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iPhone SE (2022) iPhone SE (3rd Gen): Night Mode Time Lapse but Night Mode?

FSMBP

FSMBP

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If you go down to the Video Recording tech specs, it appears the new SE has night mode for timelapse. Any ideas why it doesn't have night mode for pictures?

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Designed for Apple Intelligence. Discover iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, iPhone 17, and iPhone 17e, along with iPhone 16.
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Probably due to the fact that Apple is pricing it at 429.00. That’s the phone I’d carry if it did have Night Mode for all photos.
 
osta.doc said:
Probably due to the fact that Apple is pricing it at 429.00. That’s the phone I’d carry if it did have Night Mode for all photos.
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It's crazy that 4 year old Pixel phones have Night Mode (or whatever Google calls it)...Oh Apple!
 
Apple, is what it is. I could handle a single lens camera. But without Night Mode, the SE series are pretty horrible cameras in low light.
 
It doesn't have Night Mode because Night Mode requires certain camera hardware that doesn't exist on the iPhone 8 camera. It's not because Apple specifically crippled it for the low end phone.
 
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I get that. I didn’t mean to point it anywhere else. It’s just disappointing for the SE, because I love that phone, that’s all.
 
osta.doc said:
I get that. I didn’t mean to point it anywhere else. It’s just disappointing for the SE, because I love that phone, that’s all.
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I do too. I had the 2020 SE, and I made the decision to upgrade to the 13 mini in January. That's a big deal for me; I know the 13 mini is not the gold standard (I did consider the pro) but it's the most modern phone I've had in a long time!

At the moment I'd call the upgrade kind of a wash (I really prefer the Touch ID/home button experience to the Face ID/no home button experience), but I haven't really taken the chance yet to put the camera through its paces; I'm very much looking forward to that.
 
Night mode time-lapse keeps the camera shutter open because it's a video recording.

Night mode photos doesn't because it's a photo.

A very sensitive camera sensor with Focus Pixels is needed to take night mode photos.
 
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Night Mode for still photos is a tango between the camera hardware, the Neural Engine, and software.
The SE 3 has the neural engine but doesn't it just have the camera hardware to enable quick handheld Night Mode shots.

Night Mode is possible for time lapse because the camera is presumably standing still and has several seconds between video frames. The shutter can stay open for a long time (longer shutter + no movement = less noise) and combine the number of frames it needs to create a Night Mode frame.

It might not have Night Mode but it does have Deep Fusion which is still a huge low light improvement over the SE2 camera system. I don't think enough people are praising that. Deep Fusion is what makes iPhone 11 series photos look great even today.
 
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osta.doc said:
I’ll be watching for examples of the SE3 low light photos.
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Here is one from my SE 2020 and one from my 13 mini with Night Mode off. For comparison. I suppose the SE 2022 should be in the middle. I have another of the same scene with my wife's SE 2016; there is almost no light in the photo, it's really really dark, you can just make out the outline of the dog. So I think the SE is doing a pretty good job here.

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348A727C-4784-437C-91CE-FF8416290DBC.jpeg
 
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osta.doc said:
So in theory, the SE3 should improve on those photos due to the addition of Deep Fusion, or not?
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Those sample photos already show the improvement that Deep Fusion offers. It's not going to improve low-light photography, but it will add details to the subject.
 
Do any 3rd party apps help?

I've used Night Cap on my iPhone SE 2016 and gotten some constellation photos and ISS trails in a photo. Pretty spiffy!
 
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