Not only is the Apple Vision Pro a great home theater system for viewing films alone, but home videos filmed in spatial video and photos taking with spatial video are incredible.
Apple says the Vision Pro is the first 3D camera, so you can take spatial photos and spatial videos in 3D, then enjoy them in immersive video and Spatial Audio. I’ve tried taking screenshots of the 3D photos and videos I’ve taken on my iPhone Pro Max, but none truly capture how incredible they are. Watching videos filmed in 3D is truly like being in the scene.
For instance, below is a 3D movie I filmed of my grandchildren with their new puppy. In the screenshot below taken with the Vision Pro, it looks blurry and washed out. You’ll have to take my word that it looks NOTHING like this when viewing it on the Vision Pro.
Of course, as with watching movies, you can’t share this experience with others. That said, the videos and photos are 2D-viewable even if you don’t have a Vision Pro. You should also note that you can shoot iPhone video in spatial in 1080p at 30fps or at the full 4K resolution the phone supports, but not both.
What’s more, your existing library of photos and videos look incredible at remarkable scale. You can drag them around your virtual screen, resize them, and flip through them with a gesture. And panoramas wrap around you making you feel like you’re standing right where you took them. (See how to record spatial videos by clicking here.)
You can also take photos and videos on the Vision Pro itself, but the results aren’t nearly as good as taking them with an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max. You press the shutter (top) button a single time to snap a 2560 x 2560 still ( 6.5 megapixels). The pics look like 6.5-megapixel photos from a tiny camera sensor optimized for video, so they’re not very impressive.
Video taken with the spatial computer is a little better. The Vision Pro shoots 2200 x 2200 square videos at 30fps. However, a lot of compression is involved and if you watch on anything but the spatial computer, there’ll be barrel distortion if camera moves around much.
On a related note, FaceTime on the Vision Pro is also a (mostly) good experience. FaceTime video tiles are life-size, and as new people join, the call simply expands in your virtual room. Within FaceTime, you can also use apps to collaborate with colleagues on the same documents simultaneously. The downside is the somewhat-goofy Personal feature, but I’ll cover that in another article.
But back to spatial photos and 3D videos. They’re amazing. It would be easy to get lost by playing back your memories over and over again.
Just remember to enjoy ‘em, but don’t isolate yourself with the Vision Pro. Have fun with it, but enjoy and be present in the real world.
