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How The iPhone 15 Pro camera works and why you’ll want to shoot 24MP photos

32 points by matco11 3y ago

edandersen 3y ago
Apple should just use the words "sensor crop". The contortions they are going through not to use the words are getting very contrived.
esafak 3y ago
tl,dr: "So what you end up with in the 24, it’s a bit of a ‘Goldilocks moment’ of you get all of the extra dynamic range that comes from the 12 and the detail transfer that comes in from the 48.”
- poglet 3y ago
  So the 48mp sensor runs in cropped 12mp while doing some type of exposure bracketing before the user takes a photo, then when the photo is taken the sensor is cropped to 24mp. At that point post-processing combines all images together? And shooting at 48mp HEIF does not do this.
raavikant 3y ago
As per the tech vloggers, the camera setup in iPhone 15 is more powerful then before.
Reubend 3y ago
It's really misleading to describe any of the fake focal lengths as "prime lenses". All of the iPhones lenses are technically prime lenses, but the new focal lengths are just digital zoom with some extra post processing.
- astrange 3y ago
  Zooming a 48MP quad-Bayer camera is not exactly digital; you can reconfigure the sensor to be a different resolution.
  - dogma1138 3y ago
    Isn’t sensor reconfiguration still considered digital crop/zoom since it’s not part of the optical element of the camera? When sensors with microlense arrays become more common things will definitely become more complicated tho. We’re probably about 5 years from consumer grade MLA sensors still tho.
    - astrange 3y ago
      It's not part of the optics (since you can't move the lightwells) but I think it's still part of the analog system, so it's different from working on pixel or Bayer values.
  - 4gotunameagain 3y ago
    If you reconfigure the sensor without cropping you do not end up with a zoomed image, just with a reduced resolution one. With a fixed focal length in order to zoom you need to decrease the sensor size, therefore cropping, so digital zoom
    - astrange 3y ago
      Not if you default to reduced resolution mode, then you can reconfigure to an increased one ;)
      - 4gotunameagain 3y ago
        aaah interesting. Then the resolution is increased, but how does it affect the overall image quality since you have the same amount of photons in more wells ?
kart23 3y ago
12MP can capture incredible amounts of detail when your sensor is big and your lens is good, and especially if you don't have a Optical Low-Pass Filter, which literally blurs your images: https://petapixel.com/what-is-a-low-pass-filter/ https://petapixel.com/what-is-a-low-pass-filter/ They also advertised that the sensor in the 15 pro is a 'larger 48mp sensor' which isn't true: it's the SAME EXACT sensor as last years 14 pro, its just larger than the regular 15. Tech journalists need to start calling this out more. https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2668153890/apple-s-iphone-15-and-15-pro-imaging-tech-examined https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2668153890/apple-s-iphone-...
seydor 3y ago
What i dont get is why they need all those bulky lenses if they are going to do anything with AI
- brokenmachine 3y ago
  Yes, they really should make it their first priority to do something about those bulky lenses on that 8.3mm thick phone.
  - edandersen 3y ago
    They should make the phone the same thickness as the lenses, have a nice 6000mAh battery size and a high powered headphone jack. Maybe then the phone will lie flat on a table.
    - ASalazarMX 3y ago
      A few years ago, iPhones reached high-end Androids in battery capacity. Had an excellent gaming Huawei phone that lasted two days with normal usage, and IIRC the iPhone 11/12 were the ones who started having comparable battery life. Nowadays, as a tourist camera, a Pro Max barely lasts half a day, continuously overheating by who knows what AI processing out of the user's control.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    The bump annoys me heatedly because it means that the phone don’t sit flat, and even a vibrate can send it falling off the edge of table, or the arm of a chair.
    - brokenmachine 3y ago
      So buy a phone with a design that you don't get annoyed heatedly by.
      - TylerE 3y ago
        There are way more things that I hate about android
insickness 3y ago
This is the most interesting part to me: Apple wants to keep an uncluttered experience and will rely on app developers in order to give power users more. McCormack points to this as the fine line that Apple is looking to walk: give the features but leave it to developers to service those who want to push the hardware and software to its max.
shortcake27 3y ago
I’m keen to see the results when people get their hands on these phones. I own one of the last iPhones which can save non-HDR shots when using the default camera app. I set it up to save both, but the vast majority of the time I prefer the non-HDR photo as it usually has more contrast and captures the scene more accurately. I was really disappointed when Apple removed this option on newer iPhones, and even more disappointed when I saw how much they also jacked up the post processing on the 14 Pro. Yeah, the cameras may be better, but good lord the processing is absolutely awful to my eyes. I don’t really want to use apps like Halide because in typical Apple fashion, you can’t change the default camera app (which I use a lot, as it’s accessible without unlocking the phone, which is important as FaceID rarely works for me when I’m outside). Unfortunately my phone is dying so I’m just hoping they’ve dialled in the processing for the 48mp sensor.
mirsadm 3y ago
For people that care about the quality of footage above anything else you can already record better quality footage with a $200 Android phone. You can record RAW video with an app I wrote (it's free for the raw video part of anyone cares). Every year every phone manufacturer claims to do the next best thing with video and photography and every year it's fairly mediocre. I'll wait to test it for myself as always.
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  You could do that five years ago. Apple is ridiculously behind the state of the art, although firmly entrenched in its walled garden. For all its fanfare and marketing, the "Wonderlust" presentation was incredibly underwhelming, just tiny increments, and more artificial market segmentation.

