The iPhone 16 is here and as usual there's lots of hype around the release and so in this post I'm going to share some of my thoughts along with videos I've made about the new phone - primarily focusing on the video, photo and filmmaking aspects.
First up, should you even upgrade?
Upgrading is largely a subjective call, but I will say that the 16 definitely feels like a fairly incremental update as it relates to video & filmmaking. But if you have an older phone (especially without USB-C) then it's definitely worth considering.
And speaking of limited updates, what has happened to Cinematic Mode?
I think Cinematic Mode has lots of great potential and it started off with a bang on the iPhone 13, but now I feel Apple has let it languish a bit - so I do hope to see it improve sooner rather than later. And my initial testing on the 16 Pro Max it appears to be the same as the 15 (which was fine, but no big advancements).
But one huge improvement (or update) Apple has added to the 16 Pro/Max is the ability to shoot 4K 120FPS slow motion. You can do that internally in HEVC via the native camera app (and third-party apps soon) and externally to an SSD in ProRes including Apple log. If you're a filmmaker this is very welcome news.
UPDATE: I've gotten lots of questions about the new size of the 16 Pro Max, so I did a comparison with it and the 15 Pro Max - along with the 14PM and 13PM. So how much bigger is it?
UPDATE: One of the bigger upgrades on the 16 Pro/Max is the new 48MP ultra wide camera and so I compared it versus the 15 Pro/Max and the results might just surprise you.
At the time of the initial writing I've only had the phone for about 20 hours, so I have more testing to do and a lot more videos to make. And so I'll update this post with more info and videos as I get to it over the next several weeks (UPDATE: I've now made all those initial "first look" videos and they're embedded in this article).
Did you get a new iPhone 16? If so, what was you're biggest reason? Or if not, why?
Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on YouTube or Twitter/X.
Happy mobile filmmaking!
-BC
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