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To each his/her own. She likes that her flip phone has just the basic messaging, calendar and phone apps. An iPhone can do the same. I have no social media apps. The smartphone is a tool. People can use it or not use it just the way they want.

So you’re saying that the flip phone is “good enough” for her?
 
Jamming more and more pixels onto the sensor and then trying to “fix” the attendant issues with software is the problem. The argument isn’t “it’s good enough.” The argument is “these upgrades are not really upgrades.”
Did I miss some context or are you projecting onto what fattribble said? Ipoddin implied that phone camera tech progress in general is pointless, which fattribble challenged (and I agree). Neither ipoddin nor fattribble made any implication about whether this specific upgrade was valid or not, as far as I could tell from the comments that have been quoted.
 
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so we have to wait til the 17 model to get an awesome camera. late 2025.

shell out another $1700 bucks.

I went back to a Kyocera duraxe Epic flip phone. love it. long battery life. user replaceable battery. no government spy ware installed.

make the switch.



Thanks for sharing. I would've shared the one year follow-up. She even has signal on her flip phone which is pretty neat.
 
it came to a point where I would just buy a Leica and use it for 5 years rather than upgrade iPhone every year just for camera.... could there be any other hardware upgrades other than camera and A chip?
Have been thinking of that too, but I know myself good enough to know I won’t be carrying a real camera around me all the time, it’s just too convenient to have a decent camera in a phone.
I have an old Nikon d800 with a few good lenses I may try again.
I’m on 13 pro, so I want to see a big camera upgrade before I upgrade. The only other thing I feel my current phone is lacking is more nits on the display during summer.
 
That sensor size for next years 17 pro max is a major disappointment

that’s still smaller than all of the competition sensor size for their telephotos
 
I like small phones too but at an intuitive level it makes sense for larger phones to have more features. It doesn’t affect me what they have or don’t have.
I went to the larger iPhone a few years back after saying I’d never do that. My best friend convinced me. I think he still has his smug smile. 🤪 What surprised me the most is how little I noticed the difference. If you have them side-by-side then it does look bigger. But it just seemed normal size after I got it.
 
I wouldn’t say I’m into photography in the common sense of the word, like as a craft or hobby in and of itself. If I was, I’m sure I could be happy always carrying a dedicated camera. But for me, a camera is mostly about just capturing/recording information that I think might be useful reference for some future project—very utilitarian, and very sporadic which is the problem when it comes to carrying a dedicated device. (Still may be worth it)
Same. I used to shoot film on trips. While it was never a huge expense to buy and develop all those rolls of film, I am still in awe of the great photos I get from my iPhone with no added cost of film and developing. Because of that I’ll take a lot more random photos that probably would have been a waste of film. Shooting 4K video is a huge treat as well.
 
I went to the larger iPhone a few years back after saying I’d never do that. My best friend convinced me. I think he still has his smug smile. 🤪 What surprised me the most is how little I noticed the difference. If you have them side-by-side then it does look bigger. But it just seemed normal size after I got it.
I wish I could get used to it. I tried a Plus phone back in the day for about three months—I hated it more every day until I could no longer stand it and had to go back to my iPhone 5S. And I‘ve been using an SE3 for the past year or so—my annoyance at how big it is is still unchanged but at least it isn’t growing into hate haha. I seem to just have a strong aversion to phones not specifically designed to be used one-handed. It’s unfortunate for me.
 
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In terms of camera, I'll be waiting for a 10x optical zoom lens and 100x digital zoom before I shell out close to $2K for an iPhone.

Interestingly, based on my observations at the Apple store, the Max series tend to have overall poorer battery health compared to the other models. That means they need to be replaced sooner than the others. Furthermore, each [new] year, Apple discontinues the previous year's Max, the most expensive iPhone model.
 
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That sensor size for next years 17 pro max is a major disappointment

that’s still smaller than all of the competition sensor size for their telephotos
Yes, Apple doesn't seem to be interested in sensor size, but for most people they don't care either unless you're taking a lot of photos in low light. However, the smaller sensor size might become the norm as others follow Apple. What surprised me was how Samsung decided to ditch the 100x digital zoom lens with their recent Ultra models.
 
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In terms of camera, I'll be waiting for a 10x optical zoom lens and 100x digital zoom before I shell out close to $2K for an iPhone.

Interestingly, based on my observations at the Apple store, the Max series tend to have overall poorer battery health compared to the other models. That means they need to be replaced sooner than the others. Furthermore, each [new] year, Apple discontinues the previous year's Max, the most expensive iPhone model.

I’d like an infinite zoom lens, how cool would it be to go out at night and take pics of planets in other galaxies? And shoot video of Aliens walking around town a billion light years away..
 
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The 48MP sensors will be a big improvement, but honestly the 5x camera on the Max is not as good as the current 3x on the Pro. I was planning to buy the Max until I used it in an apple store. The photos were either grainy or mushy, and the video stabilization would jump around at the slightest movement.

A 3x lens and all 3 cameras with 48MP sensors would be ideal. In real-world use, I've never needed a 5x lens, and honestly with a 48MP sensor on the 3x lens, there would be enough resolution to digitally crop to 5x.

At this point, Apple should just make a camera with a full zoom range, that runs on iOS, for people that are buying a phone just for the camera features.
That camera is not a bad idea at all. Probably wouldn’t have a massive market (the bean counters say that makes it a very bad idea) but that would remove the of the limitations of the phone form factor while still allowing the software to do its thing.

A point and shoot w/ retractable zoom lens would so it’s nice and compact would get my money. Make it inexpensive (can Apple even do that?) and that could overcome the market size problem.

Market it to the “retro” enthusiast crowd. The 90s/00s are back, baby!
 
I'll probably shell out for the 16 Pro soon, while upgrading from my beloved (but now aging) 11 Pro. As a somewhat retired landscape professional photographer, it has always been my youth dream to have the smallest gear (for mobility) with acceptable image quality (optimization). Every year, this is coming closer to be a reality.

Results from the main lens of iPhone 15 PM are not much inferior from dSLR quality if shot as ProRaw and in-camera converted to jpeg. Here is a good example: https://www.dpreview.com/files/p/articles/8615681274/resolution-pro-48mp.jpeg It's precisely detailed with good dynamic range and I don't see any noise or other artefacts like haloes around edges, corner softness, etc. It could even accept a little more sharpness. With a dSLR, one might need a tripod and graduated ND filter for similar result.

Yet, other 2 lens units (UWA and Telephoto) do not seem to be at the same league due to physical constraints (24mm eqv. must be the optimum like 50mm of SLR, enabling smallest size with largest aperture with technical ease), but this main-sub discrimination will likely come to an end in a couple of years.

It is rumoured 16 Pro will get 48 mpx ultrawide. We'll see if it benefits despite of poorer corners. At least, the central area will become more detailed and allows a nice crop to 15 mm eqv. And for the yet 12 mpx 5x camera, I'll try to improve by either opting in 3/2 aspect swipe panorama or stitch multiple vertical frames with an app. By this way, one can almost double the resolution and still have around 3.5-4x (85-90mm eqv.) focal.

iPhone 18 Pro will probably the first pocketable-size phone boasting all 48 mpx raw option bundled with appropriate optics, as a key to IQ. It may happen next year on 17 Pro but it's unlikely knowing Apple's strategies trickling innovation in time, all-48 mpx feature will likely be introduced first on the bulky 17 Pro Max.
 
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I fancy upgrading this year so the 17 Pro will be the one I will skip. I will be able to take advantage of this camera in a few years which is fine as the 16 Pro will still have a camera that is more than good enough for the job.
 
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