“If you are not shooting on the same device that your audience is viewing it on, it reads as more phony. It does not communicate the same thing to have a big expensive production shot on an Arri Alexa that you're then watching in TikTok. It looks like an ad the moment you see it.”
Mac Power Users · September 2026
Stalman is a working photographer who has reviewed the iPhone camera every year for 15 years, and he's answering the comment he says he gets on every review: that no professional uses an iPhone. His point is that for social clients his team rigs an iPhone and runs the set like a commercial shoot, because the format has to match where the thing will be watched.
Transcript
but I wasn't doing, I wasn't smart enough to be doing iPhone reviews at the beginning. I should have thought of this earlier. But first review was the iPhone 8, and then the 10 followed shortly after. So I mean, we've had a lot of phones in not as many years. And yeah, I always try to review it from a photography filmmaker perspective, specifically looking at what the cameras can do for you.
And we really appreciate you coming on the show, Tyler, because Steve and I are enthusiasts with this news phones. We're more productivity type folks. We're not photographers. And every year when the new phone comes up, I start getting an email from people saying, are you going to get Tyler back? We want to hear what do we make of all of this? Apple has a lot of hype. You're an actual working photographer and videographer, and your insight is very helpful.
Well, it's good to set some context of how we use the phones too, because whenever I post the review, a common comment is nobody, no professionals use iPhones. I hear that so much that I kind of need to respond to it every single time. And I mean, that sometimes is true for a lot of our bigger production work. Yeah, we are using big photo and video cameras. There's so many jobs that it would be inappropriate to show up to with only an iPhone, but there's a lot where an iPhone makes the most sense. And our best example lately is that we have one major national client that we're doing all of their social media work and a bunch of other social media clients as well. And we're always telling them that like, if you are not shooting on the same device that your audience is viewing it on, it reads as more phony. Like it does not communicate the same thing to have a big expensive production shot on an Aria Alexa that you're then watching in TikTok. Like it looks like an ad the moment you see it. So there's a lot of use cases where it makes more sense to take an iPhone, treat it like a professional camera. So we're rigging it up and we're running the set just like a typical commercial production, but we're using the phone. Sort of similar to when Apple's shooting its keynotes, like we're treating everything else around it the same way we always would. We're just swapping that camera out for an iPhone to get a look that's a bit more native to the platform.
And you know, it's funny. I try to post a lot of reels, try to grow that kind of short form audience in addition to the long form. And for a while, I was using my full long form setup and just cropping the videos vertically. And then I just started using my Osmo Pocket in vertical, you know, format, a little different angle, less professional looking. And those videos do better. And, you know, you could say it's the content, it's the topic, but it's just, I think, like you're saying, it feels more native to the platform. But that also goes to how you review these phones. I always look to you. I look to Austin Mann's review, and you guys always have, you know, wonderful locations you go to. Since you've been doing it for so long, do you have a plan set? How do you lay out like, this is how I'm going to review it? You know, obviously there's new features you don't hear about until the Apple event. Do you start planning where you're going or what you're going to do based on those features? Like, what's your process there?
Well, I wish I could say that I really plan it all out. Fortunately, actually, this year I had the chance to talk to Austin like just before, had him on my podcast, and we were talking about exactly this. And I think he kind of plans a trip around it each time. And we have a really hard time doing it. That there's just usually this is busy season for everything. So I know that it's going to be a priority to work on it, but I don't know for sure where I'll be. So, like, right now, we're traveling in Europe, but while I was making the review, we were at home and the weather was kind of bad. So, I just kind of had to improvise. And to me, it's not primarily the most important thing isn't actually getting amazing photos. Like, I want to, and it's hard if you're not inspired. But testing a camera is testing a camera. So, ultimately, like, I know exactly what I'm looking for in terms of image quality and what it's able to create in different environments. So, as long as I can recreate some of those environments during my tests, that's all that I really need. If I can make it look good, that's just a bonus to hopefully make you less bored while you watch it.
Like, one of the things I actually really liked in your video was somebody had written asking about the focal length with the new lens, and they were worried about it. And you just did a top-down shot with your phone over one of those ruler mats, and you just laid it down, and you took the old phone and you measured it, and you put the new one, and you settled it right there. Yeah, it's about the same. Yeah, and I don't need you to be in Paris for that, you know, honestly.
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