Best iPhone Filmmaking Kit

if you want to shoot great cinematic video with your iphone the easiest way is to just use the phone the latest iphones can shoot dolby vision which pushes it to an even higher level adding extra equipment can really boost the production values of your content whether you're shooting youtube videos or short films something as simple as a 25 tripod gives you so many extra options there's cases grips and cages too the mic in your phone is pretty good but if you want to be truly professional you can add an external mic so i'll be looking at the best ones around iphones now come with multiple lens options but i still like to use add-on lenses then there's extras like nd polarizing and diffusion filters which all help to make your videos look more cinematic the inbuilt stabilization of your iphone is so good why do you need a 3-axis gimbal well i'll tell you why later in the video then there's things like lights and dedicated camera apps which give you more control i've time stamped everything so if you're only interested in a particular type of kit you should be able to find it quite easily i'm also going to give you some tips to get the most from your iphone and extras as i film with smartphones a lot i have quite a few different tripods and monopod options i have tripods in a range of sizes which are useful in different situations you will struggle to find a more convenient tripod than this one made by joby your iphone clips in easily and you can then rest it on a table or other flat surface this is the biggest iphone an iphone 12 pro max and it fits fine what i love about this is how it folds up so tiny and you can just slip it in your pocket the next one is by ulanzi this is also pretty small and is good as a mini tripod as well as for vlogging the legs fold together and become a handle with a rubber grip then there's a ball head so you can set it to different angles the center extends out as well for vlogging or if you just want it taller you will also need a smartphone clamp like this to mount your iphone on the tripod this mount is nice because it gives you the option to switch from landscape to portrait and it's pretty solid too loosen the jaws of the clamp enough to fit your iphone in and then tighten up again so that takes a bit longer than the spring-loaded clamps but once it's in it does feel secure this also comes with one of those bluetooth triggers so you can start your camera remotely the next size up is this mini tripod by manfrotto it also folds up and becomes a handle it's very sturdily made and feels pretty solid in your hand the usb of this tripod is the quick release ball head you just press this in shift the camera to the angle you want release and now it's locked in place the gorillapod has these bendy legs which you can use to wrap around things to get a different angle you can wrap it around a tree maybe or a lamp post so this is pretty cool for getting the kind of shots you couldn't get with an ordinary tripod this is my new favorite tripod i had a small tripod before but it's not high enough to film myself standing so i got this one from andor and it's still pretty lightweight another reason i got this was because the central extension part can be set horizontal when you need to have your iphone camera shooting straight down onto a table this is perfect i bought this manfrotto monopod to use with a gimbal you can get some pretty amazing hollywood style shots just with an iphone a monopod and a dji om4 or other gimbal plus you can use it like a regular monopod mount the phone and it gives you extra stability for videography or even photography there are cases cages and rigs for your iphone which perform various functions they can be used to mount lenses microphones and lights they can be used to mount your phone to a tripod or you can simply use them to give you a more stable grip on your iphone there's loads of these clamps for smartphones on the market which allow you to mount your iphone to a tripod they usually start around eight dollars or so this is the pro version of a clamp by manfrotto it's plastic but pretty solidly made a clamp uses a spring to hold your phone in place but there's a lock to hold it a bit more securely as well moment makes some of the best lenses for iphones but to mount them to your iphone you will need a case i have the thin case for my iphone 12 pro max it's light and flexible and slips on pretty easily over the square edges of the phone mounting the lenses was a little bit tricky so i recommend being quite patient and perhaps order an extra one of these the drop-in m-series lens interface because they're not too rugged this rig from small rig is like a cross between a cage and a case while it's made of metal it's also quite light you press a button to open it up slide your iphone inside and snap it shut there's rubber inside so your phone shouldn't get scratched there's various places to mount lenses microphones and lights for lenses there are bayonet mounts so it's compatible with moment lenses moondog labs the bayonet version and probably many others that also use that bayonet system in fact it feels a bit more solid when i mount my moment lens to the small rig case compared to the moment case just snaps in nice and easy so you can mount this case directly to your tripod as well and as your phone is locked inside it's certainly one of the most secure ways to mount an iphone to a tripod small rig makes extras for this case too like a side handle or a top handle and then you can add a light on top of the handle even you can just build it out to suit your needs add this to one of these small tripods which double up as a handle grip add your lights and mic and now you have a vlogging setup i really like small rig stuff it's not too expensive and it feels pretty well built beastgrip was one of the first to make a camera rig for iphones this is actually not a beast grip but it looks pretty similar it's byzecte but unfortunately they no longer make it but you get the idea mount your phone into the rig and now you can use these handles to hold it steadier plus there's places to mount lenses lights and you can put the whole thing on a tripod there are a number of other companies that make these kinds of cages dream grip make a good one and companies like small rig newer and ulanzi offer alternatives for those on a tight budget new iphones have pretty good