Cinema P3 Pro Camera

CinemaP3 has been the most consistently reliable, functional, and feature rich video capture app for me. I have used many video apps starting with Filmic Pro and lastly Blackmagic Camera (BMC). I liked the BMC app’s interface/layout and many supporting online tutorials; however, it kept letting me down with poor exposures. Mostly due to inconsistent zebra and scope output and exposure shift after shutter release. As a left handed person, the only improvement I would like to see is the ability to rotate the iPhone 180 degrees and maintain the same layout. This is a superior product, and I think others should know and not get too caught up in the popularity of some lesser apps.

TL;DR: Buy this app. Now. Long-time user of Filmic Pro Legacy and now also Filmic Pro. I didn't think anyone could match the features of FP (and I'm paying enough for them!) I tried the usual suspects here on the App Store (BeastCam, Moment, Protake, etc.) and always came away disappointed. Until now. I have to thank YouTube-er "iPhoneographers" (Blake Calhoun). I was looking for a less-expensive app to replace Filmic Pro and a search turned up his find-an-alternative video. A user in the comment section asked him to review Cinema P3, which he did. I tried CP3 and immediately knew I'd found a real gem. I signed up for the 7-day trial, but I didn't need more than 2 to decide to pay for the upgraded "pro" version of the app. The free version of the app is very full-featured, but the developer (Tom Blackburn) deserves the very modest price he charges for the pro version as a reward for his creativity, quality and accessibility. Even if you never plan on using the Pro features, please support this guy and buy the app. Tom is incredibly responsive to support and feature requests, which only adds to the genuine value of this app. Others have noted the features they like the best, so rather than re-list them here, I'll leave my review as a journal of my journey to get here. If you've been searching a while for a professional video recording app that feels right the moment you start using it and that won't make a dent in your budget, welcome home.

This app ticks all the major boxes for me. Frame Rate, Shutter/ISO and Colour Control, with False Colour to control my exposure. The UI is straightforward and there’s just so many small things that it helps out with, that you can have scoped overlays automatically turn just when adjusting certain settings (eg. False colour on exposure controls) or how it records the zoom angle in your video metadata so when you’re matching to 3D footage it’s much easier. I’ve used many of its competitors, including Filmic which was my go-to, even with some woeful UI issues, until it screwed up my entire phone. I lost so much time and shots because of Filmic. Yet CinemaP3 just works, you can rely on it. Also the developer is constantly making this better daily, I’m eager to see where this app goes.