Guide: iPhone15 stereo camera - how to record spatial & stereoscopic video

12.01.2024

The new iPhone 15 Pro can shoot stereoscopic video, which will be a key connected feature to the Apple Vision Pro. The DeoVR devs have experimented shooting stereoscopic video using this modern smartphone. You can see the results of our experiment below, but first, let's look at how to record native spatial videos using the camera app on the iPhone Pro Max (v17.2 and above).

How to record native spatial videos using your iPhone Pro Max camera app

Using an app called Spatialify, you can convert spatial videos shot on your iPhone to the common VR side-by-side format. Here's how:

First, make sure your iPhone 15 firmware is up to date (17.2 or above)
Go to your phone settings, find camera settings and click Formats

In Formats find Spatial Video for Apple Vision Pro and activate it

Now you can open your camera app. In video mode, rotate your phone into horizontal mode
You will see an icon on the bottom, click it to activate spatial video mode. The icon will turn yellow.
Now you can press the red record button, and the video will record spatial.

After you have recorded your first spatial video, go to the app store and install the Spatialify app

Inside the app, click Browse Spatial Album, which will only show spatial videos in your gallery. Or click Pick from Photo Library, to show all your videos, then select the spatial video.

Once you select your spatial video, rotate your phone to horizontal mode for a better view.
The settings are usually automatically set for you and ready to export, but you can play with the settings if you prefer.
Remember that the average human IPD (eye distance) is around 66 mm.
Scale is for how big you want your video to appear inside the headset.

Once you are happy with the settings, click the export button on the top right

Select the format you want to work with (we prefer side-by-side). Then click export.
Your video will start exporting and you will find it in your gallery.
You can transfer the exported side-by-side video to your computer and copy it to your headset.
Preview with DeoVR using the following settings: Flat > Side-by-side

Our Results

You can see the results of our iPhone 15 spatial recording experiments on the DeoVR platform.

Experiment process

The cameras mean it is possible to shoot stereoscopic video, but the difference between the cameras is very small - approximately 1.5cm. The settings for the camera/video function do not show any options for recording spatial video, so it is expected this will be included in a future update, likely when the Vision Pro is on the market.

As a workaround, we recorded two videos, blocking one of the main cameras each time, placing the camera on a static phone holder and recorded some outside footage using the two wide angle and 24mm cameras.

We also attempted to recreate the natural average human IPD of 65mm using two iPhone models next to each other and recording video on both at the same time. Then we stitched the footage together using Mistika. You can see the results here - we recommend downloading them and trying them in your headset:

Video results

Stereo video using one iPhone 15 Pro - wide-angle, 24mm: (download link)

Stereo video using two iPhones (1x iPhone 15 Pro Max, 1x iPhone 13 Pro): (download link)

What do you think? Join the discussion on the DeoVR forum, Facebook or Reddit. You could also try recreating this using your own iPhone 15 Pro and let us know what you discover.

iPhone 15 Pro camera specs:

Three lenses:

48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS
12 MP, f/2.8, 77mm (telephoto), 1/3.5", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF

Including:

TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth)
Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR (photo/panorama)

Video recording:

4K@24/25/30/60fps
1080p@25/30/60/120/240fps
10-bit HDR
Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps)
ProRes
Cinematic mode (4K@24/30fps)
3D (spatial) video
Stereo sound recording