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We are different and have different tastes. I like fall in Colorado video. There is some grain applied, color grading is very good IMHO, skin tones are good for me too, overall good image quality. Compare it to other iPhone 15 video posted here and this one for me ranks at the top 10% as image quality. This is exactly the occasion I would use a smartphone, when you are with friends and/or family and your focus are the people and your journey together. Filming is a side job just for memories and some enjoyment of the hobby or profession. For the purpose this video is well done! As a camera and what it can do iPhone 15 Pro is expensive but for smartphone with ton of features, usability and a camera that is in your pocket IMHO it is worth the money. If I am at the end of my 5 year smartphone upgrade cycle it would be on my list for sure. Would I buy LG V60 instead for Android RAW video? No. If I choose Android for RAW video it would Xiaomi 13 Ultra or at least Pro. After 5 years with the same smartphone I want the latest and greatest that shoots good video too, I want a great smartphone that has all the bell and whistles. It’s another story how many of them I will use. 🙂 Price may seem steep but let make a simple calculation. 1100 Euro for Xiomi 13 Ultra or 1400 For IPhone 15 Pro for 5 years / 12 months is 1100/5/12 = 18.3, 1400/5/12 = 23.3. 18 to 24 euros (or dollars) per month for the most used and also useful device is worth it for me. A smartphone is much more of a tool that I use every day, rather than a gadget. And I can save much more money from other activities and things. For me it would be a consumerism if I upgrade or purchase latest and greatest DJI drones each year for example if drones are not my business or profession.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this whole thing, which is the elephant in the room, is that all movies and TV and videos are a fiction. Anything scripted is a fictional reality of course. Documentaries are a fiction too, taking hours of interviews, b-roll, on-location and historic footage and editing them down to a hopefully coherent string of snippets is a radical departure from the reality. In documentary editing they talk about "finding the story in the edit" - if I go out my front door into reality I don't have to "find the story in reality" and even if I believed that made sense how could it possibly occur? Wedding films are so romanticised that most wouldn't even call them a documentary, despite being made exclusively of filmed-on-location non-scripted cinema-verite. Even the walk-around videos shot by @markr041 are a long way from reality. If I was actually present in these locations then I could go wherever I want, talk to whoever I want, etc - the set of choices of each video represents one single possibility from an infinite number of creative choices, just like every edited film is one of an infinite number of possible edits that could be made. These films are edited in real-time, moment-by-moment, and cannot help but include an almost infinite number of creative choices. In this context, ALL choices are creative choices to contribute to the final film. So what does this mean? Well, if all work is fiction (of some sort or other) then every choice is a creative one. The choice of a high-resolution aberration-free lens is a choice just like any other. If I am shooting something modern then a modern lens is appropriate, if I am shooting something gritty then a gritty lens is appropriate, if I am shooting something vintage then a vintage lens is appropriate. But here's the kicker.... if everything is a fantasy, to some degree or other, then there is no such thing as a neutral choice. Clean lenses have just as much look as anything else, it's just an absence of technical aberrations.

If was able to nail exposure and white balance in every shot I wouldn't need any tweaking other than contrast. But I don't think anyone expects there to be a magic transform that doesn't require some small bit of work. We also want to leave ourselves a bit of flexibility in deferring some decisions until post.

I like when people disagree but hey, not everyone must buy my ticket! ; ) Anyway, agree to disagree helps as much as discussing anything. Without your post, Marty and mine, we probably weren't here now, we hadn't Stephen and Django's insights, so here's another one on topic: They are mere tools... Not necessarily miraculous mantras nor everyone here is looking for nice pictures on these pages, I tend to see them straight from my big screen but literally (or almost, as much as possible whenever I am able to) in front of me ;- )

M43 @f2.8 is a nice sweet-spot DOF for me, especially on vintage lenses. Soft, but not too much out of focus, ya know?

