Blackmagic brings genlock to the iPhone 17 Pro, while Apple’s first ProRes RAW goes straight to your pocket...

[Emanuel]

+7 focal length options:

13mm

24mm

28mm

35mm

48mm

100mm

200mm

(+ macro)

 

+many other goodies...

 

Among them, genlock... via the new Blackmagic Camera ProDock (Hello 3D! Not only though... for sure) for US$295 (next time, it will come as giveaway, very likely, what else? ; )

Simply WOW

etc.

 

https://www.apple.com/iphone-17-pro/

https://www.apple.com/iphone-17-pro/specs/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-unveils-iphone-17-pro-and-iphone-17-pro-max/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-announces-final-cut-camera-2-0/

 

Nobody is talking about TBH if this isn't a game changer, I have no idea what this means anymore... : ) Where's that Coppola's little fat girl in Ohio?

 

[kye]

Anyone getting an iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max?

[MurtlandPhoto]

28 minutes ago, kye said:

Anyone getting an iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max?

I am; should be delivered tomorrow. Main reason is it's my normal upgrade cycle time. But, even if it was a year early for me I'd still be compelled to buy it. I've been using my phone for critical pick up shots for a while now and the addition of ProRes RAW makes it even more useful for me this way. The 200mm equivalent telephoto also will be great for casual concert and event photography so I'm pretty happy all around. 

[kye]

1 hour ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

I am; should be delivered tomorrow. Main reason is it's my normal upgrade cycle time. But, even if it was a year early for me I'd still be compelled to buy it. I've been using my phone for critical pick up shots for a while now and the addition of ProRes RAW makes it even more useful for me this way. The 200mm equivalent telephoto also will be great for casual concert and event photography so I'm pretty happy all around. 

Nice.  I'm getting the Pro one to replace my 12 Mini, so it should be quite the upgrade.

When I'm on trips I use the big camera for shooting the surroundings and environment and my phone for quickly shooting the people I know as we're out and about doing things.  Ironically that means that it's my most important camera and the other stuff is my secondary setup.

I'll be curious to see what the lower-bitrate files are like, as shooting at full res gives very little recording time.

[Emanuel]

Me too here, very likely. For the first time. Windows and Android user, so far.

There's external SSD recording, and they're pretty on the nano side these days, so the 256GB version is enough.

[MurtlandPhoto]

45 minutes ago, kye said:

I'll be curious to see what the lower-bitrate files are like, as shooting at full res gives very little recording time.

BM camera app will allow you to shoot Apple log in h.265 with very good quality. Saves soooo much space and looks great.

[KnightsFan]

I'm not going to get an iphone, so unfortunately this isn't something I can use. I do, however, use a phone mounted on top of a camera for 3D motion tracking, when tracking the main footage isn't possible. For example, if the actual shot is a tight handheld shot of something with no tracking positions, I mount a phone on the camera rig, and use the wide angle for tracking. In an extreme case, I add tracking markers outside the main camera's field of view.

Since I can't sync them, I shoot the phone at double frame rate, then choose whether to drop the even or odd frames, whichever gets closer to the exact timing of the main camera. So then my maximum timing offset is sub-frame.

Genlock would make this all so much easier! Although--to be fair, at $1300 for an iphone + dock, I can probably just get another camera to dedicate to tracking.

[Emanuel]

4 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

BM camera app will allow you to shoot Apple log in h.265 with very good quality. Saves soooo much space and looks great.

Right : ) Apples to oranges anyway. I wouldn't mind to ignore a premium to pay for any of those 512GB, 1TB and 2TB, though.

[kye]

12 hours ago, Emanuel said:

Me too here, very likely. For the first time. Windows and Android user, so far.

There's external SSD recording, and they're pretty on the nano side these days, so the 256GB version is enough.

Just be sure that the apps you will use will all still fit on the internal drive.  Apps are getting more and more "featured" and are more and more bloated with things, or they do things like cache data and store it locally for enhanced performance.

You might also benefit from some wiggle room, depending on how you're going to use it and how long you'll keep it.  My iPhone 12 Mini from 2020 is still going strong and if I didn't use the cameras so much I wouldn't feel the need to upgrade, so you might end up keeping it for quite some time.

12 hours ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

BM camera app will allow you to shoot Apple log in h.265 with very good quality. Saves soooo much space and looks great.

Yeah, I've seen tests of this configuration and they looked pretty good.  I suspect I'll end up just using the default camera app for speed of use, and I don't think it allows this combination (Log and h265) so I'll have to see what it allows me to do.

Ideally I'd go for 4K and Prores 422, which is around 500Mbps, so large but still manageable.  

8 hours ago, KnightsFan said:

I'm not going to get an iphone, so unfortunately this isn't something I can use. I do, however, use a phone mounted on top of a camera for 3D motion tracking, when tracking the main footage isn't possible. For example, if the actual shot is a tight handheld shot of something with no tracking positions, I mount a phone on the camera rig, and use the wide angle for tracking. In an extreme case, I add tracking markers outside the main camera's field of view.

Since I can't sync them, I shoot the phone at double frame rate, then choose whether to drop the even or odd frames, whichever gets closer to the exact timing of the main camera. So then my maximum timing offset is sub-frame.

Genlock would make this all so much easier! Although--to be fair, at $1300 for an iphone + dock, I can probably just get another camera to dedicate to tracking.

I think there are a few very specific situation where you'd want to get the dock and use a phone rather than just use a proper camera with a (much) larger sensor, but not that many.

I am in chats with a lot of professional cinematographers who shoot a variety of client projects and the consensus seems to be that when the client wants something to look like it's been shot on a phone it's far far easier to just shoot it on a phone rather than try and get that specific look in post, but of course while shooting this "look" on a professional set you'd still want all the functionality like remote directors monitors and timecode sync for audio etc etc, so it's a very niche product but if you're doing that then it can save an incredible amount of hassle. 

Besides, now you can get your phone, add the external box, get a proper battery setup, and add a HUGE monitor..  no more being forced to shoot video on your iPad!!