iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro portrait photo has 1x and 3x optical zoom... no 2x zoom selection?

[Jadeviper]

Why does iPhone 13 Pro portrait photo have only 1x and 3x optical zoom selection... no 2x zoom selection?

It would be nice to have 2x as well.. I'm I missing how to select 2x?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Cuz the lens zoom was increased to 3x. The 12 Pro Max had a 2x zoom lens. (This is what I understood) - if I'm wrong, Macrumors experts, please let me know.

So the lenses are (for the 13 Pro/Pro Max):
.5x
1x
3x

 

[Jadeviper]

In regular photo mode I can press and hold the zoom factor and select via the dial 2x optical zoom or digital zoom if I want

Why not do the same in portrait photo mode, or let me just toggle 1x, 2x, 3x

Sometimes 3x is too close and 1x is to wide... 2x would be just right

 

[Dwalls90]

Cuz the lens zoom was increased to 3x. The 12 Pro Max had a 2x zoom lens. (This is what I understood) - if I'm wrong, Macrumors experts, please let me know.

So the lenses are (for the 13 Pro/Pro Max):
.5x
1x
3x

12 Pro had 2x, 12 Pro Max had 2.5x. This was one of the few hardware advantages the Pro Max had over the Pro last year, but this year, the 13 Pro and Pro Max camera systems are identical (and have moved to 3x).

 

[Jadeviper]

Well I hope they change the way this works in the future. I would hate to have a future iphone with lets say 5x telephoto capability to only provide 1x or 5x in photo portrait mode

 

[Megakazbek]

The cameras only shoot at 0.5x, 1x and 3x zoom levels. Everything else is digital zoom, so a 2x setting would be no different than taking a picture at 1x and then using an image editor to resize it and make 2 times bigger.

 

[Jadeviper]

Are you sure that anything other than 0.5x, 1x and 3x is digital zoom? I was under the impression that using the zoom dial under 3x is optical zoom, say at 2.5x

 

[jhiesey]

The iPhone doesn't have optical zoom, only one zoom level per lens. Everything else is digital.

So 2.5x is using the 1x lens plus digital zoom.

 

[now i see it]

And in dim light, it’ll still use the 1X lens at 3x zoom because it’s too dim for the telephoto lens

 

[Jadeviper]

I'm going to test images from my iPhone 11Pro at 2x and compare it to the iPhone 13Pro at 2x and if the quality holds up

 

[azhava]

The iPhone doesn't have optical zoom, only one zoom level per lens. Everything else is digital.

So 2.5x is using the 1x lens plus digital zoom.

^ That's exactly correct. Apple refers to it as "optical zoom", but it's not. It's more akin to having a DSLR with 3 different prime lenses (wide-angle, normal and telephoto) and changing between them while shooting. An actual zoom lens has multiple lens elements housed within one body, in which the lenses mechanically move back and forth to create the different focal lengths.

If Apple were to put an actual optical zoom lens in an iPhone, the camera bump would have to be much larger than it is to accommodate the multiple lens elements in one lens body. The end result would be much more like using your camera as a smartphone rather than using your smartphone as a camera.