New Kino app by Halide developer is perfect for novice and pro videomakers

Kino aims to bring pro video features to the iPhone (Source: Lux Optics)

Photography app Halide now has a sister video app for iPhone called Kino, with grading presets, smart exposure, and free lessons for beginners.

Halide has long been a popular photography app for the iPhone, bringing finer control of Apple's camera system than the stock Camera app. Now with Kino its makers Lux Optics have made good on a promise to release a similar app solely for video.

Chief among Kino's features is Instant Grade, which is intended to provide cinematic video without the enormous file sizes that Apple's Log format produces. Kino comes with a growing list of Lookup Tables (LUTs) that are color grading presets designed by expert filmmakers, and automatically applied during recording.

Large crowd at a concert with bright stage lights and performers in a grand hall, viewed through a camera screen interface.

Kino comes with video grading presets designed by expert filmmakers (Source: Lux Optics)

There is a manual mode, and everything is adjustable even with the automatic settings. But the company says that Kino also has an exposure logic feature called AutoMotion, which applies motion blur to suit whether video is being shot indoors or outdoors.

Lux Optics wants to appeal to both novices and experienced filmmakers. So alongside the automatic settings — and a companion series of videos on the basics of shooting video — Kino also has pro features.

Introducing Kino - Halide's new pro video camera sibling.

It's our beautiful, simple, but powerful app for taking cinematic video. Packed with amazing color presets by my favorite pros. Out now, and half off for launch! https://t.co/V7DjBi91Bz pic.twitter.com/Ax15FwMCu9
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) May 29, 2024

Those include composition guides, audio levels, RGB waveform, white balance and automatic exposure lock, and so on.

Kino requires iOS 17, and is available on the App Store at a launch price of $9.99 for a short time. After that, it will rise to $19.99, but will still be a one-time purchase with no subscriptions or ads.