Full circle achieved... Starting 36 years ago, I spent 5 years shooting and in the dark room with the camera on the left and then after a 10 year break from the industry, returned to it shooting weddings with one camera loaded with colour and the other, B&W. How far have we come now that it can do both, without ever having to load or change a roll of film and the cost of doing the equivalent, absolutely nothing. And at a flick of a switch, 4k video with up to 8 stops of IBIS. Other than a quick set up and play, not had a chance to properly put it through it's paces yet but it's got some mojo...

(This time ^ entirely shot on the new iPhone 15 Pro in 4K Cinematic Mode but from another YouTuber trying to sell LUTs as above-said, signs of today...) (...so why not discuss it here if this is part of nowadays too?) Or we have to only discuss what pleases us? : X

Pleasure! There is! 🙂 And it has got a faster readout speed compared to FF as well. I use it from time to time, if I am lazy to changes lenses.

What's a little sus to me is all the "impressive" videos shared in this thread seem to be from LUT vendors. These videos are more ads for grades than the iPhone 15. I mean who knows the time/effort/power grades used to achieve these results. Not to mention the rigs, gimbals, reflectors and what not that are used. Its all fair game but I guess what I'm trying to say is it isn't a realistic look at what you're going to get out of the iPhone 15 SOOC or even using your average grading skills. Its like the giant "Shot on iPhone" billboard campaigns you see in major cities with amazing pics: ..yet you know your average iPhone pic never looks as good, they've all been crazy boosted in Photoshop. In the end it is just another iPhone with similar specs, IQ and caveats as last years model. They added log which is great for grading your footage but nothing really that revolutionary especially if you're not that heavy into grading.

That is a comprehensive and engaging writeup. Thank you. @stephen I wish for the same when it comes to observing and evaluating gear. I would be interested in the camera only, so a Xiaomi Mi10 or LG V60 begin to be compelling regarding 10bit Log and Raw video, the former sporting a 1/1.33" sensor vs IPros 1/1.25" imager, pretty much the same sensor size and a 1/5th of the price but with flagship model qualities. 😉

Is there a S35 mode for 12 CNDG Raw. @OleB One day I might like to try this beauty with a Pentax 28mm F2 in S35 cinema glory. Thanks for your and I think Liams findings and observational journey! 🙂

Emanuel, I don't agree at all. People keep flooding us with mediocore videos, like a mine digging machina keeps flooding us with the wealth of our earth, so we can film rich folks' camping sites with the newest and latest. Hey, even travel super close to snow covered mountain top! Cannot be the 5x times zoom can it? This phone has fucked up processing again, fucking up Prores again with noise reduction mushing textures. The second time that Big ole Apple is fucking up their own supposely benefits of prores. Shows again that processing before encoding is a butcher. Still, people flooding the apple temples like maniacs. A relativism of morality in general might suggest a relativism of preference of gear and taste and curatism as well. One liners and random videos don't cut it when it comes to evaluating strenghts and weaknesses of cameras and they don't cut it for me personally regarding reading pleasure and interest.

Speaking of the devil:

Different people, different needs... There are people who like people, worry about the clima, there are other people who simply don't care. There are altruistic people, there are selfish people. There are people who love come here to watch pictures, there are people who simply don't care. People who want to consider gear for their exclusive use, others don't. We actually cannot be the other 51% of the time. - EAG :- ) PS: That said, I find no less useful the enthusiasm of @SRV1981 TBH.

enjoy the tones this guy gets from his videos too

Modern fast lenses were originally requested by journalists. Specially zooms. At large apertures you solve two problems: 1) Poor lighting 2) Unpleasing backgrounds usually encountered at press conferences, the average street, and most offices. The "cinema look" was not even a thing in video up until about 2010, since most video productions were a variation of journalism: documentaries, long form news stories, tv broadcasts. All of those requiere deep DOF about 99% of the time. As you say: if you know what you're doing you actually want to show the background of your shot. Say, asking your subject to stand for the interview in front of the coffee shop were most patrons are visible vs. asking the interviewy to stand in front of a wall of the coffee shop. So the question is: ¿does this particular background need to be softened or not?

