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iPhone Air 24MP vs 48MP
- Thread starter kindaichi81
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HouseLannister
macrumors 68040
Which one should YOU use? How would I know? What kind of photos do you typically take? What device do you generally view your photos on? Do you edit your photos? Do you print your photos? Do you have 20/20 vision? How much storage do you have free? Do you pay for additional cloud storage?
FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
James6s
macrumors 68020
I take a lot of photos on my iPhone 17 and have 48mp HEIF enabled permanently on both the main and ultrawide cameras.
The benefits are higher resolution for cropping and the odd Photo print.
Another difference between 24mp & 48mp is that the 48mp mode produces brighter photos with less contrast.
Subtle but noticeable. Some examples below, standard photographic style with no edits.
24mp
48mp
The benefits are higher resolution for cropping and the odd Photo print.
Another difference between 24mp & 48mp is that the 48mp mode produces brighter photos with less contrast.
Subtle but noticeable. Some examples below, standard photographic style with no edits.
24mp
48mp
FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
There’s virtually no way 48MP is going to “look” worse than 24MP, and certainly will “look” better in many circumstances (e.g. if you have to crop). If you just want to know which one LOOKS best, it’s 48 hands down.
The reasons NOT to use 48MP on everything revolve around storage. If you take a lot of photos and don’t have a lot of free storage then yeah, maybe 24MP is better for you.
James6s
macrumors 68020
Like I said, I have mine set to 48mp resolution permanently. 48mp looks better IMO.
Obviously they take up more storage but I have 512gb as I take lots of photos.
joshwithachance
macrumors 68030
iaynnu
macrumors newbie
AnthroMatt
macrumors 6502a
Yes 48 MP looks different, because the AI cannot do yo much harm to the photo like in the 24 MP mode. Keep in mind portrait detection is not avilable in 48 MP mode. I also tried out 12 MP which uses way less AI sharpening and produces a nicer looking image than 24 MP. Then you lose the 35mm feature. I just want to reduce AI overprocessing in photos where it is not needed. Is this so hard?
FeliApple
macrumors 601
Yeah, some 48MP pictures of mine take 4X the storage. Better for cropping and they might look slightly better on the iPhone screen itself (which is 99% of my use case). But better enough to justify 4X the storage? Not really, imo. I take occasional 48MP photos but not that many.
You can enable it manually, if you enable Resolution Control in the Camera settings. Then in the Camera app, you'll see top left HEIF48 option. It turns "off" every time, so you need to enable it each time if you want, or there's a way you can Preserve Settings so it's always on.
I personally leave it optional/manual, as I take a decent number of photos where I don't need the 48mp. Or it's lower light anyways (so won't let you take 48mp to pixel bin / get 4:1 to get less grainy). And only when I feel like it's a certain type of photo I might want HQ (people in good light, or like nature). Otherwise, I'm fine with 24mp.
James6s
macrumors 68020
Back with my one true love from the latest generation of iPhones, iPhone Air.
And as I stated earlier in here, I have 48mp set permanently. Obviously the phone will resort to lower resolution when night mode is required and 24mp in 1x portrait and 12mp with the 2x portrait.
My mobile carrier had a great deal which is most likely due to the Air’s lower than expected sales. £160 off and just £1 more for the 1TB version, so I’m not worried about photo size with all that storage to load up!
And as I stated earlier in here, I have 48mp set permanently. Obviously the phone will resort to lower resolution when night mode is required and 24mp in 1x portrait and 12mp with the 2x portrait.
My mobile carrier had a great deal which is most likely due to the Air’s lower than expected sales. £160 off and just £1 more for the 1TB version, so I’m not worried about photo size with all that storage to load up!