Apple has just announced a suite of new products that basically turns the new iPad Pro with M4 chip into a mobile live-editing suite with the ability to stream up to four cameras using the new 'Final Cut Pro for iPad 2' (that's what it's called). This streaming is enabled through a new 'Final Cut Camera' app exclusively for iPhone and iPad. You can also use the Final Cut Camera app on a single device (as a stand-alone camera), and it unlocks precise manual camera controls.
Are video cameras doomed?
When you boil it down, the Apple iPhone cameras have collectively taken more photos and videos than any other branded device on the planet. Just think of how many images your average consumer has on their phone. Personally, I have 80,000 images stemming back to my iPhone 4 that came out in mid 2010 (a lot are just photos of car park signs which will help me recall where I parked my car). Of course this number pales into insignificance compared to a sports or wedding shooter who may take 3,000 images on a shoot, up to several times a week. But on average, camera phones win hands down for sheer volume of images.
So admittedly, the iPhone does take acceptable photos - well, good enough to be viewed on a phone. Anything in lowlight that needs a shutter speed of over 1/60 looks like a plate of refried beans or just soft fuzzy pixels. When it comes to low light video, it's pretty much the same deal – looks good on a phone or even an iPad, but on a 5K monitor it looks a bit blurgh.
Ultimately physics and the physical size of the iPhone's tiny camera sensors and lenses means that the image will be noisy. This is where computational photography comes into play in a big way to get around these physical limitations and deliver acceptable imagery. So to answer the original question of 'are video cameras doomed' – if you want high quality footage, you still need to shoot on high end cameras – but new apps are challenging that notion.
Use an app for more control over your footage
Instead of shooting video footage using the generic apple camera app, you could use the Blackmagic Camera App which has been available since mid-September 2023. This app adds a bunch of cool manual features to help you shoot – so cool that up until now, Apple have been using the app to shoot a lot of their footage for the famous livestream 'launch' videos.
There is also a bunch of other apps for shooting stills, such as Camera+, Focos, ProCam8, Halide, Manual Cam, Reeflex and ProCam. They all unlock manual camera controls and do a reasonable job, though if you really want 'pro' images - stick to a real camera!
The new iPad Pro with M4 Chip and tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR screen
The recently announced iPad Pro with M4 chip (3nm technology) has a new 'pro' camera system which basically allows the iPad to become one-stop-shop for content creators who want to shoot 4K ProRes video on mobile devices. Yes – the new iPad is a handheld editing suite that can stream up to four iPhones or iPad footage that will end up on your timeline.
When you consider the expense, bulk and weight of how much camera and video equipment you'd normally have to use to live shoot with four cameras with a laptop editing suite – it's kind of mind-boggling. Basically you have a set up that can weigh less than 2kg that could fit into a small bag.
It's going to be interesting to see how videographers will utilise this system in the near future. Will it cut down on production time and costs? Will the output be good enough? If the Apple launch videos are anything to go by, then the answer is yes.
The other stand out feature on the new iPad, which will no doubt flow onto the MacBook and even Studio Displays – is what they are calling 'Tandem OLED' a.k.a 'Ultra Retina XDR'. This is essentially two layers of OLED pixels layered on top of one another. This enables incredible levels of brightness delivering up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR & HDR content, with a 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness. Apparently specular highlights in photos and video appear brighter, with deeper true black and shadow details (ie can switch off pixels).
Another highlight is the new M4 chip which reportedly has 50% more CPU performance at half the power requirements than previous chips. This will help the iPad in the field to work longer without charging. The good news is that no doubt, the M4 will be seen in a new MacBook in the near future (strangely, the M3 MacBook was only released two months ago)
New Final Cut Pro update V10.8
In other Apple news, FCP for Mac has also been upgraded, with the big ticket items being the inclusion of AI, as well as a 'Enhance Light & Colour' button which theoretically can fix the footage with just one click.
The other stand out addition is 'Smooth Slo-mo' where frames of video are intelligently generated and blended together to increase the quality of playback footage.
You can find out more about these various products either through the Apple website or by watching the video below.
The iPad Pro is priced from $1,699 and available from 15 May 2024.