Cell Phone Video: Threat to Real Camcorders/Cameras?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

Glad you mentioned that! I did a wedding last month and the first dance was on a portable dance floor outside ..my cam handled the lighting no issue but the whole ambience was totally ruined by a guest shooting her wobbly video with her iPhone that had a bright "video light" ...that just killed the whole thing as those lights are amazingly bright!! Sadly cells will be a part of weddings whether we like it or not ...I really think they should call them "multimedia devices" not phones as people rarely use them to make phone calls!

[Steven Digges]

Here is the part I am laughing about. There are at least a few of you on this thread that have been buying new cameras every 12/24 months or less for the last ten years. Some of you probably have hundreds of posts about it and they all say "I went, smaller, lighter and cheaper. Isn't that great!" Some of you are using hybrids and even mirror-less point and shoots. Cell phones are the last step down from that. Where did you think it would stop? The market drives technology. What are you shooting with now? Just saying........

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Chris Harding]

They are here already Steve!

Polaroid brought one out as per the image below but I can seriously see the day when you slide on a 20x optical Zeiss or Leica glass lens onto the phone body, slide a full EVF onto the edge and then clip in a two channel wireless micro XLR audio module and you are good to go!! Take off all 3 in less than 10 seconds and you are back on Facebook

[Roger Van Duyn]

Actually, I did stream a 90 minute funeral service on Facebook for a friend using her I-Phone. I was attending the funeral and she said "Hey Roger! You're a pro videographer. Can you stream my mother in law's funeral on my phone to the out of state relatives."

I told her it would be my first live streamed video, if it worked, but sure! I borrowed another friend's USB Power Brick device so the phone wouldn't go dead. Kathy dialed into her account, and off we went. Saw the other daughter in law in a small window watching on another phone more than a thousand miles away.

Anyway, the process worked. Not a single hickup. The far away daughter in law remarked at how steady and easy to watch the video was. Just held the phone in landscape position, was careful how I framed the shot, turned slowly using my body just like when I go handheld with my cameras.

No kidding. It was seamless. Only had to plug in that power brick. Audio was good because of where I was sitting (carefully chosen because I did a quick test and realized the fixed lens limitations of the phone etc.)and the acoustics of the church.

Only a matter of time before there's a small camcorder with similar circuitry to the phone built in. I'm using JVC HM-170s. The next step up, the 200 series, have some streaming built in. Not planning to offer streaming just yet, but monitoring where things are heading. Just noticed the new Sling device for I-Pad...

[Chris Harding]

Quite scary Roger!! Yes I'm positive the corporate shoot where they have a $50K budget won't be affected neither will the $10K high end weddings but I can honestly see budget weddings being shot in the near future with hybrid camera/phones ... If you look at the two videos at the start of this post can anyone honestly say that a budget bride wouldn't be thrilled with footage of that quality? We already have cameras that cost thousands that have terrible audio preamps (Canon 5D) so there is no reason a wedding videographer couldn't have dedicated audio gear and shoot the video at 4K on a Galaxy 8 .... after a bit of Noa style editing no-one would know the difference .... drop a phone like that into a good quality 3 axis gimbal and you could have a pretty good result ... protest all you want but in the domestic market we will see better and better quality in the coming years ..maybe I need to retire now and leave all this cell shooting to the kids?

[Noa Put]

Not even in my dreams I would consider shooting a wedding with smartphone, no matter what the IQ is. A phone is a disaster when it comes to functionality, try changing shutter, iso, f-stop or focus on the fly while holding the phone in front of you swiping the screen, even more fun trying to do that in the glaring sun with it's reflective screen. Just the thought of it is ridiculous. I draw the line with using dslr's, would much prefer to shoot on a real videocamera but I can't ignore the advantages my panasonic dslr's have for my personal use, eventhough they are no real videocamera's either and lack functionality that a video oriented professional camera has I at least can change all settings I need while holding the camera's viewfinder against my eye which is where a camera should be if you shoot a non repeatable critical moment while handholding the camera.

[Steven Digges]

Im with Noa all the way. I made my only real point in my first post. Now were just having fun. At least I am not serious about this stuff. As said, my clients would run me off the set if I showed up with even a DSLR.

