If you happen to’re a video skilled contemplating upgrading to the latest iPhone, right here’s the headline: it’s orange. That will help you resolve if you wish to improve, I’ve seemed a bit deeper, watched all of the early critiques, and picked up my very own private iPhone 17 Professional Max on the earliest potential time. Because of the magic of timezones and ordering on the proper time, I picked mine up at 8am right here in Brisbane, on Australia’s east coast. It’s nonetheless yesterday within the US.
Three cameras and it’s orange
As traditional, if you wish to use a telephone to shoot movies and photographs, you’ll in all probability wish to go for the Professional or Professional Max fashions. These chunky, heavier top-spec fashions have three greater digital camera sensors (together with a 4x telephoto), sooner USB entry, and extra severe video recording capabilities.
If you happen to’re not utilizing your telephone to seize photographs, be at liberty to contemplate one of many different fashions, however I received’t be reviewing them right here.
The iPhone Air may be very skinny, however comes with compromises for video and photograph individuals
The headlines?
- The common iPhone 17 has a 0.5x and 1x lens however no telephoto.
- iPhone Air may be very gentle and skinny, however you get just one lens, one speaker, and fewer battery life.
- The iPhone 17 Professional has a smaller display screen and battery life than the iPhone 17 Professional Max, however the identical lenses.
Let’s deal with the iPhone 17 Professional Max — in orange, after all — in just a few methods.
An enormous battery and vibrant display screen
In comparison with final yr’s 16 Professional Max, the 17 Professional Max battery is bigger and provides an extended working time. It’s too early to have run down my battery even as soon as, however Apple’s claims have moved video playback life from 33 to 39 hours — or 37 in case your iPhone nonetheless has a SIM tray, which it does in fewer nations than final yr.
The house that the SIM tray would occupy is now full of extra battery within the US, Canada, and different nations the place eSIM is the one possibility. (Notably, mmWave help remains to be US-only, and solely US telephones have an antenna cutout for it on the prime of the telephone.)
There’s no mmWave 5G help on iPhones bought outdoors the US, so there’s no cutout for the antenna on the prime
Whereas the display screen is similar dimension as final yr, and has the identical 1-120Hz refresh fee, this yr’s Professional fashions up the max brightness to 3000nits outside, although the distinction from final yr’s 2000nits just isn’t at all times going to be obvious.
Truthfully, although — the orange mannequin may be very orange certainly. It’s shiny, so totally different environments will reveal totally different shades, and a little bit of brightness is lengthy overdue for the Professional iPhones. If you happen to’re a fan of black, although — you’ll wish to go for blue, or add a pores and skin or a case.
A sq. selfie sensor
The entrance digital camera sensor is now sq., greater decision, and bigger than earlier than, giving extra detailed, decrease noise 18MP photographs, up from 12MP. Nonetheless, the important thing innovation a sq. sensor brings is the power to seize stills or movies in portrait or panorama with out compromise. In all earlier iPhones, utilizing the selfie digital camera meant a drop in picture high quality, however now not.
Utilizing the identical Middle Stage expertise that iPad entrance cameras and Mac webcams have used for some time now, the selfie digital camera right here can (optionally) reframe to swimsuit the variety of individuals in a shot.
A vertical telephone, a panorama photograph, auto-zooming and rotation non-compulsory
Whereas it is a comfort for informal customers, I believe most solo professional photograph and video shooters will flip this off and body pictures themselves. Fortunately, this reworked digital camera can be a bit wider than earlier than, and there’s extra of a distinction between the broader and cropped framing choices.
With the tendency of people to take a look at photographs of themselves, taking pictures in widescreen additionally used to carry the danger of eyelines wandering sideways, however that’s much less of a difficulty with the digital camera above the display screen.
A greater, shorter telephoto
The telephoto lens strikes from 12MP to 48MP to match the others — no have to sacrifice decision or element when zooming in. That prime zoom has come down barely, from 5x on the 16 Professional Max to 4x right here, however the elevated decision and improved element greater than make up for it. The 2x and 8x lengths are a crop of the focal size earlier than, and although they do use an optimized picture pipeline to make them higher than a straight crop in put up, will solely be 12MP moderately than the 24 or 48MP (your selection) of an everyday shot.
