The iPhone 13 Could Record Video in ProRes: Advantages and Disadvantages

iPhone 13 Could Record Video in ProRes

August is the prelude to the new iPhone and the month in which certain rumors and information about what the future Apple phones will be intensify. This year there are no changes and certain topics are beginning to move, some of them interesting. Although if this last rumor is true and you want to enjoy it, you will have to prepare your portfolio. Because it will not be economical to get the iPhone 13 that you want.

iPhone 13 could record video in ProRes

There are many analysts and leakers who throughout the year are launching comments on what they say they have found out or believe that they will be the characteristics with which Apple will surprise in its next products, but it is clear that not all are right in the same way. Therefore, if anyone should be given special credit, it is Mark Gurman. The journalist, now at Bloomberg, has been much more accurate for years than the rest of the leakers.

Now that we are a few weeks away from knowing the new iPhone 13 , supposedly on September 14, some interesting data arrives that mainly affect the photographic section. But first a quick summary of what he has said and then why those news could make buying a new iPhone this year an extra expense than you could have considered.

For starters, according to Gurman, the iPhone 13 will have a somewhat smaller notch and displays with higher refresh rates . The latter is something that it should have already offered in past generations, because although they are large screens, the competition offers phones with a 90 Hz or 120 Hz screen at a lower price. Then, in addition to this, we would have the already usual processor jump and two new features that will affect the photographic section: portrait mode when recording video and support for ProRes.

The video portrait mode is a feature that Apple will copy from manufacturers such as Samsung or Huawei among many others that have been offering this option for years. Which, it must be said that it does not always work as it should. Because via software a bokeh effect is applied that is complex to apply in a natural way.

If they manage to find the key, it will be interesting to have an option that by focal length, aperture and sensor size is very complete to have with a camera like the iPhone compared to a professional video camera. Of course, the most interesting of the supposed novelties of the iPhone 13 for those who are dedicated to video is the ProRes support. This professional video format from Apple has been used for years in high-end cameras and external recorders such as those from Atomos.

ProRes offers important advantages such as a greater capacity when it comes to storing information that in post-production allows you to work much better with everything that is related to color correction and other image adjustments. And, in addition, it is also a format that is much more manageable for applications that support such as Final Cut Pro. Even more than a video clip in H.264 that, despite being smaller, requires more computational work to decode.

The problem of recording in ProRes with an iPhone

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Any improvement that Apple adds to the camera of their phones or even iPad will always be welcome, but we must not forget that they also have consequences for which you are not prepared or pose an investment problem.

Generating video material in ProRes is much more expensive in terms of storage than recording in H.264 or H.265 as it has been doing until now in recent generations. Because ProRes does not compress as much and therefore you will need much more storage capacity to save the same video time.

That implies that acquiring a new iPhone 13 to record video in ProRes if it is fulfilled will imply that you have to spend more to get the models with a minimum of 512 GB . Because, for example and depending on the type that is implemented, this is what the different flavors of ProRes occupy:

  • Apple ProRes 4444 XQ: The highest quality version of Apple ProRes for 4: 4: 4: 4 image sources (including alpha channels) has a final data rate of approximately 500 Mb / s for 4: 4 sources: 4 at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps
  • Apple ProRes 4444: A quality version with a final data rate of approximately 330 Mbps for 4: 4: 4 sources at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps
  • Apple ProRes 422 HQ – Higher data rate version of Apple ProRes 422 that maintains visual quality at the same high level as Apple ProRes 4444, but for 4: 2: 2 image sources, approximately 220 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps
  • Apple ProRes 422 – High-quality compressed codec that offers almost all the benefits of Apple ProRes 422 HQ, but with 66% data rate for even better multichannel real-time editing performance. Final data rate is approximately 147 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps
  • Apple ProRes 422 LT: This is a more compressed codec, with approximately 70% data rate and 30% smaller file size. The final data rate for Apple ProRes 422 LT is approximately 102 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps.
  • Apple ProRes 422 Proxy – Even more compressed codec and Apple ProRes 422 Proxy final data rate is approximately 45 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps

Considering the values here are for 1080p resolutions and the iPhone already records in 4K, the size of a few minutes of video will cause the storage memory of the iPhone 13 to fill up quickly. Another thing is that they implement improvements such as the views in the latest iPad Pro through Lightning, which with the new Thunderbolt connector already allows applications like Luma Fusion to work from external drives. If this happens, being able to connect an SSD disk to the iPhone and record now could be the solution, but that would be the wish of any professional who records video with the Apple phone.

As surely that will not happen, what is clear is that you will have to opt for large capacity models and that implies an extra cost that will make it not easy for everyone to acquire one. Or, at least, not the one you really want. Without forgetting the possibility that this year, again, the Pro Max model is the one that allows you to enjoy all the improvements and not just a few. In short, until its presentation we will not leave doubts.

Will you say goodbye to your SLR or mirrorless camera when the iPhone 13 comes out?

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Well let’s see, if you are considering that by recording ProRes video you will be able to say goodbye to your SLR or mirrorless for professional video subjects, you are very wrong. In the same way that for photos it has not happened, for video either.

It is true that any improvement will help more users to get the most out of it, to have one more camera to turn to for all kinds of jobs, but each camera has its time of use , its advantages in disadvantages, so the only thing that you have to think is how you are going to take advantage of each one. The rest is asking nonsense questions.