by Thinus Ferreira
On Tuesday night Apple unveiled the specifications of its new iPhone 13 that is expanding the smartphone's capability as a "Hollywood" cinematography device, with improvements mostly geared towards the capture and creation of video content through the addition of Cinematic Video and its Pro Motion technology.
Apple's new flagship iPhone 13 will be available as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini.
South African pricing is not yet available but will retail in the United States for $699 (iPhone 13 Mini, 128GB), $799 (iPhone 13, 128GB), $999 (iPhone 13 Pro, 128GB), and $1099 (iPhone 13 Pro Max).
To differentiate itself from competitors, Apple is focused on enhancing the iPhone's speed and performance, most notably through improving the camera and camera capability, as well as building a brighter and better display (23% brighter), and working on even longer battery life.
The iPhone 13 standard has a 6.1-inch screen (iPhone Max has a 6.7-inch display), with the rear lenses which have been changed positionally and are now set diagonally within the back camera bump.
Apple has added its Apple Pro Motion technology to the iPhone 13 Pro models, as well as Cinematic Video to all of the iPhone 13 models.
With "Cinematic Video" mode, users can create foreground-background blending and transitions within "scenes" where either the foreground or background comes into focus, and vice versa, based on what the filmmaker wants to focus on.
Cinematic Video is smart enough to change focus when a subject looks away from the phone, and the user can also tap on the phone's screen to manually adjust whether something in the background or foreground should be placed in focus.
Interestingly a "depth map" is also automatically built into Cinematic Video mode, enabling the filmmaker to go back and to change the focus point later, even after content has been filmed.
