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iPhone 14 Pro Is Apple trying to kill the telephoto lens?

ophh1

ophh1

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 7, 2016
63
278
I have switched to iPhone 14 Pro from iPhone 12 for almost a month, iPhone 14 Pro's new camera system is definitely superior than iPhone 12 in terms of image quality.

However, the camera system algorithm is getting too "smart" and auto. Apple doesn't even allow us to turn off Scene Detection and Smart HDR in iPhone 14 Pro anymore, which I can turn it off in iPhone 12.

Yesterday I was trying to use the iPhone 14 Pro 77mm telephoto camera to capture a butterfly, but while I was framing the butterfly, I found out the camera kept on switching between the 24mm and 77mm lenses. So I decided to capture the butterfly using both lenses to see the difference.

As you can see the EXIF below on the right, the iPhone 14 Pro used the centre 12MP (48mm) area of the 48MP sensor, and digital zoomed it to mimic a 78mm equivalent.

comparison.jpg

You can instantly see that the digital cropped 78mm has a more shallow depth of field than the 77mm because of the larger aperture. But obviously the real telephoto lens has more detail than the cropped one.

comparison B.jpg


And one more weird thing, when I zoomed in to see the butterfly wings, the cropped version has some weird artifacts. Maybe it's deep fusion?
comparison C.jpg


I know Apple automatically switches to macro when your camera is closer to the subject, but I don't understand why Apple decided to switch between cameras in telephoto too.

Just my two cents, I think Apple is getting confident that the 48MP sensor and its computational photography algorithm is so good that digital cropped and zoomed photo can compete with a standalone telephoto sensor and lens. Because most people who use iPhone are posting photos on social media, first impression is king and details don't matter. It makes me believe Apple will adopt 100MP sensor and crops/bins the hell out of it for telephoto for a 12MP output, and kills the actual telephoto lens to make space for the rumoured periscope lens on future iPhone. The algorithm to auto switch between main camera and telephoto camera is paving the way for an more ambitious future of computational photography.
 
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Reactions: Shirasaki
If apple is about to kill telephoto lens, I’m gonna be very curious to see how those “cheap cameras” (compared to DSLR) really perform with those new systems. Maybe iphone 15 pro max would finally shine as a somewhat Ok substitute for general low end professional work? (I know, there are exceptions, but they are, exceptions)
 
Interesting observation.

I don't think Apple would kill telephoto lens. It's one of the main selling points for the Pro models, differentiating it than the rest of iphone lineup for people to spend more money.

I do think that the use of high resolution sensors of the main camera will be beneficial for the regular iphones that lack telephoto lens. When Apple start to trickle down the 48MP sensor (presumably by the iphone 15), then finally regular iphone users can get at least a lossless 2x zoom.

The Pixel 7 Pro's super res zoom up to 10x is probably what Apple is aiming as well. Combining high resolution sensors and computational photography, you can create a smoother zoom transition and higher power zoom with less reduction in quality.
 
In the 14 Pro lineup the lens switch is particularly annoying. The previous models didn’t do that. Also it seems Apple’s smooth transition between lenses got worse as well on the 14 Pro. I hope they fix that in 16.1.
 
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Fatus_Asticus said:
No I want one as well. Its pretty much the last thing Android has as an almost must have for me that Apple does not.
Click to expand...

Apple will get around to it after they invent the camera lens for 10x zoom. Just like it only took them 10 years before finally implementing AOD on iPhone 14? I remember my first Samsung phone with AOD back in 2015 or 2016. (Edit: just looked up my old photos, yes it was my old Samsung Galaxy S5 from back in 2016 that had AOD, not sure if that was the first Samsung that had it, however)
 
akash.nu said:
In the 14 Pro lineup the lens switch is particularly annoying. The previous models didn’t do that.
Click to expand...

Yes they did. It has been part of the discussion in this thread that the zoom uses the main lens when it really shouldn’t.
On the 48mp camera it makes more sense I guess, but the quality is really bad and noticeable when iPhone 13 pro crops photos on the 12mp main lens.
 
Pandyone said:
Yes they did. It has been part of the discussion in this thread that the zoom uses the main lens when it really shouldn’t.
On the 48mp camera it makes more sense I guess, but the quality is really bad and noticeable when iPhone 13 pro crops photos on the 12mp main lens.
Click to expand...

I’m talking about when you get close to subject and it constantly flips between normal and macro mode.
 
akash.nu said:
I’m talking about when you get close to subject and it constantly flips between normal and macro mode.
Click to expand...

I see, I thought you meant telephoto lens. But 13 pro also does that, however it’s somewhat more sensitive with the larger sensor on 14 pro.
 
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