iPhone 14 Pro VS BMPCC6K Pro | Prores Image Comparison

Hey everyone,

Here is a quick comparison between the Prores files from the iPhone 14 Pro and the BMPCC6K Pro.

This is not a scientific test but more of a real world test and see if the iPhone could sometimes replace or shoot alongside the BMPCC6K.

Both cameras were set to 3840 x 2160, Prores HQ at 24p.
I didn’t shoot LOG on the BMPCC6K as I felt it was unfair so I decided to film in Video.

The footage is not graded and I didn’t use any filter.
I wanted to see how the footage looked directly from the camera.

On the 6K I used a zoom lens to match as closely as possible the focal length of the iPhone.

The footage is also shot during the day as again I wanted to see how both the cameras performed in normal / everyday condition.

I filmed landscapes and people, in harsh light, in the shade.
I also captured foliage, mountains, close ups, buildings and interior.

Sometimes you can’t really tell, especially when viewed on a small screen, but on some other shots it is pretty clear that the 6K is above, as it should.

Let me know what you think.

Let me know if you have any questions .

Cheers,
Flo

Hi Florent! Thank you for putting this up.

Ironically I can tell that the B cam is the IPhone… when viewed on an iPhone

Is it possible to to a LOG footage from the iPhone with the sharpness dialed down to 0? Or is this as low as it gets?

Hi Florent! Thank you for putting this up.

Ironically I can tell that the B cam is the IPhone… when viewed on an iPhone

Is it possible to to a LOG footage from the iPhone with the sharpness dialed down to 0? Or is this as low as it gets?

Thanks for watching !!

Haha, yeah iPhone footage is pretty easy to spot.
This footage is straight out of the camera in terms of sharpness. You can dial it down in post or use Filmic Pro ti get a better image but I wanted to see how they would compare as is .

'Video' is severely problematic in BM cameras, since it doesn't reach the required DR as traditional professional cameras, i.e. it doesn't reach 109 % IRE, it's not truly linear and this can be seen clearly on a waveform. This is why it's always unfair to judge and compare them outside of their designed log and lut workflow methodology (as particularly the Ursa Broadcasts are), where they perform very much better. I have no view on the iPhone footage since I am naturally inclined against such serious usage, though that will not stop some very interesting and marvellous content from happening. Thanks.

'Video' is severely problematic in BM cameras, since it doesn't reach the required DR as traditional professional cameras, i.e. it doesn't reach 109 % IRE, it's not truly linear and this can be seen clearly on a waveform. This is why it's always unfair to judge and compare them outside of their designed log and lut workflow methodology (as particularly the Ursa Broadcasts are), where they perform very much better. I have no view on the iPhone footage since I am naturally inclined against such serious usage, though that will not stop some very interesting and marvellous content from happening. Thanks.

Thanks for your input .
I wanted to shoot Video so it was a more 'fair' comparison. I was more curious about the Prores file out of the cameras as is.
I too would not shoot on a iPhone for actual work content. It can be useful for BTS though. I used my iPhone in Antarctica when the weather was absolutely shocking and I am glad I did .
Thanks for stopping by!

Iphone video is terrible. Even with filmic pro you can't bypass the sharpening, NR and tonal compressor. RAW stills are marginally better but there are other cameras out there that let apps access the RAW sensor data. I suspect iPhone video image processing is designed to make the picture look good when viewed on small devices like other iphones and tablets and once you go bigger the flaws are all to apparent.

I'm astounded with the image an iphone will yield. No, not selling my cameras but that from a phone? I have to admit there were times when I had a facebook account that I would feel a bit miffed when a iphone post would get a thousand likes and my pic got none. Obviously there are a ton of reasons for that other than the overall quality of the image created but that's the way of the world. One big popularity contest.

The video is interesting seeing what the latest iPhone is capable of in the hands of a professional like yourself. However, more significantly for me, it led me to your YouTube channel and I've just spent the last hour or so watching a few of your videos. Some really beautiful and inspiring natural stuff there Florent. And mellow audio - music and voice. I subscribed.

