Apple's Premiere Tablet Can't Natively Support Its Own Codec—Is This a Bug or Feature?

Apple's new M2 iPad Pro requires a third-party app for ProRes video recording. Here's what you should know.

With the release of the new Apple M2 iPad Pro, content creators can capture video for the first time in ProRes.

Sort of. 

What the company failed to mention is the fact that the iPad’s camera app doesn’t natively support the codec, and users must use a third-party app like FiLMiC Pro.

Looking at the video options on the iPad Pro’s camera, users have discovered that there isn’t an option to select ProRes within the camera settings, leading many to believe this was merely an oversight on the part of Apple or a bug in the iOS 16 camera app code.

An Oversight or a Bug?

Last week, the Cupertino Mothership proudly declared support for ProRes, which turns the tablet into a "complete mobile video studio," in its marketing materials. But when users received their new iPad Pros with M2, they discovered rather quickly that it depends on what your definition of "complete" is.

While the iPhone has been able to record natively with Apple's own professional codec since the iPhone 13, the iPad Pro still misses the mark, at least when it comes to the native camera app.

To unlock support for ProRes, users have to rely on a third-party app with an in-app purchase for the privilege.

The M2 iPad Pro is a rather minor update for this development cycle, with not only ProRes recording, but also the M2 Apple Silicon upgrade and a new hover feature for the Apple Pencil.  Outside of these features, or "fins" as insiders call it, the 6th generation iPad Pro really only provides a modest 20 percent performance boost, if that.

So getting support for ProRes that will enable users to record in Apple’s premiere professional codec would be even more important for content creators.

Third-Party Options

Meanwhile, users can take advantage of ProRes support with a third-party app like FiLMiC Pro, but that comes with an additional cost, and with FiLMiC going to a weekly subscription model, it’s adding insult to injury on the part of Apple that users can’t truly do what Apple says they can.

Moreover, while users can technically still use ProRes using the iPad Pro as a video camera, having to rely on a third-party app and not mentioning it seems like an embarrassing oversight on Apple's part. Usually, the company mentions third-party capabilities and features of the app developer comments in their announcements.

But in this case, Apple rather bizarrely takes all the credit while giving users none of the native support it says it does. Hopefully, Apple will release an update to iPadOS that will free up the native camera app to select ProRes as an option soon.

Until then, users can always look at the app store. Or try an actual camera.