It was the most essential week of the year, and perhaps in recent years, for pocket video cameras. On Tuesday, Apple announced the promising "cinematic mode" feature of the iPhone 2, and a couple of days later, the GoPro Hero 2 Black leapt into our lives with its powerful new GPXNUMX chip. But with Apple's new feature, which we haven't tested in the real world yet, that could bring shallow-depth-of-field video into the mainstream, is the GoPro about to get out of step with the genre of movies we can expect? do? with our phones? After all, despite its powerful new GPXNUMX processor, the single-lens GoPro Hero XNUMX Black can't generate the kind of depth mapping and computational wizardry seen in Apple conversation.
Truth Cinema
The GoPro Hero ten Black and the Apple iPhone thirteen Pro are 2 very, very different pocket cameras, but they have exactly the same general objective: to assist people (mostly passionate, but little by little more professional) to record videos. and videos, high-quality photos without much inconvenience. The Hero XNUMX Black will still be able to go places (and ride in unusual places) that smartphones will never get to. But the problem that you could increasingly face is the style of video we are used to shooting on our phones, which is video with a shallow, adjustable depth of field. Apple's "Cinema Mode" name has annoyed many videographers, who see it as hyperbole to classify it as well as its "Retina" displays and "Lightning" ports. This is because being "cinematic" involves more than blurring backgrounds to capture the viewer's attention. Filmmakers are eager for color palettes to create the overall mood (follow Cinema Palettes on Twitter for a good overview), and that's even before we get started with lighting, exploration, storyboarding, and audio. . But despite the name, it's clear that "Cinematic Mode" holds great promise for everyday movie and vlogging creation. Coaxing a shallow depth of field for video hasn't been a storytelling tool we've had on our phones, as its small sensors and lenses don't generate the kind of 'natural' bokeh you'd get by pairing a camera. frame with a bright fixed focal length lens. Phones started to work around this issue for photos with the HTC One M8 in XNUMX, leading to the alluring simulated bokeh we see today in Portrait modes. We've also seen some phones (the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy SXNUMX) trying to do the same with video. But Apple's case found that there's probably more going on under the hood of "cinematic mode" than we've seen before in any comparable technology. For one, it has a predictive focus system that tries to automatically choose the type of "focus mount" you need for your scene, say focusing on someone's face. 'One when entering the scene, or change the focus when looking at someone else in the background. But it could be said that the biggest novelty is its ability to create depth maps for video. These are created using the different lens views of the iPhone XNUMX series, rather than LiDAR technology, while "cinematic mode" is available on the iPhone XNUMX Mini and iPhone XNUMX, both of which lack scanners. The result is that editing software like the Photos and iMovie apps, and soon desktop apps, will let you change the focus point (or at least simulate what's happening) after shooting a video.Smooth operator
This kind of computer video technology, which we've also seen previously in apps like Spotlights, is simply way beyond the GoPro Hero 2 Black. The closest thing to GoPro is GoPro Max, which instead lets you decide where to point the camera in the XNUMX-degree spherical video you record in post. In theory, its XNUMX lenses could also create depth maps. But the Hero XNUMX Black is a more traditional action camera, and it clearly feels dated compared to the depth-of-field hoax that's about to explode on phones.
Discussion group
For GoPro's traditional shooting regime, surely not. In sports videos, you usually want everything to stay in focus because it's hard to predict exactly where the action is going to be at any given moment, or who the right person to focus on is going to be. This is partly why GoPros have a fixed focus lens with deep, non-adjustable focus that extends into distance. Although Apple's "cinematic mode" can supposedly predict where to focus now, it's not very likely that it can cope with a fast-paced action scene. Interestingly, however, we began to see an equivalent of Apple's new mode start to take over live sports coverage. If you've watched an NFL or La Liga game recently, you've probably seen a field camera with movie-like bokeh infiltrating player celebrations after a touchdown or goal (like the one pictured now). This comes from a gimbal-stabilized mirrorless camera that naturally generates the effect that Apple's "Cinema Mode" seeks.. @DangeRussWilson ➡️ @hollister_jacobTOUCHDOWN @Seahawks! 📺: #SEAvsWAS on FOX📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/wVOF39iejf pic.twitter.com/qpq6xSjd60 December XNUMX, XNUMX See more However, despite being a case of Somewhat specialized use, the GoPro Hero XNUMX Black (or perhaps its successors) has more problems when it comes to an area they flirt with, more and more: vlogging. The Hero XNUMX Black introduced a front LCD screen for this purpose, which dramatically improved its appeal to YouTubers looking for a rugged b-camera for use in the field. If smartphone modes like "Cinematic Mode" let you shoot videos with punchy rendered bokeh, and also create the effect of letting you adjust focus afterwards, then GoPro might become less appealing in these less-based scenarios. the action. Unless, of course, the successors to the Hero XNUMX Black learn to create their video depth maps using lenses or auxiliary sensors, with settings like XNUMX degrees Max.
Pocket rockets
For now, the reality is that the video powers of the GoPro Hero XNUMX Black and phones like the Apple iPhone XNUMX mesh pretty well. Both offer powerful software modes, be it HyperSmooth XNUMX or 'Cinematic Mode', to help us create professional-looking videos in situations that would have previously required exhausting and expensive camera setups. We also don't know yet how good the 'cinematic mode' is going to be. Apple's demo was far from perfect, and it was with professional lighting, actors and managers behind the phone. Probably, to begin with, it has flaws and is limited to specific situations. But the core of the promise is there, and given the growing importance of video as a camera feature, it will no doubt be improved very quickly over the next few years.