Don’t just take a live photo from your phone—film stories that live forever. Explore in our article how anamorphic lenses help creators move beyond the frame with stunning cine shots.
In today’s content creation era, creativity is a currency that does wonders for many. To make such content, people can easily take a live photo or a selfie or create a traditional video to share their creativity with the world.
As the standard of creativity rises in 2025, the selection between taking live photos, creating video clips with b-roll, or going all in with cinematic-grade content has to be made. Let’s explore what each of those has to offer.
Live Photos for Casual Shooting
First, anyone who wants to take a live photo finds it extremely convenient, as it can be done with one tap from their phone. This technology of imaging also creates a bridge between still images and traditional video. Available only on iPhone, the camera captures a short video of 1.5 seconds before and after you press the shutter button on your screen. The experience is just like taking an ordinary photo, but it saves a clip in the background.
The idea of this hybrid image–video file is actually pretty clever, as it lets you create photos and also enriches them with more memory viewable with just one tap. But placing it in the content creation domain quickly highlights its limitations in storytelling, one of the core components of today’s content creation industry.
There is no control over depth or focus, no options for framing, and the end resolution is also pretty restrictive. All these make it a tool for creating casual memories and motion-based portraits or snapshots where detail or creativity is not required.
Dedicated camera for today's content industry.
Professional content creators recognize that to take a live photo is to accept the limitations that come along with it. This is why almost all of them opt for a professional camera with a dedicated camera lens for creating short clips and long-form content.
First, this gives them complete control over the depth and focus of the stills and video they are creating. Meaning they can bring in the most in-demand features in a frame, like professional-grade object isolation, oval bokeh, and image flattering.
Using dedicated camera systems, especially with the full-frame architecture, gives them higher optical quality than a regular live photo from an iPhone. The core reason behind this is the difference in the physical limitations of optics in a smartphone as compared to a fully dedicated camera system.
Having said that, professional stills and “cinematic” video stills are not just about high resolution or smooth motion in the frame, but the ability to capture a scene in such a way that its audience’s attention will be pulled in due to rich details and beauty with immersiveness.
A scene capturing a closeup of a face with freckles and blue eyes with a creamy bokeh background, and a cinematic night scene with a slow pan slowly moving across a silent room filled with fading light are examples of such shots made with cinematic hardware. All of this is just not possible with that humble live photo-video system of the iPhone.
Best Camera Lens for Cinematic Video & Stills in 2025
The very first question when moving from iPhone to dedicated camera platforms is, what is the best tool to start capturing cinematic visuals? We are here to help you with our recommendation of the
SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens, a complete set of lenses designed to curate those who want to preserve memories like they do with live photos.
Available in different focal lengths and optimized for full-frame camera systems, this lens series is built to deliver professional-grade performance without breaking the bank. Each lens features a T2.9 aperture with its super bright performance in low light and a 1.6x squeeze factor from its anamorphic optics.
This enables the lens system to create stunning and crisp videos and stills, matching a Hollywood-grade scene. The lens also adds blue flares, further adding more detail to your stills and making them look like a cinema scene.
Wrapping Up:
Taking a live photo is for those who want a casual shooting of their memories. If you want to level up, investing in a dedicated camera system is non-negotiable. The SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens is designed to enable full-frame cameras to shoot ultra-crisp cinematic shots, which are relevant for today’s cinematic and content creation standards.
