Forget iPhone 17 Pro Max — Snapdragon 8 Elite could bring my most requested camera feature to Android phones Hallie Frederick | usagoldmines.com

I shoot loads of movies. I’m not simply referring to the quick bits I’d share on social media, however the ones I shoot professionally. Normally I depend on my trusty Panasonic Lumix S5 for all of the heavy lifting, however I usually come to make use of a few of the best camera phones as backup or b-roll cams to complement my footage.

With the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, it lastly may convey the one video digicam characteristic I’ve been asking for — and the iPhone 17 Pro Max higher be frightened.

Qualcomm’s newest flagship chipset is now official, however fortunately it gained’t be lengthy earlier than we see Android telephones which have them. In reality, the Asus ROG Phone 9 series is among the first telephones to characteristic the brand new silicon that’s based mostly on the corporate’s 3nm manufacturing course of. And the Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 are additionally on the way in which.

Whereas the Snapdragon 8 Elite needs to be a beast relating to all of the stuff we do on our telephones, I’m most excited about how the chip enhances the digicam recording skills of future telephones.

Particularly, I’ve been asking for the power to document video not from only one single digicam — however from all of them concurrently. As a videographer, I can not inform you how a characteristic like this will turn out to be useful within the modifying room, so I’m actually wanting to see this come to fruition.

A sport changer for video

(Picture credit score: Qualcomm)

The iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max definitely introduced new options that I like, like Audio Combine to reinforce the audio of the video recording and the power to now shoot at 4K 120fps. Curiously sufficient, you’ll be able to truly document video concurrently on an iPhone utilizing a 3rd social gathering app like DoubleTake. Nonetheless, I’ve discovered it to be buggy and recording is proscribed to solely two cameras.

With the Snapdragon 8 Elite Cell Platform, Android telephones may have an additional leg up over iPhones by providing this means to document from three 48MP sensors concurrently at 30 fps. This can be a huge deal as a result of there’s loads of knowledge in only one single 4K video supply, not to mention having to cope with three. By providing such a characteristic, this could give me the additional utility within the modifying room to mess around with the footage.

For interview type clips, I can respect how having three separate video information from a telephone’s foremost, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras may very well be useful afterward. In a single sequence, I can use the footage from the primary digicam — after which change to the telephoto feed if they’ve one thing attention-grabbing to say.

The typical individual won’t be inclined to document video on three cameras concurrently, however given how Apple likes to color the iPhone 16 Professional as a movie maker’s digicam, that is the type of superior characteristic I prefer to see come to extra telephones.

Extra sensible functions for this

(Picture credit score: Future)

I understand how I may successfully use this Snapdragon 8 Elite characteristic with my workflow, however I wager you’re questioning about another sensible functions for this characteristic. Quick type video is king. TikTok and Instagram have confirmed this innumerable instances, however I feel this means to document video from three cameras may very well be useful.

For starters, it may very well be the type of factor that might enable folks to not fear about which digicam to pick out previous to recording. I do know this has occurred to me many instances, like leaning on the primary digicam as an alternative of the ultrawide to seize a shot — solely to understand in the midst of it that I’m slicing some issues out from the recording.

With telephones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, recording from three cameras may very well be the default possibility. As soon as they’re accomplished recording, they’ll return to preview the footage and choose solely the video they need — so if there’s a second when the extremely broad shot makes extra sense to make use of — they’ll swap it in place to make the video seem extra seamless.

All of this makes for a shoot-now-worry-later expertise that I can see extra folks adopting. Regardless, it is this type of comfort that may enable video digicam shooters to get probably the most out of their machine with out having to suppose a lot on the logistics of taking pictures. In the meantime, Apple goes to wish to maintain a cautious eye on what transpires over the following yr as a result of the iPhone 17 Professional Max will definitely want its personal methods to maintain Apple’s momentum of getting the best camera phone round.

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