The Pros and Cons of Phone Video

I am a big proponent of using the cell phone to make video. However, I am quite aware of there are downsides to the phone as well. In this post I will share the positives and negatives of using a phone for video. 

Pros 

Ease of Use. – Unlike many video cameras, it’s super easy to use a phone to shoot video. All you basically do is push a button and aim the phone. It couldn’t be simpler. 

Can have great quality up to4K – Gone are the days of low quality video. Most phones shoot at a minimum of 1080, but many new ones shoot 4K. This allows you to zoom in more on video in edition. 

Camera you have– No matter where you go you always have your phone. You can shoot anything without having to break out an expensive camera. 

Transfer Files– To transfer files is super easy as well. You don’t need a card to take out and put in a computer. You can upload to a cloud service or to your computer. 

Cons 

Auto focus– Auto focus can focus on the wrong thing at the wrong time. If it’s a long video, you can have long periods of video that is unusable. 

White balance– the auto white balance can change the look of your video. It can go super dark or WAY bright and over exposed. 

Zoom digital– Most iPhones Plus can zoom up to 2x. Digital zoom is not recommended. It will make your footage look grainy and bad.

Storage– Storage is limited to your phone memory size. If you used up all your storage you can’t add more video. In cameras you can add a new card. Some Android phones don’t have this problem because you can save to and SD card. 

You can fix all these things with manual apps. I will go into each app I use in depth later. But note, there are downsides to using your phone. 

Tim is the founder of Element33. A social media agency specializing in education, management and strategy for small businesses. He comes from a traditional marketing agency but has embraced all things digital. He considers himself a marketing nerd and believes that all marketing is tied together. This means no matter what silo you are in, social, email, seach, etc, changes in one will affect the other!

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