Shooting video on the iPhone 2G/3G
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 10:00AM | Glyn Evans 
When Apple released the iPhone 3GS last year one of the many improvements over the iPhone 3G, was the introduction of video capture. Sadly Apple did not make this feature available to the iPhone 3G or original 2G, and so for a long time if you wanted to capture video on these older models, you had only one choice, jailbreak and install Cycorder.
For those of us who did not want to jailbreak, we had no video capturing options until Apple released version 3.1 of the iPhone operating system, and relaxed the use of previously forbidden API's, and so just before Christmas 2009 we began to see video capture apps for the 2G/3G appearing in the AppStore.
Over the past couple of months I have been playing with these apps to see which ones, if any, offered the best video capturing experience. Now it is worth pointing out at this very early stage, that these apps do not capture at true video capture frame rates of 30 fps (frames per second), but instead capture at rates up to 15 fps.
At the time of writing this post, there are 7 video capture apps available for the iPhone 2G/3G in the AppStore.
Below is a quick rundown, overview and my thoughts of each of these apps, and at the end of this post I will tell you which app/apps if any I have chosen to keep on my iPhone 3G for capturing video.
Video Genius [AppStore Link] - Price FREE
Description from the AppStore: Video Genius allows you to record video on your 3g and 1st generation iPhone. Easily record and review your latest video through the simple, clear interface. Now you don’t need to upgrade to a new iPhone to have video recording capability.
Two recording modes included. Regular mode which records a short video of 40-60 seconds at the high rate of 10 frames a second and long mode which records videos but at a slower rate of 4 frames per second.
What do I think of Video Genius?
This is a simple easy to use app that is let down the poor frame rate, but it is free, so is worth getting and then waiting to see what future updates may bring.
VideoCam [AppStore Link] - Price £0.59/$0.99
Description from the AppStore: VideoCam allows you to record even smoother video and sound on your 2G /3G iPhone.
Features include Pinch / Zoom and pause functionality during playback and a thumbnail video browser.
What do I think of VideoCam?
This app is slightly better than Video Genius, however there is no way of sharing your videos after you have captured them!!
ShowTime - Video Recorder for iPhone 2G & 3G [AppStore Link] - Price £0.59/$0.99
Description from the AppStore: ShowTime allows you to record video on the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. Twice the frame rate and higher resolution than other video recorders on the App Store. 4:3 or 16:9 recording.
Two years after we pioneered video recording on the iPhone by developing the first video recorder app, ShowTime, we've brought it out of hibernation, and onto the App Store!
Recording Format:
- 320 x 240 px Portrait or 426 x 240 px Landscape
- 16-Bit Audio @ 22.05kHz
- Motion JPEG File format
Features:
- 4:3 portrait recording (320 x 340 px)
- 16:9 landscape recording (426 x 240 px)
- 5x digital zoom (touch and drag up and down to zoom in and out)
- Email videos
- WiFi transfer direct to your computer
- Share on YouTube
- Share on Twitter (via TwitVid)
- Share on Facebook
- No time limit on recording
- Optional Audio Boost plugin
No time limit on recording. Record for as long as you want, or until your phone runs out of free space.
Video files can be emailed and played on your computer in QuickTime or other video playback software supporting Motion JPEG.
What do I think of ShowTime?
This is an OK app that allows you to capture at acceptable frame rates for an app of this kind. Unlike the previous 2 apps, this app has the ability to share your videos via email, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter via TwitVid.
Below is my test video shot using ShowTime on my iPhone 3G
iVidCam (for 3G/2G with 30x Digital Zoom) [AppStore Link] - Price £0.59/$0.99
Description from the AppStore: Video recording w/30x digital super zoom for iPhone 3g/2g!
Recording Features:
- 30x digital super zoom (new in v2.1! activate in Settings.)
- Record in portrait and landscape
- Choose from 3 different resolutions: 426x320, 320x240, and 213x160
- No recording time limit
- Option to queue videos to encode later.
