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iOS 18 Lets You Edit Video Speed With the Photos App

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The iOS 18 Photos app features a new video speed control option that can be used to change the frame rate of your videos after they're captured.

ios 18 video playback speed
Apple mentioned the option to change video speed in post processing when it introduced the new iPhone 16 models, but it turns out it's a feature that's available for older iPhones running iOS 18.

Added in the iOS 18 Release Candidate, the Playback Speed editor can be used to slow down playback speed of a high frame rate video. There are 240, 120, 60, 48, 30, and 24 frames per second options to choose from.

There's always been a feature for adjusting the speed of select parts of Slo-mo videos, but Playback Speed is a separate control. You can get to it by opening up the editing interface for a video, and then tapping on the timer icon at the top right.

Apple's ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro models support 4K 120fps video in Slo-mo and Video modes, and the Playback Speed feature can be used for making adjustments after you shoot a video. From Apple's keynote event:

You can use 4k 120, in Slo-mo or Video mode, and now you don't have to make that upfront decision on frame rate. You can adjust the playback speed after capture. In the new Photos app, there's a quarter speed playback, a new half speed option that really adds a wonderful, dreamy effect, or you can bring it back to normal speed. There's also a 1/5 speed option that corresponds to 24 frames per second playback. These playback speeds are great for easy on the go editing.

iOS 18 with the Playback Speed feature is set to be released to the public on Monday, September 16.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

B
Bryan Bowler
26 months ago
It’s amazing how far we’ve come in the past 10 years and the tools now at our disposal!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
840quadra Avatar
840quadra
26 months ago

It really is, especially iPhone's camera tech. I started using iPhones for making serious photographs with a 6+. Before that, using a 4 and 5, they just didn't cut it.

Today I'm always looking forward to seeing what the next iPhone brings with respect to improved cameras. Hat-tip to Apple deciding to go down this path!
Agreed,

Shooting RAW on the 13 Pro onward has been great! Video quality is good enough that I have used clips and even interviews from an iPhone for production videos with zero issues. In fact, I have to (sometimes) doctor video from other cameras / Devices in an attempt to match the iPhone.

Also been impressed by Pixel 8 and recent Samsung phone video quality too. Biggest issue with some of them is dropping frames, I rarely ever see that from an iPhone however!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
zorinlynx
26 months ago

So this means you can technically record 120 FPS videos on older iPhones as well by recording in slo-mo.
I've done that before; if you record a slow mo video at 120FPS and then adjust the sliders so none of it plays in slow mo, you end up with a really high framerate video. It's liquid smooth to watch!

Slow mo comes in handy so often. I once recorded a computer screen in slow mo because an error message would appear for a tiny fraction of a second and I couldn't read it. Slo-mo let me read it and figure out what was going on.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
citysnaps
26 months ago

Agreed,

Shooting RAW on the 13 Pro onward has been great! Video quality is good enough that I have used clips and even interviews from an iPhone for production videos with zero issues. In fact, I have to (sometimes) doctor video from other cameras / Devices in an attempt to match the iPhone.
Living in Lightroom since the beginning, Apple bringing RAW capture to iPhone was huge and offered a ton of flexibility in post.

I'm curious about Apple's new microphone tech with respect to videos, and how well it works with respect to subject separation and adjustability (especially after capture in post).

EDIT:
Just thinking out loud on the above... With four microphones, I'm wondering if they're doing some kind of adjustable beamforming to facilitate multiple subject separation. Seems like mic separation would need to be large, but perhaps there's some special trickery in signal-processing where ambiguities could be processed out.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
citysnaps
26 months ago

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in the past 10 years and the tools now at our disposal!
It really is, especially iPhone's camera tech. I started using iPhones for making serious photographs with a 6+. Before that, using a 4 and 5, they just didn't cut it.

Today I'm always looking forward to seeing what the next iPhone brings with respect to improved cameras. Hat-tip to Apple deciding to go down this path!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
macduke
26 months ago

Annoyingly slowing to 24 FPS is only shown as an option for 240 and 120 FPS video. 60 FPS video can only be slowed to 30 FPS, and 30 FPS video doesn’t have the button at all.

So I’ll need to keep iMovie to adjust my drone footage to 24 FPS.
Yes, because those numbers are divisible by 24. Anything else is interpolated and the result is less than ideal.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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