Convert Apple Log to Rec.709

Apple Log arrived with iPhone 15 Pro as an option for ProRes recording. Instead of the punchy, ready-to-share picture the Camera app normally produces, it stores a logarithmic curve in the wide Rec.2020 gamut, keeping more highlight and shadow information for later grading. Straight out of the phone it looks grey and pale, which surprises people who switch it on by accident.

That grey look is not a fault. The file simply hasn’t been mapped for a screen yet. Conversion undoes the log curve using Apple’s published formula, moves the colours from Rec.2020 to Rec.709 primaries, and applies a neutral display rendering of our own design with a gentle highlight roll-off. The result is a clean starting point rather than Apple’s exact rendering, which is close but not identical.

Is log worth it on a phone?

For quick clips, usually not: the normal Camera app processing is excellent and needs no work afterwards. Log earns its place when you plan to grade, when a scene has bright windows or sky you want to keep, or when you need iPhone shots to blend with footage from a dedicated camera. Bear in mind that ProRes log files are large, often several gigabytes a minute at 4K, so storage fills quickly.

Apple Log 2 records ProRes or HEVC with a wider gamut than the original Apple Log. Apple’s announcement says the Apple Log 2 LUT is applied in Final Cut Pro for iPad and Mac, and recent Final Cut Pro versions offer both Apple Log and Apple Log 2 as camera LUT choices in the Info inspector.

• Don’t convert Apple Log 2 clips with Apple Log / Rec.2020. The curves are related but the gamut differs, so colours come out subtly wrong, especially saturated reds and greens.
• If you have Apple’s Apple Log 2 .cube, choose Import LUT on the LUT tab and set Apply LUT to Before the grade, with Footage on Standard video (Rec.709).
• Apple Community users report a standalone Apple Log LUT download on Apple’s developer site. We couldn’t confirm its current location or terms, so we don’t link to or host it.

Apple’s free editing apps on the phone don’t offer log conversion: the Photos editor documents Adjust, Filters and Enhance, and iMovie for iPhone documents filters with a strength slider, with no LUT import in either. That leaves a desktop editor, a paid app, or a browser tool like this one. More on the built-in options is in how to colour grade on iPhone.

• Keep the phone plugged in for long clips. Every frame is decoded, converted and encoded on the device, and 4K ProRes is heavy work.
• If Safari can’t decode a file directly, the tool falls back to a converter that also runs on the phone. It works, but it is slower.
• Lock white balance when you shoot log if you can. A clip whose balance drifts mid-take needs trimming into sections to correct cleanly.
• For a series of clips from one session, grade the first and use Copy grade and Paste grade; the copied grade survives opening the next video in the same browser.