Iphone video is terrible. Even with filmic pro you can't bypass the sharpening, NR and tonal compressor. RAW stills are marginally better but there are other cameras out there that let apps access the RAW sensor data. I suspect iPhone video image processing is designed to make the picture look good when viewed on small devices like other iphones and tablets and once you go bigger the flaws are all to apparent.

It sure isn't the nicest image out there!
And yes I totally agree, the files actually look pretty good on the phone itself. But as soon as I view them in FCPX with a 5K monitor it becomes obvious that it is just a phone!

I'm astounded with the image an iphone will yield. No, not selling my cameras but that from a phone? I have to admit there were times when I had a facebook account that I would feel a bit miffed when a iphone post would get a thousand likes and my pic got none. Obviously there are a ton of reasons for that other than the overall quality of the image created but that's the way of the world. One big popularity contest.

For a phone, especially for close ups, the cameras have come a long way! And I do understand your point.
personally I love taking photos on my phone since they end up on IG stories and they do look great. With videos it is quite different.

The video is interesting seeing what the latest iPhone is capable of in the hands of a professional like yourself. However, more significantly for me, it led me to your YouTube channel and I've just spent the last hour or so watching a few of your videos. Some really beautiful and inspiring natural stuff there Florent. And mellow audio - music and voice. I subscribed.

Thank you so much for the support Really means a lot!!

Iphone video is terrible. Even with filmic pro you can't bypass the sharpening, NR and tonal compressor. RAW stills are marginally better but there are other cameras out there that let apps access the RAW sensor data. I suspect iPhone video image processing is designed to make the picture look good when viewed on small devices like other iphones and tablets and once you go bigger the flaws are all to apparent.

It sure isn't the nicest image out there!
And yes I totally agree, the files actually look pretty good on the phone itself. But as soon as I view them in FCPX with a 5K monitor it becomes obvious that it is just a phone!

It's a shame because obviously the camera and lens are very good as can bee seen from the stills it produces (RAW)

Agree, there are many adjustments you can make shooting ProRAW (DNG). But the Video ProRes setting appears to be over corrected for iPhone playback with only exposure adjustment allowed. The Cinematic setting is definitely less corrected and more alike the BMPCC6K but I don’t think Cinematic uses ProRes.

I think this can be tweaked by Apple in future releases but I don’t know if Apple thinks it’s worth the effort given their promotional emphasis on 48 megapixel ProRAW stills.

Iphone video is terrible. Even with filmic pro you can't bypass the sharpening, NR and tonal compressor. RAW stills are marginally better but there are other cameras out there that let apps access the RAW sensor data. I suspect iPhone video image processing is designed to make the picture look good when viewed on small devices like other iphones and tablets and once you go bigger the flaws are all to apparent.

It sure isn't the nicest image out there!
And yes I totally agree, the files actually look pretty good on the phone itself. But as soon as I view them in FCPX with a 5K monitor it becomes obvious that it is just a phone!

It's a shame because obviously the camera and lens are very good as can bee seen from the stills it produces (RAW)

The stills are really good! I have always used my iPhone to take personal / travel and BTS on shoots and the quality has always been great. With the iPhone 14 Pro it's a whole other level and it is very impressive!
Too bad it isn't the same for video

Agree, there are many adjustments you can make shooting ProRAW (DNG). But the Video ProRes setting appears to be over corrected for iPhone playback with only exposure adjustment allowed. The Cinematic setting is definitely less corrected and more alike the BMPCC6K but I don’t think Cinematic uses ProRes.

I think this can be tweaked by Apple in future releases but I don’t know if Apple thinks it’s worth the effort given their promotional emphasis on 48 megapixel ProRAW stills.

Yes, in Prores you have very little control. In Cinematic you do have more options but the results are very inconsistent and most of the time they look too 'fake' especially when you add movement and as you said you lose Prores.

Shooting ProRAW stills, I think the results are quite good with a very small increased saturation and vibrancy that you can alter in Photos. The sharpness, detail, and noise reduction are all set at zero by default.

