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Can I Use an External Drive For Filming on an iPhone?

iPhone cameras have become extremely powerful over the years. You can click stellar portrait shots, change photography styles to match your vibe, and even click sharp photos at night. Moreover, videography is an aspect that iPhones primarily excel in compared to their Android counterparts. In fact, Apple has taken it to the next level by introducing Dolby Vision HDR, ProRes videos, and more recently — ProRes Log support on the iPhone 15 series.

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With so much data to work with, the built-in storage on your iPhone can start to feel limited — especially if you have the base variant. That might make you wonder — can I use an external drive while filming on my iPhone?

Along with newer camera hardware on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the biggest change with the latest iPhone series was the arrival of USB-C. Thanks to that, you can finally use an external drive with your iPhone — both while recording footage and transferring files.

In fact, Apple mandates recording 4K 60fps ProRes Log videos to an external drive since writing to the internal storage could be slower and because these files are massive in terms of size. We wanted to experience how this works and how it’s integrated into iOS. So, we went around shooting with an external SSD plugged into the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and here’s our complete experience!

Which iPhones Support Recording to an External Drive

As of writing, the iPhone 15 series is the only series of iPhones with a USB-C port. So, the supported devices are –

  • iPhone 15
  • iPhone 15 Plus
  • iPhone 15 Pro
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • Future versions of the iPhone that retain the USB-C port — until they probably get rid of it eventually — If you have an iPhone with a lightning port, you unfortunately won’t be able to record footage onto an external drive.

    Which External Drives Are Supported on the iPhone

    Since USB-C is a universal port, you can use pretty much any USB-C drive with the iPhone 15 series. This includes everything from USB-C 3.0 flash drives to full-fledged external SSDs with 10GB/s speeds. However, there is a catch. You will get max data transfer speeds only with the Pro iPhones since those are the only variants with USB 3.0 ports. On the standard iPhone 15, you can use the same drives and SSDs but you will experience slower data transfer.

    Using an External Drive With an iPhone

    As soon as you connect an external drive to the iPhone, you will see a ‘USB-C’ message pop up at the bottom of the camera app. This indicates the default storage is now set to the external drive. Anything you record will be saved directly on the external SSD or flash drive you connected.

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    When recording videos, the experience of shooting with the external SSD is the same as filming without one. As in, there’s no lag or delay when recording. We didn’t experience any stutters either. Notably, it’s wise to use a high-speed external SSD when recording videos in higher frame rates or ProRes Log.

    In fact, Apple doesn’t even allow you to record ProRes Log videos onto flash drives that have low data transfer speeds. it throws an error that says “Storage device is full”. There’s also a handy timer at the top that shows the duration which you can record for with the empty storage.

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    We also wanted to try if external drives that don’t have a USB-C connector work with the iPhone. So, we connected a USB-A flash drive using a USB-C to USB-A OTG adapter.

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    While this solution worked well and the drive was detected, we wouldn’t recommend using it since you won’t get the high write speeds required to record videos at high resolutions. Also, we observed that the time taken to process and save a video once we hit the stop recording button was slightly higher with a standard USB-A flash drive.

    A big advantage of recording 4K ProRes videos directly to an external drive is it makes the file transfer process extremely quick. If you record in Log, you would need to edit the video to color grade it. With an SSD, you can plug it straight into your computer and copy the video files in a matter of a few seconds. The same process between an iPhone and a computer would’ve taken ages due to slower data transfer speeds. All you video editors out there — this is going to save you a ton of time.

    Downsides of Using an External Drive

    Firstly, an external drive can only be used to record videos. Specifically, just ProRes Log videos. If you want to record standard H.265 videos, you won’t be able to do so on an external drive. There is a workaround to this though, and it’s via the BlackMagic camera app. If you use the BlackMagic camera app to record videos, you can record standard non-ProRes videos directly to an external storage drive by selecting that as the destination for media.

    This is exactly what you’ll have to do when trying to use an external drive with the non-Pro iPhone 15 models as well. Apple, unfortunately, doesn’t allow you to natively record to an external SSD on the vanilla iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. However, this isn’t too big of a deal since the BlackMagic Camera app is miles ahead of the default iPhone camera app. It offers manual controls, focus peeking, LUTs, and a complete pro experience when recording videos. If you want complete control over your videos, you should give it a shot.

    Weirdly, Apple also doesn’t let you take photos to save directly on the external drive either. So, if you run out of storage on your iPhone and you want to click some pictures, the only way out is to free up your iPhone storage.

    Accessories to Use External Drives With an iPhone

    Another downside of using an external SSD to record content is that the SSD will keep dangling around and can even come in the way of your recording. Thankfully, there are a few ways to tackle this issue. Topgo has a MagSafe SSD holder for the Samsung T7 that magnetically attaches to the back of your iPhone. This is a smart solution since it uses MagSafe that’s already present on the iPhone.

    iPhone SSD 2

    Neewer has a slightly different solution in the form of an SSD bracket that can then be mounted onto a camera rig. Depending on your use case, you can choose the one that fits the bill. We like Topgo’s solution since you can even use it with something like the camera grip that we mentioned in our list of iPhone filmmaking accessories and kits.

    Should You Buy an External Drive to Film on Your iPhone?

    The answer to this question depends entirely on your use case. If you bought the baseline iPhone, you’re running low on storage, and you want to record ProRes Log videos, you have no other option than getting an external storage device.

    Even if you have ample space on your iPhone, you won’t be able to record 4K 60fps ProRes Log footage without a fast external SSD. So, if your use case involves any of that, we recommend picking up a storage device. As for a recommendation, the Samsung T7 is a solid option.

    We recommend getting at least the 500GB version — especially because ProRes Log footage can be huge. That said, the 1TB version of the Samsung T7 is a stone’s throw away from the price of the 500GB version at which point, it makes much more sense to pick up the higher storage config.

    If you’re a professional filmmaker or you want to learn the art of recording footage in LOG and then color grading it, an external drive to film with your iPhone can be a good investment. It converts your smartphone into a pocket film camera.


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