You Can Already Record Apple Vision Pro Videos on Your IPhone
Apple’s Vision Pro headset , the company’s first venture into mixed reality, won’t hit shelves until early 2024, but you can already create content for it. If you have the right iPhone with the right version of iOS, you can shoot 3D video that can only be viewed on Apple’s new $3,500 glasses. Consider this an ambitious foundation for the future.
What is spatial video?
3D video uses your iPhone’s ultra-wide and rear cameras to record spatial video. This additional visual information will not appear when viewed on an iPhone or other device, but will appear when viewed on Vision Pro. By default, spatial video will appear in front of you as a floating window, and you can also make it full screen. However, Apple cautions against this because full-screen spatial video “has excess motion” and “may cause discomfort when expanded.”
However, the feature isn’t available on all iPhones: At its September iPhone event, Apple announced that the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will be the only current iPhones capable of capturing spatial video. It seems the time has come: the feature is now available to everyone running the iOS 17.2 beta on their 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, as of the latest beta update. If you’re comfortable with the risk of running beta software on your device, you can try recording spatial video on your compatible iPhone right now and tuck it away in the Photos app until Vision Pro is released.
How to Shoot Spatial Video on iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max
On your iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.2, go to Settings > Camera > Formats , then tap the switch next to Spatial Video for Apple Vision Pro .
Now open the camera and switch to video mode. Here you’ll see a new “Vision Pro” icon, which will turn yellow in spatial video mode. Your iPhone will help you rotate the device to a horizontal position for shooting video, as this is best for achieving the effect.
All spatial videos are shot in 1080p at 30fps, so you can’t switch to 4K in this mode. Of course, when played on an iPhone, the video will look like any other 1080p iPhone video. You’ll have to wait until you get Vision Pro to really see what your spatial videos look like. They also take up about 130MB per minute, making this 1080p video format the least space-consuming on iPhone. However, this is still less space per minute than 4K video: even 4K at 24 frames per second takes up 150 MB per minute, and the speed only increases from there.