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There is such a thing as Dual Sensor technology, but Sony Xperia 1 V which was announced this week (released 11 May) is the first in the world to offer this. It would be awesome if Apple gets access to this. It will be a game changer.


I agree with you. It’s pointless to say x times zoom when we don’t know the focal length, for those that understand what focal length means. I suspect the majority of mobile phone photographers have no clue, and 2x zoom just means "I can get twice as close with this zoom". The problem is that photographers know that a larger focal length changes the perspective, where 72mm is a decent portrait focal length. Personally, my favourite lens for portraits is 70-200 f/2.8

However, having digital zoom of x4, or x6, x100 or even just x2 zoom is rubbish because it doesn’t change the perspective.


Pretty much. And you could easily have a lens that is 24mm x3, or 72mm x1 and they are different things.
That's why I mentioned the dual layer sensor... I remember I read something here on macrumors that Apple will implement a new technology from Sony.... I read that quite some time ago. When I heard about the Xperia 1 V I knew that what I read on macrumors must have refferered to that. Anyway... Let's keep the fingers crossed we'll see that tech in an iPhone soon.

Crop and "zoom" and so on: Totally agree with you. However: The 2x "zoom" in the iPhone 14 Pro is a 12mp crop of the 48mp file from the main sensor. Therefore, the quality isn't rubbish, I'd say - just not as many pixels. I'm sure you know that, but yeah - many people get that stuff wrong.

Give us a 6x lens on the next Pro-iPhones (both) and make that sensor 48mp and offer an inbuilt cropping like with the 24mm 48mp main wide lens in the current Pro-lineup to kinda "double the zoom"...
 
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What should really happen with all phone manufacturers is that cameras need again to be flush with the phone body. At first it was accepted that they protruded once cameras became a thing. Then it was a trend to make them flush or almost flush with the phone body. Then it reversed and on EVERY phone they stick out like a cancerous bulge. First make them flush then add all the gimmicks. Optical zoom is nice to have but for the vast majority this is temporarily solved with several cameras and digital stiching of image from multiple sources.
Because ATM it's probably 50% necessity that they stick out and 50% "cool feature" because plebs assume the more cameras stick out = better image.

Because if you look at what insanely small pinhole-like speck of a camera Samsung put into the Book 3 for webcam... both the image quality and resolution there's SURELY a way to make cameras very, very small. Not too small but not a cancerous bulge either.
 
That's why I mentioned the dual layer sensor... I remember I read something here on macrumors that Apple will implement a new technology from Sony.... I read that quite some time ago. When I heard about the Xperia 1 V I knew that what I read on macrumors must have refferered to that. Anyway... Let's keep the fingers crossed we'll see that tech in an iPhone soon.

Crop and "zoom" and so on: Totally agree with you. However: The 2x "zoom" in the iPhone 14 Pro is a 12mp crop of the 48mp file from the main sensor. Therefore, the quality isn't rubbish, I'd say - just not as many pixels. I'm sure you know that, but yeah - many people get that stuff wrong.

Give us a 6x lens on the next Pro-iPhones (both) and make that sensor 48mp and offer an inbuilt cropping like with the 24mm 48mp main wide lens in the current Pro-lineup to kinda "double the zoom"...
Here it is.

Tim Cook Pays Tribute to Apple's Enduring Partnership With Sony to Develop 'World's Leading Camera Sensors' for iPhones

Excited for it if it happens.
 
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There is such a thing as Dual Sensor technology, but Sony Xperia 1 V which was announced this week (released 11 May) is the first in the world to offer this. It would be awesome if Apple gets access to this. It will be a game changer.


I agree with you. It’s pointless to say x times zoom when we don’t know the focal length, for those that understand what focal length means. I suspect the majority of mobile phone photographers have no clue, and 2x zoom just means "I can get twice as close with this zoom". The problem is that photographers know that a larger focal length changes the perspective, where 72mm is a decent portrait focal length. Personally, my favourite lens for portraits is 70-200 f/2.8

However, having digital zoom of x4, or x6, x100 or even just x2 zoom is rubbish because it doesn’t change the perspective.


Pretty much. And you could easily have a lens that is 24mm x3, or 72mm x1 and they are different things.

Edit. I just re-read your previous post and you are pretty much saying this. I didn’t understand what you were saying the first time.


I once got to use a 200 f2 on a D850, dream lens by far, makes even the most mundane shots look like magazine covers. I need one badly but I’d have to sell my car to get one! 🫠
 
I once got to use a 200 f2 on a D850, dream lens by far, makes even the most mundane shots look like magazine covers. I need one badly but I’d have to sell my car to get one! 🫠
As amazing as Phone Cameras have become, they still can’t replicate the quality of excellent glass. But that weight! 🏋️‍♂️
 
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Everyone is complaining about phone getting bigger. The screen is likely getting bigger because of smaller bezels. The phone will likely remain the same dimensions.
 
