Cinematic Video, Warp, and Star Recognition

Last year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max pulled out ahead of its smaller counterpart by offering some significant camera improvements, and it looks like this could be part of a new trend.

We’ve already heard that the iPhone 13 Pro Max will still have the best camera in the lineup, and Weinbach’s sources confirm this is true. Although he doesn’t offer any specifics, Weinbach does note that all the cameras will get sensors that can receive 15 percent more light, while for the Ultra-Wide camera that will jump to 40 percent. This echoes a report that Ming-Chi Kuo shared last fall, which revealed that Apple was planning to bring a six-element lens and an f/1.8 aperture to the Ultra Wide camera — a massive improvement over the current five-element, f/2.4 lens.

Additional camera improvements are expected to come in software and computational photography features powered by Apple’s new A15 chip. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman already hinted at a new “Cinematic Video” that will allow Portrait Mode effects to function during video recording, but there may be another cool feature coming to the new video mode.

According to Weinbach, the new Cinematic Video mode will use a new electronic image stabilization feature that Apple is calling “Warp.” This will leverage Portrait Mode’s ability to recognize the subject of a video and attempt to keep the person in the centre of the frame at all times.

It’s also said to smooth out the optical image stabilization features that are already found on the iPhone 12, and will likely allow for additional effects to be used to take advantage of the computational depth mapping information.

Along similar lines, Weinbach notes that Night Mode is going to gain the ability to recognize stars, adjust for shadows, and provide a more accurate colour balance.