Archive and Share Your Videos Using:
- WiFi Transfer to Desktop
- YouTube Uploader
- Email YouTube Link (you must first upload video to YouTube in order to share video link)
- Tweet Video Link With Twitter (you must first upload to YouTube in order to share video link)
Other Features:
- Plays well on QuickTime
- Built-in landscape movie viewer
- Encodes and saves your videos as mp4 files. No internet connection necessary because all the encoding is done within the app (and not on a far away server).
What do I think of iVidCam?
Again another nice video capture app that has a nice interface and a whopping 30x digital zoom!! The app allows you to upload your videos to YouTube or transfer them to your computer via WiFi, however email and Twitter support is only done by emailing or tweeting the YouTube URL link, which I found disappointing.
Below is my test video shot using iVidCam on my iPhone 3G
iVideoCamera - Record Video on any phone [AppStore Link] - Price £0.59/$0.99
Description from the AppStore: iVideoCamera is the original, ultimate Video Camera for older 2G/3G iPhones! Featuring 320x426 resolution, 10 FPS, no save time, share to twitter, facebook, youtube, camera roll, and more!
Now you don't need a 3GS to record and share videos with your friends and family. Works with any 2G or 3G phone with 3.1 OS installed and includes:
Integrated video library lets you manage and keep track of saved videos. Every video is automatically saved!
The most sharing options out there:
- YouTube
- Twitter with yFrog
- Flickr Video
- Vimeo
- 12Seconds.tv
- Camera Roll Export for trimming/editing
WiFi video sharing for over-the-air transfer to any computer with a web browser.
FTP video transfer using your favorite FTP client.
Landscape Recording in both orientations
2 Quality Modes: High Quality gives 320x426 resolution, while Low Quality gives smaller file sizes and unlimited recording.
What do I think of iVideoCamera?
This is a great app with a clean and simple interface that currently offers the widest range of of video sharing options, but lacks the 15 fps that some of the other apps offer.
Below is my test video shot using iVideoCamera on my iPhone 3G
Qik Video Camera for any iPhone - Top Quality [AppStore Link] - Price £1.19/$1.99
Description from the AppStore: Finally, a quality Video Camera for any iPhone!
Facebook and SMS sharing, Effects, Zoom, up to 15 FPS- Brightness control, Audio boost, Landscape mode, Email sharing, and more!
Scrollable effects bar puts 9 realtime effects at your fingertips:
- Black & White
- Black & White w/Red
- Mirror
- Avatar (blue skin)
- Sepia
- Spot zoom
- Twirl mirror
- X-Ray
- Frosted glass (draw on the screen to see through the frost!)
What do I think of Qik Video Camera?
Whilst writing this post, Qik was updated with a new interface and a bunch of new features, however even before these updates it offered the best video capture experience for me on my iPhone 3G.
Whilst this app is slightly more expensive than the others in this category, the user interface is currently the best of any of these apps, and the effects just add to the possibilities, however this app is badly let down by its limited sharing capabilities, offering just email, SMS, Facebook and transfer via WiFi.
New Features:
- Effects now for 3GS too
- Share to Facebook, SMS, email
- 5 more new cool effects
- Even better video quality, especially with effects
- New UI with on-screen effects
- Better handling of large videos over email
- Improved playback of rotated videos on various video players
- Other enhancements and fixes
Below is my test video shot using Qik Video Camera on my iPhone 3G
Record Video On iPhone 2G/3G - iCamcorder with 15+FPS, Zoom and more Effects! [AppStore Link] - Price £1.19/$1.99
Description from the AppStore: Record smooth videos with high quality audio on your iPhone EDGE, 2G or 3G device! The impressively smooth recording adds a valuable feature to your iPhone, that you don't want to miss in the future.
*** iCamcorder was featured by Apple in 'New and Noteworthy' ***
*** #1 Photography App in over 11 Countries ***
Record high-quality movies (15FPS+ on the highest settings and up to 20 FPS on the lowest possible settings)- No recording limit!
- Zoom into the action with the digital zoom - 1x, 2x and 4x, change it anytime.
