iPhone 16 Pro Max Rumored to Feature Super Telephoto Camera

[EugW]

Good enough — because of the camera bump. You can't change physics. Light travels in a path. Remove that path and you lose depth of imagery.

Ironically, the point of the periscope lens is that it - in a way - changes the physics of lens design to make it smaller.

I'm not saying I want the camera bump gone though. On the contrary, I just want a replacement for that 3X lens. It ain't great to begin with, and it'd be nice to have it replaced with a 6X periscope lens.

 

[contacos]

Next year seems to be THE year to finally upgrade my iPhone 12 Pro Max and Watch Series 6.

This year seems still too unreasonable

 

[PlainviewX]

whats the "x" equivilant of 300mm? 6x? 20x?

Just take the normal lens and multiply it by 10 and you'll get a close estimate. The normal lens in the 15 Pro is 24mm. The telephoto is 3x/77mm. A 10x using a 24mm standard lens would make the 10x in the neighborhood of 250mm.

 

[Kissmo1980]

Ya? Well, I've got my pre-order in for iPhone 20 already! Take that!

Owww maaaan…. You beat me to it

 

[PlainviewX]

In the full-frame camera world, a 50mm* lens has traditionally been considered "normal," so a 300mm would be 6x magnification. And a 300 would be considered telephoto, not super telephoto (that description usually applies to lenses that start at 400mm or higher).

But all of that is based on a full frame sensor, akin to a 35mm piece of film. With a small iPhone sensor, a 300mm would truly be super telephoto. But since a phone is smaller than 300mm long, there's no way to actually put a 300mm "periscope" lens into a camera, which is why they would likely call this a "300mm equivalent." So putting a lens into a phone that is close to 6x or 7x, done purely optically without loss of quality, would be pretty cool.

*the actual number that compares to the field of view that humans perceive is closer to 43mm.

Your thinking is mostly correct, but your argument about the iPhone length being less than 300mm will mean the periscope lens will have to be smaller than 300mm is incorrect. It has no bearing on it.

 

[AtomicDusk]

It seems that mid range point and shoots have basically left the market due to the proliferation of smartphones, which has left zoomable cameras in the very high end range (mirrorless and DSLRs). I welcome this being brought to phones!

 

[SGSfanboy]

I'd love a super tele, but can the current image stabilization handle it?

 

[rymc02]

Give us 64 MP on all lenses! And stop that oil painting HDR over processing California touch to all pictures!

You're gonna see almost no difference between 48 & 64 megapixels other than crappier low light performance at 64MP. There is a reason one of most used video cameras (a7sIII) only has 12MP.

 

[EugW]

Next year seems to be THE year to finally upgrade my iPhone 12 Pro Max and Watch Series 6.

This year seems still too unreasonable

We upgrade our iPhones every 4 years usually.

Not sure yet about the Watch. We bought our Apple Watches 5 (for a huge discount) after the Watch 6 was released. We're fine with keeping them in terms of functionality but I wonder about getting the battery service. For CA$99 it might be worth it.

You're gonna see almost no difference between 48 & 64 megapixels other than crappier low light performance at 64MP. There is a reason one of most used video cameras (a7sIII) only has 12MP.

Yes, and one of the reasons is image processing speed. Also, most people don't want to deal with post processing 48 MP video clips either. That's what, 10K?

However, a 48 MP sensor does very well for low light photography if it's pixel binned to 12 MP.

 

[darngooddesign]

That's great but 300mm at which aperture?

 

[alternamelka]

You can shoot RAW. That's been available on iPhones for years.

Not the same effect unfortunately try it out!

The iPhone applies the following post-processing to RAW images:

• Noise reduction: The iPhone removes some of the noise from the image, but it does not completely remove it. This allows you to retain more detail in the image when you edit it.
• White balance: The iPhone adjusts the white balance of the image to make it more accurate.
• Color correction: The iPhone adjusts the colors in the image to make them more vibrant.
• Sharpening: The iPhone sharpens the image to make it look more crisp.

 

[Idec50]

Here's what I want: One 28mm 35mm-equivalent and one 56mm (2x) 35mm-equivalent. Both using the same sensor size, as large as possible. If you blow up a photo taken with one of the small sensors - it's garbage.

Then, I want better native controls for white balance, ISO, exposure, and this crazy HDR compression. You can get those using the photo taking functionality in the Lightroom app but you can't use the compression at all (it should be adjustable).

What I really want is Apple to partner with Ricoh or Fujifilm to put their algorithms on much larger sensors.

 

[EugW]

Not the same effect unfortunately try it out!

The iPhone applies the following post-processing to RAW images:

• Noise reduction: The iPhone removes some of the noise from the image, but it does not completely remove it. This allows you to retain more detail in the image when you edit it.
• White balance: The iPhone adjusts the white balance of the image to make it more accurate.
• Color correction: The iPhone adjusts the colors in the image to make them more vibrant.
• Sharpening: The iPhone sharpens the image to make it look more crisp.

