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Other iPhone 12 Pro Max Doesn't REALLY have 5x Optical Zoom

LonestarOne said:
No, you’re measuring the range from the center. That’s not the way it’s done.
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Considering the ultra wide doesn’t even have all the features of the the other two and that is not the initial camera you can’t consider it a zoom, on top of that if Apple themselfs considered it as such last gen what changed? You keep ignoring that fact and that is why it’s marketing, it was a 2x zoom last year what changed? Nothing. That’s called marketing.
 
goobot said:
When you call a specific camera 2x zoom last year and then rename the same camera 4x please tell me how that’s not the case?😂 It’s LITERALLY the same camera from last year so how come it suddenly has a new name if it’s the same? The ultra wide is not the default camera either, don’t be such a sheep and defend a company that only cares about your money.
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Except they didn't do that and you still don't understand what "range" means.

The default camera is irrelevant to this discussion.

The wide is 2X the ultrawide.

The tele is 2X the wide.

The new tele is 2.5X the wide.

On iPhones with just two cameras the zoom range is described as 2X.

On iPhones with three cameras the zoom range is described as 4X or 5X with the new tele.

But at least you got to call someone a sheep so thumbs up for that.

PS. I'm calling it zoom because you can choose any focal length despite it being three primes.
 

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LonestarOne said:
No, you’re measuring the range from the center. That’s not the way it’s done.
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It is the emphasis on "range" that is the problem. You are technically right, but the telephoto capability of the camera system is still only 2x (or 2.5x) and they chose to use this slight of hand because they are up against the wall with Samsung's TRUE 5x telephoto zoom and Huawei's 10x. I have used my son's Note 20 Ultra to compare it's 5x to my iPhone 11 Pro 2x, and the difference is night and day. Imagine the average consumer who thinks they are now getting 4x or 5x out of the iPhone 12 Pro only to learn it is NOT 5x times what they see on the screen, unless they first back out to ultrawide to see it come back up to its true 2x.

Face facts, even leakers and bloggers were slobbering 4 days ago about the 4-5x zoom not realizing "range" was just the same way of describing a three camera system...if Apple were honest, it would only say 2x and 2.5x telephoto. Does Nikon get to put a 28mm and 70mm lens in a box and declare it as 28-70mm zoom?
 
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I think a lot of people equate zoom to bringing an object ‘closer’ in a photo. Thus, zoom is often equated with the telephoto lens. I’m not sure the average person considers zooming ‘out’ with ultra wide as optical zoom.

When the telephoto lens was first introduced, it was marketed as 2x zoom. For years, zoom was only equated to zooming ‘in’. Last year, I read a lot about 0.5x vs 1.0x vs 2.0x on the pros but I never saw Apple talk about the 4x zoom ‘range’. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t said, I just don’t recall it. And I certainly don’t recall the 11 marketed as having 2x zoom to account for the range of zooming ‘out’.

So again, I think a fair amount of people, when hearing 4x or 5x zoom, equate that to a stronger telephoto lens. That’s how Apple always marketed it. But now, they shifted the focus to ‘range’ and I won’t think that was unintentional at all.
 
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question.. on my iphone xs, i can zoom 2X without losing quality image.... is it the same 2X on the iphone pro max or higher??
 
dalestrauss said:
It is the emphasis on "range" that is the problem. You are technically right, but the telephoto capability of the camera system is still only 2x (or 2.5x) and they chose to use this slight of hand because they are up against the wall with Samsung's TRUE 5x telephoto zoom and Huawei's 10x.
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<Nicholson Joker voice on> You want to get pedantic? All right, Bats, let’s get pedantic! <Joker voice off>

None of these phones have true zoom lenses. A zoom lens is a lens that can change its focal length continuously over a certain range. These cellphones don’t do that.They just give you the option of switching between cameras with fixed focal-length (i.e. non-zoom) lenses.

The iPhone 11/12 Pro doesn’t *have* a telephoto lens. 52mm is called a “normal lens” in traditional photography because it approximates the human eye. The telephoto range is considered to be anything from 70mm on up.

The “zoom factor” photographers sometimes speak of is measured relative to a normal lens or the human eye. The lenses on the iPhone 11/12 Pro are actually 0.25x, 0.5x, and 1x magnification. On the iPhone Pro Max, they’re 0..25x, 0.5x, and 1.25x.

And “digital zoom” isn’t actually zoom at all. It’s cropping.

But the makers of consumer cameras (point and shoots as well as smartphone cameras) adopted different definitions for their marketing. The entire industry talks about “zoom range” to compare minimum and maximum focal lengths. The only reason you all are losing your feces over this is because it’s Apple instead of Samsung or Huawei.
 
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We know and we dont care. Every phone manufacturer does this because prime lenses don’t zoom...
 
LonestarOne said:
The “zoom factor” photographers sometimes speak of is measured relative to a normal lens or the human eye. The lenses on the iPhone 11/12 Pro are actually 0.25x, 0.5x, and 1x magnification. On the iPhone Pro Max, they’re 0..25x, 0.5x, and 1.25x.
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I'm not sure which zoom factor you think photographer speak of, but zoom range is always minimum focal length to maximum focal length of the lens.
 
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haruhiko said:
This is a shameful marketing trick to add the word 'range' after zoom to give a false impression to the customers that the new iPhone has 5x optical zoom. All the YouTubers and tech blog who were mistaken didn't help either.
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But... all "zooms" have (implicitly or not) the word 'range' afterwards. A "5X optical zoom" is a lens able to move from a focal distance of x mm to a focal distance of 5*x mm. The very definition of zoom is inherently one of range, not maximum focal length. I understand it can be confusing since most systems (be it point and shoot cameras or smartphones) do not go as wide as the iPhone does, but all of them measure zoom from the widest focal lenght. If you compare a 30x optical point and shoot camera from some manufacturer it may not get as close to a subject as a 20x optical zoom from another manufacturer.

The X times optical zoom term is bound to get confusing everywhere it's used, since the minimum focal lenght is not usually listed. The only reasonable alternative is to list the cameras using the 35 mm focal lenght equivalence, but few people besides professional photographers have a 35-mm DSLR around for that metric to really be useful.
 
darngooddesign said:
Except they didn't do that and you still don't understand what "range" means.

The default camera is irrelevant to this discussion.

The wide is 2X the ultrawide.

The tele is 2X the wide.

The new tele is 2.5X the wide.

On iPhones with just two cameras the zoom range is described as 2X.

On iPhones with three cameras the zoom range is described as 4X or 5X with the new tele.

But at least you got to call someone a sheep so thumbs up for that.

PS. I'm calling it zoom because you can choose any focal length despite it being three primes.
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So why was it 2x last year? No matter what that makes It marketing
 
goobot said:
So why was it 2x last year? No matter what that makes It marketing
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Apple knows exactly that they are presenting something in a such way that tricks consumers into thinking it is something else.

I would call that something else than marketing.
 
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