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Apple Starts Planning a Future iPhone's Cameras Around Three Years in Advance

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Following the launch of the iPhone 13 models, Apple's vice president of camera hardware engineering Graham Townsend and vice president of camera software engineering Jon McCormack spoke with British GQ's Robert Leedham about iPhone cameras.

iPhone-13-Pro-Light-Blue-Side-Feature.jpg

Townsend revealed that Apple starts planning future iPhone camera systems about three years in advance of public availability, suggesting that the company began developing the camera systems on the iPhone 13 models as early as 2018.
"The planning has to start about three years ahead, because that's when we actually fix the specification of the silicon," says Townsend. "So, for instance, the sensor gets defined at that point and the A15 Bionic processor is also frozen. That's when we have to begin to talk with Jon and predict the experiences that we want. Obviously when we designed the new ultra-wide lens, we were going to deliver macro photos. But how is that going to work both in stills and video?"
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All four iPhone 13 models feature a new Cinematic mode that lets users record video with a shallow depth of field and automatic focus changes between subjects, and McCormack reflected on the challenges of developing this feature.
"It was a long process with lots of windy roads, but like most profound things it takes a while," says McCormack. "We're not just looking at the depth of every single frame, but there's also this thing called temporal stability: as we move between frames with people moving, how do we make sure you don't end up with weird edges and stuff like that?"
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The interview goes on to discuss Apple's environmental responsibility and emphasizes how far the iPhone camera has come over the years.
"We're not asking for the impossible, but we are asking that the camera achieves the best it can every year," says Townsend. "Over the past ten years we've seen a dramatic improvement, but there is no rest."
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Townsend and McCormack also spoke with CNN Underscored's Jacob Krol, touching on the simplicity that Apple aims for with the iPhone camera:
"Long before you even hit the shutter, you just bring the camera up, we're looking at auto exposure, white balance, autofocus to make sure that we're getting all of the right information, raw information captured," Jon McCormack, VP of camera software engineering at Apple, tells us.
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The Stalman Podcast also shared an interview with Townsend and McCormack.

Article Link: Apple Starts Planning a Future iPhone's Cameras Around Three Years in Advance
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/28/iphone-13-camera-interviews/
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TheYayAreaLiving said:
Great news! The day will come when iPhone will be able to produce great results as DSLR.
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Gonna be a couple days before that happens, hard to beat physics! That said, iPhone photos look great on the screen of a phone, just need more data as they start to fall apart a bit when you view them on something larger like a 13" screen. This was one of the reasons I got a Fujifilm for photos of our kid, in case we ever wanted to print them.
 
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AirunJae said:
Gonna be a couple days before that happens, hard to beat physics! That said, iPhone photos look great on the screen of a phone, just need more data as they start to fall apart a bit when you view them on something larger like a 13" screen. This was one of the reasons I got a Fujifilm for photos of our kid, in case we ever wanted to print them.
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You are absolutely correct in that regard.
 
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Wait, everyone knows that Apple doesn’t make final decisions on what will be in an iPhone until a few days before their introduction! I’ve read a LOT of stories about things that Apple cuts at the last minute while still being able to procure parts, build and deliver millions and millions of phones within a week.

This is just someone attempting to undercut Apple’s well known miraculous abilities to produce devices with little to no lead time!

/s
 
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satchmo said:
No, but maybe you can point me to where you got that info.

BTW, Pixel 5 sold 7mil to iPhone 12's 200m. It's a bit easier to change yearly when you don't have to source parts and scale as much.
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Scale also stifles innovation. There was a member who had posted a very informative article on why the innovation at Apple is slow. The gist was obviously “scale”
 
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Unregistered 4U said:
Wait, everyone knows that Apple doesn’t make final decisions on what will be in an iPhone until a few days before their introduction! I’ve read a LOT of stories about things that Apple cuts at the last minute while still being able to procure parts, build and deliver millions and millions of phones within a week.

This is just someone attempting to undercut Apple’s well known miraculous abilities to produce devices with little to no lead time!

/s
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I always assume that "last minute" is a relative term, because yeah, iPhone scale. A lot of people appear to take it literally though.
 
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kstotlani said:
Scale also stifles innovation. There was a member who had posted a very informative article on why the innovation at Apple is slow. The gist was obviously “scale”
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Indeed. There are trade offs with become as successful as the iPhone has become. As much as I dislike the seemingly small incremental changes each year, Apple likely has a general roadmap for 3 years for each new form factor.

I suggested in another thread that it would be cool to see Apple launch an off-shoot company that allows it to pivot, explore and launch new designs/ideas into products much quicker.
 
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satchmo said:
Indeed. There are trade offs with become as successful as the iPhone has become. As much as I dislike the seemingly small incremental changes each year, Apple likely has a general roadmap for 3 years for each new form factor.

I suggested in another thread that it would be cool to see Apple launch an off-shoot company that allows it to pivot, explore and launch new designs/ideas into products much quicker.
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So, from my perspective, as someone who grew up in Silicon Valley, & has seen a number of cycles, Apple's stock is, IMO, the main culprit for what we're seeing with the A15 CPU core, & probably on other projects as well.

When the stock goes up appreciably, those holding (vested) stock options tend to cash out & retire early !
 
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I remember I was dating a girl back in 2014. the iPhone 5s had been out for about 6 months and her dad was an engineer. He was talking about working on the iPhone X and how crazy it was. Guess this just confirms what I thought he was making up.
 
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