iPhone 11 Pro Will a ToF camera render our iPhone 11 Pro’s camera outdated in less than a year?

[Benz63amg]

The new article from macrumors today says the new iPad Pro and new iPhones in 2020 will have a ToF camera system which renders the room in 3D using a laser or some kind of a sensor, quite unbelievable to say the least and that will certainly be another reason to upgrade to the new iPhone in 2020 but why would Apple make the so called revolutionary camera system of the iPhone 11 Pro outdated in such a short time considering the 11 Pro was just released? https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/09/kuo-ipad-pro-3d-camera-scissor-macs-q2-2020/

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Yes, it will. But that’s sort of the thing with technology, isn’t it? The current one becomes outdated the second a new one comes out.

 

[Benz63amg]

Yes, it will. But that’s sort of the thing with technology, isn’t it? The current one becomes outdated the second a new one comes out.

It’s usually an incremental upgrade every year but a ToF camera will literally make the iPhone 11 Pro camera be absurdly outdated as it’s going to add something we’ve never seen before in photography it the rumor from Kuo is true

 

[newellj]

I don't think it's cynical to say that if you're in the business of selling things and updating them every year, you would probably like to roll out a new "must-have" feature every year. There are also limits to how many significant projects you can develop at the same time, even if you have Apple's resources.

 

[baldachin]

The new article from macrumors today says the new iPad Pro and new iPhones in 2020 will have a ToF camera system which renders the room in 3D using a laser or some kind of a sensor, quite unbelievable to say the least and that will certainly be another reason to upgrade to the new iPhone in 2020 but why would Apple make the so called revolutionary camera system of the iPhone 11 Pro outdated in such a short time considering the 11 Pro was just released? https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/09/kuo-ipad-pro-3d-camera-scissor-macs-q2-2020/

Entierly depends what you want it to be. The iPhone 11 Pro will take the same pictures in one year as today. That is guaranteed. If you are happy now with the quality, you will be happy with it in a year too. Unless you put yourself under the yoke of technological advancement and your budget. Then I can tell you, that this might not scale much longer. Technology will developer faster and further all the time.

But it takes quite some guts to worry already about things that might be in 12 months.

 

[pika2000]

The new article from macrumors today says the new iPad Pro and new iPhones in 2020 will have a ToF camera system which renders the room in 3D using a laser or some kind of a sensor, quite unbelievable to say the least and that will certainly be another reason to upgrade to the new iPhone in 2020 but why would Apple make the so called revolutionary camera system of the iPhone 11 Pro outdated in such a short time considering the 11 Pro was just released? https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/09/kuo-ipad-pro-3d-camera-scissor-macs-q2-2020/

There are already phones with TOF cameras out there in the market, like the Huawei P30 Pro and Galaxy Note 10+. Do they make the iPhone 11 obsolete already? Obviously not. Heck, super expensive DSLRs don't even have these stuff.

TOF camera will be more for AR, and unless you're an AR developer or a diehard AR gamer, I wouldn't worry about TOF.

 

[Benz63amg]

There are already phones with TOF cameras out there in the market, like the Huawei P30 Pro and Galaxy Note 10+. Do they make the iPhone 11 obsolete already? Obviously not. Heck, super expensive DSLRs don't even have these stuff.

TOF camera will be more for AR, and unless you're an AR developer or a diehard AR gamer, I wouldn't worry about TOF.

Did you read the article? The ToF camera will be used to scan the surroundings of the scene where you’ll be taking the photo to take photos, not just for AR purposes.

 

[Ifti]

With the number of bugs Apple have been missing so far, I'd rather give Apple a year or so to refine it and let others test it before I jump aboard. Hence, I'm happy with my 11 Pro Max for now.

 

[Greenmeenie]

ToF would be cool for photography, not just AR. It calculates the time it takes for a laser to bounce off surrounding objects to create a 3D image of the environment. This allows for more accurate depth perception and better placement of virtual objects, and should also result in photos better able to capture depth.

Apple’s portrait mode is nice, but it does get fooled and tripped up on occasion. TOF should make the shallow depth of field & blurred background photographers love so much more natural & accurate.

I hear Apple wanted it on the iphone 11 Pro but that it wasn’t ready yet.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Kinda like this year with Night Mode?

 

[pika2000]

Did you read the article? The ToF camera will be used to scan the surroundings of the scene where you’ll be taking the photo to take photos, not just for AR purposes.

Again, the phones with TOF are already out there, Huawei P30 Pro, Galaxy Note 10+, the TOF camera is not new. And are their photos that much better than their models without the TOF camera (regular P30 and Note 10)? Not really. We are at computational photography now, where a lot of the improvements are done via the ISP and software instead of the camera hardware itself. As such, I wouldn't be worrying too much about not having one. Night mode to me is much more significant jump than adding the TOF.

 

[jclardy]

It’s usually an incremental upgrade every year but a ToF camera will literally make the iPhone 11 Pro camera be absurdly outdated as it’s going to add something we’ve never seen before in photography it the rumor from Kuo is true

XS -> 11 Pro was way more than an incremental upgrade. The photos from this phone are dramatically better in every situation. And the wide angle camera takes photos that just aren't possible on earlier devices.

TOF likely won't increase photo quality much, maybe improved portrait mode outlines. I'd expect it to be more focused on AR stuff.

 

[Greenmeenie]

As a travel blogger who uses their iphone as their main travel camera, I’m loving the iphone 11 Pro. Fantastic cameras, and I am looking forward to seeing what deep fusion will do. I agree that TOF in the 2020 iphone will probably be more for AR than photography, but i can see it improving portrait mode accuracy in blurring the background.

