Apple Needs to Do This to Make the iPhone 17 Cameras Incredible
this iPhone 16 Pro Stunning images can be taken in any condition, not to mention its neat 4K slow motion mode. Its multiple rear lenses and new Photography style Whether they were just starting out or taking photos for years, they would provide photographers with a lot of stuff. iPhone 16 Pro even fought fiercely with each other The best camera phone Around, including Galaxy S24 Ultrathis Pixel 9 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
Read more: iPhone 16 Pro Xiaomi 14 Ultra
But it’s still not the perfect camera, and early reports from industry insiders claim that the phone is Video skills will be improvedmobile phones need more photography. As an experienced telephone reviewer and professional photographer, I have very high expectations for high-end mobile phone cameras and have used the iPhone 16 Pro since its launch, and I have some ideas about what needs to be changed.
Here are the key points I hope to see on the iPhone 17 which will be launched in September 2025.
Larger image sensor
Although the 1/1.28-inch sensor found on the main camera of the iPhone 16 Pro is already a good size – and slightly larger than the S24 Ultra’s 1/1.33-inch sensor, I’d like to see a bigger Apple. Larger image sensors can capture more light and provide better dynamic range. That’s why professional cameras tend to have at least a “full-frame” image sensor, while a true high-end camera is like an amazing camera Hasselblad 907xa huge “medium format” sensor with original image quality.
Even on professional cameras, the size of the sensor is important. Even the full-frame image sensor in the middle is dwarfed by the middle format sensor on the right. The phone camera sensor will not be close to this size.
Xiaomi understands this and equips its 14 Ultras with a 1-inch sensor. It’s bigger than the sensors found on almost every other phone, which makes 14 Ultras workable Take amazing photos Under various conditions – Including Taylor Swift Concert. I would love to see here that Apple matches phones that are similar to 1-inch sensors here at least. Although, if we were to talk about the desire of the sky, the iPhone 17 might be the first smartphone with a full-frame image sensor. I won’t hold my breath – the phone and lens require huge capacity to accommodate it, so it might be more effective just by having you make a call with a mirrorless camera.
Variable aperture
Speaking of Xiaomi 14 Ultra, one of the other reasons why the phone is so difficult to photograph is the variable aperture on the console. Its widest aperture is f/1.6 – much wider than the iPhone 16 Pro’s f/1.78. The width of the aperture causes a lot of light to emit a lot of light in dim conditions and more realistically achieves the focus of a theme.
Thanks to the variable aperture of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, the street lights outside this bar have become an attractive starlight.
But Xiaomi’s 14-time super fat can also be turned off to f/4, and thanks to its narrower aperture, it can create Starburst around the light spot. I like to achieve this effect in night images via my phone. It makes the resulting image look more like it was taken with a professional camera and lens, while the same spots of light on the iPhone look like round spots. Disappointingly, Xiaomi actually takes this feature from New 15 Ultra Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Apple believes that implementing this technology is valuable.
More photography styles
Although Apple has integrated various styles and effects into iPhone’s cameras, the iPhone 16 series further controls it, giving more control over effects and more tone options. CNET Advanced Editing is enough Lisa Eadicicco Even a new photography style was announced”Favorite new features on Apple’s latest phones. ”
I think they are great, too. Or rather, they are great start. Different tones obtained with the amber and gold styles add some lovely warmth to the scene, the quiet effect adds a retro film fading, but there are still not many options to choose from, and the interface works a little slower. I would like to see Apple introduce more photography styles with different color tone options, even to mimic the tones of Kodak or Fuji’s film stock.
I love the warm tones produced by the amber style of the iPhone in this image, but I definitely want to see more creative options that can be obtained through tones.
Of course, there are a lot of third-party applications (such as VSCO or Snapseed) that allow you to use all the color filters you want. However, using Apple’s style means you can take an image with the appearance you already applied and then change it if you don’t like it – nothing in your image is hard to bake.
Better integrate with photography style
However, I do think Apple is a little missed the opportunity to have its photography style, as you can only use them when shooting HEIFs (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 takes advantage of all the compute photography of the iPhone (including things like HDR Image Collending), but it still outputs DNG RAW files for ease of editing.
DNG files also often provide larger latitudes to make dark areas brighter or highlights in the image, making them extremely useful. Previously, Apple’s color presets were available when shooting in Proraw, and I liked it. I often use high contrast black and white mode to take street-style photos and then further edit the original files.
I did a lot of street photography in black and white, and I wanted to have more flexibility in shooting proraw shots in monochrome.
Now using the same black and white look means only shooting images in HEIF format, eliminating the benefits of using Apple’s Proraw. Strangely, while old-style “filters” are no longer available in the camera app when taking original images, you can still apply these filters to original photos in the iPhone Gallery app via the Edit menu.
Prores video LUTS
Apple also needs to bring them into the video when we talk about the topic of color presets and filters. On the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple introduced it Shooting videos in Preswhich results in very low contrast, almost grey lenses. The idea is that the video editor will ingest this original shot and then apply its edit to the top, often applying contrast and color presets called LUTS (Looking for a table), giving the material a special look – think of a horror film or a warm and light blue to make it work against a romantic dramatic atmosphere.
However, Apple does not have any form of LUT for editing Prores videos on iPhones, rather than just strengthening contrast, which doesn’t actually do the job correctly. Of course, the purpose of Prores is that you take these lenses out of your iPhone, put them in a software like Davinci Resolve, and then rank the lenses appropriately to make them look stylish and professional.
ProRes videos look very low in contrast and saturation. Apple needs to introduce ways to help you do more with ProRES files on your iPhone.
But this still leaves the files on the phone and I would love to be able to do more with them. My gallery is scattered with ungraded video files that are hardly done because they require external color grading. After converting these files from monotony and grey to beautiful colors, I would love to share them on Instagram or with my family via WhatsApp.
With iPhone 17, and even updating iPhone 16 as a software, I would like to see Apple create a series of its own LUTs that can be applied directly to PRORES video files on iPhone.
If Apple could implement all these changes – perhaps not including the full-frame sensor I can admit, that’s an ambitious touch – it would have the absolute camera beast.
