Apple is constantly boasting that its latest smartphones feature some of the best mobile camera technology on the planet. Now the US technology giant is backing up that claim by shooting an entire launch event using just its iPhones.
On first impressions, the 30-minute "Scary Fast" keynote - which was shown to the world last night to showcase new M3-powered MacBooks and iMacs - appeared to have been shot using a hugely expensive Hollywood-style camera.
However, soon after the announcement had finished, Apple revealed that everything viewers had just watched had been filmed using an iPhone 15 Pro Max. That's the very latest model which launched back in September.
"On Monday, October 30, at Apple’s Scary Fast special event unveiling the all-new MacBook Pro with the M3 family of chips and 24-inch iMac with M3, there was an unseen star of the show working behind the scenes. All of the presenters, locations, and drone footage in the event were filmed using iPhone 15 Pro Max," Apple confirmed.
It's pretty impressive stuff especially as a lot of the footage was recorded at night making conditions even tougher for this smartphone camera system to cope with. Luckily, the new iPhone 15 Pro Max now features an improved 48-megapixel main sensor and significantly better night mode for low-light photography.
"We were able to get the same complex shots with iPhone 15 Pro Max,” said documentary film director Brian Oakes who led the project. “Everything is there to be an extension of someone’s vision or personality. The image quality of iPhone definitely democratizes the access.”
Of course, the iPhone was backed up by an army of professionals with lighting, rigs, drones and gimbals but it still shows off what can now be achieved using the device in your pocket.
“When I first got the footage from iPhone 15 Pro Max, I was immediately pleasantly surprised,” says Stefan Sonnenfeld, Company 3’s CEO, who colored the presentation and has worked on projects including Stranger Things, The Equalizer 3, and Fast X.
“The quality of the image on iPhone 15 Pro Max is incredible, and it’s there. And I know because I’ve done it and I’ve seen it, and we’re doing this project with it.”
Another thing that helped make the recording possible is the inclusion of a USB-C port on the latest devices.
This brings a huge leap in data transfer with speeds of up to 10Gbps with a compatible USB 3 cable. It's also able to support new workflows like ProRes video recording directly to an external SSD drive, allowing the crew to review footage in near real-time and make adjustments on the fly.
If you want to see just how Apple filmed the event you can see full behind-the-scenes footage via this link.