[_fw]

This is exactly it. A lot of the author's comments about skin tone and 'flat' colour are spot on though.

To your point, take six steps back and use the 5x zoom on an iPhone Pro and you'll get a much better effect.

As they say, the best camera is the one you have in your pocket. Physics means it can never replace a large sensor with a large lens...

... But Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, The Beach, Trainspotting, 127 Hours) was quite happy to film 28 Years Later entirely on the iPhone 15 Pro Max [1].

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/28-years-later-danny-boyles-new-...

[tylermw]

For 28 Years Later, note that while the iPhone sensor did in fact ultimately collect the photons for the movie, they attached substantial professional-grade glass to the front to augment the phone camera.

[tehnub]

My understanding is that all that extra gear is mainly to enable more ergonomic manual control for things like focus. The matte box and ND filter are probably the biggest boosts to image and motion quality, and there are affordable ways to get those on your phone.