The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro support a new video standard with Dolby Vision: this allows you to film in extra high quality and in HDR. In this tip you can read all about how to use this function.
iPhone 12 and Dolby Vision explained
The iPhone 12 (Pro) have excellent cameras for taking photos, but especially in the video field, the devices make a big step forward. That’s all about Dolby Vision.
What is Dolby Vision?
Dolby Vision is a new video standard that can display up to 60 times more colors in videos. Until now, Dolby Vision has mainly been used by professional film studios.
The four iPhone 12 devices are the first smartphones to bring this video standard to the smartphone. With this, Apple increases its lead in the quality of video recordings on a smartphone.
What is the use of Dolby Vision in practice?
But what does that mean in practice for the videos you make. First of all, the iPhone 12 switches from 8-bit to 10-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) compared to the iPhone 11. This allows the camera to register up to 700 million colors with high brightness.
This ensures videos with colors that splash off your screen, which you especially notice when you capture colorful scenes. In the meantime, the blacks remain extra deep, so that a strong contrast is created, which in turn provides extra detailed images.
This is how you switch on Dolby Vision
If you want to make videos in Dolby Vision, you still have to turn this on in the settings. This works as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Go to ‘Camera’;
- Choose ‘Record video’
- Activate ‘HDR video’
Dolby Vision on the iPhone 12 vs iPhone 12 Pro
Although all iPhone 12 models support Dolby Vision, there is a difference between the regular iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini can record a maximum of Dolby Vision in 4K at 30 frames per second. The iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max can record in 4K Dolby Vision at 60 frames per second.
- iPhone 12: Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR, 30 frames per second
- iPhone 12 mini: Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR, 30 frames per second
- iPhone 12 Pro: Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR, 60 frames per second
- iPhone 12 Pro Max: Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR, 60 frames per second
This doubling of the number of frames ensures that videos look smoother, because the image can be refreshed an additional thirty times per second.
What can you watch Dolby Vision videos on?
The disadvantage is that a device must first support Dolby Vision before you can watch a video on it in this quality. In the case of the iPhone 12, this means that the videos look best when you watch them on the iPhone itself, or send the file to an Apple TV 4K for viewing on your TV that supports 4K HDR. Other smartphones and Smart TVs will also support Dolby Vision.
This does not mean that you can no longer send videos to other devices. This is automatically converted so that the videos can be watched on any device, the quality is then no longer the maximum possible. For that you really need a device that supports Dolby Vision.