSD with the many solutions shown to be helpful is still a smaller form factor than a canon r5

I’m pretty happy with my setup. Bought a MagSafe magnet off of amazon for $12, glued it to the T5, and then found a short usb-c 20Gbps for $7. Super secure and inconspicuous.

I see significantly less oversharpening in Apple LOG, which is really nice. Seems like a good option now that that change has been made. 

I also from time to time intercut to (R5, R5c) iPhone footage, you can spot it but most of the audience does not even notice. I even intercut 360 reframed content that is even more lower quality. But is more important to get the shot.

As you said not everywhere is easy to be there with a R5 type of rig. I also started to record with the iPhone on top of the R5c as I tend to use really long lenses in the  300mm to 600mm range so I can have a second view much wider with the iPhone (77mm).

I have a 13 Pro Max and contemplating a move to the 15 Pro Max for 3 reasons: 120mm instead of 77mm, satellite emergency (I can skip the Garmin and its subscription) and the most important for me the workflow as the lighting (non really lighting speed 🙂 ) is a huge pita. Hopefully with direct SSD/CFexpress reader support I can record directly or quickly copy to an external storage.

I use to use Filmic Pro but is now a robbery and also the UI imo was a bit cumbersome especially when I'm in hectic places so I went back to the normal camera app. I just installed the Blackmagic one and it seems ok but I need to test it out more.

Overall I truly hate filming with the iPhone but it get the job done when it would be hard to have a bigger camera. 

Btw my R5 in 8K RAW never overheated but I had once the iPhone on top in 4k 25fps overheating and shutting down 🙂 

It would also be cool if you could use it directly as a wired monitor..... but for Apple is too much to ask...

In terms of shooting LOG, the native HDR is actually rec2020 (I believe) which is sort-of LOG and fulfils the same purpose in many ways.  The biggest difference between rec2020 and a log format is the level of saturation, where rec2020 has more saturation.  
This means that 1) rec2020 will clip colours sooner than a real log space, and 2) rec2020 has much greater fidelity with the colours that are not clipped.
The challenge with iPhone shooting is to control the processing that the camera does - especially the sharpening.  I spot insert clips from smartphones and action cameras in larger productions and it's always because of the texture, not the colour grading - they are always way sharper than the higher quality footage.
I have talked about colour grading the iPhone here: https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/74148-making-the-most-of-the-iphone-gx85-and-gh5-and-shooting-in-the-real-world/
 
And am on a journey to counteract the sharpening here: https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/76313-optimising-resolution-sharpness-in-post/
 
I think that if you colour grade it properly and counteract the over-sharpening then you'll probably be surprised by the results.

Working on a doc and my wife and I use it every now and again to grab stuff off the cuff. 
Works good when doing car tracking shots, for instance. 
We're not trying to make studio level color grades with our work, and typically we just push and pull iPhone footage by eye to get it close to our Acam and call it good.  But, yeah, our standards are a bit more loosey-goosey than most, probably.  Still, we're plenty happy with the results.  It's not hard to get them close.
At the end of the day, in my world having the shot is more important than have the correct bit depth and all that pixel-peeking stuff.  It needs to exist first, then we'll worry about it.

How about renting a Canon C70? If the sun is out, shooting in a forest can require a lot of dynamic range, and the C70 will deliver on that end. Also, it has long battery life and with a relatively small file sizes. Since you are working alone, the built-in NDs and dual pixel autofocus will make your life a lot easier and your "keeper" rate will be higher.

Of course, the C200 covers these bases too, but is either a bit soft (H264) or will require denoising (raw) in post.
I made a living with two C100s for five years, including several shoots in the forest. I loved that camera, but it didn't have the dynamic range necessary to capture pools of light as well as shadow detail in the woods. Of course, it's possible to work around it:
Otherwise, you might look at the FX30 or S5ii/x -- but I haven't used either of these cameras.