iPhone 15 Pro 15 Pro vs Pro Max: apples to apples comparisons of 3x vs 5x telephoto?

[fancy_pance]

I’m torn between the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Camera quality is the most important consideration for me. I love the idea of 5x zoom with the Pro Max, but I’m wondering how much tradeoff there is in quality when digital zooming in each phone’s respective ‘dead zones’ (between 2-5x for the PM, and >3x for the Pro).

Does anyone have any ‘apples to apples‘ comparisons showing both at 3x and 5x? I’ve seen lots of 15 vs 14 (and earlier) type comparisons, but hardly any that compare the 15 Pro to the 15 Pro Max.

Also, I assume all the other camera modules are identical and produce identical results?

 

[Shirasaki]

These “optical zooms” all uses some form of pixel binning, and if my iPhone XS Max 1x and 2x is anything to go by, I’d say the difference is pretty marginal, and 5x might not end up being better than 3x.

 

[now i see it]

There’s a thread around here where someone was moaning that the 5X telephoto lens on the 15PM wasn’t very impressive and was only passable in very brightly lit scenes. This person wasn’t happy with the results.

 

[DrTwoFish]

Bumping this thread because I have the same question and haven't seen anything about it in reviews. I'd prefer to jump up to the PM size and 5x zoom for nature, but I take a bunch of pictures of my kids (currently on a 13 mini and missing the 3x of my 11 Pro), and expect I'd end up in the ~3x range a lot for pictures & portraits. 5x is too long indoors and I'm concerned about the "dead space" gap as well. Also curious how portrait mode looks in that ~3x range on both. Thanks!

 

[Azathoth123]

I’ve only had my 15 Pro Max a week or so, but am happy with the 5x lens. I’ve been an amateur and semi-pro photographer most of my life, and understand some of the camera tradeoffs.

Long lenses typically have smaller apertures than short lenses because larger apertures in long lenses makes the lenses a lot larger, and more expensive. And there isn’t much space in a phone. Great firmware and software might mitigate the comparative lack of light sensitivity of long lenses somewhat, but that a longer lens is less sensitive to light in the same size as a shorter lens is not surprising, it’s optical physics.

The 5x lens is a welcome addition for me, it seems sharp. Sebastien de With (?) of Halide likes it too.

 

[golfnut1982]

It seems that when the pro goes from 3x to digital 5x, it produces a better result than when the pro max goes from 5x to digital 3x. Saw it in a video review below. Obv, the optical 5x will do better, than optical 3x for further distance.

 

[ctjack]

Bumping this thread because I have the same question and haven't seen anything about it in reviews. I'd prefer to jump up to the PM size and 5x zoom for nature, but I take a bunch of pictures of my kids (currently on a 13 mini and missing the 3x of my 11 Pro), and expect I'd end up in the ~3x range a lot for pictures & portraits. 5x is too long indoors and I'm concerned about the "dead space" gap as well. Also curious how portrait mode looks in that ~3x range on both. Thanks!

This one is easy. You can watch maxtech on youtube: pro max at 3x produces 3x zoomed pictures from main lens - it is not far better than your mini dialed up to 3x.
Went to the zoo with kids and took 3x pictures on 14pm: caught myself on a thought that 5x would be too much on that day cause animals barely fitted at 3x full size on that day, so i would only end up with headshots on 5x - 3x is unusable on pro max.

 

[hieubui]

It's mainly about the extra reach of the 5x and maybe a little more natural bokeh. The difference in actual image quality is negligible at best.

 

[DrTwoFish]

It seems that when the pro goes from 3x to digital 5x, it produces a better result than when the pro max goes from 5x to digital 3x. Saw it in a video review below. Obv, the optical 5x will do better, than optical 3x for further distance.

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for - real world comparison shots at 3x. Thank you!!!

 

[golfnut1982]

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for - real world comparison shots at 3x. Thank you!!!

I thought his review was excellent.

 

[Macalicious2011]

It seems that when the pro goes from 3x to digital 5x, it produces a better result than when the pro max goes from 5x to digital 3x. Saw it in a video review below. Obv, the optical 5x will do better, than optical 3x for further distance.

Wow. What a comparison. The differences in real usages are perfectly illustrated. I now feel better about choosing the 256GB Pro over a PM 256GB.

 

[Kottu]

Ultra-wide and 5X
(I don't know how to change orientation of attachments)

 

[fancy_pance]

It seems that when the pro goes from 3x to digital 5x, it produces a better result than when the pro max goes from 5x to digital 3x. Saw it in a video review below. Obv, the optical 5x will do better, than optical 3x for further distance.

Thank you, this is super helpful!

 

[DrTwoFish]

To follow up on this, I took a few sample shots at Best Buy last night with my 13 Mini alongside the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, all at 3x telephoto. With the caveat these are all on default settings (which ended up being JPG for my Mini and HEIF for the 15s), there were some pretty noticeable differences that mirror what the Youtube reviewer found.

Here are 100% crops to items at varying distances, again all at 3x. Check out text detail in particular:

 

[sviato]

It seems that when the pro goes from 3x to digital 5x, it produces a better result than when the pro max goes from 5x to digital 3x. Saw it in a video review below. Obv, the optical 5x will do better, than optical 3x for further distance.

Thanks for sharing, great review.

 

[Macalicious2011]

To follow up on this, I took a few sample shots at Best Buy last night with my 13 Mini alongside the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, all at 3x telephoto. With the caveat these are all on default settings (which ended up being JPG for my Mini and HEIF for the 15s), there were some pretty noticeable differences that mirror what the Youtube reviewer found.

Here are 100% crops to items at varying distances, again all at 3x. Check out text detail in particular:View attachment 2298621View attachment 2298619View attachment 2298617

Thanks.

I went from 11 Pro Max to 13 Mini to 15 Pro. Gotta say that I’m genuinely relieved to have a telephoto lens. I use it more than the wide angle lens.

 

[coso]

Of course at 3x the Pro will be better than the Max, because at that length it can only crop the 1x image. It's the sharpness at 5x which is amazing. 5x is definitely harder to use as a focal length though. But the upside is that the 2x is very useable, and I don't miss 3x much now. This is a great review of the Max camera system, especially 5x https://www.lux.camera/iphone-15-pro-max-review/
I'm quite excited of my 5x, I'm not sure it's super worth staying on the regular Pro just for the 3x, but of course there could be some scenarios where it makes sense