With the release of the new iPhone 15 Pro Max and Sony FX3, the debate over which device has the best camera capabilities has been reignited. Both devices boast impressive features and photography capabilities, but the question remains: is Apple LOG good enough to compete with the Sony FX3? In this blog, we will compare the camera capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Sony FX3 to determine which device is better for photography and videography. Additionally, we will discuss how to match the camera settings of both devices to achieve the best results in various shooting scenarios. Whether you’re a professional photographer or a casual shooter, this blog will provide valuable insights to help you make an informed decision.

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Is Apple LOG Good Enough? iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Sony FX3 & How To Match

Is Apple LOG Good Enough?: iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Sony FX3 & How To Match

The iPhone 15 pro and pro Max shocked a lot of filmmakers and video creators by adding the ability to shoot prores footage in something called Apple log but the actual surprising part of it wasn’t the ability to do it it was that it was actually good if you haven’t seen It already I did a video talking all about shooting an appal log showed some examples and talked about grading it but naturally The Next Step was for me to put it up against my $44,000 Sony fx3 that everyone is also talking about right now because they just shot a Hollywood sci-fi Blockbuster called The Creator on it now let’s be real for a second these cameras are not going to look the same they are not used in the same ways and they are just totally different kinds of tools but that being said for my own personal workflow it Would definitely be handy to be able to cut in some iPhone footage from time to time and feel confident that I could match it closely enough to my fx3 that most people people wouldn’t be able to tell and with that it’s time for your pop quiz I’m going to play some side by Side clips from the iPhone 15 Pro Max that I shot in Apple log and the Sony fx3 that I shot in SL log 3 and you head down to the comments and let me know which one you think is on the left and which one you think is on the right and When we come back we’ll talk about what we saw and most importantly we’ll take a look at how I would approach matching the footage from these two cameras so secure the cup and watch closely Okay I’m going to assume that you already left your best guess down in the comments section and of course you remember to hit the like button on your way down there well if you’ve got a Keen Eye you will have guessed that the left side was the Sony fx3 and the right side Was the iPhone 15 Pro Max and there are a couple of giveaways if you know what you’re looking for first of all the fx3 has a much shallower depth of field so we get some more of that blurry background part of this is due to the Much larger sensor on the fx3 which will definitely just create a different look naturally but the other part is because I wanted to shoot both cameras the way that I would actually use them so when I’m shooting with the fx3 I use filters and sometimes I rig it out and use other Accessories however when I shoot with my iPhone usually it’s something much more in the- moment I want to be less conspicuous so I wanted to use it without a big rig or filters or anything like that kind of Commando if you will and again the goal here is to see if I Can match the two cameras in a practical way that being said the rig that I did use to shoot this was pretty funny I had the iPhone with my Peak design case that I’ve been using lately and their mounting system attached to a friction arm that I then had screwed into one of The top quarter 20 threads on the fx3 but my favorite part by far was the dangling SSD that I had off the side of the phone because I just didn’t have a solution for that at the time I do have something now I’ll show you at the end Of the video so that’s what I would attribute the difference in depth of field to but the other thing that I noticed is that the iPhone doesn’t hold up nearly as well in low light situations again the bigger sensor on the fx3 is the obvious reason for this There’s just very little chance that the dynamic range and the clarity in that dynamic range on the iPhone will be able to keep up when the sensor is so tiny if we take a look at these two shots in their original log State you’ll see that they’re actually exposed fairly similar But when we correct them to look similar for the output the fx3 just looks better in my opinion it retains more information in the dark areas it has less or at the very least more pleasing noise when there is noise there so let’s say we were convinced that we could Shoot most of our project on the fx3 but then from time to time we need to cut in a shot from the iPhone what is it going to take from a gring standpoint to get those clips matching let’s take a look okay so we’re going to take a look at This shot here of me standing at this little neighborhood Library both of these shots are obviously identical so we can do some things that we might not be able to do in a normal situation but the procedures that we’re going through will probably be very similar so first Things first we have to transform our footage from the log version into a usable and viewable re 709 version one of the ways that I like to do it is using a color space transform and then making another node and using another color space transform so so we’ve got Our input and we’ve got our output so on the input I’m currently selected on the fx3 footage on the left so I’m going to go Sony S gamut 3 Sony S log 3 Da Vinci wide gamut and da Vinci intermediate so that means that in this middle section I’m working in a common space as well as I’m also getting a little bit more range of colors then on the output I’m going to go from Da Vinci wide gamut Da Vinci intermediate to Rex 709 Rex 709a and I’m just going to go back into This input and just change it from tone mapping Da Vinci to none so we can see now on the left side we’ve gone from our s log 3 footage to our re 709 footage we’re going to do the same thing on the Apple side in fact I’m just going to Copy and paste that so I’m hitting middle click or you can rightclick and hit apply grade but if I hit middle click on the one that’s already done it’ll apply that and then all we have to do is go in and change our input color Space to rec 2020 Apple log now at this point what we could do to try and match these is we could add a node in between the input and output on the Apple log version and then start to try and match our waveform so looking at our waveforms Down in the bottom here actually looking pretty similar already which is nice but the colors aren’t quite doing it for me so I’m going to use this middle node I’m going to grab my offset I’m going to push a little bit of green into it see if I can get things just visually Looking similar so the problem that I’m running into here is that once I’ve kind of fixed white balance issues then it seems to be shifting other bits and pieces off as well so I’m going to try something a little bit different here I’m going to reset that and then instead Of having that node after our color space transform I’m actually going to add a node before our color space transform with shift s and then I’m going to use a tool called cine match and this is literally built for matching cameras so they’ve gone in and looked at sensors from Individual cameras to Figure out the differences and make sure that you can match them so we’re going to grab our cine match and then we’re just going to select a camera so I’m going to select the fx3 and then we’re going to select our output camera and I’m going to select the iPhone 15 and then this will start going to match our cameras up you can see that the colors and the contrast are already feeling a lot more similar than they were before so at this point it’s just a matter of dialing in that last little bit of darkness and you can see that we’re getting our match up pretty nicely we could do everything from here or we could take a few more things into consideration like spacial differences between the two cameras should we add some grain to the iPhone should we cut in a little sharper on the fx3 the answer to these questions vary depending on your project and your preference but what I wanted to show in this video was that the Apple log of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is good enough to make them interchangeable in a lot of situations and that’s really exciting especially considering how many of us have our smart phones with us all the time so be sure to drop any of your results or thoughts using the comment section below Thanks for reading and watching!

Is Apple LOG Good Enough?

Apple LOG is a good option for capturing high-quality videos with your iPhone. It provides a wide dynamic range and professional color grading capabilities for post-production editing.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Sony FX3

The iPhone 15 Pro Max offers impressive video capabilities, including Apple LOG, which can rival the performance of a dedicated professional camera like the Sony FX3. However, the Sony FX3 may still have the edge in terms of overall image quality and additional features.

How To Match

To match the video quality of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Sony FX3, you may need to adjust the settings and color grading during post-production. It’s important to understand the capabilities of both devices and how to optimize them for your desired output.

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