If I upgrade my iPhone sooner than originally planned (I figure five years is fine) it will be due to this control and enhanced cameras added down the line. I anticipate improved hardware (if required) and software (which should address niggles) in the coming years.
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iPhone 16 Pro I predict the Camera control button will be gone in less than 3 years
- Thread starter LoveToMacRumors
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A big issue for me is that it’s essentially in the exact same place as the volume up button, just on the other side. But it’s also flush with the phone making it harder to actually press without shaking the camera. As just a shutter button, I think the volume up is superior. Launching the camera is great but it requires 2 clicks of the button from screen off. Whereas last year you could just set the camera to the action button right beside the volume up. Hold the action button once and you’re in the camera then hit volume up to snap a picture.
In reality, both of these buttons are annoying because one you have to double click to launch the camera and the other you have to hold to launch the camera.
But my accidental zooms trying to snap a pic with the Camera Control is making me appreciate the Action button / volume up combo from last year that I never used.
Mainly I had high hopes for camera control because I shoot vertical video for work all day and the Action button was useless for that. It works well for launching the camera vertically but after that I can hold the phone more stable by just hitting record on the screen.
What we actually want is less people to shoot and film in portrait. There is a reason TVs are landscape. Your eyes prefer wide views to narrow ones.
Cannot agree more. Many people report that placement is very inconvenient, as well as it is “way too capacitive”.
I don’t understand why Apple adds features no one literally asks for.
I had Bixby button on my S10+ back in the days and I remapped it to launch camera. Honestly I rarely used it and relied on on-screen controls for better shots.
I think they will remove it much earlier than 5 years, iPhone 18 and it will be gone
I don’t understand why Apple adds features no one literally asks for.
I had Bixby button on my S10+ back in the days and I remapped it to launch camera. Honestly I rarely used it and relied on on-screen controls for better shots.
I think they will remove it much earlier than 5 years, iPhone 18 and it will be gone
A great way out of this is introduction of new shooting ratio like 8:7 on GoPro which is almost square, so anyone can crop it perfectly and everything that is shot with it will be always in frame. Unfortunately 16:9 is a very cropped ratio and was introduced long ago as a compromise to be able to shoot videos in higher resolution but with older image processors that could barely render 720p or 1080p
I really feel bad for Apple sometimes.
Apple releases a new device.
49.5% of forum posters: Apple is so lame why don't they change more stuff and give us more new things
Another 49.5% of forum posters: Apple is so lame, making totally stupid and meaningless features. I didn't even use it once before disabling it. In fact I smashed the camera button with a hammer before I even turned the phone on for the first time it was so lame.
🤣
Apple releases a new device.
49.5% of forum posters: Apple is so lame why don't they change more stuff and give us more new things
Another 49.5% of forum posters: Apple is so lame, making totally stupid and meaningless features. I didn't even use it once before disabling it. In fact I smashed the camera button with a hammer before I even turned the phone on for the first time it was so lame.
🤣
Terrible feature. Marketing department desperately added feature attempting to differentiate this years phones
The iPhone is portrait, it just is, and the iPhone changed the world. You can hold it landscape and you do on YouTube when you’re getting invested, but… day to day… you hold the iPhone vertically.
I say this as a director and cinematographer of award-winning movies who absolutely despised vertical video.
Now I work in marketing shooting vertical video for Fortune500 brands. What I shoot primarily goes to TikTok or IG reels. It’s meant to be viewed on your phone, held vertical. It’s a different medium but it’s still a medium. Do I want to rotate my phone every time I open Instagram? No. So we adapt.
Last week I had to film a video both vertically for TikTok and horizontally for a YouTube version and it was funny because I’ve honed vertical video so well that the horizontal version was awful. I’d adapted to telling the story in a vertical frame and had a very hard time fitting it in focus horizontally.
I would have never imagined that in the past. I’m the snooty film guy. I shot my last movie in 2:35.1 in 8k raw redcode that I only let go through 1 generation loss before the 4K master out of DaVinci Resolve.
Now I make TikToks on salary and make way more money than I ever did in actual film. The “Pro” in iPhone Pro covers a lot more use cases than meets the eye.
It will quietly be converted into a fingerprint sensor.
I like it more than pinching the screen. After an hour or so of use, it is growing on me. Taking images with one hand is way more easy. If you do not like it, don’t use it.
I do loads of photos with my phone and am already using it a lot. Not so sure it’ll disappear. The action button on the other hand I used once last year to keep my phone on silent and never touched it since.
I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and hold judgment for a few days. Having said that, initial gut feeling is this is far more complicated to use than using the on screen controls.
Related point. When did the Camera app get so damn complicated? I honestly feel like I must go into the Apple Store for one of their Today at Apple trainings on this.
Related point. When did the Camera app get so damn complicated? I honestly feel like I must go into the Apple Store for one of their Today at Apple trainings on this.
It’s absolutely my favorite feature on the 16. I thought i would care but i love it.
Yeah, I’m hoping the positioning of it is ok. If it is, a physical button is so much better for shutter control. I never use the buttons on the screen to take a picture with. Always the volume buttons for me.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
- Henry Ford
Users have problems and needs but it’s up to the companies to recognise those and design solutions. Designing good and innovative solutions is surprisingly hard.
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only that 3D touch tried to do something with hardware that wasn't possible (available) with software, only to make almost all of its features available without the dedicated hardware, and the Camera Control (button) takes what was previously only available through software (UI) and makes it optionally available with hardware.Like 3D Touch?
But yeah I agree, 3D touch was a piece of dedicated hardware that Apple allowed to only be used the way they intended (remember the scale app for weighing ingredients for cooking that was removed real fast from the AppStore?) just to be removed 3 years later even though it was technically impressive and superior to the software only version, being useful for those few who actually bother to use it or at least know it exists.
Now, the camera button has the obvious upside of being very present and not hidden behind the screen, but still. I hope OP is wrong, and I think they are. But if not, let me make a different prediction
The Camera Control will see more love and attention (hardware and software updates) than the Touch Bar ever did
I've been trying to get my family to do more in landscape. They all like to do vertical, most of the time. Landscape is where iPhones cameras shine.
considering YouTube is the only place to upload horizontal footage now AND YouTube easily takes vertical footage… why fight it? It’s sad for me to say, but vertical footage can be uploaded anywhere and horizontal has only one place to upload.
I haven’t used it extensively yet but I always like it a lot. It’s easy for me to access in portrait or landscape mode. It’s easier to push for photos than the sometimes awkward on screen controls, given my hand size.
It’s not life changing but it’s a great new feature in my opinion.
It’s not life changing but it’s a great new feature in my opinion.
It really does seem like Apple executives came up with it simply because they needed a difference from the 15 pro.
We’re way beyond peak iphone.
We’re way beyond peak iphone.
Came here to say something similar. Most people are taking photos and videos vertically (portrait mode), so they won’t even consider using the button.
I thought the new camera button was way down on the right, about an inch from the bottom of the phone, where the mmWave antenna was?
That's nowhere near the location opposite the volume buttons.
A future Pro version will remove the button as an innovative exclusive Pro feature. People will line up on launch day to buy this to be delivered from the touch button. Then it will roll out to the non Pro versions in a year or two. Tim Cook wins again.
The need for Apple to present innovations on new iPhone models.