Do I even need a "Real" Camera?

All right. Hey, me again. Sorry for the long gap in uploads. I was sick and then I was busy, but we're here now. There's actually a couple of things I wanted to talk about today. One of which being I have a shoot coming up for a fro yo client, frozen yogurt. And one of the challenges when you're shooting any kind of frozen product is that unless you're shooting in a literal freezer, the product is going to melt. So yesterday, Dennis came by the studio to try and help me figure out how to create a fake frozen yogurt that doesn't melt on camera. Now, this leads me to the next thing I wanted to talk about, which is I am on a mission to figure out the most frictionless way to create content, whether that's these YouTube videos or Instagram reels or whatever. Now, I love cameras and for using them around the studio, they're great. But even right now, the way I'm holding this camera, it does get kind of heavy. And generally speaking, a big camera like this with a heavy zoom lens is not the most convenient for spontaneous content creation. That said, I am seriously considering getting the iPhone 17. Now, full transparency, I'm not really the kind of person who likes getting a new device just for the sake of getting a new one. But in this case, in what I've seen from the iPhone 17 and the video quality, it just looks insane, and I can't help but be tempted. So, before I go ahead and just get my hands on the iPhone 17, I thought it would be a wiser idea to actually test out the workflow and see if I enjoy creating content with my phone. So, this next portion of the video you're going to see, which was Dennis coming by yesterday, helping me out with the fake frozen yogurt. This next portion of the video was shot entirely on my iPhone 15. All right, we are here. Let's see what we got. Four of these Betty Crocker Creamy Deluxe vanilla frostings. We've got two bags of icing sugar or powdered sugar, depending on where you live. Some 50% off strawberries that aren't looking too appetizing. Hand mixer. And some food coloring if we need it. Ah, there's my beautiful baby boy. What'd you bring? Oh, we got more. Should we mix it? Uh, — I feel like Yeah, we should see if the consistency even works. — Let's start with like a little bit and mix it in and see like what that does. Should I just raw dog it? Oh, this is so weird. I recommend doing this if you've never done that. You got to try that. That's crazy. Oh, look at that natural light coming in. Yeah. — Uh, this is actually a salad bowl. — Sorry, I misread it. — And three, two, one. No. Try again. Yeah, we got a couple clamps here. Uh, this is going to keep our bowl in place. Or it might not. I don't know where I thought I was going to attach this now that I'm looking at the situation. — I don't know if we need to necessarily keep our bowl in place. Like, I think once the camera's up here, — once we're drilling, you don't think the bowl's going to go flying? — Uh-oh. That's how we do it. What happened was we tried just a single whatever this is. Whisk beater. I don't know. We tried just one of these and the problem is the frosting was just passing through the holes. It wasn't really moving the frosting cuz it's too thick. So, what we did, I clamped a piece of scrap wood that I had. I took my saw, cut off a piece, we put it through here, zip tied it. That was Dennis's idea. Guy's a genius. Now, we're getting some movement in our frosting. So, it's pretty exciting. For those wondering, this is a Miniax boom stand. I've had this thing for years and it's come in super handy. It's very heavy, but if you have the space for it, it's a little more sturdy than a sea stand. And you don't need a ton of counterweight because the position of the legs, which is nice. Put on a different lens. This knife is not long enough. Oh yeah, some of these are moldy. No wonder they're 50% off. Dennis cut up some nice little strawberry slices and we're going to do a test with those to see how we're looking. I think we actually got something good there. But anyway, that was our little experiment vlogging on the iPhone 15. I actually really enjoyed the process of using this because it's so simple and easy. And spoiler alert, I do think the added quality of the iPhone 17 is going to help a lot, which is why we've got it right here. So, the plan right now is I'm going to do a little unboxing short form reel of the iPhone 17. And there's this trend going around where people are doing voiceovers where some random altercation or argument breaks out during the voiceover. So, I'm going to involve Sarah on that and do something kind of stupid and fun. But, let's set up this top down shot and see what we can do. I want to get some good clean audio here. So, I'm going to hook this up to the FX3 and then attach a shotgun mic as well. So, this just goes up here. Just like that. So, we simply just grab a clamp like this and attach our microphone. Getting it as close as possible without it being in the frame. Plug in the XLR cable. Perfect. All right, let's do it.

All right, that's it. All right, so we got the unboxing filmed and the next step will be to go home and record a fake voice over with Sarah. And the idea is that it'll start like a normal unboxing. I'll say something along the lines of, "All right, guys, I finally got the new iPhone 17. " And then Sarah will walk in and interrupt me to start an argument. And from there, the rest of the unboxing video will have a voice over that's just Sarah and I bickering at each other, which I think will be pretty funny. Guys, I just got the new iPhone 17 and I'm so excited. — Can you please put your socks in the laundry basket? — Yeah, I will. And just in the middle of something. — Yeah. Okay. — Instead of Yeah. Okay. Maybe. I kind of like the Mhm. cuz it's very sassy. — All right. I know I'm a little late to the party, but I finally got the new iPhone 17. — Will you please put your socks in the laundry basket? I'm just in the middle of something. — Mhm. — What's that supposed to mean? — What's Mhm. — This is so fun. We should make more fake bites. So, if someone has audio turned off and they just happen to come across this reel, they'll probably just think it's a normal iPhone unboxing. But, of course, if you have audio turned on, you'll hear us arguing in the background, which I mean, I think it's pretty hilarious. Now, if you want to see that full video, I'm sure it's live by now on either my YouTube shorts or Instagram. But, in the meantime, I'm curious how many of you were able to tell that this shot you're looking at right now was actually shot on my new iPhone 17. For comparison, here's what this looks like on the iPhone 17. And this is my Sony A7S3. Back to the iPhone 17 Pro Max and back to the Sony A7S3. I don't know, for me, it's pretty undeniable that you can get this kind of quality out of a smartphone that is in your pocket and goes with you everywhere you go. I genuinely think this is going to help me create more content, and like I said, the word I'm looking for is frictionless. But anyway, feel free to let me know your thoughts down below on this footage coming off of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I think it looks really good, but I'm curious what you think. And on that note, I will see you in the next