iPhone 16 Pro rumored to get hugely better ultra-wide sensor & optical zoom
Rumors of major camera changes to the iPhone 16 Pro lineup continue, with a leaker insisting there will be an ultra-wide sensor update and one for the telephoto's zoom.
Rear cameras of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max
Apple regularly makes updates to the camera system on the iPhone, with the Tetraprism lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max getting a lot of attention. Rumors claim more are on the way, and a Tuesday leaker post seems to agree.
The post from leaker "Baby Sauce" on Weibo refers to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The first of the two claims is that there will be an upgrade of the ultra-wide angle camera to 48-megapixels.
If true, this would mean Apple will include two 48-megapixel cameras on the rear. The telephoto camera would therefore become the last remaining camera using a 12-megapixel sensor.
Baby Sauce claims the sensor upgrade will happen to both the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.
The second claim is specific to the iPhone 16 Pro, in that it would get the zoom upgrade to 5x. This would match the 5x zoom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which was facilitated by the Tetraprism lens.
While the Pro model will get the zoom update, the leaker says there won't be a change to the iPhone 16 Pro Max's telephoto zoom level.
The leaker does not have much of a track record when it comes to Apple leaks. Their most recent significant posting was a collection of images of cases, supposedly intended for an iPhone SE 4.
There have been previous rumors discussing the outlined camera changes. Another leaker, "Setsuna Digital" and multiple analysts proposed the 48-megapixel sensor upgrade in 2023.
There has also been analyst speculation that the Tetraprism lens would spread from the Pro Max to the Pro model.
Rumor Score: Possible
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
it seems that's the only thing they keep focusing on
2 cameras. now 3 cameras, now 4 cameras
we are not all professional photographers.
i take pics i usually see on my iphone screen or on my ipad
i don't need terrapixel quality with 99x optical zoom , and carl zeis diamond quartz lens
with a huge camera bump on the back that makes the phone rock when i put it on a table
Optical zoom lenses, as the name clearly states, change their focal lengths and achieve zoom capability through optics -- i.e., a variety of precise optical elements within the lens that move with great precision to provide the "equivalent" of many fixed focal length lenses in a single lens. In actual practice, an optical zoom lens will not achieve the same quality as a fixed focal length "prime" lens because optical zoom requires optical compromises, but the convenience of zoom sure beats toting a trunk full of prime lenses.
Good that you don't need to upgrade then. For many of us, the camera is the single most important feature and a core function of the phone. And yes. We look at photos on screens far larger than an iPad and sometimes want to high-quality prints. In addition, any improvement to the optical zoom would be greatly appreciated.
and need the highest quality possible
why not get a real camera with real optical lenses ?
a tiny sensor on an iPhone will NEVER give you the same quality as a full size sensor
no matter how many cameras they add to the back of the iPhone
just like if audio is your greatest feature, you don't use an iphone
You get a high end high res audio player
for the other 90% they couldn't care less, and would much rather have a thicker phone with a 2-3 day battery, and no fugly hump on the back.
I would be interested if there was ever a survey that showed what the highest requested features are on smart phones
I don't agree with the first line of your post, but I agree with the rest of your post. People do want lots of battery endurance for their smartphones. That is one of the key reasons (probably the second in order of priority, first being cameras) for Pro Max being the most popular option among the iPhones.
since cameras are already pretty darn good now. we didn't have 48 megapixel cameras in 2018
battery life has pretty much stayed the same, yes they are a lot more efficient, but we also keep adding features so the usage/capacity has stayed the same
and i can tell you durability has not really changed since iphone 4ish
you drop any gen phone from the iphone 4 on to iphone 15 on the ground and you are cracking front glass or back glass (we didn't need to worry about back glass in the early gens since it was plastic)
yeah yeah they use gorrila glass 18 now, but it still breaks.
so my point is why do they only focus on the camera (s)?
Is full-frame quality better? Of course it is. But better is meaningless if you don't have your camera with you when the opportunity for a great shot appears. Even more importantly, in my opinion: the quality of which current iPhone Pro cameras are capable exceeds what most people who aren't shooting photos for a living will ever need. I currently have a 24" x 36" color print hanging in my living room from an uncropped, no filters image taken with a 13 Pro that sparked a call from the lab which printed it for me, inquiring about the equipment I used to get the shot. No "equipment" -- just my phone. I routinely print 13x19 photos of flower close-ups shot with my iPhone and they are stunning. Would pixel-peeping reveal better quality if I had shot them with my Nikon full-frame equipment? Sure. Providing I had lugged my Nikon equipment along for a walk in the park that day.
There was a point quite a few years back where phones + computational photography had achieved 'close enough' - or in some cases better than what 'real' cameras were doing (e.g. computational low-light performance was better due to image stacking than what cameras were doing) - and hell, even today I'd rather let the phone deal with a backlit person for a media post vs. try to deal with that in some post-processing myself - but between large sensor improvements, lens improvements, and phones increasingly over-processing (mangling) the data even before the 'raw' stage...
Don't look at a newer mirrorless Nikon/Sony/etc. if you want to save money and be happy with the phone, but the current cameras are *not* what a D3 was. For telephoto (moon/wildlife) - and macro in particular - there's *no* comparison between the two, for control (real aperture options), quality optics, and for much more natural colors and detail, hands-down. (I say all of this as a hobbyist.). So like someone mentioned above, it's like audio equipment.