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Yeah, curious about this as well. The phones are different sizes but other than that, the camera system (space wise) is identical. So why not include it? Perhaps its due to Apple pushing user to the Pro Max? Who knows

Not true. You can tell from Apple's iPhone 15 page that the 5x lens is substantially larger than the others. It'll be even more obvious when we get the inevitable teardowns.
 
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Not true. You can tell from Apple's iPhone 15 page that the 5x lens is substantially larger than the others. It'll be even more obvious when we get the inevitable teardowns.
I don't know where to see that but I'll wait for the teardowns. There's a reason obviously but externally, it's not that obvious.
 
Reminder that the term “optical zoom” is incorrect as the iPhone does not actually zoom in.

It has a 5x prime lens that it switches to when necessary. All the “zoom” levels between the 3 prime lenses are just cropping of the sensor area from one of the cameras. This means that trying to take, for instance, a 3x photo on an iPhone 15 Pro Max will result in worse image quality than on an iPhone 15 Pro since it has to use smaller sensor area of main 1x camera to take the picture.

Exactly. There are no moving parts in these lenses. This is essentially like having an old 35mm SLR with three fixed lenses -- you can choose between them, but anything aperture in between is faked with digital cropping. This is why I always take my photos at one of the three different zoom levels. If necessary, I can manually crop (my way) after the fact.
 
Agreed. They're both PRO models. Only difference is battery and screen size. That's it. So they should be IDENTICAL internally, you'd think.
My feelings exactly. I considered getting the Pro for my wife (she has 13 Pro and def is not going to go for the Pro Max model), but it just doesn't seem worth it. She travels for a living and 5x zoom would def sell her on the upgrade)
 
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Sorry but even as an Apple fan, I have to call BS on that. The 10x optical zoom is perfectly usable on the S23 Ultra I have used it myself. It’s only when going to the 100X that it can be very unstable and you simply tap the stabilisation window.

Just because Samsung (arguably) compensates for it well doesn't mean it's an ideal situation. Apple doesn't release "perfectly usable" products or features.

And you elided the point about the 5x lens' aperture. Check out Matt Panzarino's review photos—you couldn't get those low-light zoom photos from Samsung's 10x lens.
 
Exactly. There are no moving parts in these lenses. This is essentially like having an old 35mm SLR with three fixed lenses -- you can choose between them, but anything aperture in between is faked with digital cropping. This is why I always take my photos at one of the three different zoom levels. If necessary, I can manually crop (my way) after the fact.
I learned this later than I should have. Now I do the same, always select one of the standard zooms.
 
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Just want to throw out there that "looking stable in the viewfinder" and "being stable" are not the same. There is so much post processing on the images (plural) taken on your iPhone to composite them into the final image they want to make sure there's a baseline to the quality going into the algorithm.

As far as not being available on the Pro, clearly they are having issues keeping up with demand for the Max phones alone. Wait a year and you'll almost certainly get it on the 16s. (Yeah, I know, waiting is unheard of...)
 
I don't know where to see that but I'll wait for the teardowns. There's a reason obviously but externally, it's not that obvious.

It's like halfway down the page:

Screenshot 2023-09-20 at 1.22.56 PM.png
Screenshot 2023-09-20 at 1.22.46 PM.png
 
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With mobile carriers moving to 3 year contracts I am completely down for Apple increasing the iPhone price by a few hundred dollars but at least giving us more technology and not little bites at a time.
 
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It's almost like they've never seen anyone balance their Galaxy S phones on the roof of a car or something to use the super zoom those things have =).

Also, there are third party lens sellers so if you wanted you could add more optical zoom by attaching one of those maybe.
 
I would be more curious to find out why 5x zoom is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro Max :D
I think it comes down to the size of the device. The new part does take up space, and maybe the base Pro model didn’t have room without re-engineering the battery and other components.
 
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That means that a faster shutter speed is all that is needed.

Maybe they should figure out a faster digital shutter, since that is evidently the limitation here.
 
A periscope lens takes a lot of space which Apple might concern and that's why they made tetraprsim lens instead. But still, it's still limited compared to what Samsung has.

The truth is, even Samsung used 100 or 200 mp sensor to zoom in to telephoto. So why not use 100 or 200mp sensor in future iPhone?

Btw, that's not an optical zoom. It's just a telephoto prime lens. Don't be fooled by it.
 
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