microphones there's no harm in just using the inbuilt mics if you have no other option just try to get as close to the mic as you can audio is really important i think our ears are somewhat more sensitive to things of a low quality than our eyes but it's not too difficult or expensive to upgrade all you have to do is add an external microphone and follow a few basic practices the cheapest and easiest way to boost your audio quality is to use a wired clip-on mic this one has the lightning connector so it doesn't need an adapter to use with my iphone i can just plug it in and my iphone should just automatically switch to using this mic you can get them with different length cables depending on how far you need to stand from the camera about one and a half meters is long enough for me if the cable is too long can be a bit annoying having to unwrap it and wrap it up again each time you use it just clip it to your clothes a few centimeters from your mouth if you are bothered about it appearing in short you can hide it behind clothing but you might need some tape when you use a clip-on mic you need to be careful about things brushing against it which will cause a horrible noise and ruin your audio for example clothes but also if you or your subject have long hair be careful it's not brushing over the mic every time you move your head to remove the problem with long cables you can use a wireless setup like this comica boom xdmi1 there's a receiver and a transmitter the receiver has a lightning attachment so that clips directly into the phone no adapter needed the transmitter has an inbuilt mic for you to use or the kit comes with a clip-on mic which you just plug into the three and a half millimeter jack socket so you'll need to attach the clip-on mic to your clothes as i showed before and the transmitter you can clip onto your back pocket or something now you are free to move around with no cables so now i'm just using the inbuilt microphone that's in the transmitter so there's no lavalier attached so now i'm using the comica valia that comes with this kit so just a test of quality so you can hear the difference the wireless setup is similar to the popular rode wireless go system but these kinds of wireless lavalier kits do cost quite a bit more like five or six times the price of a simple wired lavalier the boom xdmi1 has an internal battery which lasts about four hours before it needs recharging note that comica recommends you switch off wifi and bluetooth on your iphone when using this to prevent interference the receiver and the transmitter pair as soon as you turn on the transmitter in my experience it's very fast and that makes it easier to use with this receiver you can add a second transmitter so you can mic two people at once you can also add a different lavalier so this is the rode smartlav plus it's more expensive than the wired lavalier i showed you earlier about double so it should be better quality shouldn't it well let's compare it so now i'm using the rode lavalier go again you can see the difference between the audio quality of this lavalier and the one that comes with the comica kit apart from clip-on mics another popular type of mic to use when shooting video is what's called a shotgun microphone what's the difference well whereas a lavalier is omnidirectional which means it records audio from every direction a shotgun mic tries to record audio only from the direction it is pointed the purpose of this design is to reduce background noise and improve the clarity basically you just want to hear someone speaking and you don't want the sound of cars driving by dogs barking rode makes a number of microphones specifically for smartphones the rode video mic is a mini shotgun mic that clips directly onto your iphone or you can use an adapter if it's not the lightning version i've used one of these and while it does improve the quality slightly i would say it's only about 10 or 20 percent better if you're pretty close to the microphone it's actually quite good quality and probably is a better choice than your inbuilt microphone so this is the rode videomic ntg this microphone is designed to be used with all our media creating devices it's a great multi-purpose microphone you can connect it directly to a laptop computer your dslr or mirrorless camera your ipad or your iphone or actually an android phone you can even attach it to a boom pole and use it for filmmaking however if your iphone only has a lightning socket you will need a special cable made by rode the mic comes with a shock mount and a cold shoe mount so you can fix it to your iphone using a compatible clamp case or cage there is an internal battery which should last over 30 hours on a full charge when you plug the mic in it automatically switches on and off again when you unplug it there's a volume control at the end of the mic there's a high pass filter pad high frequency boost and a safety channel option the safety channel means your audio records at two levels so if there is distortion in the louder channel you should find usable audio in the lower level channel you can also use the 3.5 millimeter connector to connect to a wireless setup like the rode go or the comica unit i just showed you so here's some tips for recording better audio firstly try to avoid sound reflections this is a mistake i see quite a number of people make they might have an amazing high quality microphone but then they go and record themselves in a big studio space all hard surfaces which causes reflections and it ruins the audio but if you go into a place where they record audio professionally the first thing you'll notice is that the walls are covered in sound absorbing tiles in fact you can record better audio just using your iphone if all you do is remove these reflections so how can we remove reflections one option is to record in a room with a large amount of soft areas like carpets curtains sofas and so on another option is to hang blankets each side of you out of shot and these blankets will stop the audio bouncing off the walls if you're using a shotgun mic make sure it's pointing at the mouth of the speaker or just below if the shotgun mic is pointing at the wall then it's going to pick up those quality killing reflections this area just below the chin is a good echo absorber so aim there don't forget to unplug the mic before you listen back sometimes we record a video and we go to play it