1080p video recording with stabilization and noise reduction. You know how difficult it can be for a filmmaker on a budget to find that for a low price? It’s damn near impossible.

Or, it was. Until today. Apple has announced the iPhone 4S. It’s not the world-changer people were expecting, but that’s fine. It’s like the 3GS a couple years ago. Except this time they’ve upgraded their fantastic camera. Big time.

Many budget filmmakers, and even the director of Old Boy, have attempted to make movies with the iPhone 4. There were some problems with it though. Firstly, it didn’t have image stabilization, so the video is often shaky if you’re not using a tripod. Background noise got in the way too. Plus, where was 1080p!? 720p is great, but come on now.

It still shoots at 30 frames per second, which is a bit fast for a film (faster than the 24 fps norm, that is). But it does have larger aperture so more light gets through, and that’s better video for all the filmmakers out there.

So how do you get this thing, what I’m going to call the messiah of low-budget filmmakers? You can preorder here starting October 7 (that’s 3 days!) and it arrives in stores on October 14. It’ll be available on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon and there’s a 16GB model for $199, 32GB model for $299 and 64GB model for $399. Of course, the prices are with a 2-year contract. [Apple]

Apple, budget filmmaking, iPhone 4S