If you film on a phone, tonight's keynote changed one thing that matters and left one question open: the iPhone 18 Pro is the first iPhone whose main lens can physically stop down, from f/1.48 to f/4, and Apple's release does not name the log profile or codec it records in, so no Apple Log 2, no new log profile and no ProRes change is on the record. Apple's iPhone Duo release lists neither the variable aperture nor the Pro controls, so we would still carry the 18 Pro to a shoot. Here is what Apple shipped against what we hoped for in our pre-keynote camera piece; the full launch facts are in our iPhone 18 Pro report and the night's schedule in our keynote preview. Every product figure below comes from Apple's releases for the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo, both dated 9 September 2026; the rest is our expectation, and we say so.
Table of Contents
Variable aperture: what f/1.48 to f/4 gives you in video
Apple's release describes six laser-cut blades on a rotor moving between four aperture settings on the 48MP Fusion Main camera, and names three: f/1.48 for low light, f/1.8 for portraits, f/4 to keep a group in focus. The camera picks automatically, any of the four can be set by hand in the Camera app, and developers get an API across the range. Apple frames all of this around photos and does not state that the aperture can be set while recording video, so what follows is our expectation until we shoot with it.
In video, an aperture does two jobs. The first is depth of field: until now an iPhone's main lens sat at one fixed opening, so a soft background came from Cinematic mode's software blur or from standing close. A lens that closes to f/4 keeps a wide shot sharp front to back and opens to f/1.48 to lift an interview subject off a busy room, optically. The second job is exposure, and in Malaysian sun it is the bigger one. Cinema convention puts the shutter at roughly double the frame rate, 1/50 of a second at 25fps, and at midday a fixed wide lens at its lowest ISO has too much light, which is why phone shooters clip on a neutral density filter. From f/1.48 to f/4 is just under three stops, about what a three-stop ND filter removes, so on paper the 18 Pro could hold 1/50 in open shade and bright overcast with no glass on the lens. We expect full noon sun to still want a filter at 1/50 and base ISO; we will find the line by shooting it.
Pro controls, and what Apple lists for video
Pro controls is the new customisable layer in the Camera app on both 18 Pro models. Apple names four manual settings: lens aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and a histogram. Manual shutter speed is the one filmmakers have asked for, because it sets motion blur on purpose; whether Pro controls applies in video mode is not stated in the release, and it is the first thing we will check.
On recording, Apple's release lists three things: Cinematic effects applied after capture to clips shot at up to 60fps, Time-lapse in 4K and Dolby Vision HDR, and Audio Mix that can now isolate music. It does not name Apple Log, Apple Log 2 or any new log profile, does not mention ProRes, and says nothing about genlock, timecode or higher frame rates. Apple's iPhone 15 Pro release introduced Log encoding in 2023 and the iPhone 17 Pro we shoot with records Apple Log today, so we expect it to carry over, but that is our expectation and Apple's specifications page will settle it. This is what the current workflow looks like on the phone we shoot with today:
iPhone Duo: a 7.6-inch screen for reviewing footage, and what its cameras lack
Opened, the iPhone Duo has a 7.6-inch inner display Apple says is 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max's, with a nano-texture finish to cut glare, ProMotion and 3000 nits of peak outdoor brightness; closed, a 5.4-inch outer screen. On a set that is a bigger, matte, very bright screen for reviewing a take in daylight, and Duo Preview puts a live preview on the outer display so the person in front of the camera can check their own framing. For a one-person crew that is genuinely useful.
The cameras are where it gives ground. Apple lists two 48MP Fusion cameras, a Main with an optical-quality 2x crop and an Ultra Wide it says is the same as the 18 Pro's, so no dedicated telephoto lens, and the release does not mention variable aperture, Pro controls, a histogram or manual shutter speed. It does list one video figure the 18 Pro release does not: 4K at 120fps in Dolby Vision on the Main camera. So for our own work the Duo reads as a review screen and a second angle, and the 18 Pro is still the camera.
What it costs to shoot on it in Malaysia
Apple Malaysia's release puts the iPhone 18 Pro at RM5,499 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at RM5,999, both from 256GB: the same two Malaysian prices Apple Malaysia set for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max at last year's launch, which we recorded from Apple Malaysia's store at the time in our iPhone 17 Pro launch report, and Apple's 2025 release had already moved the entry tier to 256GB, so the comparison is like for like. The whole series since 2017 is on our launch-price record. Pre-orders open at 5am Pacific on Saturday 12 September, which is 8pm in Malaysia, and stores get the phones on Friday 18 September, per Apple Malaysia's release. Trade-in credit runs RM700 to RM5,250. The iPhone Duo starts at USD 1,999 in the US, and Apple Malaysia's store page lists it at RM9,499 for 256GB, RM10,499 for 512GB, RM12,499 for 1TB and RM15,499 for 2TB, with pre-orders from 8pm Malaysian time on Friday 16 October and sales from Friday 23 October. Put against each other at 256GB, the cheapest Duo is RM4,000 more than the RM5,499 iPhone 18 Pro and RM3,500 more than the RM5,999 Pro Max, and it is the 18 Pro whose release lists the variable aperture and Pro controls; the Duo release lists neither, and Apple's specifications pages will settle whether that is an omission or an absence. Apple Malaysia had not posted a Duo press release when we checked at 3.20am on 10 September; the store page is the source for the Duo's ringgit prices here.
| Model | Malaysia price |
|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro (256GB) | RM5,499 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max (256GB) | RM5,999 |
| iPhone Duo (256GB) | RM9,499 (Apple Malaysia store page; 512GB RM10,499, 1TB RM12,499, 2TB RM15,499) |
What we will test first when our units arrive
- Whether aperture and shutter speed can be set in video mode, and whether the aperture holds steady, without a visible step, while recording.
- 25fps at 1/50 at midday in Kuala Lumpur, no ND filter, stepping from f/1.48 to f/4: where the highlights clip.
- An interview at f/1.48 against Cinematic mode's software blur: hair edges, a hand crossing the face, and how each grades.
- Which log profile and formats the phone actually records, checked against Apple's specifications page, graded next to our iPhone 17 Pro Apple Log footage.
- The Duo as a review screen for 18 Pro footage in open sun, and whether its 4K120 clips cut in with the 18 Pro's without a colour mismatch.
Every iPhone Pro since the iPhone 15 Pro shoots Apple Log, and the difference between footage that looks like a phone and footage that looks like cinema is not the phone, it is the workflow: exposing LOG on purpose, grading it, getting clean audio. That is exactly what our Pocket Cinematic course teaches, on the phone already in your pocket, the workflow we use on our own videos. The course page lists the founder price at RM349 with a free Hollyland Lark A1 mic while the founder boxes last.
