iPhone cameras have always been praised for their excellent results in both photography and video. But that's not the only thing that makes these phones special. The North American company has also been implementing in recent years the possibility of recording video in ProRes and taking photographs in ProRAW, two formats that provide more flexibility in subsequent editing. And that, if you take photography or video seriously, can make a difference.
And now you may ask yourself: how are these formats activated? What is necessary to use them? The first thing you should check is the following:
To use ProRAW you must have an iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max. That is, one of the Pro models of the last two generations. To record in ProRes you must have an iPhone 13 Pro or an iPhone 13 Pro Max. The model, in addition, must have at least 256 GB of capacity. That is to say: the 128 GB variant does not support these recording modes.
How to activate ProRes on a compatible iPhone
First of all you have to go to Settings > Camera > Formats.Once there, activate the “ProRes” box.Then, Enter the camera app. Switch to video recording mode. Before pressing the button that starts recording, look at the top of the screen. There you will see a button that says “ProRes”. Press it to activate recording in this format. You can now record in ProRes.
Once you finish recording in ProRes, don't forget to deactivate the format by clicking on the same button as in step 5. Otherwise, you'll likely run out of iPhone storage quickly, as ProRes clips take up much more space than the conventional format.
By the way: ProRes is not compatible with recording in 4K at 60 FPS. Therefore, you should set the recording to a maximum of 4K and 30 FPS.
How to activate ProRAW on a compatible iPhone
Go to Settings > Camera > Formats. Once there, activate the “ProRAW” box. Then, go to the camera application. Look at the top of the screen . There you will see a button that says “ProRAW”. Press it to activate recording in this format. You can now take photos in ProRAW.
Why don't the iPhone 13 have ProRes if the processor is the same?
Apple has not given a reason. However, from a technical point of view, there are certain differences between the iPhone 13 and the Pro variants that could be related to the absence of ProRes on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini models. For example:
Both the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have 6 GB of RAM, while the other two models in the family (13 and 13 mini) have 4 GB. The most advanced models also They have a five-core GPU, while the other two have a quad-core.
ProRes is also a way of differentiating the standard models from the Pro ones as far as the catalog is concerned. For most people, recording in ProRes is a waste of memory. Only for the most demanding users who plan to use the iPhone as a professional recording tool it really makes sense.
Why isn't ProRes compatible with the iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max 128GB?
One minute 4K 10-bit ProRes HDRoccupies 6GB, based on Apple estimates. Therefore, about 20 minutes of video recorded in this format would be enough to occupy the 128 GB of total capacity that the iPhone has.
The reason, therefore, is none other than sanity. Recording multiple video clips in ProRes using a 128GB iPhone would be next to impossible.
¿ Why doesn't iPhone 13 or iPhone 12 have ProRAW?
In this case, the reasoning is similar to ProRes. The only technical reason that could explain this situation is the RAM memory. Both the iPhone 12 and 13 have 4 GB of RAM, while the respective Pro versions have 6 GB.
If you want to shoot RAW images with these models –although not in ProRAW–, you can use applications like Halide, which also offers much more control over parameters such as ISO, exposure, etc. .