- Apply one of nine(!) amazing effects: Black/White filter, Old Movie Effect, Motions Trails, Inverted Colors, Bloom, Mirror, Quad Cam, Pop Art, Color Flip
- No gigantic saving or encoding time, videos are encoded during the recording process.
- Share your movies on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter.
- Send your recorded movies by Email. ****
- Download recorded movies via WiFi from the integrated web-server.
- User-interface translated into English, German, French and Italian.
Requires an iPhone 2G or 3G with iPhone OS 3.1.
Please DO NOT buy this if you have a 3GS, it has been optimized for the 2G and 3G devices.
What do I think of iCamcorder
This app just like the others in this category has a nice simple user interface and allows you to share your videos via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, email and WiFi, and just like Qik has a nice selection of video effects.
Again whilst writing this post the app had a major update, adding the following to what was already a nice app.
New Features:
- Improved: amazing performance boost, encoder has been rewritten using arm asm. More than 15 FPS with all settings turned up to the maximum.
- Improved: audio/video sync.
- Improved: delete menu.
- Improved: added social-network icons to the share menu.
- Improved: added upload progress indicator when uploading movie to social network.
- Improved: startup time.
- New Feature: 'quad-cam' effect.
- New Feature: 'mirror' effect.
- New Feature: 'pop-art' effect.
- New Feature: 'color flip' effect.
- New Feature: user interface facelift.
- New Feature: FX indicator button, visible when an effect is active. Tap it to disable it quickly.
- New Feature: added twitter sharing.
- New Feature: added movie date to thumbnails in library.
- New Feature: sharing over 3G / EDGE.
- New Feature: fixed framerate, to improve audio/video sync (experimental).
- New Feature: export to camera roll.
- New Feature: Italian translations.
- Changed: recommended settings preset, recommended is maximum now.
- Changed: full screen camera, removed status bar.
- Bug Fix: record button not changing to stop button.
Below is my test video shot using iCamcorder on my iPhone 3G
Of all the features this app offers, it is the 'Old Movie' effect that makes this app stand out from the crowd for me, as the maximum frame rate of 15 fps along with the dirt/dust speckles the 'Old Movie' effect adds, gives your videos that Standard 8 retro look and feel.
Below, a sample retro 'Old Movie' effect from reader Mario Ritschard
Verdict
As I said at the beginning of this post, "these apps do not capture at true video capture frame rates", and during my test this reduced frame rate was very apparent, however iCamcorder with its 'Old Movie' effect turns this weakness in to one a strength.
All of these apps offer reasonable video capture on a device not intended to capture video, and with the the exception of Video Genius and VideoCam, they all offer ways of sharing your videos with friends, family and the world after you have captured them.
ShowTime, iVidCam and iVideoCamera all offer a good range of ways to share your videos, but it is iVideoCamera that wins the crown for the most options.
In my opinion Qik Video Camera for any iPhone offers the best overall video quality and range of effects, and has by far the best UI, although is badly let down by its very limited ability to share videos with the world.
iCamcorder with its 'Old Movie' effect is the only app in this category that takes advantage of the reduced frame rates, letting you produce some very nice retro videos.
So which video capture app is the one for me?
All of these apps offer some form of video capture for those of us still using an iPhone 2G/3G, and whilst none of these apps will match the iPhone 3GS or replace a video camera I have chosen 2 apps for capturing quick, fun videos on my iPhone 3G. The first is Qik Video Camera, which for me produced the better looking videos and has the best UI, and the second app is iCamcorder, which lets me to create Standard 8 looking videos.
Glyn Evans
Marty over at Life in LoFi has just discovered this video from Global Delight, the developer of Camera Plus Pro.
We believe this video is shot on an iPhone 2G/3G and is showing the video capture capabilities of a future update to Camera Plus Pro. Having tested a wide range of video capture apps for the older iPhones, I have to agree with Marty that this video looks much smoother than the others I have tested here, and frame rates do look higher than the current best of 15 fps, but we will have to wait and see just how good it is when it gets released.
