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Rob.G

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 17, 2010
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Arizona
Dunno if anybody can confirm this yet, but wanted to ask just in case. Does anybody know if the iPhone X's camera takes photos that are widescreen (like Android phones have for years), or is it still stuck in 4:3 land? I had an iPhone 6S briefly, and the last straw that caused me to return it was the fact that it still only took 4:3 photos.

Thanks.

Rob
 
It’s goimg to depend on what sensor is used. I assume same as the IP8. If it’s a 4:3 sensor then that will certainly be the default.
Android phones that take 16:9 are simply cropping the 4:3 sensor aspect ratio (thus losing some of the total resolution, assuming a 4:3 sensor in said phone).
Most 3rd party camera apps will allow you to take photos in 16:9 aspect ratio on the iPhone.
 
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There is no “stuck” in 4:3 land. Because 4:3 land is THE aspect ratio most photography is done at. No photography is actually done at 16:9 and anytime you see another smartphone or even cameras allowing 16:9 it’s giving you less image quality to achieve it. It crops the 4:3 image down, resulting in cutting out a significant amount of pixels the whole sensor would use at its proper aspect ratio.

If you absolutely need to have 16:9 for whatever reason, you can select 16:9 in the crop options when editing a photo in the photos app. Or use a third party camera app that will automatically crop it to 16:9.

Cropping though is generally not something anyone should do, because you’re removing pixels and can quickly turn that 12mp photo down to 6mp or less if heavily cropped.
 
I use both an iPhone and a Galaxy S8 (the S8 is a work phone given to me) and I can tell you with at least that Android phone, there is a 16:9 mode but you get 9 megapixels with it since it takes the 12 megapixel 4:3 ratio and just crops it out in real time. I don't know enough about other Android phones to say if they have 16:9 sensors but it appears the more high end ones don't, though I could be wrong in my brief research that I just did for this post.
 
Dunno if anybody can confirm this yet, but wanted to ask just in case. Does anybody know if the iPhone X's camera takes photos that are widescreen (like Android phones have for years), or is it still stuck in 4:3 land? I had an iPhone 6S briefly, and the last straw that caused me to return it was the fact that it still only took 4:3 photos.

Thanks.

Rob

1 - 4:3 is basically the default format for photography.
2 - Download Camera+, choose 16:9. Pixel count is 4032x2268 or about 9 megapixels.

Problem solved. You aren't "stuck" anymore
 
1 - 4:3 is basically the default format for photography.
2 - Download Camera+, choose 16:9. Pixel count is 4032x2268 or about 9 megapixels.

Problem solved. You aren't "stuck" anymore

Just gimping the overall image quality
 
There is no “stuck” in 4:3 land. Because 4:3 land is THE aspect ratio most photography is done at.
I guess that's true in that the iPhone is the worlds most used camera, but for DSLR photography we're still using 3:2 format, and mirrorless photography is a mix of 3:2 and 4:3 formats.
 
Dunno if anybody can confirm this yet, but wanted to ask just in case. Does anybody know if the iPhone X's camera takes photos that are widescreen (like Android phones have for years), or is it still stuck in 4:3 land? I had an iPhone 6S briefly, and the last straw that caused me to return it was the fact that it still only took 4:3 photos.

Thanks.

Rob

ugh i hope not. i prefer 4:3 / full frame
 
I guess that's true in that the iPhone is the worlds most used camera, but for DSLR photography we're still using 3:2 format, and mirrorless photography is a mix of 3:2 and 4:3 formats.

Yes, I meant that as in because for a lot of people the camera they use is likely 4:3 (smartphone or not)

I’ve been shooting with dslr’s since 2005, so I’m aware they are 3:2.
[doublepost=1506910590][/doublepost]
The only ones I know of are the Black Magic Video cameras.

Yeah. I can’t think of any camera meant for still photography that actually uses a 16:9 sensor though.
 
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Dunno if anybody can confirm this yet, but wanted to ask just in case. Does anybody know if the iPhone X's camera takes photos that are widescreen (like Android phones have for years), or is it still stuck in 4:3 land? I had an iPhone 6S briefly, and the last straw that caused me to return it was the fact that it still only took 4:3 photos.

Thanks.

Rob


Any phone that’s taking “widescreen” photos is not using the full image sensor area and is costing resolution. Camera sensors are universally 3:2, not 4:3. It’s not considered outdated when a camera doesn’t have a widescreen setting, that’s just not how this works at all in any camera, not just smartphone cameras. You get the same effect as an android phone capturing widescreen by cropping after the fact or using a third party camera app that will do it for you. It’s unfortunate this caused you to return an iPhone but do not expect this to be a feature anytime soon. There’s plenty of resolution in a still image to crop it to a wide aspect.
 
Any phone that’s taking “widescreen” photos is not using the full image sensor area and is costing resolution. Camera sensors are universally 3:2, not 4:3. It’s not considered outdated when a camera doesn’t have a widescreen setting, that’s just not how this works at all in any camera, not just smartphone cameras. You get the same effect as an android phone capturing widescreen by cropping after the fact or using a third party camera app that will do it for you. It’s unfortunate this caused you to return an iPhone but do not expect this to be a feature anytime soon. There’s plenty of resolution in a still image to crop it to a wide aspect.

Actually most camera sensors are 4:3. It’s mostly DSLR cameras that have a 3:2 ratio. I’m not aware of any that are 16:9 though. My Nikon DSLR is 3:2, but my Olympus OM-D is 4:3. The Olympus will let me select other aspect ratios to shoot in as well, but it’s just cropping the sensor.

The native iOS camera lets you select a square aspect ratio, but it’s odd that you can’t also select 3:2 or 16:9. Of course there are many camera apps that will let you select from those. And you can always crop after the shot.

Sean
 
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