- In this video, we're gonna review the best camera apps
for iPhone right now.
And after testing them all out,
I'm gonna share my top recommendation,
the app that I'm using right now.
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Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we help you amplify your business
and brand with video.
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and all the links to everything we mention in this video,
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So let's jump into it.
These days, smartphones are capable of shooting great videos
straight out of the box.
But with a quick app installed,
you can instantly unlock a ton of advanced functionality
to take your results even further.
Now there are a lot of options out there, though,
so in this video we're gonna take a look
at each of the best camera apps right now,
and then get to my choice of the number one app
after putting them all through their paces.
Let me know down in the comments
what's your favorite camera app for iPhone,
and what's your favorite feature inside that app.
Okay, so as I said, there's a lot of options out there,
some of them are great, and some of them are not so great
and not worth your time at all.
So we're gonna skip the ones that aren't worth your time
and jump straight into our shortlist for the top options.
So those include Moment Pro Camera app,
MoviePro, FiLMiC Pro, and MAVIS,
or MAVIS, however you pronounce it.
Now, each one have their advantages and disadvantages,
including a different level of features,
different level of complexity, and pricing models.
So make sure you stick around as we run through each one,
to make sure you get the one that is the best fit for you.
Now just really quickly,
I do wanna say that what these apps will let you do
is unlock DSLR-like settings,
or professional camera-like settings inside of your iPhone
to really dial in the look and feel of your videos
so that you can get super creative
and create professional-looking videos.
So all of the apps we're gonna cover
will let you manually lock down things like the exposure,
so your shutter speed, your ISO,
also your white balance,
so the color temperature of the shot,
and also let you lock down things like the frame rate
and the bitrate, or the quality of the recordings
that you are able to capture,
much, much more so than the built-in camera apps
on your phones.
So the first app is the Moment Pro Camera App.
Now in regards to all the others,
this one's kind of the new kid on the block here.
I'm really surprised with the amount of features and tools
and everything that you've got in here,
but it's still got a really clean,
really easy-to-use interface.
Now Moment, if you haven't heard of them before,
as a company, they create a heap of extra accessories
and lenses and things
to help you get the most out of your videos
when you're creating them with your smartphone.
So it does make sense for them to create an app like this
to help you get the most out of their products
while you're making your videos.
So inside the app itself, one of the first options
or settings that you'll probably see
is to be able to select any of these extra add-on lenses
that you might be using
to tailor up the recording experience
to get the most out of that lens.
So in here, once again, you've got full support
for anamorphic lenses including the de-squeezed options,
but in this case, it's also allowing you to process them
at higher quality than 1080p as well.
Now while it is tailored up
to work specifically with their lenses,
to help you get the most out of their lenses,
you can actually use any lenses or no lenses,
and still get great results using this
as a video camera app.
Now they've packed in a heap of advanced
and professional settings, things like focus peaking,
shadow and highlight clipping,
histograms, waveforms, and audio levels,
and all of this can just be enabled
from within the settings menu.
These will give you a great amount of monitoring
to help you set everything up
to get the shot that you're after
with tools and features and things
that you'd usually only find on pro level cameras.
You get to choose between three color profiles,
the first one is the default setting.
There is also a flat color profile and a log mode as well,
which is an awesome addition if you're looking to apply
a lot or a grade in your editing afterwards.
You do have control over the recording quality
or the bitrate, of the files that you're recording,
but it is limited to three settings.
You can either apply a default setting, which is,
I'm assuming is the phone's default setting for recording.
You can also set it to medium,
which is set to 60 megabits per second,
and there is a high setting of 100 megabits per second.
So while it's great that you can control the bitrate
and select one of those three preset levels,
some of the other apps that we're going to cover really soon
will let you really dial in a specific bitrate
to give you more control over this option.
Now this next one isn't really a downside,
but it's more something that I think you should be aware of.
That you do get a few popups inside of the apps
about specials or promotions and things
that Moment is running
to sell their lenses or any other packages or bundles
and things that they've got.
So it's not a deal breaker,
and obviously it makes sense for them to do it,
but it's something that you need to be aware of.
From time to time you will have popups and ads
and those sorts of things promoting their other products.
So in regards to pricing, you can currently pick up
the Moment Pro Camera app for $5.99.
So really, if you really are using their lenses,
especially the anamorphic ones,
I think this app would be an awesome addition for you,
even just for that desqueeze feature alone
to exactly match their lenses.
But even if you're not using their lenses,
this app is still an amazing tool
for creating professional-looking videos,
especially given all those advanced monitoring features
that they've got in there for you.
The next option you've got is Movie Pro.
Now this is an app that we reviewed a few years ago,
and this one has come a long way.
The amount of features and everything
that they pack into this now, it's an awesome package.
The interface itself, especially when comparing it
to some of the other options, is clean.
It is easy enough to use, but probably not as intuitive
as some of the other easier options,
like Pro Movie Recorder and even the Moment app.
