Even though I love better optical zoom, and am interested in possibly trying Apple Intelligence on my iPhone, for the time being I’m still sticking with my iPhone 13 Pro. It still works fine.
I also am not crazy about the colors on the iPhone 17 Pro.
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/9528220638/apple-optical-zoom-advertising-smartphones
Read the fine print on the tech specs page:
They don’t say it’s an 8x optical zoom. They say “optical quality”, which is meaningless weasel-words.
Like the older phones, there are several camera lenses with different fixed focal lengths. The software takes images and image fragments from one or more of the lenses and uses digital image processing (probably including various neural-net algorithms) to create a simulation of an actual zoom lens. The result may be great and useful, but it’s not the same as a zoom lens and Apple is being disingenuous trying to claim that it is somehow equivalent.
And the article you cited from dpreview is saying the exact same thing.
Cropping the center of a 48MP image does produce (mostly) the equivalent of a 24MP 12MP lens/sensor at 2x zoom. But it’s not an optical zoom by anyone’s definition, no matter what Apple’s marketing department wants to call it.
To be pedantic, technically I believe that’s the equivalent of a 12 megapixel lens/sensor at 2x zoom. (As Apple’s tech spec page you link to indicates.)
It’s the same with the telephoto lens - it’s a 4x optical zoom, but cropping the center 2x both horizontally and vertically is the equivalent of a 12 megapixel 8x zoom.
As opposed to the technical specifications for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which say:
- 12MP 5x Telephoto: 120 mm, ƒ/2.8 aperture, 3D sensor‑shift optical image stabilization and autofocus, tetraprism design
Yes, the 15 Pro and 16 Pro have a legitimate 5x optical zoom.
Actually, I believe that “optical quality” probably means that there is no pixel interpolation, which often happens with digital zoom and does degrade picture quality slightly (like the older scaling by non-integer values in MacBook screens).
I think this is a real improvement and is equivalent to the former telephoto cameras which had 12 megapixel sensors. It just uses the center 12 MP of the sensor. A downside is smaller pixels, but in good light this might not be a problem since the increased noise will be less noticeable. I think this camera is best used in good light since the higher shutter speeds will make it less susceptible to camera shake which is a problem with longish telephoto lenses, even with OIS.
The longer focal length lens has a 56% larger sensor than in the 16 Pro, which means that its linear dimensions are 25% larger. This will partially offset the smaller pixel size and make the picture quality less susceptible to lens aberrations.
Even if Apple is playing some word games with lenses with iPhone 17 Pro, I would assume that the quality has to be an improvement over iPhone 16 Pro. (That could be wrong, but if it is, Apple would get a lot of flack.)
I was very impressed by the zoom quality on the 15 Pro Max. If you’ll recall, I posted some samples images on Tidbits Talk:
To me the images are the bottom line, not the terminology or even the hardware.
Not by any definition I’d use. Look at the whole spec sheet:
There are three fixed-focal-length lenses. A 24mm (main), a 13mm (ultra-wide) and a 120mm (5x telephoto). The 2x telephoto is simulated by cropping from the main lens.
Note that none of these focal lengths can be changed, which is what a real zoom lens does (like the 12x zoom on my old Kodak, where the lens is “36mm-434mm equivalent” - it is completely variable between those two endpoints.
When Apple says “5x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 10x optical zoom range”, they’re playing word-games.
You get a “5x optical zoom in” by switching from the main lens to the telephoto lens. And you get a “2x optical zoom out” by switching from the main lens to the ultra-wide lens.
But if you want any other zoom level, software will be manipulating images (cropping, scaling, AI manipulation, etc.) from two or three of the lenses in order to simulate that zoom.
I think that’s beside the point. They’re redefining standard photographic terminology in order to suit their marketing department.
If they want to be somewhat honest, then just say “we have three lenses at three fixed zoom factors and use the best software and image processing in the world to simulate a zoom lens of (insert numbers here)”. I won’t even complain about the superlatives.
But they didn’t. They are saying they have an actual zoom lens, when the hardware has absolutely nothing of the sort.
The reason an optical zoom is superior to a digital zoom is you’re using the full sensor. If Apple’s “optical quality zoom” is achieved by cropping, then it is no different than a digital zoom. Trying to excuse it by saying that the cropped pixels are as good as an inferior digital camera doesn’t excuse the flimflammery.
But in this case, Apple is cropping the photo and still using a 1-to-1 pixel rendering by cropping the exact middle of the sensor from 48mp to 12mp. This goes for an 8x photo taken on the 48mp telephoto lens with a 4x zoom lens as well as a 2x photo take on the 48mp main camera.
But an actual zoom lens would give you the same image with the full 48MP resolution.
Not the same. And a big difference for anyone who actually cares.
Ok, but let’s compare the 17 Pro models with the prior pro models, particularly the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. The 16 Pro models use 12 MP sensors that do 5x optical zoom. The 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max cropped 8x photos will be the same 12 MP optical resolution. Will they deliver the same quality? I’ll leave that to the reviewers. Honestly I’ve never been super-impressed with the telephoto lenses on the X, 13 Pro and 15 Pro phones that I have owned. That said - with adequate light they are always better than taking a 1x photo and cropping it to zoom.
This telephoto 48MP sensor is the first time that the Pro series telephoto camera will be that much resolution - until now it was always 12MP.
That’s only correct if the cropping keeps the same resolution – then it’s adding in fictional pixels. But Apple is reducing the resolution from 48MP to 12MP, so the pixels you see are from the actual optical lens, not made up. A digital zoom is making up imaginary pixels.
No, they’re not. The tech specs for the 15 and 16 Pro definitely say “5x optical” – Apple removed that wording from the 17 Pro:
- 48MP Fusion Telephoto: 100 mm (4x), ƒ/2.8 aperture, Hybrid Focus Pixels, 3D sensor‑shift optical image stabilization and autofocus, tetraprism design
To me this means the 4x is optical, but Apple only says optical-quality:
- 8x optical‑quality zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 16x optical‑quality zoom range
I’m sure this is because of lawyers.
I think it’s because this is now a “fusion” camera. I think what that means is that by default the camera software takes the 48MP raw sensor data and interpolate the image down to 24MP (though you can also choose 12MP) in the resulting HEIC or JPEG, as the main camera has done since it was 48 MP - though you can also shoot raw 48 if you wish.
Just to clarify one thing, since the iPhone 16 Pro Max has 5x optical zoom does that mean the actual optical (rather than the optical-quality) zoom is actually better on the 16 Pro Max than the 17 Pro?
I’m going to do some more side-by-side 13 Pro and 17 Pro zoom comparisons. But I’ll probably still wait another year.
Thanks.
That’s hard to say. Yes, it is 5x optical zoom, but limited to 12 megapixels. The 17 Pro is 4x at 24 megapixels (or 48 megapixels raw) or 8x at the equivalent 12 megapixels resolution. But, perhaps wait for the actual reviews of the device to determine if the quality of the 8x photo matches the quality of the 5x photo on the 16 Pro. It may, or may not.
When, if ever, will we be able to take clear photos of a full moon by just standing outside and resting your hand on something? Like I used to with my pre-smartphone camera with 15x optical zoom (but much lower resolution than my iPhone 13 Pro).
Like a tripod?
;-)
That would be tolerable. :) Still, we cannot see nice full moons when trying to take photos with the iPhone. At least I can’t. I was hoping better zoom would help.
