Halide developers launch Kino, a pro video app for the iPhone

Lux’s Halide app is popular among photographers for its approachable pro-level features, and now it’s launching Kino, a dedicated video capture app for iPhones with a similar focus on supporting the features professionals look for.

Where Halide was designed to take advantage of Apple’s RAW photography support on newer iPhones, Kino is targeting the iPhone 15 Pro’s support for ProRes videos encoded in the Log format. If you don’t know what that is or have never heard of color grading, here’s the description from our review of the 15 Pro: “That’s the super flat color profile that videographers like because it lets them control the look of the final product more.” Our video producer Vjeran Pavic can go into even more detail.

Instant Grade presets in the Kino app. Image: Lux

One of Kino’s headline features is “Instant Grade,” which allows users to shoot footage with grade presets. You can also record in Apple Log format within the Kino app and preview / add the presets later. Kino also has AutoMotion, which “automatically chooses the best exposure settings for cinematic motion blur.”

Kino also includes the ability to add LUTs (Look Up Tables), which let you alter the look of footage using mathematical formulas. You can even add your own custom LUTs, a feature notably missing from Apple’s Final Cut Pro iPad app.

According to the developers, “None of our apps gather or collect data, or analyze your videos and photos,” and there’s no generative AI training in there, either. While Log support is an iPhone 15 Pro-only feature, it will work on any device running iOS 17 or higher.