You've got a great amount of control over things
like the frame rate,
where you do have access to your standard presets,
the most used ones, 24, 25, 30, 50, 60,
but you can also manually type in
and set a specific frame rate,
anything between three and 24 frames per second,
if you're after something with a really low frame rate.
Or you also get access to high frame rate options as well
for slow motion.
So again, depending on which iPhone you're using,
this could be anything from 96 frames per second
upwards of 240 frames per second.
Now in regards to the quality settings
or the bitrate settings for the files
that you're gonna record,
you get more control over just the three preset options
that you had in the Moment Camera app.
This one here, you can't dial them in specifically either,
but you've got far more options.
The biggest downside though,
is the way that you actually set this
and select the bitrate.
If you're after a target bitrate,
say you want to be creating your videos
at 100 megabits per second,
they make it difficult to quickly work out
what bitrate you're recording at.
And that's because everything is measured in percentages.
So you get to choose between 25% up to 400% of quality,
and the only information or indication
as to what that bitrate would coincide to
is down at the bottom.
It says 225% bitrate corresponds to
50 megabits per second at 1080p.
So it's not a deal-breaker,
but I do think it's a strange way
to implement your bitrate or quality control.
You could just do what I think pretty much
all of the other apps do and just have a number.
If you want 80 megabits per second,
you pick 80 megabits per second.
In here though, there are some other really cool features,
things like direct upload to Dropbox,
So you can log in and synchronize all of your files
as you're recording them directly to Dropbox.
There's also a reduced feature mode
to help you save power or save battery life
while you're recording.
And there's also an additional remote control app
that will let you remotely control MoviePro
from a separate iOS device.
Meaning that if you've got one device, say your phone,
set up as a primary camera,
you can control it and monitor everything
while you're recording from an iPad that you might have.
Now this is also an option that FiLMiC Pro has,
and we'll get to FiLMiC Pro in just a minute,
but do note that it is a separate paid app.
Now just like some of the other apps
that we've mentioned already,
there is direct hardware support
for the Moondog Labs 1.33 lens adapters,
and also 35 mil lens adapters support as well.
So it will automatically flip the image
to match those adapters.
But what I think is the coolest feature of this app
is how they've built it around setting up presets.
Now some of the other apps,
like FiLMiC Pro, have presets built-in,
but this is on a whole different level.
You can literally set up different presets or profiles
for different shooting styles,
or different shooting settings, easily inside the app.
And the app is really built around that.
So it's not just that you're setting a preset
for one recording type, like 1080p, 30 frames per second.
You can actually set up all of your entire camera app
based around a set preset or a set profile.
Now this, I think, is an absolutely amazing feature.
Including all the settings into each profile is huge.
So one profile, you might have image stabilization on.
And a video resolution and video quality set one way.
Then another profile could have video stabilization off,
and totally different settings for the rest of the filming.
So that way when you're out actually shooting,
you're switching between things
like the front camera, the rear camera,
you want to shoot slow-mo
or you want to shoot in a different frame rate,
or with a different quality settings.
It literally is press of a button
to easily switch between them.
And the button to switch them up
is right next to the record button.
So it is literally at your fingertips.
So in regards to the price then,
you can buy MoviePro for $5.99.
That extra remote app, MoviePro Remote,
does cost $4.99 as well,
but you can also get a bundle
where you're purchasing both of them for $8.99.
So considering all the advanced features and things
and control that you get in this,
I think $8.99 is an absolute bargain.
The next app option you've got is FiLMiC Pro.
Now this one has been around since almost day one.
When you think of apps like this, third-party camera apps,
to bring in more advanced features and more cinematic tools
into your smartphone video creation toolkit.
And even today, it is still up there, still innovating,
and is still one of the apps out there
that has the most amount of control and configuration
when it comes to getting the best videos
out of your smartphones.
I really like the way
that you control your exposure settings
inside of FiLMiC Pro.
Just using the slider wheel to adjust your ISO
and to adjust your shutter speed.
It allows you to get really precise with the settings
that you're locking in.
Now in FiLMiC Pro, you can also bring up overlays
to show different aspect ratios
for videos that you can create.
And not only are they overlays,
you can actually crop your videos down to those overlays.
So if you want to have a super widescreen video
or even create a square video,
you can do that from within side FiLMiC Pro as well.
Now in regards to the quality or the bitrate control
that you've got in FiLMiC Pro,
there are no set megabit per second levels in here.
You get to choose between Economy, Apple Standard,
FiLMiC Quality, or FiLMiC Extreme,
with, obviously, FiLMiC Extreme being the highest bitrate,
or the highest quality you can select.
But there's no set rating,
or them saying that that is equivalent
to 100 megabits per second or 200 megabits per second
directly in the app.
And just like you've got access to in the Moment app,
you also have overlays and things
that you can turn on here
to help you get more advanced control
when you're locking everything down for your shot.
Things like focus peaking, things like zebra lines,
so that you can check your exposure across your entire shot.
Let's see if there's any areas that are peaking.
Again all of these advanced features and things
that you would normally find in professional level cameras,
you've got access to in here as well.
