Taimur Asad·

Apple TV+ F1 Movie Used Custom iPhone Cameras To Capture Race Scenes

With the Apple TV+ movie F1 hitting theaters next week, more details are now being shared about how it was filmed. According to one report, Apple used a custom iPhone camera and A-series chip to capture the scenes as F1 cars raced around the track.

While movie companies often use things like GoPro action cameras to capture scenes where using a traditional movie camera can’t be used, Wired reports that the people working on F1 went a different route.

A custom module was used, and while it doesn’t look like an iPhone, it does use iPhone components. In fact, Wired says that the module was designed to look like a standard broadcast camera — including its weight.

At the heart is an iPhone camera sensor powered by an A-series chip. Apple didn’t specify the exact sensor or chipset, but these were used for a few cars in real F1 races throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, so there’s a chance it was the same A17 Pro and 48-megapixel primary camera in the iPhone 15 Pro. It also contained an iPhone battery and a neutral density filter over the camera to reduce the light entering the lens, giving film editors more control over exposure.

The custom module ran iOS and a custom firmware, capturing footage in the LOG format using Apple’s own ProRes lossless video codec. A custom iPad app was then used to allow the camera to be controlled via a USB-C connection.

You can see the outcome for yourself by checking out the movie, starring Brad Pitt, when it hits theaters. The F1 The Movie will premiere in theaters on June 27 before being made available to stream on the Apple TV+ service at a later date.

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