Apple releases video recording in cinema mode for everyone

[09:52 Thu,3.July 2025 by Thomas Richter]

Almost lost amidst all the news from this year&s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 was Apple&s announcement that Cinematic mode recording, previously limited to the iPhone&s native camera app, will for the first time be available to third-party camera apps.

This means that popular camera apps like Filmic Pro, Kino, or the free Blackmagic Camera App could in the future directly access the functionality of Cinematic mode using a new programming interface (API) to produce videos that look like big-screen movies. Cinematic mode was introduced with iOS 15 and is available on all iPhones from model 13 onwards. It uses the depth metadata of the integrated LiDAR sensor via Computational Imaging to create an artificial depth-of-field effect that is reminiscent of the images in cinematic films.

ios15-iphone13-pro-camera-cinematic-mode-hero_08104b

Cinematic mode in action

### What does Cinematic mode do?
The central feature of Cinematic mode is a shallow depth of field with "Rack Focus," i.e., a targeted shift in focus – as soon as a new subject enters the scene, the focus seamlessly shifts to the new main subject. This happens because the iPhone in Cinematic mode automatically identifies the main subject of the video and keeps it in focus throughout the entire recording, while the foreground and background are blurred by a software-simulated "Bokeh."

If a new main subject is detected, the iPhone automatically switches the focus point to it. Since the focus is only calculated by algorithm, the focus point of the recordings can also be manually adjusted afterwards using the stored depth data. This film look is very atypical for recordings produced by smartphone, as they usually have a large depth of field, i.e., both foreground and background are sharply depicted. Feature films use it to specifically direct the viewer&s attention to important image elements by manipulating the focus plane.

ios15-iphone13-pro-camera-adjust-depth-of-field_441f12

Cinematic mode in action

Until now, third-party apps could already play and edit films recorded in Cinematic mode, but the actual recording still took place in Apple&s standard camera app. Thanks to the new API, developers now also have the opportunity to control the focus shift and depth calculation in real time within their apps differently than the Apple Camera App or to give the user additional manual intervention options. We can therefore be curious to see how the next generation of camera apps will use the new possibilities.

Here

a description from Apple on how to record videos with Cinematic mode.

more infos at bei www.youtube.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: Apple gibt iPhone-Videoaufnahme im Kinomodus für alle frei