iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

This article is intended for iPhone 4S and 5 users who want to shoot video at 60fps (double the framerate) using iOS 7 as well as programmers wanting to support the new 60fps mode in their apps. No iPad or iPhone 4 users should read further since, to my knowledge, their hardware doesn't support 60fps.


Executive Summary

iOS 7 will support 60fps video recording at 720p (as opposed to iOS 6). While it does have image quality problems on current, compatible iPhones (4S and 5), at least it works.

This article is highly recommended for programmers and people interested in shooting video.

As of iOS 7 beta 2, the built-in Camera application can't make use of the extra pixels of the sensor when zooming. Only custom-written, third-party apps currently can do that. Hopefully Apple fixes Camera in the final version of iOS 7; before that, should you want to use zooming while shooting video, avoid using the Camera app and make sure you write or install an iOS 7-specific video recorder application for best results.

Many of my readers have asked for a complete elaboration on the brand new zooming features of iOS 7, both in the stock Camera application and the programmatic API support (AVCaptureDevice.videoZoomFactor and the related, highly useful properties AVCaptureDevice.activeFormat.videoZoomFactorUpscaleThreshold and AVCaptureDevice.activeFormat.videoMaxZoomFactor).