The original RAW sensor data is still there. The post-processing can be ignored in certain software.

 

[jz0309]

Not the same effect unfortunately try it out!

The iPhone applies the following post-processing to RAW images:

• Noise reduction: The iPhone removes some of the noise from the image, but it does not completely remove it. This allows you to retain more detail in the image when you edit it.
• White balance: The iPhone adjusts the white balance of the image to make it more accurate.
• Color correction: The iPhone adjusts the colors in the image to make them more vibrant.
• Sharpening: The iPhone sharpens the image to make it look more crisp.

yea, but you can adjust all of these during post processing a RAW (DNG) file still ...
But, I also agree that Apple should not process images by default if I chose to shoot in RAW ...

 

[MrAR]

And for some reason how many times this super zoom potentially could zoom was left out of the article?

 

[The Game 161]

Makes sense given the size of the phones are getting bigger next year

 

[The Game 161]

whats the "x" equivilant of 300mm? 6x? 20x?

About 10-12x I believe

Apple starts with 6x this year then 12x next year maybe

 

[MrENGLISH]

At some point, Apple should really consider making a camera with some phone/smartphone features

I was recently thinking about this too. Apple should partner up with Sony for APS-C and Full Frame sensors and make E mount camera bodies with their own cameraOS and other 3rd party software. I think it would be a huge hit in the camera market.

 

[Idec50]

I was recently thinking about this too. Apple should partner up with Sony for APS-C and Full Frame sensors and make E mount camera bodies with their own cameraOS and other 3rd party software. I think it would be a huge hit in the camera market.

I think this was a joke, but I also wish they would.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Your thinking is mostly correct, but your argument about the iPhone length being less than 300mm will mean the periscope lens will have to be smaller than 300mm is incorrect. It has no bearing on it.

And that's one reason why I said "which is why they would likely call this a '300mm equivalent,'" if you read the post. Because some people in the comments are very literal, or don't understand optics, or both.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I was recently thinking about this too. Apple should partner up with Sony for APS-C and Full Frame sensors and make E mount camera bodies with their own cameraOS and other 3rd party software. I think it would be a huge hit in the camera market.

Not as long as Sony and Apple are competitors in so many markets. That said, such a fix would be absolutely great - Sony hardware but without the (imho) terrible Sony software/menus and phone apps.

 

[javanni]

I have not tried the Samsung S24 Ultra, which has the periscopic camera, but I have tried both the iPhone's and Samsung's 3X cameras and, quite frankly, the quality is quite ****** on both. 2X cameras (40-50 mm equivalent) were much more useable and had much better sharpness. I really don't get why 3X are becoming so popular.
Zoom lenses are becoming the new megapixels...

 

[darngooddesign]

yea, but you can adjust all of these during post processing a RAW (DNG) file still ...
But, I also agree that Apple should not process images by default if I chose to shoot in RAW ...

If Apple did not process the Raw data, you would not be able to see an image in Photos. Even Lightroom processes Raw data when you take a photo.

 

[jz0309]

If Apple did not process the Raw data, you would not be able to see an image in Photos. Even Lightroom processes Raw data when you take a photo.

well, you CAN view RAW photos in Photos, they're stored as .DNG, you can't share those in messages or post to social media, sure. And I also realize that < 1% of users would want RAW photos and deal with post processing. But for those of us who do want that feature - WHY are these photos processed?

as outlined here #86 the camera app does this:
The iPhone applies the following post-processing to RAW images:

• Noise reduction: The iPhone removes some of the noise from the image, but it does not completely remove it. This allows you to retain more detail in the image when you edit it.
• White balance: The iPhone adjusts the white balance of the image to make it more accurate.
• Color correction: The iPhone adjusts the colors in the image to make them more vibrant.
• Sharpening: The iPhone sharpens the image to make it look more crisp.

None of those edits make the phot "visible" for the Photos app.

 

[darngooddesign]

well, you CAN view RAW photos in Photos, they're stored as .DNG, you can't share those in messages or post to social media, sure. And I also realize that < 1% of users would want RAW photos and deal with post processing. But for those of us who do want that feature - WHY are these photos processed?

as outlined here #86 the camera app does this:
The iPhone applies the following post-processing to RAW images:

• Noise reduction: The iPhone removes some of the noise from the image, but it does not completely remove it. This allows you to retain more detail in the image when you edit it.
• White balance: The iPhone adjusts the white balance of the image to make it more accurate.
• Color correction: The iPhone adjusts the colors in the image to make them more vibrant.
• Sharpening: The iPhone sharpens the image to make it look more crisp.

None of those edits make the phot "visible" for the Photos app.

Raw files are not visible images because its the raw data, what you are viewing is a processed JPG preview.