Behind the scenes: An Apple Event shot on iPhone

Apple surprised many folks when it revealed that Monday’s Scary Fast event was shot entirely on an iPhone — the iPhone 15 Pro Max, to be precise.

The 30-minute stream, which showcased Apple’s new M3 chips and new Macs, was characteristically slick, and the excellent picture quality and impressive production values offered no hint that a $1,200 smartphone camera was doing all the work.

For sure, Apple also deployed pro-level moviemaking kit like drones, dollies, cranes, and lighting — not to say a highly skilled crew — to give the footage that professional look before it was sent off for editing … using a Mac, of course.

But rather than use the iPhone’s somewhat rudimentary Camera app for the shoot, the production team opted for the recently released Blackmagic Camera app from Blackmagic Design, which is known for its advanced cameras as well as its popular video editing software DaVinci Resolve.

The powerful Blackmagic Camera app offers a slew of pro-level features to help you get exactly the kind of shot that you’re after, offering full control over things like frame rate, shutter speed, white balance, and ISO.

As you’re shooting, you can view the histogram, focus peaking, levels, frame guides, and more, though if you want a clear view of what’s in the frame, you can banish the data in a single swipe.

With the Blackmagic Camera app, you can work in 16:9 or vertical aspect ratios, but — and this is a neat little feature — it also lets you shoot 16:9 while holding the phone vertically, useful if, say, you want to grab some footage unobtrusively.

Indeed, Blackmagic Camera has so many features many people may prefer to stick with the iPhone’s simpler Camera app for shooting video. However, for those looking for more professional features, it’s certainly worth a look.

And one of the best things about the software is that you can download it from Apple’s App Store for free.

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