This looks awesome, I will check this out.
I appreciate you posting about the telephoto lens. Feels kinda misleading that it will only work in good lighting conditions.
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iPhone 11 Pro Zoom lens: literally pointless!
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This looks awesome, I will check this out.
I appreciate you posting about the telephoto lens. Feels kinda misleading that it will only work in good lighting conditions.
I believe you can manually select the camera lens in apps like moment and filmic pro
Nah, I'm pretty familiar with the word.
It would have been more accurate to say that the telephoto lens is not actually used in 2x zoom mode if you're less than 1.5-2ft from your subject, but 1) I didn't realize that the subject distance was the problem at the time of posting and 2) I wanted to make the thread title more concise.
Anyway, thanks to JPack's comment, I've figured out what's causing this behavior. I'll edit my original post, adding the video I just uploaded, which clearly demonstrates the actual cause of the lens selection (not brightness levels, as everyone seems to think) ...
Metapho is an amazing app! I paid the IAP because I want to support the devs even though I rarely use the paid features.
Not only does it so what you mentioned, but if you made adjustments to the photo, it allows you to share any of:
- The original unmodified version
- The adjusted version (what you'd normally share)
- A plist file containing the adjustments
In fact this app is the only way I've seen that lets you export adjustment data from iOS.
In my previous post, it was a combination of proper lighting conditions + distance from the subject that activate the telephoto lens (basically as JPack claimed would be the case). The exception being for Portrait Mode where it defaults to the 2x Telephoto Lens regardless of the lighting conditions OR distance from the subject. That may explain why you commented previously that you were in dark conditions with the telephoto active (Portrait Mode).
Nah, I'm pretty familiar with the word.
It would have been more accurate to say that the telephoto lens is not actually used in 2x zoom mode if you're less than 1.5-2ft from your subject, but 1) I didn't realize that the subject distance was the problem at the time of posting and 2) I wanted to make the thread title more concise.
Anyway, thanks to JPack's comment, I've figured out what's causing this behavior. I'll edit my original post, adding the video I just uploaded, which clearly demonstrates the actual cause of the lens selection (not brightness levels, as everyone seems to think) ...
BOTH distance to subject AND brightness are being considered for whether the 2x camera is allowed.
I encourage you to do more testing, in much darker conditions. Ensure distance to subject is so far that that is removed from the equation. Go out on the patio at night, as required.
What you have demonstrated is that your 11 pro is a lot more likely to actually use the 2x camera than my X. 2x aperture on 11P is f2.0, on X it is f2.4. I am unable to get the 2x camera to be used on my X indoors in essentially any situation. Too dark. Outdoors in daylight, 2x camera works no problem.
As far as lighting conditions, yes - the telephoto lens is being used up until it's dark enough for Night Mode to be triggered. I guess I never noticed on my iPhone X, but I'll bet 90% of my 2x zoom shots were actually cropped wide shots.
Some of you have way too much free time on your hands.
This sum it up pretty well 😂
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actually it is using BOTH factors, as supposed to do. 🤷🏻♂️
Anything brighter than Night Mode level works fine, so ... sure. I guess that does make your statement technically correct. lol
THe 2x lens on the iPhone 11 Pro gets used a LOT more than it did on the iPhone 7 Plus, which I had before.
With the 7 Plus you pretty much had to be in outdoor daytime lighting for the 2X lens to be used. With the 11 Pro, most indoor lighting is sufficient; the only caveat is that the subject has to be further than about 2-3 feet so you can't use it for "extreme closeups".
Interestingly the 11 Pro uses the "regular" lens to measure the amount of light to decide whether to use the 2X. So if you cover up the "regular" lens when 2X is selected it will flip back to the regular lens thinking there's not enough light.
I do wish there were an indication that the 2x lens is NOT in use when you hit 2x. If it's not going to use the 2x lens I'd rather shoot with the regular lens and crop, since it's basically the same thing!
But anyway, stop covering your lenses and just take pictures, people.
With the 7 Plus you pretty much had to be in outdoor daytime lighting for the 2X lens to be used. With the 11 Pro, most indoor lighting is sufficient; the only caveat is that the subject has to be further than about 2-3 feet so you can't use it for "extreme closeups".
Interestingly the 11 Pro uses the "regular" lens to measure the amount of light to decide whether to use the 2X. So if you cover up the "regular" lens when 2X is selected it will flip back to the regular lens thinking there's not enough light.
I do wish there were an indication that the 2x lens is NOT in use when you hit 2x. If it's not going to use the 2x lens I'd rather shoot with the regular lens and crop, since it's basically the same thing!
But anyway, stop covering your lenses and just take pictures, people.