What is the best smartphone for filmmaking?
Going back a few years, aspiring photographs had to spend thousands of dollars to get a camera, lens and related equipment to record quality videos. Many creative dreams faded away in the wake of high equipment cost. But those days are over, and now creators have power in the palm of their hands.
Since the first camera phone's release in May 1999 in Japan, camera technology has made progressive leaps. The first camera phone called Kyocera Visual Phone Vp-210 had one camera on the back. Current phones have 5 to 7 lenses or sensors with bleeding edge software technology to deliver amazing videos and photos.
So, if you are a creator looking for the best camera phone in 2021 for filmmaking, then you have landed at the best place. We will compare and rank the best cameras in smartphones that can shoot excellent quality videos.
The best smartphones for filmmaking in 2021 are iPhone 12 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Plus and Huawei Mate 40 Pro. These phones allow creators and videographers to record amazing videos on their smartphones. S20+ trails just behind these beasts, iPhone 11 Pro Max also offer excellent filmmaking capability. iPhone filmmaking is quite astonishing but quite expensive as well
It's quite challenging to know which smartphone to buy, especially for filmmaking, as there is a heap of smartphones to choose. So, to save you from the pain of identifying and reviewing numerous smartphones, we have narrowed down your search in different price categories.
iPhone for Filmmaking
Apple has always been consistent in providing superb quality cameras in their iPhones. The recent iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max have a magnificent set of cameras offering great quality cameras for videography and photography. iPhone 12 Pro is one of the top smartphones with the highest-end camera module. The camera module of iPhone 12 has three cameras augmented with and exceptional A14 Bionic processing chip with 16 core neural engine.
The phone has 12 MP primary shooters with f 1.6 wide aperture allowing more light to deliver fantastic footage. The telephoto lens is also available, but you won't be using it as a go-to for video capturing.
The primary wide camera and the telephoto camera has optical image stabilization for you to capture fantastic footage on the go with minimum shaking and deliver smoother pro-grade footage. The sapphire crystal lens cover allows the lens to capture sharper and crisper images. The primary shooter is equipped with a portrait mode that offers depth control crafting out brilliant bokeh to increase the footage quality further. As a bonus, the content creator can capture night mode portrait with the latest LiDAR technology.
Let's sum up the video capturing ability, and on-hand options that iPhone 12 Pro has to offer, the leading 12 MP sensor can record 4k videos at 24, 30 and 60n frames per second. It can also capture HDR videos with Dobly Vision. The fantastic sound or audio zoom capability enables better audio recording capability. Optical image stabilization is there with a brilliantly bright true tone flash. The continuous autofocus features help you capture moving subject with ease and crisp focus. And yes, you can take pictures while recording.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
If you are an Android enthusiast, then no iPhone has specs to topple this beast of a device from the Samsung Galaxy house. Note 20 Ultra has the most bleeding-edge specs and hardware. When it comes to camera quality and video capturing capability Note, 20 Ultra is right there at the podium in 2020. Samsung proudly announces "Cinema-quality video recording turns every scene into a masterpiece."
Let’s break down the best features of the Note 20 ultra. The phone comes with a three-camera system. It has a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, a massive 108 MP primary camera and a 12 MP telephoto sensor. There is also a Laser Auto Focus sensor on top of these bleeding-edge shooters to help the phone swiftly adjust autofocus.
You can record 8K videos in professional quality with movie-like effects. The pro mode offers you great control over the zoom-in speed; the slow and fast zooming speed gives exceptional dramatic close-up results.
The phone can shoot 120 FPS videos capturing every detail in super-smooth video at 8k resolution. The excellent hardware and software support enables the phone to capture great slow-motion videos as well as time lapses. You can also shoot fantastic DSLR type videos with different background effects like crisp focus, colour separation etc.
Both the variant of Note 20 spit out super steady footage that gives the user the freedom to capture moving subjects. The front camera also allows you to capture pro-grade HDR footage.
Huawei Mate 40 Pro – The underrated camera champ
Huawei is suffering from the Google and US market but still producing some great looking phones capable of defeating any high-end phones with their on-paper specs and performances. Huawei has recently launched its next flagship phone called Mate 40 Pro. The phone has an exceptional camera module that delivers exceptional quality footages and images both from back camera and front camera.
The phone has a ring camera setup with three cameras setup-a 50 MP wide-angle with aperture f/1.9 and a 20 MP Ultra-wide and a 12 MP telephoto camera. Both wide and ultra-wide cameras have autofocus and contrast focus that always keep the subject focused even on the move.
According to Huawei, the phone "support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels, support 720p@3840 fps ultra-slow motion video." These numbers are nothing short of exceptional and offer tough competition in performance and camera quality to the mainstream phones like iPhone 12 Pro and Note 20 Ultra.
There are multiple shooting modes like tracking shot, slow-mo, time-lapses, monochromes, 4D predictive focus and audio controls. The laser sensor makes the phone keep the subject in focus and changes accurately focus swiftly if the subjects are moving relative to the shooter.
Conclusion
These are the most cutting edge phones of 2020 with exceptional camera quality to capture unique videos and film making. The iPhone film making is not just reduced the latest 12 Pro, but the previous iPhone also have excellent film making capabilities. Similar is the case of Galaxy S20, Galaxy S10 and recent not series phones. But if you want a top of the line, technologically best phone then iPhone 12 Pro Max, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Huawei Mate 40 Pro are a cut above everyone else.