Cheaper alternative to 12S Ultra is the Xiaomi Mi 10 which can be had for about 200-300 euros used. This produces 6K RAW reliably at 24fps in Cinema DNG from a 1/1.33" sensor, same size as a top-end Galaxy and much larger than the older phones with their tiny 1/2.5" chips. Oneplus 8 Pro is the MotionCam's developers favoured device. It's reliable, fast, great sensor, good selection of lenses and does 4K/60p in RAW. McPro24fps is very handy for 10bit when you don't want the massive file sizes of RAW. By the way MotionCam can transcode to ProRes on Android phones in-app, or you can do it in post with their free app too. It's the Magic Lantern of phones basically.

Thank you very much! 🙂 Glad to hear you find it valuable.

Which reminds me... 😘

Lol! I have used just one LUT for every single client job I've done over the last 5 years. It emulates the colour response of slightly overexposed Portra 400 film. I pop it on and adjust brightness, contrast and white balance in ACES space before the LUT. It takes 15 to 30 seconds to do most clips, and makes matching shots a breeze. I've made a new version for myself every time I get a new camera, so technically it hasn't been just one LUT, it's been three. But it does the same thing for each camera.

@OleB I've just started watching your series on the Sigma FP and it's really great what you have done and shared so big thumbs up from me. I'm almost tempted with the FP (or L) but just one or two, 'too many' little quirks and issues that I can't quite get around for my needs. Love the form factor with the Smallrig cage with wooden grip...which is as much as I'd want to rig it out and I know there is an aftermarket tilt option, but then I compare it to the S5ii and for my needs, sadly the Lumix 'wins'. Sadly, because I'd switch to...or rather, would already be using the FP (or L). Your series is still interesting however so thanks for that.

Yes, agree. That is why the tone mapping curve of my fp LUTs leaves this area untouched. However, this baked in contrast thing into most other Rec709 LUTs is in my eyes somewhat idiotic, as it is limiting the shown dynamic range of the camera already in the first step. Starting with the full dynamic in a more accessible way is my preferred starting point.

I think a key piece of the puzzle is the human side - how we see and how our brains interpret what we see. Our eyes have an aperture range and focus just like a camera lens, so anything that is outside of this range isn't going to look natural. Images with slightly too shallow a DoF for the perceived subject distance will seem un-natural, but might be what we see if we have been poisoned or drugged and our pupils dilate beyond their normal range. If you go shallower than this range and it's just going to look completely wrong. It's AN aesthetic, but it might not match your DESIRED aesthetic. Our pupils dilate in low light conditions, so it's going to seem more plausible to open the aperture a bit in low-light situations. Our eyes do adapt the gain from our rods/cones so shooting with a fixed ISO isn't necessary as there is some flex there. In very low light we switch from the cones (which are the colour-sensing ones) to the rods (which are monochrome) which is why in very-low light we can't see much / any colour. Reducing saturation in colour grading might help in making scenes set in very low light feel more natural. Our pupils also dilate when we are looking at something we really like / love, and our eyes can adjust the gain down a bit to compensate, so opening up the aperture for romantic scenes is also appropriate. The other non-DoF element is in colour. We tend to remember scenes as being more colourful than they actually were, and I would theorise that this effect is greater if the memories were positive ones, so this could also be taken into consideration during post-production. I think a large part of film-making is using the equipment in ways that deliberately trigger the right emotional notes and psychological connotations, so knowing what these are and using them to your advantage is going to help your work be interpreted correctly, and the piece be more engaging.

I have noticed that some very soft lenses designed for 35mm stills camera are too soft on M43 but look acceptably sharp on S35 or even better on full frame.