More money, more features. That's how it works. That's why an Audi has more stuff on it than a Ford.
its not about features, it’s about performance and using better materials so you encounter way less operational problems . Yeah thinking of experiences with Fords vs Audis, and also the differences more expensive iPhone Pro’s offer. Test drive them today, then you‘lll see the feature analogy is a bit off. :D
 
I'm not bashing the iPhone, or getting into any "fanboy" talk, but if the S23 can do 10x optical zoom, is there any reason why the iPhone can't?
No reason they can’t. And maybe they should? I would add though, that DXOMark shows a lot of problems with the Samsung S23 Ultra like lack of contrast in the midrange, and a lot of noise at the long end. You still can’t beat physics.

DXOMark list them as #14 best smartphone camera, still behind the 13 Pro/Pro Max (11) & 14 Pro/ Pro Max (8). I’m seriously considering getting the Huawei P60 Pro and just use that as my camera. Variable aperture lens, 90mm telephoto lens.

Huawei P60 Pro v iPhone 14 Pro Max camera comparison. The iPhone 15 better be good or it will,be left on the side of the road.
 
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Doesn't that make the focal range even odder vs 3x, which a lot of people complained about vs 2x already?

Is this in addition to the 3x lens, or replacing it?
 
But what does 30mm mean unless you know details about the rest of the camera dimensions? 6x has a clear functional meaning to a consumer that the image appears 6x closer than the default 1x camera. How does calling it 30mm provide more information?
I know how wide the FoV is. Yx says nothing, real life example Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM is 3,23x zoom,
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM is 2,85x. Now the question: which is better? Which has "more" magnification?

It relates to the multiplication of the "main lens". The iPhone 14 Pro has a 24mm (equivalent) main lens. The Telephoto lens is 72mm, so it's a 3x zoom.
That way you can't compare different manufacturers without knowing equivalent focal range
 
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If it's truly a size limitation, that's one thing, but I'm not a fan of bigger phones getting better features. It's not how the MBP works, it shouldn't be how the iPhone works. Pro should be Pro and it comes off as an attempt to upsell customers to the Max. But if it is a size limitation, then I'm sure the technology will improve to the point that we see the higher zoom offered in the smaller Pro soon enough.
 
As amazing as Phone Cameras have become, they still can’t replicate the quality of excellent glass. But that weight! 🏋️‍♂️

Yea there’s simply no way to shrink that down, I’ve never been too impressed with any cell phone cameras as even cheap super old cameras take much better pics.

However, if what I’ve read about future sensor tech is true, there might be a day where you can take a picture of something a half mile away and crop into it without losing much detail. Can’t even imagine what those sensors will be able to do in actual cameras with real lenses!
 
I am kinda a phone camera expert i have done 10000 side by side comparisons

the problem of having periscope lens without having a 3x zoom is a problem u would need 4 lens to achieve that. pixel phones can get away with it coz they have high res zoom AI. so to give u an example p4xl only has a 1.5(50%) tele lens but can take better zoom pics then ip14promax which has 3x(300%) zoom. p4xl and ip14pro zoom is almost the same with p4 very slightly ahead diff is 1%

Starting with 23 ultra even samsung is using AI to boost the zoom on the 10x zoom this i know because i test every single camera. but samsung never disclosed it. The 23 ultra does have better zoom then p7pro but only slightly the difference is maybe only 5%

video totally diff the zoom AI doesnt work on video ultra 23 zoom is massively better then p7pro

but when u take moon pic on samsung standalone it will be better on ultra 23 then p7pro but when u add other objects with the moon then p7pro is better.

here is a pic taken with p7pro with empire state
PXL_20230306_224646964_exported_1678296143727~4-01~2 (1).jpeg
 
I don’t think that’s possible. You are asking Apple to beat Physics. Mass matters!
I disagree! There is a finite amount of space in any model of iPhone. In this case, the Pro models typically share a folded PCB, but now will have unique camera modules. The only thing this would interfere with would be the battery size, which is still true in the Max model. They'l reduce battery size there to make room for the zoom feature, but not in the regular Pro? Ridiculous! One of the reasons I upgraded to the 13 Pro was because they finally stopped with this nonsense of reserving the best Pro features to the absurdly-sized Max model!
 
The longer Apple restricts all the cool camera tech (the only good reason to upgrade at this point) to the obnoxiously large phablet iPhones, the longer I hang on to my SE.

Oh well.

Happy to keep saving my money. Allows me to spend it at the race track instead. Which really isn't saving it, just finding a much more fun way to spend it.
 
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