Unleashing Creativity: Kino Turns iPhones into Cinematic Powerhouses

Halide has long been the app of choice for iPhone users looking to take their photography beyond the limitations of the default Camera app, and now Kino offers similar pro video capture features that leverage the capabilities of iPhone 15 Pro hardware to create an experience that is both intuitive and powerful.

First Impressions: A Seamless Blend of Professional and Accessible

Kino isn’t an also-ran like a million other video apps. Instead, it is a revolution in mobile videography in the making, that’s been in incubation since last year. My first impressions of Kino v1.0, after using it for a few days, is that it is a beautifully thought-out app. Just like Halide, it sees no trade-off between the features a pro wants and the ease of use a novice needs.

• Pared-down Pro-Level Features: Kino is designed to make a suite of pro-level features easy to use. Everything from its onboarding experience to its customisable resolution and real-time audio input levels is approachable.
• Full-Blown Display Hints: A unique red line that wraps around the monitor while recording, as an example, or the instrument that counts down to the exact time of capture (in milliseconds, naturally) guarantee you are fully alert and in control.

Instant Grade: Elevating iPhone Videography

The most exciting feature of Kino v1.0 is Instant Grade, which is a complete game-changer for all your video. It makes useless video look like something that could play on the big screen. It sounds cheesy, but with our instant grade feature, we wanted to see what could be done to make video look like a movie with the click of a button – and it worked! We actually stunned our customers with Instant Grade because they didn’t think it was possible. Tricking the brain without building a giant control tower besides the screen? Yes: it’s possible to do it on your iPhone. Instant Grade is an amazing feature that uses Apple Log, which lets you record more without a lot of processing, so you don’t have to apply After Effects any more. Kino is a big upgrade for iPhone users.

• Nail-Polish Professional Presets Kino grants access to the ‘color plugs’ of the finest prolificators, instantly transforming your videos. It also enables you to import your own LUTs, the sky’s the limit.

AutoMotion: Cinematic Quality Made Easy

Another example of Kino’s brilliance at automating complexity is AutoMotion: reproducing a sense of the cinematic scale by deepening the film feeling, means automatically detecting the correct shutter angle in order to make your video look naturally blurred. This is a feature that sums up how Kino approaches functionality: pro-quality results without a need to manually tweak settings.

Kino v1.0: A Cornucopia of Pro Features

Kino is packed with features designed to empower filmmakers:

• Save Wherever You Like: Kino constantly saves images to the Photos app, as well as to external USB-C storage.
• The Works: Composition guides, focus peaking, audio levels, hardware notifications. It’s got the works.
• All the Control Are In Your Fingers: Kino’s user interface locks during recording so that you don’t accidentally ruin the shot with a sneeze.

Where to Get Kino

An ad-free, subscription-free app-store debut at the low, low price of $19.99 (also at the launch price of $9.99 for early adopters)! Kino is the best possible value. iOS 17™ and the next-generation Apple Log video capture hardware in the new iPhone 15 Pro (and in earlier iPhone models running iOS version 17 as well) are the recommended configuration, but Kino will run just fine on any iPhone version that will run iOS 17™.

Pro Insights: The Power Behind Kino

At its most basic: Kino is an app, not an app-like thing — it’s a tool, built by people with a deep understanding of the needs and frustrations of people who use it to make films for a living, and who are constantly making new things that solve problems that other people didn’t even realise they were having. The iPhone is no longer a phone that you use for making films.

Conclusion

And Kino is a landmark in the progression of the mobile videographer, placing genuinely pro features into the hands of a user base of all ages and experience. Kino is made to serve the creatives and technicians who want to bring their unique vision to life, making every moment a chance to create.