Chris, The market is already offering what you just said (almost). Here is the clip on Haselblad camera for your Motorola phone:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...D&Q=&A=details

Steve

[Steven Digges]

One of my favorite truths in business and life is "Just because you can does not mean you should." I have hired a ton of freelancers in my time, some amazing ones I learn from and some green ones I train. I am always teaching that statement to the green ones. That is really what we are talking about here. Some times technology provides us with multiple options to achieve a similar result. But the correct way to do things is rarely with tools and options from the bottom of the food chain.

Steve

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I'm in the process of selling all my cameras and switching to Cell phones for video. I have one in each hand, on my belt, and my head band. Any angle, any time. That's how I roll

[Chris Harding]

Hey Steve

I was, of course. having fun too just as Pete is. Yep the IQ is pretty darn good but practical usage sucks! Dunno about you guys but when my phone rings I have to swipe the little "lock" icon to the right to answer it and try as I might it just stays put and will not move so I end up having to call back, very frustrated. Imagine shooting a bride walking down the aisle and the phone refuses to comply with your finger as the music starts..sheer panic ....To be honest I'm not too happy with the touch screen controls on my new Lumix now either ....What happened to buttons??? I'm used to buttons and I like buttons that you can physically press and know something will happen ...my old cell (all of $35.00) used to have an answer button and I loved it!

I still miss my shoulder mount cameras ...to me that's a "proper" video camera not a smallish DSLR form factor that's almost impossible to hold steady without a rig! As a parting shot you will be delighted to know that on my current smartphone I have never taken a single still shot or video ..couldn't be bothered !! I won't be switching to phones for video anytime soon but sadly I still think some might just do it!

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I thought you were going to say filming the bride coming down the aisle and the phone rings.

If it has a quality screen and can work well like Canon dslrs. But in bright sun touch screen buttons become worthless.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I just noticed Vimeo Cameo on their site.

If the world is a community of mobile filmmakers, they need an easy app to "edit" and post their films on Vimeo, right?

[Chris Harding]

It's all about marketing Seth ! If there are 6 million phone videographers near your market and only 500,000 camcorder videographers you would be stupid not to target the bigger market with your product or service!

We got what we affectionately call "junk mail" in the post box yesterday and browsing through it I was quite taken aback that a Samsung Galaxy 8 plus cell phone is nearly $1400.00 here ....you can actually buy a nice bridge camera or camcorder for less than that but people are opting for the phone!

Just remember even if you are an iPhone hater when it comes to video, the brides really don't care what you shoot with at a wedding as long as you make her look pretty ...In 25 years of video I have yet to have ANY bride ask about cameras and format and in fact, most still want a DVD!! I think I had one groom last year who was insisting on 4K cameras and when I asked the bride to be she had no idea what he was talking about. It used to be "we shoot your video on the latest broadcast quality cameras" and it might just be a marketing point to now say " we shoot on the new iPhone12 8K cameras"

[Seth Bloombaum]

Hmm...

Good points Chris.

New media literacy coming to a market near you! Literacy is not just reading printed material. Literacy is not just watching and listening to video. Literacy is writing and shooting and editing and delivering.

Video cameras are in the schools, and for good reason!

Which doesn't exactly threaten pro cameras or pro standards of shooting. I think there will continue to be more casual production, more user-generated video content.

You know, it's not just YouTube & Vimeo that love this for the market growth. Video drives growth of internet bandwidth. Video drives computer processor speed/threads, and GPU hardware support. There are lots of companies worldwide that benefit. That's not profits, that's economics...

[Andrew Smith]

And then this came out just today:

Is the camcorder dead? Mirrorless cameras are plotting to take its place

"Video cameras are rarely devices held in palms or rested on shoulders any more but increasingly they’re small, waterproof blocks mounted on bicycles or, for more professional shoots, devices cunningly disguised as traditional cameras.

Imaging leaders including Sony and Panasonic are tipping these hybrid cameras as the future video leaders and sales figures appear to back them up.

Plus, the hybrid cameras are adding features and power more commonly seen in professional video cameras."

Andrew