And also as we mentioned
when we're talking about the Movie Pro app
having that remote app as well to remotely control it,
FiLMiC Pro does have a FiLMiC Remote app as well,
so that you can remotely control and monitor FiLMiC Pro
on another Apple device.
So again, if you're filming with one iPhone,
you could be monitoring and controlling that phone,
that camera, with your iPad as well.
Now there's two other main standout features.
The first one is the hardware integration
that you've got inside of FiLMiC Pro.
You've actually got direct integration
with a few gimbal stabilizers
like the DJI OSMO Mobile series,
so the Mobile and the Mobile two.
And also the Zhiyun or the Zhiyun Smooth Four.
You get direct integration with them
from within inside FiLMiC Pro,
meaning that if you've got those,
all the buttons and controls and everything,
they're going to work.
So you don't have to use the built-in apps,
the DJI app or the the Zhiyun app.
You can use FiLMiC Pro
to really control everything with the gimbal.
And you also get direct support with the Movi Cinema Robot,
the Moondog Anamorphic lens adapter,
and 35 millimeter lens adapters as well.
And the other feature that I think is really awesome
is their cinematographer kit, which isn't add-on,
so it's an extra expense or an extra purchase
that you'll need to get.
But this cinematographer kit
will enable a heap of extra control
over the color profiles and settings,
enabling things like log mode as well.
So if you're someone who likes to have
that full amount of control,
that cinematographer kit is awesome.
So in regards to pricing, FiLMiC Pro sells for $14.99.
You can add on that FiLMiC Pro Remote for $9.99,
or you can actually purchase the two as a bundle for $19.99,
but that doesn't include the cinematographer kit.
That is an additional purchase, in-app purchase for $13.99.
And the final app option then, is MAVIS or MAVIS.
Now this is hands-down
the most professional camera interface
across any of the apps.
It really is like looking at a professional camera
or a professional field monitor
with all the information and everything
that you have on there.
You can see straightaway you've got access to things
like focus peaking, you've got your waveform monitor,
you've got your vetroscope.
They also show false color and zebra lines as well.
And there's also built-in things like expanded focus.
So if you're manually adjusting the focus,
it's going to punch in or zoom in on your shot,
just so you can set the focus really, really, precisely,
and then it's going to come back to your normal shot.
So just the simple little things that you see
in professional camera gear all the time.
It's so awesome to have that in an app as well.
You've also got full control to dial in any frame rate
from three frames per second
right up to 240 frames per second,
depending on the device that you're using.
Or there's all the presets and everything that are built-in
for all the industry standard ones as well.
From 24 frames per second, 25, 29.97, 30, they're all there.
And you also get a heap of control
over the bitrate, or the quality settings,
everything from 10 megabits per second
right up to 100 megabits per second.
I think the biggest thing with this app
is that it's actually so much
like you are using a professional camera.
Just the tools, just the control,
the way that you interact with it all,
the interface as a whole,
it really is like a professional camera.
But even if that's not for you,
or that's not for you all the time,
then you can quickly press a button
down in the bottom left hand corner,
and it would change up the interface to a full-screen view,
removing or hiding a lot of those Pro features,
so that you're back to
what a more traditional app would look like,
but without removing any of those features.
So I think having the ability to switch
between the two different interfaces
is a massive feature as well.
Now in regards to pricing, the app itself is actually free,
and then using in-app purchases,
you can actually unlock different features.
So if you're someone who doesn't need to unlock
all of the features,
you can just unlock the ones that are relevant to you.
So some of those things you can unlock
is the full control over the bitrates
and over the frame rates by unlocking the formats.
You can unlock more professional tools,
additional viewfinder options,
and timecode options there as well.
But also know that you can unlock all of the features
for a one-time fee of $17.99,
in case at some point, you need all of those features.
But I do think it's cool that they've split them off
because if there's some things in there
that you definitely don't need,
then you don't have to pay for them.
So those are the best options you've got right now
when it comes to video camera apps on iOS.
You will be able to get great results
no matter which one of these apps you use.
But as for me personally,
which one do I use most of the time,
which one do I gravitate towards?
It's still FiLMiC Pro.
Now FiLMiC Pro is one that I have been using
for a long time,
and it still seems to be the go-to for me
when I need to lock down a shot,
or get full control over a shot.
But I do want to say that I am really impressed
with both MoviePro and MAVIS,
and I've started to use both of those a lot more as well.
Again for the control and all the settings and everything
in MAVIS and that interface is just insane.
But also the fast access to all the custom profile setups
in MoviePro, I think that is an awesome feature as well.
And beyond that, if I just want to quickly capture something
without the need to set everything up
and lock everything down,
then I'm pretty much just gonna use the built-in camera app
for any of those really quick shots.
So again let me know down in the comments
which app are you using, and what's the number one feature,
the number one reason why you love that app.
Now if you are looking to create
amazing looking professional videos using your iPhone,
then check out the video linked on-screen
where we take you through the ultimate process step-by-step
so that you're able to get great results every time.
And I'll see you in the next video.