iPhone 16 Pro could get thinner, lighter camera lenses that improve optical zoom

AppleInsider

A supply chain report suggests that the iPhone 16 Pro could use molded glass lenses to reduce camera bump thickness and weight while increasing magnification distance.

iPhone 16 Pro could have molded lenses

Previous reports have already suggested the iPhone 16 Pro could get the 120 mm Telephoto camera thanks to the rumored larger device size. Molded glass could help with this implementation due to its thinner and lighter nature.

According to a report from Economic Daily News, suppliers are already gearing up for the 2024 iPhone lineup. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max could utilize molded glass lenses to save space and weight.

Molded lenses also provide greater magnification for their given size, so Apple could choose to keep the 24 mm and 120 mm focal lengths while using much thinner lenses. This would especially help with space saving on the smaller iPhone 16 Pro, which will already be overstuffed with the tetraprism crystal for the longer Telephoto lens.

Since the iPhone 16 Pro will have plenty of space, Apple could take one of two routes. It could reduce the size and weight of the camera bump while maintaining existing focal lengths or choose to extend its 120 mm focal length even more.

Due to the complexity of developing molded lenses, manufacturers are already preparing for the iPhone 16 Pro lineup. Apple dominates supply chain orders, but other manufacturers may also attempt to implement molded lenses as part of a greater trend.

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charlesn

None of the IPhone Pro's 3 lenses feature "optical zoom" and that term should be banned when describing them. It's really misleading. They are each a fixed focal length lens--13mm for the ultrawide, 24mm for the wide or "main" lens and either 77mm or 120mm for the telephoto lens, depending on whether you have the 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max. None of these lenses zoom optically--all zooming is accomplished via digital zoom, through a combination of sensor cropping and computational photography. This is why I view the new 120mm lens as a step backward in iPhone photography quality. It forces the the 24mm main lens to handle everything from 25mm to 119mm via digital zoom, which compromises quality in the range that's used for over 90% of all photos. Appleinsider, to its credit, is the only publication I've read to show this compromise in photos that compared the 77mm and 120mm lenses. The difference is not subtle, which is to be expected when you push a 24mm lens that hard digitally to be a jack-of-all-trades. Of course, if you're a sports or wildlife photographer who regularly shoots at 120mm and above, you will benefit from the new lens, which trounces the 77mm at those focal lengths, but that's not most people. In fact, I'm really hoping the 16 Pro does NOT get the 120mm lens next year, and I think I will stay put with my 15 Pro if it does. 

Wesley Hilliard

charlesn said:

None of the IPhone Pro's 3 lenses feature "optical zoom" and that term should be banned when describing them.

Yes, it is not a zoom lens, which would imply it physically can move between focal lengths. Optical zoom, as it is used in the title refers to the focal length being increased for the telephoto lens, it doesn't imply the lens is physically zooming. So, optical in this case is referring to the lens being a physical lens, not a digital recreation within the 24MP main camera. Zoom in this case was used to refer to the distance at which the telephoto lens was capable of seeing. I didn't call it an optical zoom lens and understand the distinction.

You made a similar comment on my iPhone 15 Pro Max review, so I wanted to clear that up.

Also, I don't believe the Main Camera has to carry the range between 1x and 5x. It's pretty clear that it handles 1x to 2x as the Camera app shows. Then you skip from 2x to 5x. For my uses, that's just fine and desirable. I get way more use out of an optically superior 5x lens versus the previous 3x lens. The 2x crop is enough for that range.

My most used focal lengths so far this generation are 35 mm and 120 mm.

Skeptical

Stop the presses. A possible thinner IPhone? Who would have thunk it?

timmillea

Yes I have been driven mad by all the references in almost all the reviews to references to "zoom" when they mean "telephoto" and by the references to focal lengths, e.g. "120mm", "35mm" etc. without stating that these are the 35mm film full-frame equivalent focal lengths!!!!!!! Then the Apple-suggested use of "5x" when, 120mm (35mm film full-frame equivalent focal length) is around 2.4x. Even respected photography journals are using the wrong nomenclature. Desist. 

jcs2305

Skeptical said:

Stop the presses. A possible thinner IPhone? Who would have thunk it?

Where does it mention the phone getting thinner?

iPhone 16 Pro could get thinner, lighter camera lenses that improve optical zoom

melgross

No, I don’t want a thinner phone. That boat has left the dock. The thinness wars have been over for two or three years now, and good riddance! All it did, to lose a couple of millimeters was to cut down on functionality. Smaller battery, more difficulty giving better cameras, etc. Moving to slightly thicker phones has seen improvements. Seriously, how may people really notice a millimeter, or even two, difference in thickness? Pretty much nobody. Yeah, yeah, some will claim it’s such a burden they cry over it.

but the cameras are really getting good. I want them to continue on that path. If they add another millimeter to the camera bump, then great, if it helps. Moulded glass lenses will help because, while there’s nothing special about them, other than optical glass can have greater refractive indices than the plastic lenses often used, they can be made in shapes that ground lenses can’t, because ground elements are ground on a machine that has elements on the surface of a spherical surface, the diameter of which duplicates the surface curvature of the element, one side of the element at a time. So obviously the greater the curve the smaller the sphere and so the fewer elements that can be ground and polished at once. That drives cost up dramatically, which is one reason top lenses cost so much. Aspherical elements can only be ground and polished one at a time, so mostly they’ve been molded for quite some time.

so if it’s true that we’ll “see” moulded optical glass elements next year, it’s pretty exciting. If they can stuff another element in there as a result of the thinner elements, that opens up possibilities. With periscope lenses, there is no reason why true optical zooms can’t happen. With more elements packed together, it’s more likely.

but a good 30 years ago, Phillips showed an element that changed its curvature with small electrical currents. Our eyes changes focus by muscles pulling and pushing on the lens. If someone could perfect that, we could have much better lenses.