iPhone 3Gs: Tips for Using the Video Feature

The video feature on the new iPhone 3Gs is probably the most anticipated and necessary, aspect. This is part of Apple’s effort to make the iPhone 3.0 firmware and the iPhone 3Gs technology up to par on all levels. Though the video feature will work similar to those on other cell phones, the iPhone 3Gs requires certain points of view because of its special circumstances.

The video recorder in the 3Gs is in the same location as the regular iPhone camera. Here you can just decide whether you want to take a video or a still image. You change this over by going to the lower right hand part of the camera display and using the toggle bar to slide over from the camera icon to the video camera one. This will change the shutter button in the middle of the bottom display into a red record dot.

Once you start filming there is little to stop you as the video is just recorded to the storage areas of your iPhone 3Gs. You can even film until you have completely filled up your entire iPhone 3Gs. Obviously, you want to avoid doing this, so start out by figuring out how much video you can record for a reasonable size. Then try to keep the size of your videos down to a reasonable length.

It has been said that you can edit video on your iPhone 3Gs, but this is not true. You can do just the most basic trims to the video, which is not to say that you can really cut things together and make sequences. The best advice here is then to “shoot to edit,” which means that you shoot short video clips on the iPhone that can then be assembled later individually in an outside computer non-linear editing software. If you do just want to record one long video, know that you can cut off from the beginning or end.

Sharing your video on your iPhone 3Gs you have choices between the built in sharing functions or those you do on your own. If you want to take the video directly from your iPhone 3G you can use Mobile Me or YouTube to share it. Go into your normal Camera Roll and find your video. Hit the Share button in the lower right hand corner and then select the video you want. You can then upload to YouTube, use Mobile Me to send it, or even use an automated email function where you will attach the video to an email. The best option you have for sending out the video from your iPhone 3Gs is to sync it to your computer and then manage it like a normal file, which then can be transmitted physically on a storage device or uploaded to any website you want.