Having said that, here is my wish list for the 2020 iphone:
* Larger camera sensors (is that even possible?)
* A fourth lens for macro shooting!
* The ability to use the ultra wide angle camera in dark mode.
* usbc port
* pro motion display like on the ipad pro
* Apple pencil 2 support or a smaller dedicated pencil for the iphone pro (i sketch & take notes on the road)
* micro LED screen
* new flat edged design like the ipad pros that could also charge the apple pencil for note taking.
* No notch!

What are some of yours?

 

[Super Spartan]

I had a ToF sensor in my Note 10 Plus it's nice for portrait modes but some stuff like taking a 3D Pic of an object is a gimmmick. The one thing I did like about it a lot is the fact that the Note 10 Plus can take life focus videos for example keeping your colored while the background is black and white or having a cinematic effect.

That feature alone will make me want to upgrade next year when the new iPhones are released.

 

[Benz63amg]

I had a ToF sensor in my Note 10 Plus it's nice for portrait modes but some stuff like taking a 3D Pic of an object is a gimmmick. The one thing I did like about it a lot is the fact that the Note 10 Plus can take life focus videos for example keeping your colored while the background is black and white or having a cinematic effect.

That feature alone will make me want to upgrade next year when the new iPhones are released.

Everything on Samsung phones is a gimmick, apples implementation of ToF will be the real deal. I personally own an 11 Pro and I am quite disappointed I won’t have such a groundbreaking feature as of ToF on my 11 Pro, I guess I’ll get the new 2020 iPhone next year

 

[simplynando]

Did you read the article? The ToF camera will be used to scan the surroundings of the scene where you’ll be taking the photo to take photos, not just for AR purposes.

There's already plenty of phones with ToF sensors in them (and scanning the environment is what they do). Galaxy S10+ 5G, Note 10, P30 Pro, G8 ThinQ, Honor View 20, Oppo RX17 all use ToF sensors in their camera array. Not to mention the 2020 iPhone is rumored to be a design refresh so of course they would upgrade the camera system to entice people to upgrade, even from an 11/11 Pro. That's the point of a yearly phone release, incorporate new technology to be the best of the best. A phone is pretty much outdated as soon as it's released as most don't even use the most cutting edge technology that's available.

 

[Super Spartan]

Everything on Samsung phones is a gimmick, apples implementation of ToF will be the real deal. I personally own an 11 Pro and I am quite disappointed I won’t have such a groundbreaking feature as of ToF on my 11 Pro, I guess I’ll get the new 2020 iPhone next year

I know man, it hurts, like the phone is almost perfect except for this, it has a lot of possibilities with the ToF sensor. What hurts more is the fact that we shelled out so much money for this and within a few months it will lose half its value trust me. I paid $1557 USD for my iPhone 11 Pro 512GB here in Dubai. I had to sell a kidney to afford it.

 

[JPack]

iPhone 11 was never expected to be a longevity model. It was always the tail end of iPhone X design. iPhone 11 catches up to what was already available on the market.

ToF will enable photos in complete darkness and allow for instant, continuous, and dynamic auto focus. Right now, portrait mode relies on computational photography and is imperfect at times. ToF will make that 100%.

iPhone 11 is like iPhone 7, a transitional model before the great leap to iPhone X.

 

[5105973]

I had a ToF sensor in my Note 10 Plus it's nice for portrait modes but some stuff like taking a 3D Pic of an object is a gimmmick. The one thing I did like about it a lot is the fact that the Note 10 Plus can take life focus videos for example keeping your colored while the background is black and white or having a cinematic effect.

That feature alone will make me want to upgrade next year when the new iPhones are released.

I honestly forgot my Note 10+ has this technology. I’ve just been taking regular family photos and videos with it. I couldn’t see any earth shattering difference using the camera that way.

 

[alpi123]

Phones/their cameras get outdated every year. It's a waste of time worrying about this.

 

[kirk.vino]

Frankly speaking, the biggest update next year will be the updated ultra wide camera, which is bare bones now! No IOS, no night mode, noisy/blurry AF. TOF is more of a marketing trick that will help improve AR than anything else. The actual pics are not gonna look drastically better. They really need to start increasing those pencil-eraser-size sensors.

 

[The Game 161]

Phones are are out every year...so....

 

[Benz63amg]

I honestly forgot my Note 10+ has this technology. I’ve just been taking regular family photos and videos with it. I couldn’t see any earth shattering difference using the camera that way.

Your note 10 is not an iPhone and everything Samsung implements into their phones is in some sort of a form, a gimmick. I don’t like Samsung and their example of ToF is not how it will operate on an iPhone.

 

[5105973]

Your note 10 is not an iPhone and everything Samsung implements into their phones is in some sort of a forum, a gimmick. I don’t like Samsung and their example of ToF is not how it will operate on an iPhone.

Well you’re probably not wrong that Apple will do something unique and creative with its TOF camera.

But I can’t get on board with the overall statement you’re making.

However you’re in luck. Today I’m feeling generous. I’ll spare you the long winded off topic wall of words going into excruciating detail why I disagree with you.

Because I did a lot of work and burned off lots of calories today. And there’s a gorgeous delicious donut in front of me. And I am going to eat it!

 

[fred98tj]

ToF sensors are already on a lot of XP’s, even some relatively inexpensive ones, and they are used for depth mapping. This isn’t anything new. Lastly, do these, even inexpensive phones, make the current gen of iPhones obsolete? I don’t think so.