It’s summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere and this means it’s time to travel, visit new places and take lots and lots of photos and videos.
And after spending the weekend in the mountains and doing just the above, I realized one thing: the iPhone that I took with me has one big camera problem.
1X thing I love, 5X things I hate
Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoy using the iPhone camera app. The interface is well-thought out, you almost don’t notice the switch between the cameras, and most operations can be done with just one hand. The option to tap on the camera presets to quickly switch between focal lenses (tap on the main lens to switch between 24mm, 28mm and 35mm) is absolutely great, and it was no surprise that many phone makers copied it so quickly.
But when it comes to the choice of lenses your expensive Pro iPhones come with… I have some thoughts.
Tetra-prism criticism
But it’s not. And most people are not bird photographers.
I just couldn’t capture half the photos I wanted
Most people take pictures of their friends and family, or some landscapes. On the trails with some friends from work, there were so many opportunities to capture an amazing portrait photo and a 2X or 3X zoom lens would be far more helpful. Instead, I found myself just… not taking a picture at all.
Who wants a face close-up when you are hiking that summit? A 5X zoom lens would be perfect if I wanted to snap a picture for my passport, but not much else.
As you can see above, the 5X zoom lens was most useful for capturing photos of mountain goats, but not much else.
Well, maybe I can at least be happy that Apple didn’t go with a 10X zoom lens (cough, Samsung) as that would be even less useful.
iPhone 17 Pro is Apple admitting its mistake
The iPhone 17 Pro camera will look different, but it will zoom different too
This September, all leaks agree that Apple will finally fix its zoom mistake.
The 5X telephoto lens is allegedly being replaced by a new 3.5X zoom lens that holds a lot more promise.
A 3.5X lens is FAR more versatile for everyday scenarios too. It’s no secret that an 85mm lens is the most popular one in portrait photography, and that’s exactly what you will get with the 17 Pro series.
There is one more advantage to a 3.5X telephoto camera. A longer zoom lens like 5X requires more sophisticated optics and it’s just harder to pair it with a big sensor and a lens with fast aperture. Not so much the case for a 3.5X lens, where you can have a fast aperture, which translates in less noisy snaps and much better low light performance too.
Apple is in a bit of disarray, but this will help
Of course, I’m accepting your bets for the fancy word Apple’s crack marketing team will come up with for this totally-never-seen-before-lens in the comments right below.
Source: Phone Arena
