Features

Seven log profiles, ProRes, and the tools to expose them

Which log profiles and codecs can I record in?

Log Cam: RAW 4K Video Camera records in seven log profiles, from Apple’s own two curves to the ones Sony, ARRI, Panasonic and Fujifilm designed. Each curve is a different decision about how to store highlight and shadow detail. Your choice of curve decides which conversion the clip needs later. You can record any profile to ProRes or to 10-bit HEVC, at a bitrate from 30 to 500 Mbps.

If none of that means anything yet, start with Apple Log. The other six profiles are there for when you need them. A log curve is a manufacturer’s decision about how to spend a limited range of values. The conversion that turns the curve back into a normal picture is built for that decision. So shoot the curve your workflow expects, and the conversion you apply later is the correct one.

That is what makes a list this long practical rather than decorative. Your other camera can record S-Log3 or V-Log. An iPhone on the same curve goes into the same timeline and uses the same conversion. The phone does not become the other camera. But the phone clips are no longer the one thing in the edit you handle differently.

Codec choice is the other half of that decision, and it is a straight trade. ProRes keeps the most detail and makes the largest files, and its three levels differ in data rate. HEVC at 10 bits is much smaller and stays good until you grade it hard. The bitrate preset decides how much data either codec is allowed, so you set that trade yourself.

One point about the log profiles needs a plain answer, because it is the next question. Apple offers its own Log capture only on its more recent Pro models. This app does not use it. It has the curve math for each profile and applies it in its own GPU pipeline as it records. It does not ask the system for a log color space. So the seven log profiles above do not depend on Apple Log support for your phone.

The app needs iOS 17.6 or later. How far a given phone goes at a given resolution and frame rate is a separate question. That question is about the phone, not about which log profile you picked.

Log is difficult to expose by eye, which is why the app has monitoring tools. The viewfinder shows you contrast, not exposure values, so your eye alone is not enough. A linear histogram shows where the data sits. Zebras mark what is about to clip, at an IRE threshold you pick. False color replaces the picture with a map of exposure values. It is the fastest way to see skin tones land where you want them.

LUT preview does the opposite job. Import your own .cube LUT, switch the viewfinder to Look, and the screen shows a graded picture while you shoot. So a flat picture is not the only thing you ever see.

You then pick where that LUT goes. Monitoring keeps the plain log signal in the recording and shows the LUT on screen only. Baked into recording writes the LUT into the clip, and that cannot be undone. Pick monitoring when you want a clip to grade, and baked when you want a finished picture from the phone. The choice appears once you import a LUT, so a phone with no LUT in the app records the plain log signal.

The app also has anamorphic desqueeze at 1.33x, 1.5x and 1.55x, for an anamorphic adapter. Open gate records the full height of the sensor. Gyro logging writes a Gyroflow GCSV file for each clip. You stabilize the clip in Gyroflow afterwards.

• Codecs: ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT, and 10-bit HEVC in 4:4:4 or 4:2:0.
• Bitrate presets: 30 to 500 Mbps.
• Resolution: 4K, 3840 by 2160.
• Frame rates: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30.
• Open gate: the full height of the sensor.
• Anamorphic desqueeze: 1.33x, 1.5x and 1.55x.
• Gyro logging: a Gyroflow GCSV file for each clip.