A shame the video and cinematic modes have little to adjust. In Cinematic mode you can adjust the degree of blur of the foreground/background. Cinematic mode appears to give you a true 24.0 fps whereas as Video mode set to 30 fps is similar to 29.97, but it seems to vary from that standard such as 29.92 or 29.96 for my quick tests; I haven’t brought the video into Resolve, just Photos iOS.

sorry ; -)

iCINEphone.jpg (101.83 KiB) Viewed 8826 times

https://comingsoon.co/products/zacuto/


.

Shooting ProRAW stills, I think the results are quite good with a very small increased saturation and vibrancy that you can alter in Photos. The sharpness, detail, and noise reduction are all set at zero by default.

A shame the video and cinematic modes have little to adjust. In Cinematic mode you can adjust the degree of blur of the foreground/background. Cinematic mode appears to give you a true 24.0 fps whereas as Video mode set to 30 fps is similar to 29.97, but it seems to vary from that standard such as 29.92 or 29.96 for my quick tests; I haven’t brought the video into Resolve, just Photos iOS.

I agree ProRaw is quite impressive!
Cinematic definitely has a long way to go!
You can shoot in 24p in Prores, it doesn't have to be cinematic . My test was done in 24p.

sorry ; -)

iCINEphone.jpg

https://comingsoon.co/products/zacuto/


.

Haha that's amazing!!

I’m more interest to see a log shooting test for both, filmic pro shoot log2 vs pocket6k log.
In both cameras real dinamic range is clipped from video mode, and using filmic pro reduce Apple effect on video.

To be honest I use iPhone like C cam from many times, where I would need to have a special angle where physically a normal cam cannot be positioned (I hate iper wide effect of action cam).
I prefer log video high but rate of my iPhone instead of high compressed video of go pro or dji action cam, I often work on documentary and sometimes space and angle does matter, and my phone gave me better video than action cam (and not deformed picture).

I’m happy to see on newer go pro and dji (with newer firmware) a 10 bit signal, but I should think to crop picture which is ever “go proize” style.
iPhone seems to me a better compromise when I cannot use my pockets and my ursa; when I cannot put mirror to shoot in reflection.


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

sorry ; -)
...

Coming soon… like April 1st?

Seriously that would help provide stability and when used in an environment like a theatre, the lack of a glowing camera might be more acceptable to other members of the audience. I reserved for the Kickstarter. Suddenly the lightbulb dawns!

… You can shoot in 24p in Prores, it doesn't have to be cinematic . My test was done in 24p.

Right. I just had my Apple Settings / Camera set to 24 fps for Cinematic and 30 fps for Video. But I won’t use 30 fps if it’s not precisely 30.0 fps or 29.97 fps as a slightly variable frame rate means I would be reluctant to use the iPhone as a C camera for video with scratch audio. I might be able to try it on next week’s dual camera shoot just to see how well it integrates on Resolve.

I’d like to use the ProRAW at 48 megapixels (4:3 aspect ratio) for the production stills, but my better half says the client may feel it’s not professional to shoot with an iPhone. Hopefully I can test the iPhone at the dress rehearsal.

I really need a silent shutter for production stills so I don’t disturb members of the audience. That is conveniently provided by turning off audio via the physical switch on the side. Better than my old Canon XT!

I’d like to use the ProRAW at 48 megapixels (4:3 aspect ratio) for the production stills, but my better half says the client may feel it’s not professional to shoot with an iPhone. Hopefully I can test the iPhone at the dress rehearsal.

I really need a silent shutter for production stills so I don’t disturb members of the audience. That is conveniently provided by turning off audio via the physical switch on the side. Better than my old Canon XT!

Plenty of pros shoot photographs with phones, but typically as a second or third camera. If you need a "real" camera, most mirrorless cameras today have a silent electronic shutter option (and some only have silent shutter, such as the Sigma fp). The two things to watch out for with silent shutter on mirrorless cameras are 1) rolling shutter artifacts if you're shooting stills of things that are moving, and 2) bokeh artifacts that appear at high shutter speeds (higher than 1/500 sec). If I'm shooting stills with silent shutter but want wider apertures, I use ND filters to keep the shutter speed down.

