Why not make vertical video a manual option Horizontal always default?

[Hugo Drax]

Is there a technical reason why apple and samsung do not make horizontal video the default regardless of how the camera is positioned?

They can make vertical video a manual option if the user chooses to do so.

We can develop autonomous cars but cannot solve the vertical video problem.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Because they design their products according to how the users use it rather than how nerds want/prefer it.

 

[Homerboy]

Because they design their products according to how the users use it rather than how nerds want/prefer it.

What should be done is when you're holding the camera "naturally" in the vertical position, it shoots horizontal video. This would alleviate 99.9% of the vertical videos.

 

[TallBill]

What should be done is when you're holding the camera "naturally" in the vertical position, it shoots horizontal video. This would alleviate 99.9% of the vertical videos.

This

 

[Hugo Drax]

Because they design their products according to how the users use it rather than how nerds want/prefer it.

I doubt users prefer vertical videos. it looks like shit and cuts off the majority of the content.

Do you really think people like vertical videos?

 

[zinfamous]

Shhhh! you are spilling the beans on my highly-profitable "HD video" app that I still haven't gotten around to working on.

 

[NoTine42]

From a technical perspective, I believe data is read from the sensor in horizontal lines and the chip is not square (so it would not be "as wide"
It would cost more to use a square chip and additional processing needed to basically rotate 60 jpg's /second.
Processing wise, we might be there for 1080 video, but not 4K.

 

[Hugo Drax]

From a technical perspective, I believe data is read from the sensor in horizontal lines and the chip is not square (so it would not be "as wide"
It would cost more to use a square chip and additional processing needed to basically rotate 60 jpg's /second.
Processing wise, we might be there for 1080 video, but not 4K.

I wonder if the next iphone will have a larger square chip. some pictures of a prototype shows a larger lens area.

 

[NoTine42]

I wonder if the next iphone will have a larger square chip. some pictures of a prototype shows a larger lens area.

It could just be a larger chip. Lenses are round, film and chips are rectangular so there is usually wasted image space.
Panasonic used to use a somewhat larger than needed chip in cameras as "multi aspect ratio"

Some photography fans have wanted square chip cameras o you could choose portrait or landscape shots without rotating the camera... But chip real estate is expensive.

 

[Commodus]

Simple answer: because shooting horizontal video from a vertical position would give you a tiny view of what you're recording. That's fine if you're shooting a concert video, but it'd really suck if it turned out that your subject was out of focus or you otherwise missed a problem because you couldn't see it.

That and people arguably should get to shoot in whatever aspect ratio makes sense. Yes, vertical video normally sucks, but it makes much more sense in an era when people are likely to be watching on their phones. That's particularly true when services like Periscope are practically tailor-made for vertical video.