Filmic Pro－Video Camera

I was miffed, to say the least, when I discovered that the Filmic Pro app that I had previously purchased had been changed to a subscription model. As far as I could tell, I could not download or send pre-recorded videos to my camera roll (among other previously available features) unless I paid for a fairly expensive subscription. It might be worth it to professionals or content creators, but I’m a casual user for personal purposes. More than a year after this discovery (after which I had stopped using the app for obvious reasons, but luckily didn’t delete it because I didn’t want to lose my videos), I went back to read the reviews of others in the same boat. The developers responded to some of those reviews with instructions on how to download this legacy version (for those who had previously purchased the original app) and move previously recorded video files from the Filmic Pro file folder to the newly created Filmic Legacy file folder on my iPhone. There is even a tutorial video of the file transfer process. So my app (Filmic Legacy now) is completely functional again, and I have complete access/control of my videos, including downloading or sending videos to my camera roll. I knocked off one star because this information, as far as I know, was never sent to those who had previously purchased the Filmic Pro app. I was just lucky enough to discover the legacy version on my own. Hopefully, this review will help others.

The FiLMiC Pro app is absolutely amazing! Of course, it’s extensive manual controls are unrivaled in the iOS app space – but what I really love is the ability to mix and match auto w. manual control. I may, for example, ONLY want to tweak white balance in a challenging lighting situation and/or exposure…..and let the app take care of everything else on the fly. Those kinds of combinations are endless. And with the ability to create and save presets, I can quickly switch between combinations for almost any situation. One of the areas I have found the app most helpful is in low-light conditions. The iPhone camera, as amazing as it is, is still saddled with a very small sensor and lense(s) that make low-light tough. The native apple app does okay filming in bright daylight….but for me it quickly falls apart in low light (lots of noise, over-saturated colors) and there’s little I can do to tweak it. FiLMiC Pro complete solves that. My approach has been to dial up the bit rate to get the most detail and least compression artifacts, lock in a slow shutter speed as I then manually adjust ISO to the lowest acceptable exposure level, dial down saturation (as the native app exaggerates colors (to my taste) in low light including almost cartoonishly orange skin tones) and, if necessary, turn on the temporal noise reduction (which is excellent, btw). All of a sudden, low light footage that I found tough to watch becomes a pleasure to watch! Best purchase I have made for the iPhone camera!

Update: Developer has been very responsive to addressing issues with the app and I believe most if not all of my issues has been resolved. Adding 1 more star! Original Review: I think this app has probably the most comprehensive feature set of any app in its class. And the features are mostly well thought out. I like the look and feel of the interface overall. But there are a few annoying bugs with this interface where things just don't work like they are supposed to. For instance, sometimes the button to bring up the manual controls would just stop working for no apparent reason. Literally nothing happens when you push the button. And the swipe in gesture to activate the manual controls would not work either. This has happened to me more than a few times already. And I have only had this app for a couple of days. Also, I was able to swipe left and delete a video in the library. But when I tried to swipe again to delete a 2nd video, the delete option would not come up. Another one, when I try to bring up the imaging panel, it would tell me that the white balance settings are not available, or something along those lines. Can't remember the exact message. Again, has happened more than once. The only way I have found to temporary "fix" all of the above mentioned issues is to completely shut the app down and restart. Overall, I like what they done with the app. And I am hopeful that they will get all these annoying interface issues patched up soon. Developers, please spend a bit more time testing the app prior to release. I have found all these bugs in less than 5 hours total of using the app. Taking only one star away given the awesome feature set.