Not sure about iPhone 14 but 13 Pro Max, I was not impressed about it at all.
I would not use it for professional gig ever.
Lens flaring is weird and not acceptable IMO, yes, it can be used maybe under certain conditions and others used even earlier models to create feature films.
But other then making statement that it can be done, I really do not see any pros here.
Home video, instagram and FB and even some promos stuff, photography, sure.

Professional controlled light scenes, why bother ?
Just my personal take, others may disagree.

I d use "OG pocket" any day over any iPhone .

Yeah, I've played with the iPhone 13 Pro for some video since I got it. But it doesn't compare to using the P6KPro or the UMPG2 so I don't usually do much with it.

This test is interesting, but there's an aspect where the iPhone 14 footage looks so artificially sharp that it's unreal. The Blackmagic 6K footage looks more organic.

Skintones on the iPhone just look weird. For example at 3:50 it looks like someone flooded the skin areas with a single color.

Actually that was introduced with the iPhone X or so - older models captured a much more natural look in video mode.

Would be interesting how the iPhone clips would do after a slight blur in Resolve to get rid of the harshness.

Just got word that I am not required to take photos of the production this week so I won’t be testing that out ‘professionally. However I will likely have an opportunity to shoot some iPhone 14 Pro stills and video of the production during the tech rehearsal tonight. I hope to run through several still and video setting samples to see how they look in post.

Remember when criticizing the iPhone 14 Pro images to keep in mind whether the image was captured in ProRAW or HEIC. The ProRAW doesn’t sharpen of reduce noise as that can be left for post grading.

I hope to run through several still and video setting samples to see how they look in post.

If you don't already have it, it's worth getting the Filmic Pro app for the iPhone as it gives you much better manual control (e.g., you can fix the iris setting so it doesn't auto-adjust); I think you can get constant framerates with it as well.

Brad, I have Filmic Pro but had thought there were problems with third-party apps and the new iPhone 14 Pro cameras with iOS 16. I can hopefully take a loom at the Filmic Pro capabilities too.

The ProRAW doesn’t sharpen of reduce noise as that can be left for post grading.

I see pretty strong NR on my 13 Pro in the camera app and Firstlight with RAW (DNG)

If you don't already have it, it's worth getting the Filmic Pro app for the iPhone as it gives you much better manual control (e.g., you can fix the iris setting so it doesn't auto-adjust)

FilmicPro is a great app. But it needs to be noted that locking the aperture setting still won't defeat the intra-frame contrast adjustments (meaning certain parts of the frame shift exposure relative to other parts of the frame) that Apple's software makes in the image pipeline. It's a constant headache when I'm handed iPhone footage to grade. And it happens regardless of whether FilmicPro is used.
Soderbergh complained about it when he shot High Flying Bird on iPhone and joked that he should send a bill to Apple for the cost for all the post hours it took to fix.
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/high-flying-bird-steven-soderbergh-apple-iphone-netflix-1202043102/

I think you can get constant framerates with it as well.

No, you can't. (Edit:) At least not on Apple silicon.

I would also like to see a LOG vs. LOG comparison. According to this whitepaper, Filmic does access the raw sensor data to compute their LOG data: http://filmicpro.com/FilmicLogWhitePaper.pdf so in theory they should be able to bypass the the apple-pipe.

sorry ; -)

iCINEphone.jpg

https://comingsoon.co/products/zacuto/


.

An auteur in the making. Hey, it'll keep prying eyes away on mass transit.

This is ALL bollox really, you either use camera A or camera B its up to you but please, please, please STOP doing this it is really boring.....

This is ALL bollox really, you either use camera A or camera B its up to you but please, please, please STOP doing this it is really boring.....

+1.

I think you can get constant framerates with it as well.

No, you can't. (Edit:) At least not on Apple silicon.

It's not about Apple silicon, it's about most smartphones. Neither will Androids give you CFR.
While being a very useful software, FiLMiC Pro won't help you with that.

I never understood the comparison of the phone and camera, here the result will be clear, any camera is better than the Iphone. Phones are not designed to take pictures all the time, but to make calls, listen to music, etc. Instead of analyzing two different devices, I would rather compare for example a VoIP number and an ordinary cell phone, to identify the differences and advantages of each. I think that makes sense.