switch camera while recording iphone, in one take

can you switch camera while recording on iphone? not in the camera app. the iphone's own camera records one camera per clip: you pick front or back before you press record, and the flip button disappears the moment the red dot starts. the iphone 17's dual capture records both cameras at once, the front one in a small box over the back, which is a different thing from flipping. to talk to camera, turn the phone round to show where you are, and turn it back, all in one video, you need an app that does it. underway now does, on the phone, inside any episode you film of yourself.

rich, who films underway's own series in it, found the gap on a walk with his dog: he wanted to say something to camera, then show the park and the dog, then come back to himself, without stopping and starting a new clip each time. as of 13 october there is a flip button low on the right of the picture, and pressing it mid-answer never stops the take.

how to switch camera while recording on iphone in underway

• start any episode you film of yourself on the phone: the interview, just chat, your episode zero, a moment.
• press record and talk as you normally would.
• press flip, low on the right of the picture. the back camera now films where you are while you keep talking.
• press flip again to come back to yourself. do it as often as you like.
• press stop. the phone puts the pieces together into one take, and from there it is one answer like any other.

the red dot and the clock run straight through every flip. underneath, the camera needs a moment to change lens, and that moment is left out of the file, so the episode cuts straight from your face to the view and back. you hear your own voice the whole way through; the only thing missing is the blink while the lens changed.

why the iphone camera app can't flip mid-recording

it is not stubbornness. when an iphone changes from the front camera to the back, it changes the whole capture setup underneath, and a recording in progress ends when that happens. android phones behave much the same way. apps that let you flip mid-video, snapchat and instagram among them, handle that change themselves. underway does it by filming in pieces: each flip ends one piece and starts the next on the other camera, and when you press stop the phone joins them into a single file before anything else sees it. the transcript, the cut, the captions and the episode all work from that one file, exactly as they would from an answer filmed on one camera.

switch camera while recording vs dual capture

dual capture is the right tool when you want to be in the corner of everything. flipping is the right tool when your face should be the frame and the view is the thing you cut to, which is how a video diary is meant to look.

your face stays the episode

underway is a video diary for founders, and the founder is the frame. nothing is cut over you on its own. flip is the one way to show where you are, and it is yours: you decide when the view comes in and when it goes. because the phone knows which stretches were on the back camera, the still of you that covers and thumbnails are drawn from is never taken from the dog. the cut keeps everything you said in the order you said it, flips included.

where it works and where it doesn't

flip is on the phone wherever you record yourself: the interview, just chat, an episode zero, a moment and a fragment. before you press record it simply turns the camera round. flipping during a take needs the newest version of the app from the app store; on an older version flip turns the camera round before you record and hides once you start. it is not on the computer, which has one camera, and it is not offered when you are the bubble over a time-lapse or a moment you are talking over, where the screen behind you is the view already.

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