ProRes Log Video on iPhone: What Is It and Why You Should Use It
The iPhone 16 Pro packs an incredible camera setup for both still images and for video production -- including its fun 4K slow-motion mode. But to help it capture pro-standard video footage, it also supports shooting in a Log color profile with Apple ProRes encoding, just like the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max did before it. That might sound like a baffling string of jargon (because it is), so in case you're not a professional video producer, what it all really boils down to is that it allows you to shoot professional-looking cinematic video footage using just your iPhone.
But what do the terms Log and ProRes actually mean? How are they better than your phone's regular video? And, crucially, should you actually use them when recording your own videos? Here's everything you should know for getting the best video quality in an iPhone.
Read more: The iPhone 16 Pro's High-Res Slow-Motion Video Is the Best Apple Feature in Years
ProRes is a video codec created by Apple in 2007 that has been widely adopted by video and cinema professionals. Typically found on high-end video cameras costing many thousands of dollars, ProRes files capture more data when shooting, resulting in better quality footage than you'd typically get from a phone or even some dedicated cameras.
Log (short for "logarithmic") is a color profile found on some professional video cameras and which is now also available on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (along with an increasing number of Android phones, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra). Log footage preserves more image information in the highlights and shadows, allowing for greater flexibility when it comes to editing colors and contrast in post production.
On your iPhone 16 Pro or 15 Pro, go into Settings, then scroll down and tap Camera. Then tap Formats, and within this sub-menu you'll see a section for Video Capture. Toggle Apple ProRes to on and below will be the options for ProRes Encoding. Tapping on it will allow you to switch between HDR, SDR or Log.
Bear in mind that while you can toggle ProRes on or off directly in the Camera app, you have to go back to the Settings app if you want to switch from Log to HDR or vice versa. You can shoot 4K footage at 30 frames per second on the phone, but if you want to shoot at 60 frames per second, you'll need to connect an external SSD drive via USB-C and record directly to that. While you can shoot ProRes footage without Log, you can only shoot Log with ProRes.
Log files straight out of the camera look flat and have low contrast and low saturation. The files are designed to be edited in programs like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, where colorists will bring back contrast and color tone according to the look they're trying to achieve, a process called color grading.
Read more: Best iPhone Camera Accessories for Photos and Videos
The low-contrast look of ungraded footage gives colorists the best starting point to tweak the video image however they want. Log footage always needs to be edited and graded before being used.
While Apple has yet to implement specific color editing tools for Log footage on the iPhone (which it should), you can get some of the way there using the exposure tools in the 'Edit' options in the Photos app. However, you'll get your best results by transferring the files to your iPad, Mac or Windows PC and editing in dedicated video production apps.
My favorite is DaVinci Resolve by BlackMagic, which is an industry-standard piece of software used in professional productions and Hollywood films. It's known for its flexibility with editing color, and I loved using it to see what looks I can achieve from video footage from both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and BlackMagic's own Pocket Cinema Camera.
Resolve is available on Macs and PCs but there's also an excellent iPad app version. Best of all, the software is free to use on all platforms, with only some advanced features requiring the paid-for Studio version. But anyone wanting to spice up their footage will find the free version more than capable.
BlackMagic has also launched a color-editing panel designed to be used with the iPad. The Micro Color Panel gives fine grain control over color editing in Resolve and allows you to quickly edit your footage using the same pro hardware used on Hollywood movies.
Apple introduced the ability to shoot with the ProRes codec on the iPhone 12 Pro, but right now only the most recent iPhone 16 Pro, Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max can also shoot in Log.
No, Apple has opened up this feature to third-party apps. My recommendation is the BlackMagic Camera app, which gives the same level of control over settings as you'd find on the company's professional cameras. It's a superb tool for getting the best-looking video out of your phone and, like DaVinci Resolve, it's free.
ProRes footage in Log profile is very specialized. It requires additional time in post production to color grade the footage, and the file sizes are many times larger than regular video files. If you just want to shoot footage of your family gathering or your mates at the beach to upload to Instagram or YouTube, then you don't need to worry about ProRes or Log.
However if you want to use your iPhone 16 Pro as a professional video production tool and you have the time and resources to color grade and edit your footage, then you should absolutely give it a go. The flexibility of recording allows you to get video out of your iPhone that would give dedicated cinema cameras a run for their money, and it makes the iPhone 16 Pro an exceptionally powerful camera for content creators looking to add some professional flair to their videos.
