Topic: iphone 12/13 in low-light concerts

[SMsound]

I'm thinking about making the switch from mirrorless to the Iphone 13 Pro camera for filming classical music concerts, recitals, etc.  I'll be able to bring/use some of my own lighting.  A main concern is that lighting still isn't great... Iphones in general can get very noisy in low light, esp. on faces in my experience, but I haven't yet tried the 11/12/13. Can anyone with a 12 pro comment? Any thoughts about whether the hype around the 13 pro will play out for this application?

[spyder9]

Real camera > Phone camera

Always.

[seethreepo]

Real camera > Phone camera

Always.

& real recorder > phone
& external mics > Internal mics
& FOB > Taper Section
& HATS > better than Denied

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Can't speak for the iPhone, but the Pixel phones do a great job in low light. Not as good as my mirrorless camera, but it does the job when you can't (or don't want to) bring a real camera to the show.

I'd be curious to hear about the iPhone 13 Pro though. I'm considering picking one of those or the Pixel 6 up if either is a noticable improvement over my current Pixel 4a.

[guitard]

I would like to mention that the app you use to shoot video with an iPhone can make a big difference in the quality of your videos.  Frankly speaking, most of the time, the iPhone's native app for shooting video does not handle concert lighting very well.  I did a little research and decided on the FilMic app.  Not sure how much it costs now, but I think it was $15 when I bought it 3-4 years ago.  I've shot some nice live 4K footage with this app.  There are likely other iPhone video taping apps out there worth trying out; but I am so happy with the results I get with the FilMic app, I don't even bother looking at other apps.  This is mostly based on my experiences shooting video with an iPhone 12 Pro Max.  I just got a 13 Pro Max (w/ 1TB storage capacity) yesterday, but I haven't taken it out of the box yet (working on a tape I pulled last night).  I will report back about the change over to the 13 Pro Max after I've had a chance to use it a few times.

[scb]

Real camera > Phone camera

Always.

disagree. iPhones are becoming cameras with phones built in.

[moondust.and.solitude]

Real camera > Phone camera

Always.

disagree. iPhones are becoming cameras with phones built in.

+1. The "phone" aspect of the iPhone is just the tip of the iceberg. Like you said, they are leaning a LOT more towards be a camera with a phone instead of a phone with a camera.

[SMsound]

Circling back to answer my own question.

I ended up buying the new Sony ZV-E10 mirrorless, which is basically a more compact a6400 (so really small) with some slightly updated color processing, plus some better I/O that I've been using for livestreaming and also Zoom music practice.

The photo and video quality are a large and obvious step up from my Iphone X Max, both in low light and in bright light. I haven't even tried shooting/filming in raw yet---the difference is big with JPEG photos and default video (no LUT or anything). Haven't gotten to compare it to an Iphone 13 pro yet, but I love the thing so far.

It has builtin stereo mics, which the reviewers loved, but which in reality suck (harsh/cheap sounding) compared to the iphone X Max's builtin mics. But, they've been great to get a 'reference track' so I can waveform match a separate recording taken with real mics to the videos I take with the ZV-E10.

[FOB_Taper]

iPhone 13 Max > Beastcam 1.55 Anamorphic lens > BeastCam app > 4K60fps 10bit ProRes !!!

https://beastgrip.com/pages/beastcam

[guitard]

iPhone 13 Max > Beastcam 1.55 Anamorphic lens > BeastCam app > 4K60fps 10bit ProRes !!!

https://beastgrip.com/pages/beastcam

I've been using the Filmic Pro app for a few years and generally, I really like it.  I think I paid $13.99 for it.  The BeastCam app looks impressive in the demonstration videos and it's surprisingly cheap (I think I read it's $4.95).  And I'd really love to get one of those lenses (either the 1.55 anamorphic, the 2X, or both).  The only things is ... I can picture security at some venues being uptight about a lens - even if it's clearly for the iPhone, and not a real camera.