What Is Cinematic Mode in IPhone 13 (and Why Should You Care)?
One of the key features of the new iPhone 13 series is called Cinematic Mode, a feature designed to make the iPhone 13 a viable camera for filmmakers. Smartphone cameras are rapidly evolving, and this year Apple is putting a lot of focus on improving the already excellent iPhone camcorders. Here’s everything you need to know about the iPhone 13’s Cinematic Mode.
What is Cinematic Mode?
Cinematic Mode is a new video mode available on all new iPhone 13 series smartphones that allows the phone to intelligently switch focus from one subject to another. The iPhone 13 can also track a moving person in the frame and keep focus on that person.
One of the most exciting features of the iPhone 13 is the ability to predict when someone is about to step into the frame and then focus on them when they appear. This makes it much easier to shoot movies and allows you to worry more about framing than focusing issues.
The best part is that you can change focus or adjust the bokeh effect even after shooting a video. Apple says all cameras in the iPhone 13 series can be used in Cinematic Mode, which also supports Dolby Vision HDR.
How does cinematic mode work?
Apple says that, technically speaking, your iPhone 13 will capture high-quality depth data at 30 frames per second in cinematic mode. This allows the phone to determine the exact distance between the camera and various objects in the frame. Add to that some machine learning magic from Apple’s Neural Engine (part of the A15 Bionic SoC on the iPhone 13) and you have a camera that can choose what to focus on and when to apply focus transitions.
For those who don’t trust proper focusing algorithms, there is the option to manually lock focus on an object, and the iPhone 13 will continue to track that object throughout the scene.
In Apple’s efforts to bring this feature to mass-market devices like the iPhone, the good thing is that people like you and me can take creative pictures without spending a lot on professional equipment.
What are the limitations of Cinematic Mode?
In typical Apple fashion, Cinematic Mode is only available on iPhone 13 series phones. Your older iPhones don’t have this. It might not matter much to most people, but for people who shoot a lot of videos, it might be a good reason to upgrade. Apple says this feature works thanks to the A15 Bionic SoC, which can handle much heavier workloads than its predecessors – which is probably why video-intensive mode like Cinematic mode isn’t available on older iPhones.
Even on the iPhone 13 series, Cinematic Mode is limited to 1080p (Full-HD) @ 30fps. If you want to use this mode with 4K 60fps footage for the highest quality, you’re out of luck at this point. Perhaps it will appear in the iPhone 14, if Apple deems the next version powerful enough to handle such a load without over-draining the battery.
Most important, of course, we’ve only seen Apple’s cinematic mode statements. Once tested and reviewed, we will better understand how useful it is.