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Halide Maker Does Deep Dive Into iPhone 16 Pro Camera
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It is still 48MP, count them
The number is correct. But yes it is in a bayer format, they aren't the only one and there are different configurations as well in the professional camera world. I also agree that sensor size is more important than pixel count, but ultimately this is a phone device. Larger sensors also require larger lenses. It is not different than why most people do not have a full frame, let alone a medium format camera as their walkabout.Anyway, it really is a 48MP sensor.
Yet another example that 13 Pro still makes better photos than new quad bayer phones. No, I mean in good lighting 15 and 16 will be winners for sure, but when sun goes down computational tricks do not work great.Actually the 15 pro does far better in low light with the ultra wide than does the 16 pro. I have noticed on many shots in various lower light situations. The 16 pro produces poor quality / muddy low light photos with the ultra wide camera.
I noticed it myself when taking some lower light photos for a "before remodel" documentation of my townhome. Having access to a 16 pro, figured I would use the ultra wide camera when I noticed blotchy photos with poor detail and sharpness. I searched the web and confirmed that Tony Northrup himself commented on it in his 16 pro video review.
Hopefully it is just a software thing that will be adjusted / fixed later!
These are crop images from 3 different phones taken handheld at as near as possible the same location with identical artifical lighting.
Full 15 pro Image JPG version for web.
View attachment 2431574
15 Pro
View attachment 2431570
Note the detail on the Microwave clock, The red growler you can see reasonable detail in the patterns around the logo. Same with the white growler to the far left.
Overall noise is acceptable in the image.
16 Pro
View attachment 2431572
Note the lack of detail in the clock, lack of detail in the red & white growlers. Overall there is more noise and less detail. There is also a strange green tint to the overall image.
13 Pro
View attachment 2431571
Image is darker than the newer phones, but decent detail if not slightly over-sharpened. This shot lacks any detail on the red and white growler on the left.
And before anyone asks, yes this is prior to remodel, and yes I can't wait to get rid of the popcorn ceiling
I have looked thru 16 Pro example and can clearly see the thing that I hadn’t seen since my current iPhone 11 Pro: HDR doubling artifacts. It both destroys image detail and makes it look “smudged”.
No doubt this can be removed in RAW and maybe ProRAW modes, but still Apple should double down on processing. I literally don’t understand the point of automatic HDR in low light conditions since the only point there is to collect as much light as possible, there is not much light coming into sensor as during daytime (and thats why HDR was invented: to prevent blown out sky or destructed shadows)
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Maybe he gets free advertising from Apple or free yearly iPhones to “review”. I lold when I read presumably “camera review” which in fact was “phone review”, i.e. in which way phone color influences photo quality?🤣
Day one with my 16pm I took it out for a spin and found the only useful way to use it at night was in raw. I was satisfied with what it pulled off for a smart phone. I would be excited to see what computational photography would do with my a7Rmk5 60mp full frame sensor.
"Maybe" is doing a lot of work there 🤣
EDIT to add from the Halide review: "For the last half decade, around this time of year, we run to the store, hastily unbox the latest iPhone and get shooting."
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Agree. IMX903 was supposed to have a big change in new light technology and size. Looks like the only thing that's changed is readout speed.
The only thing I can find on google is one teardown video on Macrumors claiming it's IMX903 with no further proof. I think it's 803 again. There would be more advertising about this.
Unfortunately this is correct. You can tell if you take a true RAW photo in a third party app off the telephoto lens. In good lighting it is incredibly clear, even though it's 12MP. This is because it's a single frame, so there's no blur from HDR stitching multiple frames together. It looks fantastic. Pretty much as sharp as a 48MP mode. It makes you understand just how large 12 "natural" MP are, before HDR blur.
However, 48MP ProRAW does look quite good and better than default 12MP. It looks good even when displayed on a desktop screen size. It's just in a different category in terms of sharpness because of HDR.
The proof was given way to much time.
Proof video
And directly from that video
iOS 18 code proof
You can call it IMX803 or IMX703 if you want. It's up to you, but that doesn't change the fact, that is IMX903.
As a casual photographer, I haven’t noticed a significant difference between my iPhone 16 Pro and my old 13 Pro. I was excited about the new 48 MP sensors, hoping they would deliver much more detail when zoomed in, but overall, the difference is minimal. So, I’m rather disappointed.
Of course, you can't compare the 48MP of Sony's tiny quad-bayer iPhone sensor with a 48MP full-frame camera. They are tiny little pixels, i.e. photo diodes, which are not quadrupled but combined with pixel binning to 12 MP to achieve better light sensitivity. If the light is sufficient, you can get slightly more resolution in 48MP on the main sensor than in 12MP. I have taken pictures of test charts and thousands of shots in museums and there is a difference, not huge but still significant, in resolution between 12MP and 48MP ProRAW images.
Wait...
48 megapixel, PRO RAW....pro. So whats normal raw...not pro?
Wow. Apple marketing folks are loons. ProRes is one thing, but pro raw literally means nothing. Nada. Zip.
They make naive consumers dance with these funny fake names for basic technology. Why don't they just call it a pro camera..
48 megapixel, PRO RAW....pro. So whats normal raw...not pro?
Wow. Apple marketing folks are loons. ProRes is one thing, but pro raw literally means nothing. Nada. Zip.
They make naive consumers dance with these funny fake names for basic technology. Why don't they just call it a pro camera..
It is ProRAW, and many manufacturers of cameras dive their name to a RAW format as often, whilst RAW, it has their own little twist in its file formats; IIQ, 3FR, DCR, K25, KDC, CRW, CR2, ERF, MEF, MOS, NEF, ORF and so on…Wait...
48 megapixel, PRO RAW....pro. So whats normal raw...not pro?
Wow. Apple marketing folks are loons. ProRes is one thing, but pro raw literally means nothing. Nada. Zip.
They make naive consumers dance with these funny fake names for basic technology. Why don't they just call it a pro camera..
In its core they are based on the Adobe DNG format, however there are specific settings and additional metadata applied that others not have.
So entirely normal to distinguish the type of raw format.