back and wonder why there's no sound the problem is that the iphone thinks that you have headphones plugged in and so it doesn't play the sound through the speakers back in the day when smartphones only had two cameras one on the front and one on the back clever people invented these things called conversion lenses conversion lenses are lenses which sit over the existing lens and change the way they look these mostly consist of wide angle anamorphic telephoto and macro lenses but now our iphones come with multiple lenses inbuilt we don't need these conversion lenses well actually i still use them thing is the main sensor performs so much better than the secondary sensors especially in low light conditions plus on the iphone 12 pro max the main camera has the sensor shift stabilization so that's why most of the time i prefer to place a lens over the main camera unless i'm just filming something quickly and then i'll use the inbuilt lenses for convenience also there are currently no iphones with an inbuilt anamorphic option so if we want anamorphic we need to buy a conversion lens another reason to add lenses is that they add character to the image digital images are often quite sharp and clean which can be a bit too clinical that's why pro cinematographers like using anamorphic lenses because they rough up the image a bit those slight aberrations and distortions just look cool not to mention the characteristic lens flares probably the best known conversion lenses are made by moment they're great quality and the company has the best range of lens and filter accessories for smartphones in the world allegedly well i don't know that but i'm just guessing it certainly feels like that and it's all nicely designed to work together i have two anamorphic lenses both the blue flare and the gold flare versions i have the 58 millimeter tele which is great i just place it over the main camera plus i have a 67 millimeter filter mount which slides onto the moment lens if you don't want it to be so big you can choose a smaller filter mount i think they go down to 37 millimeters moondog labs created the first anamorphic lens for iphone as far as i know sean baker then had a hit with his feature film tangerine using this lens shooting on two iphone 5s devices one of the reasons he chose to shoot the film on iphone was the moondog lab anamorphic lens i've shot a couple of short films using this lens and i really like the look of it the character it adds to the image is unchallenged in my opinion apart from moondog labs and moment there are several other companies who make anamorphic lenses for smartphones there's sandmark siri beastgrip and a few others the budget option is made by ulanzi and they're pretty nice too this is a 1.33 times ratio but you can also get a wider 1.55 times anamorphic biscript sandmark ulanzi and probably others make these and this is one by us key vision a great cheaper alternative to the moment telephoto lens is this one by ulanzi it's about a third of the price but i think it's still a great quality lens it has a 17 millimeter screw mount and it comes with a clip however ulanzi also make cases with 17 millimeter thread mounts or you can try to find a rig with a 17 millimeter mount just like lenses we can add filters to our iphone cameras to improve the look of our video there's nd neutral density filters there's pl polarizing filters there's also diffusion filters nd filters allow us to reduce the light hitting the camera sensor if we want to keep our shutter speed slow because this is what we need for the film look i made a whole video about how to achieve the film look so if you want to know more check that out polarizing filters remove glare and kind of clean up the image adding richness to the colors amongst other things for example making skies more vibrant meanwhile diffusion filters soften the light to remove some of that nasty looking digital sharpness and also add blooms around lights newer makes this affordable kit which comes with a number of filters there's a variable nd which means you can adjust it for strength you can also add a polarizing filter these are 37 millimeter filters so if you have a 37 millimeter mount use that or you can just use the clip which comes with it this is a 67 millimeter variable nd filter made to use with regular cameras which i can mount with my 67 millimeter moment filter mount the advantage of having a bigger filter is you get a slightly better quality plus less problems with vignetting around the edges the downside is the size i can't really use this filter with the dji om4 gimbal as it hits the arm tiffin makes all kinds of filters but they are well known for their black pro mist diffusion filters professional cinematographers use these to add a slightly hazy look to the image without harming definition they also create this bloom effect around lights diffusion filters usually come in a range of strengths the one i have is a 1 8th if you like everything made by moment they also do a range of diffusion filters and they're called cinebloom and come in a range of strengths as well i really like these clip-on filters which were actually sent to me by sandmark to try out they are nd and polarizer combined which reduces light and glare at the same time the light chaser pro is a filter mount with a hand grip that makes your smartphone feel more like a camera it comes with variable nd and polarizing filters to help you capture cinematic videos it's available from their website for the iphone 11 and iphone 12 range of iphones you can also add a diffusion filter note you can also mount your bayonet mount lenses using this light chaser pro such as the moment m series lenses for example recent iphones have brilliant inbuilt stabilization so why do we need a three axis gimbal well so you can do this a gimbal can be used for more than just stabilizing your shots a 3-axis gimbal enables you to move the iphone in sweeping hollywood style movements some of these you can shoot just with your iphone but it's a lot easier with a gimbal here's a shot i got with a gimbal and a smartphone for our amazon series tracking and then circling around and this would have been next to impossible with just me and an iphone they're also useful for vlogging walking and talking sure you can use your arm or a selfie stick but if you want the smoothest footage then a three axis gimbal is probably the best this is my