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iPhone 18 Pro to Revive Feature Samsung Dropped Years Ago

There comes a point at which, if you want a proper full-featured camera, you should think about buying a proper full-featured camera, instead of adding a "feature" to your phone that will make it much more prone to damage.

Keep in mind that there are already cameras that cost a fraction of the cost of an iPhone yet have larger sensors as well as variable apertures. At a time when Apple is keen on moving in the direction of the Air, making phones lighter and thinner, adding a moving part that will likely be the most breakable part of the phone seems like a potential step backward. Will Apple make up for this by increasing the cost of AppleCare for phones with this feature? If the technology has really matured to the point at which Apple can pull this off, that's great, but I suspect many iPhone users would rather see upgraded speakers and/or microphones than a variable aperture lens.
 
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let's hope apple does something with the accelerometers to protect the mechanism. I still would rather have the 3D sensor.
 
A variable aperture won’t make much difference with sensors this small as depth of field will still be massive after a few feet anyway, which would be the main reason to offer aperture control. The other reason is exposure, but only video in bright light may benefit you can just pop an ND filter over the lenses.
 
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HouseLannister said:
So they are making the phone thicker and heavier with added battery, so figured they might as well add this as well since it will require a thicker plateau? I wonder how close to 9 oz that Pro Max is going to get this year.
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Yes, the Pro is now a spec chasing device so expect it to get thicker and heavier. It’s the most tech you can pack into a phone.

If you’re after something more streamlined Apple has the Air or the regular iPhone to offer you.
 
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Hilarious post but lets continue with your analogy.
If users want better speakers or microphones than there are much cheaper and better options on the market. ROFL!

Billy_Bob said:
There comes a point at which, if you want a proper full-featured camera, you should think about buying a proper full-featured camera, instead of adding a "feature" to your phone that will make it much more prone to damage.

Keep in mind that there are already cameras that cost a fraction of the cost of an iPhone yet have larger sensors as well as variable apertures. At a time when Apple is keen on moving in the direction of the Air, making phones lighter and thinner, adding a moving part that will likely be the most breakable part of the phone seems like a potential step backward. Will Apple make up for this by increasing the cost of AppleCare for phones with this feature? If the technology has really matured to the point at which Apple can pull this off, that's great, but I suspect many iPhone users would rather see upgraded speakers and/or microphones than a variable aperture lens.
Click to expand...
 
Avidos1 said:
A variable aperture won’t make much difference with sensors this small as depth of field will still be massive after a few feet anyway, which would be the main reason to offer aperture control. The other reason is exposure, but only video in bright light may benefit you can just pop an ND filter over the lenses.
Click to expand...
 
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UliBaer said:
A variable aperture at the miniature size of the sensors and the lenses doesn't make any sense. The depth of field is already from here to South Africa. The bokeh (face sharp and background blurred) is already artificially calculated after the photo was taken in software (Portrait mode). This is with already widest open aperture! With the now introducing variable aperture, one can only close the aperture further, thereby increasing the depth of field! The often wanted bokeh will be even more non existent with this dimensions of sensor and lenses! I don't get it... 🤔
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d4cloo said:
Why would you want a variable aperture on a camera with a tiny sensor? You need all the light you can get. Furthermore, there’s barely any depth of field to begin with, so going from f1.7 to f10 makes no sense.
What am I missing here?
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You are missing that tech companies are now at a point were 50% of what they sell is not from value but via marketing.
 
coreyweberling said:
a variable aperture is not really an upgrade. If anything they should be widening the apertures on all lenses as much as they possibly can.
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There are down sides of opening the aperture and that is too shallow depth of field + making the lens bigger. It's laws of physics they're fighting here.
 
They really just need to sit down and take a good hard look at the software pipeline they employ.

The hardware is fine, but the algorithms at work simultaneously brighten and flatten everything. Photos often look flat and unnatural.
 
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Gloor said:
Will there be any actual benefit at these sizes?
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There is benefit for video. Currently to reduce exposure in bright lighting the camera increases the shutter speed, which removes motion blur and gives the video a jittery hyper-real look that is unpleasant.

A variable exposure would help with this, but it has moving parts. A better way to solve that issue would be with an electronic variable ND. They can also just adjust the ISO of the camera, but there is a limit to how far you can do that and I think the iPhone is already hitting those limits.

So I'm hoping that what is really coming is a variable ND to do more long-exposure stuff in stills, and fix video exposures in bright lighting.

Apple really also needs to sort out their internal reflection problem with point light sources. Green blobs everywhere.
 
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Though this is a good move, would like to see a bigger sensor too. iPhone cameras are improving yearly and this is great.
 
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UliBaer said:
A variable aperture at the miniature size of the sensors and the lenses doesn't make any sense. The depth of field is already from here to South Africa. The bokeh (face sharp and background blurred) is already artificially calculated after the photo was taken in software (Portrait mode). This is with already widest open aperture! With the now introducing variable aperture, one can only close the aperture further, thereby increasing the depth of field! The often wanted bokeh will be even more non existent with this dimensions of sensor and lenses! I don't get it... 🤔
Click to expand...
Yes, this will help just to have the same deph of field than before or even more everything in focus, but never more bokeh.
 
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