Not a downgrade. The size difference is tiny, and could easily be offset by improvements elsewhere.
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iPhone 17 Pro Main Camera Sensor 'Smaller' Than iPhone 16 Pro Sensor
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Yes, the sensor size is a downgrade, but it would be interesting to see what the other characteristics of the sensor are. Is it a later more advanced generation of sensor? EDIT: @Algr beat me to it.
I almost stopped using iPhone camera after upgrade from iPhone 13 Pro Max to iPhone 16 Pro Max. The 13PM camera was so much better. The sensor was smaller, so minimum focusing distance was also pretty short. Every shot made indoors was perfectly focused. The 16PM camera has twice as long minimum focusing distance, and it makes it unusable in many scenarios, including marketing photography for Instagram or casual photography on shorter distances (not macro). They tried to fix the issue by adding x2 zoom level to the camera, but it is flattening the perspective and doesn’t quite look natural.
"Sony promises that its 2-Layer Transistor Pixel sensor produces images with reduced overexposure and underexposure without increasing the sensor’s overall size." -
petapixel.com
Maybe there is more to this than size everyone? lol
To me, coming from my 13 Pro Max (Which i adore, takes amazing photos still), if at least the main gets a nice upgrade for exposure, might be enough to entice me to finally upgrade. Was hoping the 16 Pro's upgraded ultrawide would have been more than a 48 Mega pixel change, that was super disappointing.
Sony's New Stacked Sensor Aims To Improve Smartphone Image Quality
Sony's new stacked sensor promises improved smartphone image quality.
Maybe there is more to this than size everyone? lol
To me, coming from my 13 Pro Max (Which i adore, takes amazing photos still), if at least the main gets a nice upgrade for exposure, might be enough to entice me to finally upgrade. Was hoping the 16 Pro's upgraded ultrawide would have been more than a 48 Mega pixel change, that was super disappointing.
For the bigger sensor you need bigger optics, and for saving the focusing distance this optics should be longer. Adding bigger sensor with flat optics will be a disaster.
True after a certain point. Many smart phones are already successfully implementing full 1” sensor with awesome results. Xiaomi, Oppo and more
Meanwhile I just want ANY kind of new iPhone Mini -- one lens is fine ... of basically any variety from the last 5 years
If they go back to aluminum bands I’d laugh so hard. Ultimate stupidity. Glossy stainless steel was the best (thanks to grip and aesthetic), but at least the titanium has a little more grip than aluminum. If they go back to aluminum the phones are now slippery bars of soap again and I’d probably have to start using a piece of garbage case.
It's a downgrade no matter how you dice it. And this camera design... A bit too Pixel inspired for me.
We are speaking about the iPhone 17 Pro, not the Air. Who said it will be thinner ?
I know haters gonna hate but… dude chill out. Apple make some switch when they think they are ready, and guess what, they usually are right.
8K is a good example: right now it makes no sense. In a few years could be different
I found this explanation on the net (translated from German):
The imperial specifications of CCD and CMOS sensors can only be explained historically: Image recording tubes of television cameras were used until the mid-1980s and were long superior to CCD or CMOS sensors, which were invented in the late 1960s.
The actual image converter of the tube cameras was located in a glass vacuum tube, and the various imaging tubes were classified according to the outer diameter of the glass bulb, among other things. The diagonal of the light-sensitive area inside the tube was naturally smaller and amounted to about two thirds of the outer diameter. Equivalent CCD sensors, which were to replace the cathode ray tubes, had to cover exactly this area. A CCD whose light-sensitive area corresponds to a 1/2-inch tube was therefore referred to as a 1/2-inch sensor, even though this does not correspond to the actual size of the CCD sensor.
(Source: https://www.vision-doctor.com/kamera-grundlagen/sensor-pixel-groessen.html)
This always puzzled me! But since they are referred by a fraction (with the nominator typically being 1), the smaller the denominator the bigger the sensor!
Things that don‘t make sense now are the minimum features (basic needs) you require your phone to have in the future (see Kano-model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model)
I‘m puzzled by the horizontal array of cameras to be honest. Cause if you want to record spatial videos in landscape mode (which I still think is „normal“ for videos), a vertical array would suit better!? But of course Apple wants us to buy Vision Pro for recording spatial videos?
Or are we heading a new vertical video syndrome for spatial videos? (See
)
Or are we heading a new vertical video syndrome for spatial videos? (See
Quite on the contrary things that don’t make sense now are just gimmicks some manufacturers implement just to try to sell like Apple.
As usual with amateur photographers you are blaming the camera for your lack of knowledge. Sorry for being rude but this is the point. iPhone 16 camera is better than 13
The rumors go it’s called the IPhone Pixel Pro, maybe that’s why.
I have a Pixel 6 and do prefer the horizontal camera layout vs my iPhone 13's layout.
It's going to be a long time before I even think about upgrading my phone to even a used iPhone15.
Gonna be real interesting if they increase the size of the sensor for the telephoto camera or they simply increase pixel count to 48MP. The ultra wide on the 16 is worse in low light than the 15 bc they didn't increase the size when they added more pixels. If they do the same on the telephoto it will be even worse in low light than the 16 ultra wide."Sony promises that its 2-Layer Transistor Pixel sensor produces images with reduced overexposure and underexposure without increasing the sensor’s overall size." -Sony's New Stacked Sensor Aims To Improve Smartphone Image Quality
Sony's new stacked sensor promises improved smartphone image quality.
Maybe there is more to this than size everyone? lol
To me, coming from my 13 Pro Max (Which i adore, takes amazing photos still), if at least the main gets a nice upgrade for exposure, might be enough to entice me to finally upgrade. Was hoping the 16 Pro's upgraded ultrawide would have been more than a 48 Mega pixel change, that was super disappointing.
I saw renderings of the pixel pro 10 and I’m really tempted to switch if iOS 19 is the same and the next iPhone is only getting incremental updates again. I don’t want to buy a uber expensive iPhone again when the it only got 8 GB of ram and all other parts are last years news.
Whoever who wrote this article isn’t very good at his job. It’s the same damn sensor. DCS just rounded up the sensor size. It’s same as last year