Get $620 off an iPhone 15 Pro with a trade-in
See at Apple
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
24 minutes ago
- Forbes
New iPhone Warning: Another Phone Will No Longer Receive Support
Friday the 13th has a ring of bad luck to it, and this month, it has brought a change of status to the iPhone XS. As of June 13, that phone is added to its vintage product list. Here's why, and what it means. Apple iPhone XS T3 Magazine/Future via Getty Images Apple adds products to its vintage (and later its obsolete) lists on a strict schedule, shown on a support page. 'Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago,' the company says. The iPhone XS went on sale in September 2018 and though it was discontinued a year later, it was still on sale through select resellers. So, that means it's only just passed the five-year point to reach vintage status, something spotted by Joe Rossignol at MacRumors. This doesn't mean the phone is no longer usable, nor that Apple won't support it — though it's now on a countdown to obsolete, which will mean it's not supported at all. More on that below. For now, you can still get the phone repaired either by an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, although this is subject to the continuing availability of parts, and there's no guarantee how long that will be. As for software support, the iPhone XS runs the current software, iOS 18, but it will not be compatible with this fall's update, which is called iOS 26 (as part of a wholesale renaming policy by Apple for the operating systems for all its devices) though the latest iPhone 16 series will be supported. This also doesn't mean it won't receive software updates. Apple routinely releases new updates to the previous OS when the next one launches, primarily for those users who aren't ready to jump on board with the next version. Additionally, it will usually continue with software updates containing security fixes, for instance, for some months after the new OS has taken root. Things change when the iPhone reaches obsolete status, which for the iPhone XS will be in two years' time. 'Products are considered obsolete when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 7 years ago… Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products,' the company says. For now, though, if you're happy with the iPhone XS, there's no urgent need to switch.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
WWDC 2025: Apple Is Years Behind Google and Microsoft in AI. How Much Does It Matter?
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. At Apple's 2024 , I sat in the baking sun outside the company's glass spaceship-like headquarters in Cupertino while Craig Federighi described the marvelous capabilities of Apple Intelligence. He promised that your iPhone would be able to synthesize your interactions with public data to deliver practical answers to questions like 'What time should I leave to pick up Julian?' Your phone would know that Julian is your nephew who is visiting you in Albuquerque on the 6:10 Delta flight, and how the current traffic affects when you should depart for the airport. These examples excited the crowd. But this and other functionality still isn't available, and there's no sign of Apple doing anything about it. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft continue to add advanced AI features to their respective platforms. We're fast approaching a breaking point here. If Cupertino doesn't recenter its attention on Apple Intelligence very soon (WWDC seems like an obvious time to start) and make tangible progress, I don't think it will ever be a true competitor in the AI space. Consequentially, I don't think consumers will continue to pay for technology with simply average AI. Siri is a major entry point for AI features on Apple devices, so last year, I asked with high expectations: Now, we know that the answer is 'not this year.' Instead, we got a few updates, such as the ability to type to Siri, better voice recognition, continued context, a full-screen glowing effect, and integrated Apple product knowledge. For me, the best among these is the continued conversational context, which means Siri remembers all the previous things you say or type during an interaction. Other capabilities also arrived across Apple's OSes, but they too are underwhelming. They allow you to generate emoji and get writing assistance, for example. These updates are a far cry from the vision Apple outlined at WWDC. I applaud the development of the Private Cloud Compute feature since a secure environment for AI is vital, but Apple Intelligence still needs to have compelling features for people to care. On that note, the company has since hinted that the truly smarter AI-powered Siri won't be arriving . That's two years after and a year after Gemini showed up on Google's Android. Two years is a long time to be behind on AI, and potentially an insurmountable hurdle. Copilot and Gemini are far more advanced at this point. The AI assistants can see what's on your screen and provide information, analysis, and actions based on it. They can also organize, summarize, and draft responses for your emails, generate photorealistic images (Apple's Image Playground can create only cartoon-like images), and translate any playing audio or video on your device in real-time. Though Apple promises this kind of intelligence, it's not nearly on the same level. According to reports, Apple will apparently focus on its Solarium interface update at WWDC instead of announcing development efforts for Apple Intelligence. Its OSes already benefit from decades of refinements and deep familiarity among users, so I'm not really sure what the point is in light of its AI shortcomings. For all its AI woes, Apple is still a leader among phone vendors. Yes, iPhone sales over the last quarter, and market share edged down from 19% to 18% among all phone vendors. But Samsung's market share also slipped, from 20% to 19%. Both of these declines could just be due to market saturation. People might just be unwilling to spend on a new phone because of . Restrictions on iPhone sales in China, where overall phone sales actually grew, are also likely affecting Apple's numbers. On the desktop OS side, the of macOS computers continues to rise at