Easily Record and Edit Videos on iPhone with Videon
The iPhone has a decent built-in camera, but the stock camera app has very limited functionality, especially for editing videos. While we wait for iOS improvements, we rely on apps to enhance our video recording experience on the iPhone. One such app is Videon, designed to optimize and enhance your video recording experience.
Videon is an iOS-exclusive app that allows you to edit, merge, trim, or split your recordings. You can also take photos while video recording, a feature not found in many other apps. These great features come at a small price of $2.99, but we believe it’s worth it. Here’s our take on Videon.
Setting Up Videon
When you first launch the app, you’ll see a lot of buttons. Here is what each button does:
- The ‘Red’ dot button starts recording.
- The ‘Camera’ icon takes photos while recording a video.
- The gear icon opens the camera ‘Settings’.
- The ‘Wheel’ at the bottom right is the zoom function.
- The 3 buttons in the center lock Exposure, Focus, and White Balance.
- The square icon on the bottom left accesses your past recordings.
- Turns on the camera flashlight.
In the settings, you can choose to use the front or back camera.
The settings also let you change the resolution for your recordings. You can only change the resolution of the back camera; the front camera’s resolution will be maxed out.
You can change the recording frame rate to have better quality videos under low light conditions with a lower frame rate. The default camera uses the 24-30 frames per second option.
You can also lower the video quality to save storage space on your iOS device.
You can disable recording audio entirely or choose to use one or both microphones on the iPhone.
If you scroll down a little more, you’ll see options to:
- Turn on/off video stabilization
- Turn on/off lock focus
- Turn on/off crosshair and geotagging
Still on the settings page, you can set the max zoom range.
You can set the zoom speed to slow, medium, or fast. Setting the zoom speed as fast might result in a shaky video when you’re zooming. The medium option provides a steady zoom and stable recording.
Lastly, you can choose where to save your recordings, either in the app or to the camera roll. Saving in the app means your videos won’t mix with your photos in the camera roll. However, any photos taken while recording will be saved to the camera roll.
Start Recording with Videon
After setting up the app, start recording by tapping the ‘Red’ dot. When recording starts, a timer indicates the recording duration.
You can now take photos while recording a video. First, tap on the screen to choose where to focus the camera. Once it says ‘Focus Lock’, tap the ‘Camera’ icon to take a photo.
To zoom in, swipe on the ‘Wheel’ icon. This feature is particularly useful since the stock camera app does not have a zoom function.
When done, tap the ‘Red’ dot to stop recording.
Edit Your Recorded Video
Videon includes a built-in video editor with awesome features. Tap on your past recordings on the bottom left to access the video editor.
The left column displays all your past recordings, while the right side shows a video preview. On top of the video preview are 5 icons: effects, merge, trim/split, save, and delete.
Effects
There are 17 effects you can use to edit your video. One effect lets you adjust the video speed to make it faster or slower.
You can also adjust the exposure level of your video.
The editor also lets you resize your video.
We won’t go through all the effects, but here are the other 14:
- Reverse
- Contrast
- Hue
- Saturation
- Vibrance
- Temperature
- Highlights
- Shadows
- Sepia
- Sharpen
- Quality
- Mute
- Black & White
- Invert
Merge Videos
You can merge your video recordings by selecting them in the order you want them to be combined and tapping the ‘Tick’ icon to merge.
After merging, you can choose to keep your original recordings or delete them to save storage space.
Note that there are no options for adding transitions between videos, so your cuts might appear abrupt.
Trim & Split
If your recording is too long or contains unnecessary parts, you can use the Trim or Split options.
Trimming works similarly to the stock camera app. Simply select the start and end points to remove the unwanted sections.
You can save your trimmed video as a new clip or choose ‘Trim Original’ to overwrite the original recording.
Splitting allows you to divide a clip into multiple, shorter clips. Go to the part of the recording you want to split and press the ‘+’ icon. A silver marker will indicate the split point on the timeline.
You can choose to keep the original recording or remove it after splitting.
Save or Delete Your Work
When you are done editing, tap the ‘Arrow’ icon to save your work to the camera roll.
To delete any recordings, select a recording and tap the ‘Dustbin’ icon.
Additional Info
Tap once on the preview video to see details such as the recording date, time, file size, frame rate, and resolution.
You can also take screenshots of a recording you’re currently previewing using the camera button.
In conclusion, the numerous features of Videon make the small cost worth it.