iPhone 15 Pro Max's 5x Optical Zoom Lens Enables 25x Digital Zoom

[MacRumors]

The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a new Telephoto lens that uses a tetraprism design to enable 5x optical zoom, an improvement over the 3x zoom that's available in the iPhone 15 Pro and the prior-generation iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models.

5x optical zoom allows for 25x digital zoom, and while that's the most zoom an Apple device has offered, it still falls below the competition.

Samsung's latest Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone has 100x Space Zoom that can capture images from 330 feet away. The Pixel 7 Pro has 30x digital "Super Res Zoom" with its 5x optical zoom lens. Apple has never leaned into digital zoom because the quality is poor. Optical zoom provides a crisp, clear image using the camera hardware, but digital zoom uses software enhancement to crop in.

5x optical zoom is an iPhone 15 Pro Max-specific feature that is not available on the iPhone 15 Pro. Both devices share other camera improvements, though. The 48-megapixel main camera has a larger sensor that lets in more light, and it can be set to 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm focal lengths.

There's also an updated 13mm Ultra Wide camera, and second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization.

Article Link: iPhone 15 Pro Max's 5x Optical Zoom Lens Enables 25x Digital Zoom

 

[cibonak]

Waiting for reviews...

 

[Born Again]

my camcorder had 100x digital zoom. I'm not impressed.

 

[dooyou]

I have the Pixel 7 Pro here, with 30x digital zoom (5x optical). Honestly, the digital zoom is for the ton and what else should it be. Cropped over cropped and then still extrapolated.

It may look reasonably good on the smartphone display, but on any external screen you can just see how bad it is.

 

[TehFalcon]

Samsung and other phones with the extreme digital zoom just uses Ai to make up the picture. Optical is WAY better!

 

[t0rqx]

my camcorder had 100x digital zoom. I'm not impressed.

and you can zoom even further when pinch to zoom. Digital Zoom shouldnt even be called a feature. Why not place your eye on the screen, oh wait the new iOS 17 EYeStrain feature could give false positives in your Health app.

 

[Nozuka]

Just zoom in on the picture and take a screenshot. Should have about the same quality as some of the others

 

[solq]

Yeah I'll stick to 5x, never been that impressed with "digital zoom". Not even on my real camera.

 

[elimporta2]

Shot on iPhone (As a Monitor). #LaCreta

 

[macduke]

The 48-megapixel main camera has a larger sensor that lets in more light, and it can be set to 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm focal lengths.

Isn't this just digital zoom presets for 28mm and 35mm? I guess it's fine if you're not shooting ProRaw because it all gets knocked down to 12MP anyway, right?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

It’s pretty cool what is inside the iPhone 15 Pro models! Wow!

 

[Motawa]

Samsung and other phones with the extreme digital zoom just uses Ai to make up the picture. Optical is WAY better!

Samsung has 10x optical. Apple 5x

 

[SonofSpingo]

Digital zoom is a waste of time that can basically be achieved by cropping in post, Or use an application like Topaz AI in post to increase the resolution of the image using AI. In my view digital zoom is a marketing ploy that means absolutely nothing but fools people into believing they are getting something worth having.

 

[Eldaerenth Faexidor]

This periscope thingy is going to push peoples activity trends ⬇️. I mean, less steps right?

You might wonder if Apple is experiencing an existential identity crisis? Wasn’t turning Apple into a health company supposed to be Timmeh’s legacy? I mean what the hell is going on here?🧐

Next year’s keynote full of Obese people sharing their tragic stories about how they got fat because of periscope? Lmao!

 

[macsplusmacs]

I can zoom into alaska!

 

[BorisDG]

It’s pretty cool what is inside the iPhone 15 Pro models! Wow!

View attachment 2259997

This is probably the only one cool thing in the entire presentation. 😅 The magic of physics.

 

[Jerry Fritschle]

my camcorder had 100x digital zoom. I'm not impressed

I sold camcorders many years ago. Digital zoom is really pretty terrible. It's just electronic cropping, and at 100x you were just looking at a multicolored checkerboard.

 

[Liquid Galaxy]

I’ll be honest, I was disappointed it was only 5x

 

[Marty80]

I just woke up & i am already bored. I miss steve jobs and waking up with the excitement of seeing a new phone.

There is nothing new about Cook’s Pro besides the action button & titanium frame. I am hopping the 16 plus gets a design over haul and larger screen. Otherwise i am sticking to my 12 Pro Max till it becomes a paper weight.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Samsung's latest Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone has 100x Space Zoom that can capture images from 330 feet away.

Ummm... what? Every phone ever made can take a photo of something more than 330 feet away.

Zooming doesn't change the ability to capture images at a certain distance. Zooming changes the magnification of an object when the image is made.

 

[mushy peas]

Have they improved the telephoto sensor?

(Haven’t watched the keynote, just woke up here in Australia.)

Because without it, I’m not sure how usable this would be given how slow and noisy the telephoto sensor is in anything other than broad daylight.

 

[fatTribble]

Ok, I’m very excited about this, but I’ll admit I’m disappointed by an increase from 3x to 5x.
I thought the 6x rumors seemed unexciting.

Am I missing something? Is 5x going to be huge?

 

[zinacef]

I guess I'll be hanging on to my 14 Pro for a while now.

 

[mushy peas]

Is 5x going to be huge

It’s 125mm full frame, which is basically the end of the portraiture focal lengths. Going too much more beyond that and photos of people start to get unflattering. Once you get past 200 you’re talking about sports and wildlife, neither of which a phone is useful for. And it’ll come at a massive cost to image quality.

Big zoom multipliers are for spec sheet comparisons, in the real world they’re not that useful and will come at a cost on every photo you take.

 

[840quadra]

Considering the camera is not a periscope style that sends light down the body of the device, I see little reason why this (minor bump in zoom) is not also on the regular 15 Pro as well.

They could have shifted some boards and such to allow for it in both phones, now we again have a feature mismatch between their flagship which is nonsensical.

Despite wanting it, likely not forking the cash as I want a smaller phone more than I want 2x more zoom.