Earlier this week, Apple released iOS 17.2, which enabled spatial video capture on iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max for the very first time. Using both the main and ultrawide cameras, users can capture those special moments in three dimensions when viewing them on Vision Pro, which will launch early next year.
Now, Apple has invited the press to try out the all-new spatial video on Vision Pro, and the results were stunning based on first impressions.
Scott Stein from CNET wrote:
The most compelling experiences for me were playing clips where I held the iPhone near my own line of sight with family. A clip where I’m sitting around a table at Thanksgiving with my mom at my sister’s house, telling her I’m recording in 3D for a future project. She sort of raised her eyebrows a bit, and the way she looked at me in 3D — at a scale close to normal size, with her seeming to make eye contact — made me feel like I was almost there. It made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.
With less motion, the frame rate limit doesn’t stand out as much. The more intimate framing is better suited for the contained nature of the spatial video playback frame, as well.
David Imel (@DurvidImel on X) posted:
I tried the Vision Pro again yesterday with my own spacial videos and Panoramas. I used a bunch of my film photography panos and I just have to say, they have never felt so immersive.
In the photos with mountains it's as close as I've felt to when I was standing there. https://t.co/YCEm4u4mVT pic.twitter.com/RTM4pvzGkK
— David ImeI (@DurvidImel) December 14, 2023
iOS 17.2 is now available to all iPhone users, and spatial video recording is exclusive for both the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro Max models. As noted in the newsroom article, Spatial videos are captured in 1080p at 30 frames per second in standard dynamic range, and those files are compressed using HEVC. One minute of spatial video is approximately 130MB. You may watch spatial videos on your iPhone and other devices; however, Vision Pro is required to watch Spatial Videos in three-dimensional, and Vision Pro will launch sometime in early 2024.
