iPhone Air From Air to 17PM to Air to 17 Pro..

[A1423]

You can

• the perfect phone does not exist
• figure out your set of compromises you're willing to deal with
• buy that phone
• run with it

this is how most people buy phones. They don't change their mind 4 times in the space of a 14 day return window. They spend more than 35 seconds considering their options, pick one and buy it.

Agonising like this over a phone when anything on sale today is 100x better than what we were using a decade ago is.... insane.

I'm not an apple shareholder but this sort of mass return abuse (which is well and truly beyond the scope of the SPIRIT of the policy) just annoys me because that cost isn't passed onto you directly, but at scale it means we all pay more for our devices to cover this stuff.

I never really understood this either.

I’m a pro max buyer, but I was looking pretty heavily at the air. Comparing the specs to the air and PM. Add in some rumblings about apples cellular modem not functioning as expected on t-mobiles network, I decided to stick with my scheme of always getting the PM(or whatever the highest spec’ed phone is”

It took me about 6-10 hours of broken up time to read and think about it. Ordered the pm. Happy with the pm.

I did have though have a chance to hold the air and it’s a dream to hold. I just wasn’t willing to compromise on the battery, modem, and camera system.

 

[tomtad]

Try the regular 17

 

[Abstract]

You’re projecting your own weird tribalism onto me here. I’m a grown-ass adult on the wrong side of 40 who sure as heck doesn’t tie up his identity with his phone.

However, I am a lifelong photographer and bothered that people understand so little about the cameras in their phones. Even reviewers make wrong claims and miss critical details all the time. Frustrating.

The Pro main camera has a well known deficiency in the close-up range. Not only does it not focus very closely, its image quality falls off a cliff near its minimum focus distance. There have been innumerable complaints about close-range corner blurriness since the current Pro lens arrived with the 14 Pro.

As for using the ultrawide for macro – a crude hack at best – that’s far from the quality of the closer-focusing 17’s main camera or the Air’s identical sole camera (which have much bigger sensors and faster lenses).

So in that focusing distance range below the Pro’s main camera min distance but above the Air’s min distance, the Air (and regular 17) have much better image quality than the Pro. This happens to be typical document-scanning distance.

Because the quality delta is so large, the Air continues to beat the Pro’s ultrawide macro even when you have to heavily crop the Air image (to fill the frame with a small document). I hope to test how far this holds true in practice soon.

At some extremely high reproduction ratio, eventually even the compromised ultrawide macro beats the Air by dint of pixels per document, but it takes a surprisingly long time before it beats a heavy crop from the Air’s much larger sensor and faster lens. Especially in dimmer light than direct sunlight. Plus, the Air’s working distance is greater, and that means you’re less likely to block light or cast a hard shadow on the document you’re trying to photograph.


It’s misleading to suggest the Pro does better for document scanning for all the reasons I’ve described. If something isn’t clear I can try to explain it differently.

The Pro does have other camera advantages, obviously.

Maybe someone cares about getting good results for document scanning? If they do, they shouldn’t get a Pro. However, they might have to learn to use the Air camera properly, if it somehow doesn’t occur to them that the photo would need to be in focus. The Air focuses down to about 5 inches. So don’t take the picture at 3 inches. Duh. Crop if you need to.


Grow up.

Actually, the Air’s main camera sensor is the same as the regular 17’s main sensor.

The 17 Pro and Pro Max’s main sensor is much bigger than the Air and regular 17’s (but still small). Actually, the 17 Pro and Pro Max is using the same (or nearly identical) sensor as the iPhone 14 Pro models, so this difference in sensor size has been around for years.

Even so, the lack of macro on the Air is a problem, and makes it harder to live with.

 

[max2]

Few weeks ago saw a little and heard, mostly from a distance, while at a Apple Store someone return four different what looked like iPhones judging from the box sizes. Know it was returns because heard that.

Just so you know I was already there testing the new release devices. Did not ever decide yet but did not stay for more than an hour.

 

[Moreplease]

Actually, the Air’s main camera sensor is the same as the regular 17’s main sensor.

Never said it wasn’t.

The 17 Pro and Pro Max’s main sensor is much bigger than the Air and regular 17’s

It’s a small difference almost entirely offset by the dimmer lenses on the 17 Pros (f/1.78 versus the f/1.6 lens on the Air and 17).

Actually, the 17 Pro and Pro Max is using the same (or nearly identical) sensor as the iPhone 14 Pro models, so this difference in sensor size has been around for years.

It’s the same sensor area and pixel count as the 14 Pro but with a greatly improved readout rate (about double the speed), which makes a difference for a lot of things, e.g. video quality, slow-motion capability, autofocus performance, and computational photography.

Even so, the lack of macro on the Air is a problem, and makes it harder to live with.

Sure, the lack of macro is a problem sometimes. But in other cases it is offset by the camera’s better close-up performance than the Pro’s main camera.

 

[Tsepz]

I heard few times that Air camera is disappointing. Is Air camera worse than regular 17? Anyone has experienced?

From a technical perspective the base 17 and Air use the same Main camera sensor, both have the Sony IMX904, while the Pros use the larger sensor, IMX903. Technically both base 17 and Air camera should perform similarly but maybe the Air has better ISP as it uses the A19 Pro, unlike the base iPhone that uses the standard A19…not sure if there are ISP differences though.