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iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 48mp Fusion Camera??

applelover4242

applelover4242

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2019
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In the recent iPhone presentation, they talked about the "48mp Fusion Camera" where they had the main camera image pipeline "fused" with an image optimized for light capture. In which it groups every 4 pixels into a larger pixel, "fuses" it with the larger 48mp image and makes a 24mp image. Is this a brand new thing, or has this existed in the iPhone Pro 15 already? I cannot tell if it's.a marketing name change or if it's a brand new thing for all these new cameras.
 
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The main camera hardware is entirely identical to iPhone 15 Pro save for a new “anti reflective coating” apparently. The 15 Pro also took 24MP photos.

It’s just all marketing.
 
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I read that the new Sony sensor is 12% larger in the 16 PM than the sensor in the 15 PM. I believe the same advancement took place going from the 14PM to the 15PM and what I saw, the 15PM was 2x better at capturing the night sky compared to the 14P & it was, twice as many stars. I hope for the same results with the 16 pro max as I will be comparing the two by capturing the stars above…
 
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zakarhino said:
The main camera hardware is entirely identical to iPhone 15 Pro save for a new “anti reflective coating” apparently. The 15 Pro also took 24MP photos.

It’s just all marketing.
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I think the main camera has a newer/larger/better sensor from Sony (hence 4K/120fps not coming to 15P/PM)
 
ToddH said:
I read that the new Sony sensor is 12% larger in the 16 PM than the sensor in the 15 PM. I believe the same advancement took place going from the 14PM to the 15PM and what I saw, the 15PM was 2x better at capturing the night sky compared to the 14P & it was, twice as many stars. I hope for the same results with the 16 pro max as I will be comparing the two by capturing the stars above…
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I believe this was a rumor (to use the IMX 901 sensors) but didn't actually come true.
 
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Curious about this. I have the 15 PM and haven’t been thrilled with the photos actually. They are technically very good of course but somehow I feel like the processing or something doesn’t pop as much as older models.
 
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majkom said:
Afaik sensor did not change - same in 15 pm and 16 pm
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They said they are using a “2nd generation” sensor in the main camera. But the only benefit they listed was faster readout speed that allows for zero shutter lag when shooting 48 MP pro raw. We can probably infer that the size of the sensor remains unchanged. Whether the newer sensor has any improvement in noise or light capture will have to wait until the reviews.
 
Something has been upgraded, since it reads out faster. But it could still be the same sensor, just how it connects into the iPhone has been upgraded. Will probably have to wait for some of the more technical sites to review it to confirm.
 
hvfsl said:
Something has been upgraded, since it reads out faster. But it could still be the same sensor, just how it connects into the iPhone has been upgraded. Will probably have to wait for some of the more technical sites to review it to confirm.
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Supposedly it’s a new Sony sensor with better low light sensitivity and performance. Rumors say it’s 12% larger. The current 15 pro & pro max sensor is 1/2” diagonal in size
 
hvfsl said:
Something has been upgraded, since it reads out faster. But it could still be the same sensor, just how it connects into the iPhone has been upgraded. Will probably have to wait for some of the more technical sites to review it to confirm.
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maybe that’s the result of the new A18 Pro that’s the cause for the faster read out?
 
ToddH said:
Supposedly it’s a new Sony sensor with better low light sensitivity and performance. Rumors say it’s 12% larger. The current 15 pro & pro max sensor is 1/2” diagonal in size
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I don't believe the IMX 901 made it into this version
 
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applelover4242 said:
I don't believe the IMX 901 made it into this version
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Well I hope night mode has much better performance with the night sky! Even if the IMX sensor did not make the cut, the sensor in the 16 pro still should be a new one. So hopefully software and sensor performance will be improved. Usually I find that the camera is much improved when the keynote didn’t mention it. Much like moving from the 14 pro max to the 15 pro max. Night mode was greatly enhanced
 
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ToddH said:
Supposedly it’s a new Sony sensor with better low light sensitivity and performance. Rumors say it’s 12% larger. The current 15 pro & pro max sensor is 1/2” diagonal in size
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yeah idk if I believe this. if the 16 Pro was using a new sensor that’s 12% larger, I bet apple would mention this in the keynote.

I was also hoping for a new Sony sensor this year :/

Hopefully the 17 Pro includes a new larger one
 
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The new sensor has significantly faster readout. This allows for the 4K 120fps in HDR, which means it's reading out very quickly to take multiple frames to merge for each frame 120 frames in a second. This also can allow for merging even more frames for each still photo, enabling lower noise and greater dynamic range.
 
Thai was one of my questions. Is the standard 16 main sensor the same as the 16 PM main sensor? Just faster readout? Historically, the standard iPhones are usually a generation behind the Pro models. If all that’s different between the phones from a stills perspective is you can take Pro RAW photos half a second quicker with a faster readout then I’d question what the heck have Apple’s engineers been doing all year???
 
macman4789 said:
Thai was one of my questions. Is the standard 16 main sensor the same as the 16 PM main sensor? Just faster readout? Historically, the standard iPhones are usually a generation behind the Pro models. If all that’s different between the phones from a stills perspective is you can take Pro RAW photos half a second quicker with a faster readout then I’d question what the heck have Apple’s engineers been doing all year???
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No the standard 16 has a smaller sized sensor with a faster aperture (f/1.6 vs f/1.78 on the Pro)

From reviews of the 15 Pro vs 15, it’s a bit worse in low light but not that noticeable even side by side.

Now with the 16 it’s the exact same deal but the 16 Pros have the faster readout.

ngl i was pretty dissapointed we didn’t get an updated bigger sensor in the 16 Pros this year. idk what was the reasoning for not upgrading to the IMX903.
 
The thing I don't understand is that it's it's so much better at light gathering using their computational photography , why did they show a dog sitting still in the middle of the day? Doesn't seem that challenging of a situation to show off what it can do.
 
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