Accessories: what Apple uses to make videos

Monday's event revealed lots

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Apple introduced new high-speed computers Monday night at its “Scary Fast” event, and while I wasn’t overwhelmed by the three new Macs unveiled (they sound great, but still very expensive) I am impressed with what else Apple revealed.

Apple, which normally doesn’t tell us this sort of stuff, disclosed that it shot the event with the new iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras, and put out a Tuesday post about all the accessory gear that went into the production.

First of all, know that most of what director Brian Oakes used for the 30-minute production are beyond the reach of most of us. We’re talking professional dollys, jibs, cranes, gimbels and other very expensive tools to bring motion to the camera.

But on the consumer end, do take note: Apple bypassed its own Camera app to shoot the video with the new Blackmagic Camera app and housed the iPhone in a Beastgrip cage. The Blackmagic app offers cinema controls like white balance, audio meters and shutter and f-stop controls. The cage lets you attach other devices to the iPhone.

Apple’s team shot the video in the new high-end professional video format that’s available on the iPhone 15, known as LOG, “which allows even more detail to be preserved for post-production color grading,” and an app called Tentacle Sync, which connected the iPhones, Macs and other devices on the set to by synced during production.

The new iPhones can record video footage directly to USB drives, which alleviates the pain of transferring footage and worrying about running out of storage space on the iPhone, but in the post, Apple didn’t specify which USB drives it used. (Inquiring minds want to know!)

Apple said it used drones on the set of the production, but offered no details. Since most drones have built-in cameras, what did Apple do? Strap an iPhone to a drone, press record and hope for the best, without having a view finder that connects to the drone? I’d love to know! (There is a brief snippet of the drone taking off, in the dark, in Apple’s promo video, but it’s hard to tell how Apple chose to connect.)

This year’s iPhones saw a bigger advance than in previous years, primarily for video, with a slight bump on telephoto status (3x to 5x) for still photos and video. Of the new models, only the Max edition has the 5X zoom, with 3X on the Pro. But all have the new USB-C connection for charging, and for plugging USB drives directly into the phone, which is my favorite new feature. Both the Pro and Max let you record video in higher resolution LOG, which has more information and needs to be processed before using.

The event looked great, but I must say, this isn’t really the sort of production that called for using an iPhone, which is at its best in situations where you don’t want big cameras intruding. On the set, who cares?

But I applaud Apple for putting its money where its mouth is with this production. I’ve seen too many companies advertise a camera, yet shoot the campaign on a higher end model for the ads. What’s the point of saying #shotonaniphone if Apple didn’t want to do it as well?

Blackmagic app link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-camera/id6449580241

Beastgrip: http://www.Beastgrip.com

One more thing—-I shoot on the iPhone too. Have you seen the Nova Scotia PhotowalksTV episode? With a few exceptions, it was mostly all shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max.