christy_p

igorsky said:

Since you can retroactively control the blur, seems like there's no need to ever take a photo without Portrait Mode.

There are many good reasons to take a photo without Portrait Mode, here's a few. Taking photo in regular, non-portrait-mode is more responsive, and the camera locks on focus faster. Non-portrait mode allows to take close-up photos. Portrait Mode always requires the subject to be at certain distance from the camera to activate the Depth Effect, requiring more time to take the shot. Photos in Portrait Mode appear to be grainier/noisier than regular photos, especially in low light. The focal length of Portrait Mode may not be desirable for group shots or sceneries. The cutaway effect of Portrait Mode sometimes is annoying when it couldn't cleanly separate hair from the background, making the edges/transitions look fake & ugly.