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iPhone 13 Diary

Eight 'iPhone 13 Diary' stories August 2021 - April 2022
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iPhone 13 Diary: An unexpected iPhone video shoot, 7,000 miles from my camera kit

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 19 2022 - 6:50 am PT
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Screengrab of a video interview, woman in small apartment | Unexpected iPhone video shoot, 7000 miles from my camera kit

I recently got the chance to compare and contrast a completely impromptu iPhone video shoot with a carefully planned interview shoot with a full-on studio setup – and while the results are certainly not comparable, my iPhone 13 Pro Max did a perfectly solid job.

Not long ago, I helped out a friend by shooting three video interviews. To do so, I used two BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera rigs, a motorized slider, studio lighting, a separate sound recordist with his own gear, and two hours of setup prior to shooting. The results won’t be ready to share for some time, but I’ve been able to review the footage …

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iPhone 13 Diary: Cinematic Video for amateur filmmaking put to the test

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 12 2021 - 8:04 am PT
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Cinematic Video for amateur filmmaking put to the test

I said last time that I wanted to do a proper test of the potential of the iPhone 13‘s Cinematic Video for amateur filmmaking. My initial experiments had suggested that it wasn’t yet ready for prime-time, but those had been in mixed conditions.

I wanted to conduct a fair test, with the scene and lighting setup exactly as it would be by a typical low-budget hobbyist filmmaker. I did this by borrowing a couple of actors and filming the first scene of a (very much first draft!) pilot episode of a sitcom …

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iPhone 13 Diary: Quick Cinematic Video tests excite me

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 1 2021 - 7:53 am PT
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iPhone 13 Pro Max Cinematic Video test

I’ve so far only done a handful of quick Cinematic Video tests on my iPhone 13 Pro Max following my earlier macro photography tests. While the results haven’t been perfect, they have certainly been good enough to show the potential of the technology.

In particular, the ability to adjust the focus points in editing makes it an extremely powerful tool. Honestly, for manual mode in particular, I’m excited…

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iPhone 13 Diary: Putting macro photography capabilities to the test

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 27 2021 - 7:43 am PT
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iPhone 13 macro photography

One of the new features of the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max is its macro photography capabilities. Early reviews seem to indicate that there is essentially no limit to how close you can get to the thing you’re photographing, so I put this to the test.

I half joke that photographing gadgets is 5% photography, 5% editing, and 90% cleaning. When it comes to macro photography, that would be more like 99.9% cleaning…

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iPhone 13 Diary: The iPhone-to-iPhone transfer process is now beautifully seamless

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 24 2021 - 7:11 am PT
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iPhone to iPhone transfer process

Back in the day, I used to do an iTunes backup and restore when buying a new iPhone, because that was both faster and more comprehensive than an iCloud transfer. However, Apple’s direct iPhone-to-iPhone transfer process now works so beautifully that it is, in my view, a complete no-brainer to use it.

I’ve just done it with my shiny new iPhone 13 Pro Max, and it really couldn’t have been a smoother experience …

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iPhone 13 Diary: The rumored camera improvements seem set to sell it to me

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Aug 11 2021 - 7:43 am PT
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iPhone 13 camera improvements

We’ve heard reports now about a bunch of iPhone 13 camera improvements, and assuming that they turn out to be true, I think Apple is going to be selling one to me.

I’ve often said that my iPhone is my least-important Apple device. If I had to rank my iDevices by how much they matter to me, my MacBook Pro would top the list, followed by iPad, then iPhone …

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