Other As expected, iPhone 17 Pro / Max telephoto 8X is crop zoom

[Turbonow]

Anyone who has an idea why black is not available this year? Is aluminium problematic with black paint, or just a stupid sales gimmick?

I've always preferred black/dark grey to be stealthy as much as possible. Colourful phones may get unwanted attention in public (some people may wish that anyway). I'll buy the natural grey one instead - no other choice given.

Is the grey painted or original alloy material? Lat year, titanium grey was raw unpainted material if I'm not wrong.

 

[EugW]

Anyone who has an idea why black is not available this year? Is aluminium problematic with black paint, or just a stupid sales gimmick?

I've always preferred black/dark grey to be stealthy as much as possible. Colourful phones may get unwanted attention in public (some people may wish that anyway). I'll buy the natural grey one instead - no other choice given.

Is the grey painted or original alloy material? Lat year, titanium grey was raw unpainted material if I'm not wrong.

Grey? There is a Silver colour but none listed as grey for the 17 Pro / Max. Since it's called Silver, I'm assuming it's just regular plain aluminum. BTW, over time if you ever get any scratches, plain aluminum by far looks the best because it's much harder to see the scratches. For a long time I used to just get aluminum coloured Macs and iPhones for this reason.

However, for the 17 Pro Max I'm getting the Cosmic Orange, just because. Pre-order completed. If you like dark colours though, the Deep Blue looks pretty dark, I suspect even darker than my iPhone 12 Pro Max's Pacific Blue.

P.S. The anodization process is much better these days, but I remember back in the day with the black iPhone 5, it often looked quite bad in no time because the anodization was so easily chipped off.

 

[EugW]

The square FaceTime camera seems decent too, for vertical landscape selfies, Center Stage, and dual video recording.

 

[LonestarOne]

I would still refer to this as “optical quality” as you’re filling the entire sensor with your image.

No, you’re filling the sensor with *part* of the image. The actual image is circular, but it’s cropped because the sensor is rectangular. Again, almost all cameras work this way. I can only think of one exception, off hand, and that’s a camera that isn’t manufactured anymore.

You’re reaching very hard to find something to be angry about. Why is that so important to you?

 

[LonestarOne]

Sounds like it:

iPhone 17 Pro: 48MP, IMX803, 1/1.28" (?)
iPhone 16 Pro: 48MP, IMX803, 1/1.28"

The iPhone 16 Pro uses the IMX903 sensor, with a size of 1/1.14”.

 

[Onimusha370]

No, you’re filling the sensor with *part* of the image. The actual image is circular, but it’s cropped because the sensor is rectangular. Again, almost all cameras work this way. I can only think of one exception, off hand, and that’s a camera that isn’t manufactured anymore.

You’re reaching very hard to find something to be angry about. Why is that so important to you?

I’m not angry, I’m trying to explain my opinion. My point is that you’re filling the entire sensor with light. When you’re taking a portion of the sensor, I’d call that a digital zoom rather than optical. By your logic, do you think the iPhone also has a 400mm optical quality lens?

 

[EugW]

The iPhone 16 Pro uses the IMX903 sensor, with a size of 1/1.14”.

For a long time the 16 Pro was rumoured to get the IMX903 1/1.14" sensor, but after the 16 Pro release, most sites indicated it was still the IMX803 1/1.28" sensor.

 

[jz0309]

4X 100 mm telephoto, and 8X 200 mm "optical quality" crop zoom

yea, quite disappointing ...

 

[loybond]

I’m not angry, I’m trying to explain my opinion. My point is that you’re filling the entire sensor with light. When you’re taking a portion of the sensor, I’d call that a digital zoom rather than optical. By your logic, do you think the iPhone also has a 400mm optical quality lens?

As a photo enthusiast and ex pro photog, you're absolutely right. Cropping is cropping, and it absolutely isn't the same thing as the coverage of an image circle. There will always be someone to disagree with you just cause.

The 2x will look like a$$ in low light, and the 8x may even be a super crop of the 1x in low light as it has been with past telephotos, but I'm hoping the larger sensor this year finally gets rid of that.

At some point (12 and 13 pro era) Apple marketed the camera system as a 5x zoom range. They got that by taking the ultrawide (which they normally frame as being 0.5x) as the default focal length, so 0.5 x 2.5 = 5.

IMO the whole thing reeks of them not knowing what to do. 2.5x, 3x, 5x, now 4x. Sometimes they want to follow the Asian phone manufacturer trends, sometimes not.

My opinion - the phone needs another lens. 10x optical with a 48mp sensor. 4x is fine, or 3.5x (closer to 85mm) with a much larger aperture if possible. That would truly cover the spectrum, everything from 13mm to 240mm would be covered, more or less matching the camera bro trifecta of the 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 lenses.

 

[drrich2]

So how does this compare with what the higher end Android phones from Samsung and Google offer in terms of higher level telephoto and true optical zoom/high resolution? Will Apple's Pro/Pro-Max offering be seen as 2nd rate before it hits users' hands, or is it competitive?

 

[EugW]

So how does this compare with what the higher end Android phones from Samsung and Google offer in terms of higher level telephoto and true optical zoom/high resolution? Will Apple's Pro/Pro-Max offering be seen as 2nd rate before it hits users' hands, or is it competitive?

For the foreseeable future, the best high end Android camera phones will continue to have better camera hardware than the iPhones... because Apple does not sell high end camera-specific iPhones. Apple sells high iPhones with good cameras, but not necessarily the absolute best. However, Apple tends to have amongst the most consistent and accurate colour rendition due to its consistent and advanced SoC's photo processing engines. Also, the best high end Android camera phones are generally not the mainstream Android phones either, and often just hold a niche market, which can be problematic when it comes to the hardware and software ecosystem support.

To put it another way, iPhones all have good to great cameras, but not necessarily the absolute best cameras. Android has cameras that range from utter junk to the absolute best, but with less consistency in image processing, colour rendering, and software and hardware ecosystem support.

 

[lennisd]

Fake 8x seems pretty competitive with fake 10x to me. Not sure about the intimate details of the cameras themselves.

So how does this compare with what the higher end Android phones from Samsung and Google offer in terms of higher level telephoto and true optical zoom/high resolution? Will Apple's Pro/Pro-Max offering be seen as 2nd rate before it hits users' hands, or is it competitive?