32 points by matco11 3y ago

Apple should just use the words "sensor crop". The contortions they are going through not to use the words are getting very contrived.

esafak 3y ago

tl,dr: "So what you end up with in the 24, it’s a bit of a ‘Goldilocks moment’ of you get all of the extra dynamic range that comes from the 12 and the detail transfer that comes in from the 48.”

poglet 3y ago
So the 48mp sensor runs in cropped 12mp while doing some type of exposure bracketing before the user takes a photo, then when the photo is taken the sensor is cropped to 24mp. At that point post-processing combines all images together? And shooting at 48mp HEIF does not do this.

raavikant 3y ago

As per the tech vloggers, the camera setup in iPhone 15 is more powerful then before.

Reubend 3y ago

It's really misleading to describe any of the fake focal lengths as "prime lenses". All of the iPhones lenses are technically prime lenses, but the new focal lengths are just digital zoom with some extra post processing.

astrange 3y ago
Zooming a 48MP quad-Bayer camera is not exactly digital; you can reconfigure the sensor to be a different resolution.
- dogma1138 3y ago
  Isn’t sensor reconfiguration still considered digital crop/zoom since it’s not part of the optical element of the camera? When sensors with microlense arrays become more common things will definitely become more complicated tho. We’re probably about 5 years from consumer grade MLA sensors still tho.
  - astrange 3y ago
    It's not part of the optics (since you can't move the lightwells) but I think it's still part of the analog system, so it's different from working on pixel or Bayer values.
- 4gotunameagain 3y ago
  If you reconfigure the sensor without cropping you do not end up with a zoomed image, just with a reduced resolution one. With a fixed focal length in order to zoom you need to decrease the sensor size, therefore cropping, so digital zoom
  - astrange 3y ago
    Not if you default to reduced resolution mode, then you can reconfigure to an increased one ;)
    - 4gotunameagain 3y ago
      aaah interesting. Then the resolution is increased, but how does it affect the overall image quality since you have the same amount of photons in more wells ?

kart23 3y ago

12MP can capture incredible amounts of detail when your sensor is big and your lens is good, and especially if you don't have a Optical Low-Pass Filter, which literally blurs your images: https://petapixel.com/what-is-a-low-pass-filter/ https://petapixel.com/what-is-a-low-pass-filter/ They also advertised that the sensor in the 15 pro is a 'larger 48mp sensor' which isn't true: it's the SAME EXACT sensor as last years 14 pro, its just larger than the regular 15. Tech journalists need to start calling this out more. https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2668153890/apple-s-iphone-15-and-15-pro-imaging-tech-examined https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2668153890/apple-s-iphone-...

seydor 3y ago

What i dont get is why they need all those bulky lenses if they are going to do anything with AI

brokenmachine 3y ago
Yes, they really should make it their first priority to do something about those bulky lenses on that 8.3mm thick phone.
- edandersen 3y ago
  They should make the phone the same thickness as the lenses, have a nice 6000mAh battery size and a high powered headphone jack. Maybe then the phone will lie flat on a table.
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    A few years ago, iPhones reached high-end Androids in battery capacity. Had an excellent gaming Huawei phone that lasted two days with normal usage, and IIRC the iPhone 11/12 were the ones who started having comparable battery life. Nowadays, as a tourist camera, a Pro Max barely lasts half a day, continuously overheating by who knows what AI processing out of the user's control.
- TylerE 3y ago
  The bump annoys me heatedly because it means that the phone don’t sit flat, and even a vibrate can send it falling off the edge of table, or the arm of a chair.
  - brokenmachine 3y ago
    So buy a phone with a design that you don't get annoyed heatedly by.
    - TylerE 3y ago
      There are way more things that I hate about android

insickness 3y ago

This is the most interesting part to me: Apple wants to keep an uncluttered experience and will rely on app developers in order to give power users more. McCormack points to this as the fine line that Apple is looking to walk: give the features but leave it to developers to service those who want to push the hardware and software to its max.

shortcake27 3y ago

I’m keen to see the results when people get their hands on these phones. I own one of the last iPhones which can save non-HDR shots when using the default camera app. I set it up to save both, but the vast majority of the time I prefer the non-HDR photo as it usually has more contrast and captures the scene more accurately. I was really disappointed when Apple removed this option on newer iPhones, and even more disappointed when I saw how much they also jacked up the post processing on the 14 Pro. Yeah, the cameras may be better, but good lord the processing is absolutely awful to my eyes. I don’t really want to use apps like Halide because in typical Apple fashion, you can’t change the default camera app (which I use a lot, as it’s accessible without unlocking the phone, which is important as FaceID rarely works for me when I’m outside). Unfortunately my phone is dying so I’m just hoping they’ve dialled in the processing for the 48mp sensor.

mirsadm 3y ago

For people that care about the quality of footage above anything else you can already record better quality footage with a $200 Android phone. You can record RAW video with an app I wrote (it's free for the raw video part of anyone cares). Every year every phone manufacturer claims to do the next best thing with video and photography and every year it's fairly mediocre. I'll wait to test it for myself as always.

ASalazarMX 3y ago
You could do that five years ago. Apple is ridiculously behind the state of the art, although firmly entrenched in its walled garden. For all its fanfare and marketing, the "Wonderlust" presentation was incredibly underwhelming, just tiny increments, and more artificial market segmentation.