All of the default zoom choices: 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x
Pure bokeh on the brand new telephoto sensor means you may obtain respectable topic separation in case you have room to maneuver again out of your topic, and also you received’t want to maneuver as distant as you probably did with the 5x.
A 4x 48MP pattern shot for pixel peeping (transformed to JPEG, click on for full dimension)
Open Gate and ProRes RAW
For now, solely Blackmagic Digicam 3.1, up to date at present, can document in ProRes RAW — however hopefully Ultimate Lower Digicam 2.0 shall be launched when it’s Friday within the US. Utilizing the entire sensor is 4224x3024px in a 4:3 facet ratio, which is extra helpful than 3:2 in the event you’re planning to reframe for portrait supply. A wrinkle is that an exterior SSD is required for this to work, stabilisation isn’t supported, and no different codecs can be utilized for open gate recording.
Open Gate on the iPhone 17 Professional Max is 4224x3024px, and makes use of ProRes RAW
Nonetheless, in the event you’re planning to shoot with an iPhone alongside a mirrorless, and you’ve got sufficient cupboard space to deal with the info fee, you’ll have all of the white stability management that you may need.
Although extra informal shooters will in all probability be glad taking pictures in Log with the HEVC codec, it’s nice that higher-end shoots are catered for too. Open Gate, ProRes RAW and in addition genlock… on a telephone? A brand new Apple Log 2 brings a brand new wider gamut colour house too, although you’ll want the newest Resolve 20.2 or the upcoming FCP 11.2 for full management.
Whereas I’d like to check out the Blackmagic Dock, I don’t have one to check simply but — hopefully a ProVideo Coalition author could have one in hand quickly.
Different current updates
On Monday, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and watchOS 26 all went dwell, and most customers will concentrate on the brand new Liquid Glass UI. Video and photograph customers ought to benefit from the simplified Digicam app interface, hiding modes aside from Video and Photograph by default. All of the older choices are nonetheless right here, hidden by a swipe, and it really works properly on outdated and new telephones. Digicam Management has seen a slight rejig, and on an iPhone with this hybrid swipe-button, now you can take away undesirable digital camera settings from the menu that seems whenever you press evenly.
Digicam Management in iOS26 can now be a lot easier in order for you it to be
Spatial Scenes are a magic bounce into 3D, letting you go searching a photograph in any path. Depth is computed via the picture segmentation, lacking background areas are stuffed in, and as you tilt your telephone round, objects shift round as in the event that they’re inside an invisible field. This works on iOS, iPadOS and visionOS, and whereas it’s greatest in 3D within the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, it really works amazingly properly on the lock display screen of handheld gadgets too.
As you customise the Lock Display screen, ensure this icon is about as proven if you wish to see Spatial Scenes
I’ve been taking pictures a variety of stereo 3D content material lately, and I’m torn, as a result of whereas I’m actually glad to see 3D performed properly on so many extra gadgets, I now really feel much less have to shoot stereoscopic stills. Sadly, the iPhone 17 didn’t carry any modifications to Spatial Video taking pictures, which remains to be caught at 1080p30.
iOS added twin (back and front) digital camera recording, however the implementation isn’t as versatile as most experts would favor. You may transfer your selfie picture round whereas recording, and it’s all locked in: you solely get a single mixed video with a picture-in-picture overlay. For extra choices within the edit, use an app that enables twin recording and mix the clips your self. (If you happen to’ll excuse the plug, maybe with assist from a plug-in like my very own PiP Equipment?)
Even in the event you don’t have a brand new iPhone, seize the Blackmagic Digicam replace, because it now means that you can management different telephones working the identical app and sync each clips again to at least one telephone, and in addition to make use of an iPad as a distant monitor.
Blackmagic Digicam v3.1 add ProRes RAW help on launch day
Conclusion
I’ve solely had the factor for just a few hours, however to this point, it’s a simple advice. Similar to yearly, it’s the perfect iPhone but, however in the event you’re glad along with your present iPhone and there’s no deserving member of the family at hand it right down to, there’s in all probability no want for most individuals to improve yearly.
Two out of the 4 sensors altering is a reasonably large yr in iPhone updates, and it’ll be a strong replace for video and photograph professionals who shoot on iPhone. The brand new vapor chamber cooling system guarantees extra reliability in longer shoots, and open gate, one thing I’ve loved in my Lumix cameras for years now, affords a ton of flexibility.
And in order for you it to be, it’s additionally orange.
