True Anamorphic with Open Gate on iPhone 17

Today we're talking about this. — Ryan, you have to lift your hand. Show what you're talking about. — Yep. — This — Yeah. — Yep. — We have two things today. The iPhone 17 Pro Max and this new lens for it. We look at the new iPhone every year, but this year it's a bit different. I only want to look at two main things. OpenGate and ProRes RAW. mainly because these are two massive upgrades that let us step more into a fully cinematic image with an iPhone. This is

massive and so are the file sizes, but having this in the phone takes the image to another level and gives you some extra control in post with being able to shift your color space and ISO after the fact. To use ProRes RAW on the phone, you do need an external SSD. I've been using this one, a little 1 TBTE SSD from Crucial that has worked great and I got it for 90 bucks. But then we have that second feature, which has been a bit of a buzzword lately.

Opengate recording uses the camera's full sensor area, which is typically 43. And on the iPhone 17 Pro, that's what we have here. Pretty much a 43 sensor on the front camera. When you're shooting 16:9 here, which is really 17:9, you're cropping in on that sensor. But in OpenGate, you get all the goodness. And there's three main reasons to love this. First, you get that 43 aspect ratio if you want it, which just gives you more creative options. Second, if you want to go to standard 16:9, you can still shoot open gate while framing for 16:9, giving you some room at the top or bottom for refframing or flexibility for 916 social cuts in the end. And third, it lets you do proper anamorphic, which is what we

have the lens for. This is the 155 anamorphic lens from Freewell. I have the 133 here as well, so we'll look at them both since I love them both. And these are the world's first interchangeable anamorphic lenses for smartphones having the ability to use three different flare in one, which I'll get to that in a minute. Now, Freewell did sponsor this episode, but as always, if I don't love it, we don't talk about it. To get the lens on the phone, I have this Freewell case that has threads for mounting over the 24mm and 100 mm lenses. So, you just screw it on here. Then you have this small Allen key to loosen these screws here so you can position the lens perfectly for your camera since it needs to be set correctly so that you aren't getting any warping, which you can see what that looks like here as I spin the lens on the camera. There's a level up top, but someone else had a great idea with turning on the grid on the Blackmagic camera app and lining your lens flare up to that since if it isn't perfectly leveled, your flares will be at an angle like you see here. But once I have it set, I tighten down and won't have to do it again. I'm also shooting a lot outside which means I'll either need to have an insanely fast shutter or need NDs and I don't have NDs for this lens. So, I just taped this variable ND on that I do have and it worked. So, get off my back. But the 155 squeeze is so wide that I'm seeing it on the edges. So, I'll have to punch in just a touch to get rid of that. But again, we do

have the 155 and the 133. And we could shoot in both open gate and 169 for different looks with each. First, let's look at the standard 16-9. right out of the camera, no lens on. Then when we shift to open gate, still no lens. You see it extends the top and bottom with the same horizontal field of view. And I do love this aspect ratio. It has an entirely different field than the anamorphic with 43. It's really all about the subject. It feels really intimate to me. Whereas if we throw on our 155 lens, we get a much wider shot that brings a lot more of the environment in. and of course is what we're used to with big cinematic films which I am switching between these aspect ratios inside of Blackmagic's free camera app. So with the lens on I'm selecting ProRes RAW, OpenGate and Apple Log 2. Then over here I can set my D squeeze right in camera as well. And I

love this look. It's surprisingly wide with almost a fisheye look to it. Lots of distortions on the edges and other imperfections that if you watch the show, you know I'm a huge fan of. I've never been very big on perfectly sharp and characterless lenses. I want some imperfections and life in my image and this gives me a lot of that. Another cool feature here is that you have this sliding glass that will give you different color flares. Blue, neutral, and gold. For me, I don't think I'll use the gold much, but the blue and neutral are great. I tend to lean more toward the blue since that feels like old school Hollywood to me. I guess it just depends on the situation. But jumping

back to aspect ratio with the 155 on and set to open gate, we're getting an aspect ratio of around 2:1. But if we shift over to 16:9, we're getting an ultra wide image of around 29, which immediately makes me think of westerns. And I don't see me using it very often, but it is a very cool and stylistic option to have, which is something I love about all of this. While shooting on the iPhone, you have everything from 43 all the way up to an ultra wide image like this. But again, we do have that 133 lens as well, which is giving us less stretch here. So, shooting open gate with this one gets you around 185. And when we flip over to 169, which again isn't really 169, it's 4224x 2240, which is 179. But with the 133 adapter on, we'll get right around 25. So, we're getting a nice spread of aspect ratios between the two adapters with the 155 giving us more of a distorted wide sort of look. I am loving the image overall, the style it's giving my iPhone footage. honestly makes using the iPhone a really compelling option for a lot of things now. It's got a great old school film look, sort of '9s indie film, or at times, thanks to how wide it is, it's giving me nostalgic '90s commercial vibes, too. I did live on the 24 mm lens most of the time since you can't jump to 48 mm unless you're off raw, but when I did that, the quality dropped too much for it to be worth it. I did use the 100 mm a touch as well, but the quality dropped enough there for me to stay away as well. I'm also using my recent secret

weapon for all of these shots, and that's this new plugin called Filmbox. The film aesthetic that this brings, and as easily as it brings, it is my current favorite thing. It used to be Resolve only, but recently they released a Premiere plugin as well. And I'm sure I'll do an episode where I dive more into it because I love it. But if you are looking for a new film look plugin, definitely check this one out. But

another pro to all of this is how simple it is to shoot on the iPhone. It's so small and light, easy to put anywhere and move around to find different interesting shots. I didn't go with a cage here either, just a simple magnetized rig from Freewell, and it did the job fine. And the combination of ProRes RAW, OpenGate, and the Freewell adapter is giving me far more exciting and postfriendly image than I've ever had out of the iPhone. It's all grading really nicely. And like I said, the D-tuning I'm getting from the adapter is stripping a lot of that digital ugliness

away. But there is one big downside to shooting raw and open gate, and that's no stabilization. So, with all these shots that I'm going handheld with, you'll see those annoying micro jitters. Now, of course, I can add a gimbal into the mix, but I didn't want to. I like to let things stand on their own to find their limitations. But, I did find in post that if I put the smallest amount of stabilization on these clips, it let the handheld look, but it took out those annoying micro jitters. But you do have to have that in mind as you shoot because certain big moves can cause some noticeable warping. But overall, I was able to move around just fine and still get a solid end result. But that's it.

Two adapters giving us a bunch of options when paired with the new addition of ProRes RAW and OpenGate in the iPhone. But what do you think? Do you like this look? Is it not for you? I think some people prefer a more clean look, which you can get with these adapters as well, like you see here. I just personally like to go out of my way to add what I feel are interesting elements to the image. If you want to try the lenses out for yourself, we have links below for that. And if you want them, use the coupon code film riot 10 for 10% off the first 30 days after the release of this video. But let me know what you think below. Of course, links to everything in the notes. And as always, if you dug the episode, do us a solid like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the bell so you know when we put up more videos. And until next time, don't forget to write, shoot, edit, repeat. to the street. I want to see you again, but I don't want to take but I think I want more. I'll see you later. Accord.