the expense of Windows PC manufacturers, though it's still far behind Dell, Lenovo, and HP. Whether we just aren't far enough into the era of AI for sales figures to reflect Apple's AI failings remains unclear, but the industry is shifting fast. And Apple is actually in a good position hardware-wise; all its latest devices have chips capable of local AI processing. Not all PCs have , and not all Android phones have the power to run on-device AI features. That could be Apple's saving grace if only the software features catch up. AI has existed a lot longer than you might realize. Machine learning and neural networks have been around for decades, dating all the way back to the '50s and gathering steam in the '90s, aughts, and teens. Progress in AI takes time, too—a lot of time. It took until just a couple of years ago to make the jump to arrive at the kind of Generative Pre-trained Transformer technology that made ChatGPT seem so revolutionary. Apple is a big company with massive resources and top tech minds. It could absolutely become competitive, but it needs to commit to this goal with a sense of urgency to have a chance to catch Google and Microsoft and save its sales numbers in the long run. Otherwise, it might not ever be able to meet consumers' expectations and excitement, and thus risks missing out on the defining technology of this decade.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
I Thought Apple Was Falling Behind in AI—WWDC Changed My Mind
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. I recently wrote about how Apple's lagging AI technology might impact its device and OS market share. But as I sat at the company's headquarters in Cupertino and listened to the keynote, I came to the opposite conclusion. Apple falling behind Google and Microsoft might not matter much after all. In fact, I question whether the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS will even meaningfully trail competitors once they fully launch in the fall. Yes, people are for not delivering on its AI promises with new iPhones. I think this is a spurious, very first-world problem. And the tech giant is at least trying to be more honest now: At WWDC, Apple's senior vice president for software engineering, Craig Federighi, admitted that Apple Intelligence was not where the company wanted it to be yet. That's fine. Apple shouldn't release anything that doesn't have the polish and quality that its users expect. Importantly, the development, hardware, and privacy components are all still in place for Apple Intelligence to succeed. The company can still build a seamless AI experience that people genuinely want to use. Apple's more measured development of AI coincides with a societal change in attitude about the technology. Pundits on Bluesky talk about how no one really needs to use AI, and that it's just another money grab by tech bros and big tech. Instagram memes bemoan its excessive energy demands and water use. That's a big shift from the initial widespread euphoria over ChatGPT, and these are all legitimate issues.I primarily see AI as a beneficial tool for professional work (such as coding and medical research) and for handling otherwise tedious tasks. Apple seems to be taking a wholly pragmatic approach, with features such as screenshot information extraction and spam call detection. If Apple continues to make AI something people find helpful in daily interactions with their devices, then I think it can combat the shifting, more cynical views on the technology. Apple is also prioritizing on-device AI features, thus reducing the need for power-hungry data centers. AI models across the industry continue to get smaller and less resource-heavy, too, as evidenced by , Google's Gemma, and Microsoft's . If Apple keeps applying development resources to local processing and optimization, it could win over people who otherwise consider the energy usage of AI models egregious. An efficient set of AI tools that arrives eventually is better than a rushed one that sucks up energy. At its , Google announced features for Gemini that resemble those Apple did for Apple Intelligence in 2024. It said, for example, that Gemini could use information in your calendar, contacts, and email to take various actions, in combination with public data about traffic conditions and the like. Copilot+ PCs can perform actions for you via the Click to Do feature, but not to the personalized extent as with Google's Gemini. Both Copilot and Gemini can generate images and suggest writing improvements using local processing, but Apple has already delivered on those parts of its AI promises, so it's not really behind there. These are the kinds of features with which Apple can bring around naysayers. Apple currently lets you tap into ChatGPT for more advanced generative capabilities, and at WWDC, the company announced that you would soon be able to use the chatbot for advanced image generation within Image Playground. This means you will be able to get more compelling visuals than the cartoon-like art it heretofore offered; think oil-painting-style or photorealistic images. However, you will need to connect to ChatGPT's servers to do so. As for Apple losing market share, dramatic changes are usually pretty slow. MacOS still takes a consistent and significant percentage away from Windows in the desktop OS market, and iOS still beats Android. Could things start to change if people don't buy into Apple's AI strategy? Certainly. Are Apple users likely to jump ship to Android and Windows over AI features? Maybe, but probably not. Apple can't be stagnant forever, but practical and socially positive AI features can help it stay ahead of any negative trends that emerge. What's the upshot of all this? It's just fine for Apple not to debut drastic AI features for a while (or maybe ever). If the best form of AI ends up being one that works seamlessly in the background, then Apple should just continue to introduce features only where it sees an actual need for them. In the meantime, users can acclimate to the new interface that extends across platforms. Although I didn't find the OSes in particular need of a design update, I can appreciate the improvements. It's what people interact with all day, after all—at least until AI takes things over for good.
