Apple's new "Cinematic Mode" is one of the major new features of the iPhone 13 series, but it has some troubling drawbacks that may limit its usefulness.

As highlighted in a tweet by YouTuber Erfon Elijah, the iPhone 13's cinematic mode only works at 1080p resolution and at 30 fps. 4K and 24 fps frame rates that the iPhone 13 camera can handle in other modes There are no options for 4K or 24fps frame rates that the iPhone 13 camera can handle in other modes.

Apple is not hiding this information, as the official iPhone 13 technical specifications and iPhone 13 Pro technical specifications pages also mention this. However, this limitation is still disappointing.

Cinematic mode is available on all four iPhone 13 models and is designed for those who want to make their videos more immersive and professional. The idea is that people can shoot "cinematic-style moments of video with beautiful depth-of-field effects."

Simply put, this camera mode automatically tracks the subject and makes cinema-style focus changes on the fly. It is essentially a portrait mode for video, with a few additional features, including the ability to switch focus to different subjects depending on the situation in the frame. It should not be confused with ProRes mode, which is only available on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

ProRes is "an advanced video codec widely used as a final delivery format for commercials, feature films, and broadcast, offering higher color fidelity and lower compression ratios." In other words, Cinematic Mode is the effect and ProRes is the format.

ProRes is available in 4K and 30 fps if you have a phone with at least 256 GB of storage. This is disappointing for those who were hoping to be able to record 4K video with the bokeh effect that cinematic mode can add.

So we can add another item to our list of upgrades we hope for in the iPhone 14. Let's hope Apple can make it happen by this time next year.