current favorite gimbal it folds up really small and is lightweight the motors are pretty strong although not the strongest however it handles my iphone 12 pro max which is the heaviest iphone the memo app which you use with the gimbal works really well on ios there's a manual control option which allows you to choose lenses and set things like iso and shutter speed there's object tracking which is great if you're filming yourself solo there's other features as well like story mode which can be fun and a programmable time-lapse option this allows you to set points so the camera can pan or tilt during the time lapse compared to the other gimbal apps i've tried on iphone the memo app is definitely the best the downside with these small fold up gimbals is movement can be restricted sometimes but here's one tip if you want to follow a low to high shot or vice versa hold the gimbal side on if you drive forwards it just won't work another tip is if you add a lens or filter to your smartphone you can add counterweight to the gimbal and this helps to keep everything balanced if you want to add filters lenses mics or lights to your setup a dji om4 isn't going to be powerful enough to handle all that there's a number of hybrid gimbals designed to work with both dslr and smartphones one i like is the zhiyun crane m2 this is a little bigger but still quite small and folds up neatly the big difference is in the time it takes to set it up it can be a bit tricky to balance using a smartphone but i found three different ways to do that so if you're interested in a larger gimbal go check out my video on how to balance the crane m2 but once it is set up this is a great little gimbal and you won't have to worry you are wearing out the motors that said this gimbal is probably more useful for filmmaking than for vlogging maybe you want to add a small light to your vlogging setup something like this little guy by v-gym it has a cold true mount so it can work with a cage or rig with a cold true mount like the small rig case i showed you earlier in the video if you just want a little light for vlogging purposes brightness control and temperature you want a cooler light warmer light you can certainly use your iphone's native camera app to shoot great video but if you want complete control of things like iso shutter speed white balance focus and stuff like that as you would get on a dedicated camera then there's some apps that help you do that i have five favorite apps for shooting video on iphone so i will just quickly run through them one of the first if not the first camera app to bring you dslr-like control over your iphone the interface has evolved over the years this is necessary to accommodate a steadily increasing feature list in fact some might find there's just too many features and it's a bit overwhelming personally i think the balance is just about right of course i'm somewhat biased having used the app regularly for a number of years as well as making quite a few tutorials so i've shot all five episodes of silent eye with this app the interface of pro camera which is made by moment is nice to look at quite similar to apple's native camera app interface it's not too cluttered either rather than distributed buttons all the way around the screen on every side most settings are accessed via controls at each end the app has settings for each of their lenses so if you use moment lenses it might make sense to use the moment app as well one nice feature is the time lapse with a motion blur effect movement like cars or lights moving creates a nice blurred streak effect and this makes your time-lapse a bit more silky and cinematic pro-take is another app that has a nice simple interface it just feels quick and easy so if speed is more important to you than messing around with settings this could be the app for you everything is just so quick to access on the latest iphones there's support for 8-bit 10-bit and there's dolby vision there's four different levels of stabilization off standard cinematic and extreme if you use extreme the monitor becomes heavily delayed but the result is extremely smooth footage downside is that the app is paid for by a yearly subscription that said there is a free version and the pro version counts for all devices ios and android program was used in the recent shot on iphone production by apple and they produced some amazing results with just an iphone and pro cam and tons of lighting kit production crew professional post-production technicians anyway the interface is the cleanest out of all the apps and controls are very minimal one feature unique to this app compared to the other apps i'm looking at here is what they call 4k max video which requires an extra in-app purchase this option shoots at a higher 4k resolution than normal 4032 pixels by 2268 which is a 10 higher pixel count than standard 4k the beast cam app interface has a very scientific look to it and is certainly the busiest of all those reviewed here as all the basic controls we need laid out precisely around the screen personally the nerd in me enjoys having so much detail in the interface but it might be distracting for some so that's it for this video what do you think of my choices do you have any suggestions for bits of equipment that you find that i haven't mentioned here just put it in the comments it's always nice to hear about new things and everyone can benefit from other people's knowledge so that's it and i'll see you in the next video ciao yeah i was just doing like a mic test you know like a distance i don't know how far that is that's like what do you reckon i would say maybe 10 meters not far do you want to go further should i go further i'll go outside see what happens i'm going outside see in a minute i'm still i'm still going outside so i need oh it's freezing it's so cold can you still hear me i'm not gonna go any further okay that's it i'm coming back did it work did it go around the corner or did it stop did it cut out anyway bye

Channel: Mobile Motion

Views: 250,074

Keywords:

Id: 1rgxr3rU_CY

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/mjomark]

Not sure if I should watch this video - I might accidentally order too many new tech items online afterwards.

[u/cipri_tom]

Before watching, I guess you need a super powerful gimball to hold extra stuff

[u/Gaius_Pacificus]

Excellent video! What do you use to carry all the gear around?