Tomorrow is iPhone 17 launch day – the day when customers around the world get Apple's latest product in their hands. And when they do, I think the industry is going to realize exactly the criminal masterstroke of this phone – because it hijacked the most must-have feature in the world of mirrorless cameras.
Most people have slept on the fact that the iPhone 17 family has adopted a square sensor on its selfie camera. But the fact is that what Apple is calling Center Stage is, in principle, open gate capture. And much like open gate, until mainstream consumers get the product in their hands, they won't realize quite what a huge deal it is.
If you've managed to miss it, open gate is a technology featured on more and more video-oriented cameras. Brought to the consumer market by Panasonic with cameras like the Lumix S5II, and now making its way into other systems like the Canon EOS C50, it has transformed the way content creators capture video.
Rather than capturing a narrow horizontal 16:9 video, which crops into the image sensor and also reduces resolution, open gate captures video using the entire sensor area – so you record a much larger area, usually 3:2. With so much more headroom, you can then crop into your footage to create 9:16 vertical video, 1:1 square video or anything you like – all without having to reorient your camera or change any settings.
While Center Stage doesn't do quite the same thing, the effect is the same; because the sensor is square, it doesn't matter which way up your phone is – it crops into the sensor to give you a 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16 or obviously a 1:1 square, whether it's horizontal or vertical.
What does this mean? Well, take a look:
Why does this matter? Why is something that feels like such a disposable feature so important? The same reason open gate video is important for mirrorless cameras: convenience, speed, flexibility and workflow.
Most people are going to feel the effect in a few different ways. Firstly, when taking selfies, you no longer need to worry about having to hold the phone in an awkward way when you take selfies and group shots – you can take a horizontal and vertical image without turning the phone at all.
And when you're making Facetime or WhatsApp calls, you'll no longer need to turn your phone to match the orientation of the person calling you. And video is where this feature really comes into its own.
Even though you're not supposed to, the vast majority of people film their selfie videos – whether it's for TikTok, YouTube, Instagram Stories, snippets to send on WhatsApp or anything else – using the front camera. And everyone knows the faff of trying to prop your phone up the right way, or wrestling with a tripod that's set up in the wrong orientation.
No more. Now you can keep your phone set up in your preferred orientation and simply tap the screen to change the aspect ratio – all without losing quality.
Again, to anyone who hasn't used it, this might sound like a gimmick at best and a barrel-scraping feature at worst. But there's a reason why creators have been fawning over Lumix's latest cameras – and why Canon thought it was so important to put open gate into its latest $3,900 camera.
Just wait until you've tried it… I think in six months, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.
You might like..
Take a look at the best iPhones for photography and, if you want to know more about open gate, check out our Canon EOS C50 review and Panasonic Lumix S1II review.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
