I Need Apple to Do These Things to the iPhone 17’s Camera
this iPhone 16 ProThe great camera takes some of the best photos you can get from a phone. With multiple crystal clear lenses and a new photography style, you can impress even the most discerning photographers. Even right best camera phone around, including Galaxy S24 Ultrathis Pixel 9 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra Commemorative Edition.
Read more: iPhone 16 Pro challenges Xiaomi 14 Ultra
But it’s not a perfect camera. As an experienced phone reviewer and professional photographer, I have unusually high expectations for high-end phone cameras, and having been using the iPhone 16 Pro since its launch, I have some thoughts on what needs to change.
Here are the highlights of the improvements I’d like to see when the iPhone 17 launches, possibly in September 2025.
Larger image sensor
While the 1/1.28-inch sensor on the iPhone 16 Pro’s main camera is already a good size and slightly larger than the S24 Ultra’s 1/1.33-inch sensor, I’d like to see Apple go even bigger. A larger image sensor captures more light and provides better dynamic range. This is why professional cameras tend to have at least “full frame” image sensors, while really high-end cameras like the amazing Hasselblad 907Xhas a huge “medium format” sensor that delivers pristine image quality.
Even on professional cameras, sensor size matters. Even the full-frame image sensor in the middle pales in comparison to the medium-format sensor on the right. Cell phone camera sensors are nowhere near this size.
Xiaomi knows this and equipped the 14 Ultra with a 1-inch sensor. It’s larger than the sensor on almost any phone, which allows the 14 Ultra to Take stunning photos Under various conditions – Including Taylor Swift concert. I’d love to see Apple at least match Xiaomi’s phones with a similar 1-inch sensor. If we’re talking about pie-in-the-sky wishes, though, maybe the iPhone 17 could be the first smartphone to feature a full-frame image sensor. I wouldn’t hold my breath about it – the phone and lens would need to be huge to accommodate it, so it might be more efficient to let you make phone calls with a mirrorless camera.
Variable aperture
Speaking of the Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra, another reason why this phone doesn’t perform well in photography is the variable aperture of the main camera. Its maximum aperture is f/1.6, which is significantly wider than the iPhone 16 Pro’s f/1.78. A wider aperture lets in a lot of light in low-light conditions and achieves more realistic bokeh around your subject.
Thanks to the variable aperture of the Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra, the street lights outside this bar turned into charming starlight.
But the Xiaomi’s aperture can also be closed down to f/4, and with a narrower aperture, it’s able to create a starburst around a point of light. I love using my phone to achieve this effect in nighttime images. It makes the resulting images look more like they were taken with a professional camera and lens, whereas the same spots of light on an iPhone look like circular blobs.
More photography styles
While Apple has integrated a variety of styles and effects into iPhone cameras, the iPhone 16 series goes a step further, with more control over effects and more tonal options. CNET Senior Editor Enough Lisa Addicico Even claiming that the new photography style is her “The most popular new features on Apple’s latest phones“.
I think they’re great too. Or rather, they are great start. Different tones, such as amber and gold-style tones, add some lovely warmth to the scene, while the quiet effect adds a retro film fade, but there’s still not much to choose from. I’d be happy to see Apple introduce more photography styles with different tonal options, even mimicking the tones of older film stock from Kodak or Fujifilm.
I love the warm tones produced by the iPhone’s amber style in this image, but I’d definitely like to see more options to get creative with the tones.
Of course, there are plenty of third-party apps (like VSCO or Snapseed) that let you play around with color filters. But using Apple’s style means you can take an image with a look already applied and then change it if you don’t like it – nothing will be shoehorned into your image.
Better ProRaw integration with photography styles
I do think Apple missed an opportunity slightly when it comes to photography styles, though, since they’re only available when images are captured in HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format). Unfortunately, you can’t use them when shooting in ProRaw. I like Apple’s use of ProRaw on previous iPhones because it leverages all of the iPhone’s computational photography capabilities (including features like HDR image blending) but still outputs DNG raw files for easy editing.
DNG files also generally offer greater freedom to brighten dark areas or fade highlights in an image, making them extremely versatile. It used to be possible to use Apple’s color presets when shooting in ProRaw, and I loved it. I often shoot street style photos using high contrast black and white mode and then further edit the raw files.
I do a lot of black and white street photography, and I wanted to have more flexibility shooting monochrome ProRaw photos.
Now, using the same black and white look means that images can only be shot in HEIF format, removing the advantages of using Apple ProRaw. Oddly enough, while the old “filters” are no longer available in the Camera app when shooting raw images, you can still apply these filters to raw photos in the iPhone Gallery app via the edit menu.
LUT for ProRes video
While we’re talking about color presets and filters, Apple needs to bring them to video as well. On iPhone 15 Pro, Apple introduced the following features: Shoot video in ProReswhich results in a very low-contrast, almost gray shot. The idea is that a video editor will take this raw footage and then apply their edits on top, often applying contrast and color presets called LUTs (look-up tables) to give the footage a specific look – think horror movie darkness and blues or warm and light tones create a romantic and dramatic atmosphere.
But Apple doesn’t provide any LUTs for editing ProRes video on the iPhone, which doesn’t really do the job beyond simply increasing the contrast. Of course, the whole point of ProRes is that you can take the footage off your iPhone, put it into software like Davinci Resolve, and then properly color grade the footage to make it look stylish and professional.
ProRes footage looks very low contrast and desaturated. Apple needs to come up with some way to help you work with ProRes files on your iPhone.
But this will still keep the files on your phone, and I’d love to be able to do more with them. My gallery is full of ungraded video files that I rarely use because they require external color grading. After transforming these files from drab and gray to beautiful colors, I’d love to share them on Instagram or with my family via WhatsApp.
For iPhone 17, and even iPhone 16 as a software update, I’d like to see Apple create a series of its own LUTs that can be applied directly to ProRes video files on iPhone.
If Apple can pull off all of these changes—perhaps excluding a full-frame sensor, even though I admit it’s an ambitious touch—it’ll have an absolute beast on its hands.
