Content creator Jason Frankle (@worldpins) recently visited Utah's only butterfly conservatory and insectarium, the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point, and he decided to shoot with his Sony Xperia 1 V there. “It’s a really cool place,” he explains. “They rescue a lot of butterflies and release them in this big biosphere. You go into this special room and they’re all flying around. It’s a year-round exhibit so they maintain the temperature inside throughout the year. My Sony Xperia 1 V was the perfect tool to have on me to capture photos and videos as I was walking around.” We caught up with him to learn more about how he used the Sony Xperia 1 V to capture beautiful cinematic footage and photos of colorful butterflies.

Using Slow-Motion & S-Cinetone To Create Dreamy Cinematic Video

When Frankle visited the butterfly conservatory, he knew he wanted to capture everything on his Sony Xperia 1 V in slow motion. “I was recording everything in 4K and 120 frames per second to allow me to slow it down five times to really capture all the details of the butterflies moving,” he explains. “And then on top of that, I was recording in S-Cinetone for mobile, which is their new picture profile that resembles a cinematic look that you get on the Sony Venice. It's great because you get it straight out of the phone without needing to color grade in post. So the footage looks fantastic completely out of the phone, and I was recording all the butterflies in S-Cinetone and the video quality just ended up looking great.”

BTS of video recording with the Sony Xperia 1 V

Six Creative Looks, Endless Photo Creation

The Sony Xperia 1 V also features Creative Look, a selection of six color presets that are all optimized with a different combination of color tone, saturation, contrast, sharpness, brightness, and other image elements. Frankle enjoyed trying these out while in the conservatory with the different colors of plants and butterflies.

BTS of Vivid Creative Look (VV)

“There are six creative look styles on the Xperia 1 V,” he says. “It’s a great way to just try out different unique image looks, like vivid or natural. If you want to get a more natural look, you can switch to it and preview it right from the phone. That was really cool to be able to see how different colors would look in the environment. I can add a unique style to the photos and preview it without having to go on my computer and edit it. It's a really quick way to capture great images and get a really unique result from it.”

BTS of Natural Creative Look (NT)

Natural Bokeh With An Optical Zoom (On A Smartphone!?)

The 18-125mm optical zoom on the Sony Xperia 1 V was also a standout feature for Frankle. You can imagine how this zoom would be practical in a wide variety of shooting scenarios, especially with subjects like butterflies. “I normally recommend using a zoom lens when capturing animals and insects because it allows you to capture them clearly without needing to get too close to them,” he explains. “The great thing about the 85-125mm optical zoom lens on the Xperia 1 V is that you get this really nice natural bokeh and not an artificial one that a lot of other phones do. So it really helps to isolate the subject, in this case isolate the butterflies from the background, to get this really nice bokeh effect behind them that makes it look like you’re using a professional camera.”

Photo by Jason Frankle. Sony Xperia 1 V.

Burst Mode For Fast-Moving Scenes (Or Quickly-Fluttering Butterflies)

The Sony Xperia 1 V also supports AF/AE burst shooting. With continuous autofocus calculations and exposures up to 60 times per second, you'll get clear, in-focus shots of even fast-moving scenes. It also gives you a Real-time Eye AF on humans and animals, and Frankle found the burst mode helpful for his quickly-fluttering subjects. “This year they upgraded it to the 30 frames per second burst mode with photos up from 20 frames per second. This really helped me capture all of the intricate details of the butterflies as they're landing and taking off. I was actually able to create a cool 3D effect with the high frame rate by playing it back and forth.”

Photo by Jason Frankle. Sony Xperia 1 V.

The Perfect Tool For Quick Content Creation

Frankle enjoyed shooting with the Sony Xperia 1 V and found the butterfly conservatory to be the perfect place to try out its different features. He says it was a great tool for capturing quick content on the go, and one he can definitely see using alongside his typical Sony setup.

Sony Xperia 1 V.

“I think for me it comes most in handy for capturing really great looking footage really quickly without needing to go on my computer and go through and edit a ton of footage. I can capture amazing cinematic looking footage with S-Cinetone for mobile and a really high 4K 120 frames per second resolution. In a lot of cases, the quality looks like something you get on a full frame camera. It allows me to just bring my phone with me and not really need to bring a big camera if I want to capture these unique moments like this.”

See more of Jason Frankle’s work on Instagram @worldpins.

Learn more about the Sony Xperia 1 V HERE.