Best Smartphone Camera Apps For Video
If you’re using your smartphone to make films, you’ll probably want an app for more control over your phone’s camera. There are a number of affordable camera apps to download, here’s a few to consider:
FiLMiC Pro (iOS & Android)
Google Play Store Rating: 3.2
iTunes App Store Rating: 3.8
Pitch: “FiLMiC Pro v6 is the most advanced video camera for mobile. Ever. FiLMiC Pro has been enhanced with cutting-edge capabilities and the most responsive manual camera interface available on Android. Used in more high profile video projects than any other video app.”
Review: “The only slightly bad news is that on top of the $14.99 price for the Filmic Pro app itself, to gain access to the Log ability (labeled Cinematographer’s Toolkit) you have to pay an additional $9.99 (now $13.99). In the end, $25 is a really, really, really small price to pay for the abilities that Filmic Pro unlocks for you. And while this won’t turn your phone into an Arri Alexa or Red Helium (yet), you can raise your level of mobile cinematography quickly.”
FiLMiC Pro gives you a huge amount of control over your phone’s camera, including frame rate and aspect ratio. There are four data rate options: Filmic Extreme, with 100Mb/s for any frame size 2K or higher and 50Mb/s for 1080p or lower; Filmic Quality, which limits the data rate to 35Mb/s (your phone’s default data rate); or Economy.
The app also has functions to help when combined with certain third party extras, such as the Moondog Labs Anamorphic lens, or the Zhiyun Smooth 4 smartphone gimbal (but only for iOS, I believe).
Read more: Which Gimbals are Currently Supported by FiLMiC Pro?
The FiLMiC Pro app is definitely leading the way for video on your smartphone. I’ve shot 2 short films using this app (on Android). There are some glitches, which you would expect when you’re asking an app to do so much. For example, I have lost entire takes, which have simply gone missing or left me with 2 seconds of the take left on the phone’s drive.
FiLMiC Pro on iTunes.com or Play.Google
MAVIS (iOS)
iTunes App Store Rating: 4.7
One of the best videographer tools for iPhone (sadly not available for Android) is the MAVIS camera app. Some even prefer MAVIS over industry leader FiLMiC Pro.
The app is listed as free. However, there are various functions only available for those who purchase the extras.
Read full article: MAVIS iPhone Camera App
“MAVIS Camera is a pro video camera for the iPhone and the first app to provide professional level filming tools including focus peaking, waveform monitor, vectorscope, false colour and zebras.”
Cinema FV-5 Pro (Android)
Google Play Store Rating: 3.4
Pitch: “A professional video camera application for mobile devices, that puts professional manual controls in your fingertips. Tailored to enthusiast and professional videographers and filmmakers, with this video camera application you can capture the best footage with top-of-the-line controls for perfect post-production purposes.”
Review: “This app has strongly depreciated over the years. With all the new features of much stronger camera hardware three years later, this app has yet to show a single update in the nearly three years past. It was very good for what it was several years ago, but falls very short now.”
Works well enough, depending on your Android device. Although cheaper than FiLMiC Pro, and dedicated to Android, you have to worry about an app which was last updated in December of 2015.
ProShot (iOS, Windows & Android)
Google Play Store Rating: 3.6
iTunes App Store Rating: 4.2
Microsoft App Store: 3.6
Pitch: “Up to 4K (3840 x 2160). Manual or automatic control. Adjustable resolution, frame rate, and bitrate. Industry-standard options for 180 degree rule. Zoom and change any camera parameter, even during video recording. Real-time audio input levels. Time-lapse video, with full manual control.” (Note: features vary according to device)
Review: “For Windows Phone a good choice for a video camera app is Proshot. This app has many useful features that will give you full control over your Windows Phone’s camera for doing video. Just like Filmic Pro you will be able to get full manual control which is essential if you want to use your Windows Phone for doing professional videos.”
ProShot on iTunes.com ProShot on Play.Google
ProCam 6 (iOS)
iTunes App Store Rating: 4.3
Although marketed as a stills camera app, ProCam 6 has a range of manual controls for video including exposure, white balance, ISO, manual focus and shutter speed control. You have options for 24, 25 and 30 frames a second. You can also adjust up to 120 frames a second in 1920 x 1080. Resolution can be set, right up to Ultra HD at 3840 x 2160. Super 4K will push the iPhone right up to a 4038 x 2268 frame size and 150 megabits a second, but only with an in app purchase.
The app contains audio peak meters for external microphone. But there’s no gain control, like you get with FiLMiC Pro. There’s also inbuilt stabilisation, a hard drive space indicator and even a basic, built in video editor.
Open Camera (Android)
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
Open Camera is a FREE Open Source Camera app for Android phones and tablets. Depending on your device, the app can record video up to 4k Ultra HD.
There’s a lot of settings, including the basic essentials such as white balance. However, it doesn’t allow you to fine tune the white balance and then lock it. So, it’s either in auto mode or you have to choose one of the presets. Another missing element is manual ISO and shutter speed control. You can only adjust the exposure, as a single setting. Focus lock is pretty simple, although it does require you setting focus then opening a menu to find the focus lock button.
Open Camera seems to have a lot of fans. But for me it doesn’t meet the standards FiLMiC Pro. But if you want to save yourself FiLMiC’s $14.99 cost, then this could be the app for you.
Read our Open Camera basics article.
NEW: 4 Best Video Recording Apps for Android
Other Apps You Might Want To Consider
Guerrilla Filmmaking (iOS)
“Guerrilla Filmmaker combines the manual control of a pro camera with the quick and easy gesture enabled interface of the iPhone. The only app to offer a programmable interface for automating a timed sequence of focus, exposure, white balance and zoom changes.”
Movie Pro (iOS)
“MoviePro – the most powerful video recording & film making app with innumerable options as seen on TIME, AppAdvice, TUAW, Mashable, Bloomberg Radio, Indiewire, Slashgear, Dailynews, Boingboing, iMore, 148apps, iClarified.”
Kinomatic (iOS)
“Kinomatic is a fully featured pro-level video camera for your iPhone. The intuitive interface gives you full control over all aspect of your camera to capture amazing footage. With the included editor it becomes amazingly fast to cut together a rough cut or make sure you have all the shots you need.”
Spark (iOS)
“From the creators of Spark Camera, an award-winning iPhone app, comes Spark Pro, the most beautiful video creation tool exclusively available on iPhone. Spark Pro makes it easier than ever to capture a weekend, a vacation, or anything that makes your life light up.”
Promovie (iOS)
“ProMovie Recorder is a feature-rich yet easy to use video camera app for your iPhone and iPad. Take control of exposure, focus, frame rate and every other aspect of video recording right at your fingertip. Take full advantage of your device’s videography capability and create professional clips.”
LU Smart (iOS & Android)
“The LU-Smart mobile app offers the very latest in bonded transmission technology for smartphones, enabling any mobile journalist to cover live HD news from the field using their own mobile device.”
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