All depends on the lenses really doesn't it... Canon Dream Lens, you wouldn't use that on 2x crop, would lose the whole point of it. And there are c-mount lenses that make a lot of modern full frame lenses look flat and boring. So every format has cinematic lenses, but the point is that with the larger formats you have more subject isolation, which could suit the shot or not, it all depends on the scene.

Before I started to develop the Rec709 conversion for the SIGMA fp I did quite a bit of research on how different manufacturers are creating theirs as a starting point. One of the main ingredients seems to be that after the tone mapping of the cameras dynamic range into Rec709 nearly all manufacturers LUTs have a baked in default contrast around a pivot point of middle grey. This looks great in a controlled studio scene, because it will be quite punchy out of the box. Additionally, it is hiding shadow noise because it will push these down as well. However, in reality this means you are always pushing highlight information much higher by default than you would need to. Same goes for the shadow details. So usually the first post step would be to counter this effect. My conclusion out of this was to create Rec709 LUTs, which are only tone mapping correctly and possibly create a smooth rolloff. Contrast has/can be added in post around a custom pivot point, or by adjusting the curves. Let me demonstrate that effect on some sample stills, guess that is easier to understand. SIGMA fp Rec709 LUT (only colour and tone mapping into Rec709): SIGMA fp Rec709 LUT + default contrast at a pivot of 45 IRE (intentionally a little bit too much to show the effect): SIGMA fp Rec709 LUT + custom contrast at a pivot of 75 IRE Guess this is one of the main reasons so many professional colourists are using CST/ACES workflows, to have a better starting point compared to manufacturer Rec709s. Maybe this information can provide useful for some of you. 🙂

Yeah I agree with the above, no matter these improvements at the end of the day it is still a smartphone with all its caveats. No way does it actually compete with rigged mirrorless or cine cams with quality glass, filters etc in actual use. So many limitations. I tested the iPhone 15 Pro myself the other day at the Apple store, shot some log footage and then airdropped it to my iPhone to test it out in Resolve. The result was rather sub-par, mushy IQ with lots of noise. I'm assuming this is mainly due to the indoor light conditions and the camera app shooting at high ISO. Notice how all the examples in this thread are shot outside in perfect bright daylight conditions. Shoot indoors with average lighting or on a dim day/evening and the IQ falls apart. That to me has always been the real downer with tiny sensor cameras. They need perfect lighting. And no ProRes/Log can fix that. At which point you may as well let the iPhone do its computational magic and fix the image!

Well you can buy and try iPhone 15 as your main camera. There is no better way but to try it personally. My limited experience with iPhone 14 Pro and more extensive with Android RAW showed me that smartphones as cameras have many limitations. The list is long. At the end it is a simple choice: Can you live with and/or work around all those limitations or not. For me answer is clear: I can't and don't want to. I prefer the inconvenience to lug 1 to 2 kg of equipment more for several kilometers, but have great experience shooting rather than the other way around. Here are some examples: When testing iPhone 14 Pro as a camera I used it as GPS navigation too. Mounted on the front dashboard of my car in sunny spring day with temperature around 25-27 degree Celsius it overheated and shut down. Had to stop my car and swap it with my Android phone. It took more than 30 min for IPhone to cool down and be usable again. If you want to have some decent footage you still need ND filters, this means a special case or cage for iPhone as minimum plus probably a handle. How long will the battery last? So maybe an external battery too ? Or external SSD ? But both can't be used at the same time. 🙂 You see, if you want a semi decent footage and shooting experience, you still have to prepare and take several other items, spend time planning, etc. With time and experience for me the weight of my camera bag up to a certain limit is at the bottom of my inconveniences and concerns. As a camera that is always with me, in my pocket though latest generation of Android phones or iPhone 15 Pro are something that I can't resist. 🙂 Another case to use them would be when I go out for a day or more and am not sure do I want to shoot something or not, will I have the time or not. Having a smartphone as a camera + maybe a case with ND filters for those casual shoots is great.