Killer Things: Pocketable iPhone filmmaking kit

iPhone filmmaking kit

Why use an iPhone for filmmaking?

It’s really cool to shoot high-quality video on a device that nobody notices. It’s no big deal to see someone filming with a mobile phone, but the latest iPhones fit in a lot of video features including 4K, slow-motion and timelapse.

There are downsides. The sensor is tiny – so low light video is never going to be great – and they’re an awkward shape for handholding. And of course, the lens doesn’t zoom (though for beginner filmmakers, that’s probably a good thing – and if you get a 4K phone you may not need it).

You can spend a lot of money on iPhone filmmaking kit, and some of it is big and bulky. If you’re going do do that, you might as well get a ‘real’ video camera. So here’s the kit I put together to make the phone better for video while still keeping it small and affordable.

Which iPhone?

If you can manage it, the 6S is the one to buy. The 64Gb version (16Gb is too small) only costs $100/£80 more than the equivalent iPhone 6. But it has better slow motion (full 1080p at 120 fps) and – crucially – 4K video recording. The 6S Plus is even better as it has optical image stabilisation, but it’s too big for most people.

Like most people, I don’t need to make finished films in 4K. But being able to shoot 4K gives me a lot of flexibility. I can slot 4K clips into a 1080p HD sequence, then zoom them to twice the size without losing quality. That’s like filming with a 70-80mm medium telephoto lens. It’s ideal for undistorted ‘talking head’ closeups.

Camera support

I tried a Joby MPod, the most inexpensive of Joby’s bendy tripods. It has an elasticated clamp, so you can stand your phone on a table for steady shots. Fold the legs together and you can use it as a handgrip. It’s very pocketable but not that steady. I prefer a Joby Griptight, which holds the phone firmly and attaches to any standard tripod. You can buy it on its own, or in a kit with one of Joby’s Gorillapod bendy tripods. They also make a video version with a pan and tilt head: I’m not sure how useful that would be.)

Camera app

Filmic Pro

Apple’s camera app has some great features – including full quality slow motion, and timelapse, on the latest phones – but it’s a bit limited.

The Filmic Pro app lets you set exposure and focus separately. You can manually adjust focus, white balance, ISO and shutter speed. You can also choose from a wide variety of different resolutions and aspect ratios (image shapes), and film at higher bitrates than the native app. You can also turn off stabilisation for a fuller wide angle image. And you can monitor audio on headphones as you film. Generally it’s great, though autofocus seems a bit flaky.

I particularly like being able to choose really slow shutter speeds (down to 1/5) for low light situations. And unlike the native app, Filmic Pro lets me shoot at 25 or 50fps, the PAL (European) frame rate.

Lens and audio

Lens

The standard iPhone 6 lens is a fairly wide-angle 29mm equivalent. But that’s just for stills. When you shoot video with the native app, it’s more like 40mm to allow for stabilisation. The 6S is about the same for HD, but 4K is a little wider at around 35mm. These are rather ‘meh’ focal lengths: not wide enough to fit in a full scene, but too short to shoot faces without distortion. So my priority was a wide-angle lens.

olloclip 4 in 1

Olloclip’s 4-into-1 combines wide, fisheye, 10x and 15x adaptors and works with front and back cameras. The wide is really wide (it seems like around 20mm) and the fisheye is wider. I wouldn’t use either of these lenses for stills: they have too much barrel distortion and edge softness. But this is less noticeable when shooting movement. The iPhone video crop cuts out the worst of the edge blur (though the fisheye is still pretty bad).

The front element of each lens unscrews to convert them into 10x and 15x macro adapters. The image from these looks really crisp but depth of field is very shallow, as you’d expect.

The Olloclip only fits on bare iPhones, or with Olloclip’s own cases. You really don’t want to be using a phone without a case as they’re far too easy to drop.

Ollocase

The Ollocase, showing the cutaway for mounting the Olloclip

The Ollocase is a ‘bumper’ case with a cutaway for the lens attachment, which helps you to position it accurately over the phone’s own lens. It’s well-made and good-looking but a bit pricey: you could just take a craft knife to a cheap case to make a cutaway for the adapter. The more expensive Olloclip Studio is a rugged case with clip-on handgrips and mounts for microphones and lights.

Alternatives

Olloclip make several lenses: the 4 in 1 is the most affordable. There’s also an Active Lens (GoPro-style ultrawide, plus telephoto), a telephoto/wide/macro/polarising combination, and a ‘pro macro’ version.. The 4 in 1 is really neat and portable, but the image quality isn’t that great.

The competing Moment lens is reported to better quality, but it’s a lot bigger and less convenient. You either have to glue a mount to your camera, or buy Moment’s own case which only works with their own app.

Samples with the Olloclip 4 in 1 lens

Sound

Olloclip lens and bare VideoMic Me

The bare VideoMic Me (and Olloclip)

Of course, you can make life easier by forgetting about live sound and adding audio when you edit. But you can record good live sound with the iPhone. Rode’s Smartlav+ lavalier (lapel) mic is one option. I went for their VideoMic Me, which is a small, good value directional microphone. Quality seems good. It includes a headphone socket, so you can monitor live audio (with Filmic Pro). It includes a furry windshield for shooting outdoors, which works well but makes it a lot bigger.

You can’t plug standard microphones straight into a smartphone as they have special TRRS inputs. Rode’s inexpensive SC4 adapter solves this. It lets me connect a minijack lav mic like the Audio Technica ATR3350. But the microphone in my Rodelink wireless is much better, so I use that instead. The receiver goes in my pocket, and connects to the SC4 with a minijack extension lead.

(Rode also make the SC6 which lets you connect two minijack microphones and headphones, which would be useful for interviews and dialogue).