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Apple Explains Why iPhone 15 Pro Max is Limited to 5x Optical Zoom

" By comparison, the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x lens has a ƒ/4.9 aperture."

The Samsung has a smaller aperture at 5x.
The cheesy apple people should say what the Galaxy S23 Ultra is at 5x zoom and not be comparing their 5x zoom aperture to a 10x zoom aperture with Samsung.
At 5x the Samsung aperture is also 2.8.

Super lame and only taking advantage of people who don't know about photography.
 
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mushy peas said:
This is really important. f4.9 is slow as molasses for a sensor that small. It would even be pushing it for a DSLR/mirrorless camera because of the ISO compromises it introduces.

I already struggle with the f2.8 of the telephoto lens on an iPhone. I’m glad Apple did not introduce anything that requires an aperture of f4.9 to work, because that would be unusable to me.

Given the small sensors in an iPhone, in my view Apple should be pushing for faster f stops, not more reach just to match a bullet point on a spec sheet.
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The Samsung lens is only 4.9 at 10x zoom.
At 5x zoom it's also 2.8.
 
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Jimmy_Banks said:
Funny, I'm routinely amazed how poorly anything other than a basic landscape photo turns out from my iPhone.

Anything artistic, especially incorporating zoom and bokeh, requires a dedicated camera.
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One of the videos that started it all - a photo shoot done on a 3GS. https://fstoppers.com/commercial/iphone-fashion-shoot-lee-morris-6173

Can an iPhone match everything a dedicated camera does today? No. But it also has advantages over a dedicated camera. They are both tools, and it feels like the standard photographer gear head gatekeeping to say anything artistic can't be done on an iPhone. That's simply not true.
 
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4odomi said:
They did last year and got away with it and they will keep taking the pee until, they drop to 65 mil units sold in a 12 month cycle.
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Last year the dynamic island is what had me sold. Also you weren't screwing yourself by getting the non-max model. This year — I see absolutely no reason to upgrade.
 
I seriously wouldn’t want to trade the 5x with a 10x, but unless it is an additional lens added.

Most people do not use 10x most of the time. But we do use more than 1x a lot of the time. Hence I wouldn’t want to digitally zoom from 1.1 to 9.9x.
 
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GtrDude said:
The Samsung lens is only 4.9 at 10x zoom
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Doesn’t matter, it’s still far too slow on phone given the sensor size.

It’s a gimmick, taking advantage of people who don’t know anything about photography, just like Samsung’s dodgy colour science.

flofixer said:
The aperture is the aperture.
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Yep. For anyone who doesn’t know, when comparing apertures across different sensor sizes you’re really comparing depth of field, which is the part of a photography in focus. The smaller the sensor, the larger the depth of field and the less bokeh you will have. Hence why mobile phone companies fake it like they do, because the sensors are so small they can’t create it naturally at normal shooting distances.
 
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dampfnudel said:
Apple will probably save the 10x for the 17 Pro Max and instead give the 16 Pro Max 7x or 8x. They’ll probably say they were only able to stabilize the lens satisfactorily at 7x.
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I think Apple wants an F2.9 focal length for the 10X periscope lens. Not going to happen until the rumored increased internal space is available for the iPhone 16 Pro models.
 
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alexandr said:
Last year the dynamic island is what had me sold. Also you weren't screwing yourself by getting the non-max model. This year — I see absolutely no reason to upgrade.
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Really 🤣
I seem to recall a few days ago, you were professing you're not upgrading your iPhone 12 PM because the upgrades are so small again.
Is my memory playing tricks with me?
 
GtrDude said:
" By comparison, the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x lens has a ƒ/4.9 aperture."

The Samsung has a smaller aperture at 5x.
The cheesy apple people should say what the Galaxy S23 Ultra is at 5x zoom and not be comparing their 5x zoom aperture to a 10x zoom aperture with Samsung.
At 5x the Samsung aperture is also 2.8.

Super lame and only taking advantage of people who don't know about photography.
Click to expand...

It's doing anything less than 10X using sensor fusion or sensor cropping, which will not provide a picture with the quality of a prime lens using a full standalone sensor.
 
Ok, but let's say I, and many others do have a tripod??
Silly. Give the users the 10X option!

200w.gif
 
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4odomi said:
I know you haven't owned a 12....
You're always referring to a 12 Pro Max 😂
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Are you trying to gaslight me?.. I've never referred to a 12 Pro Max as I never owned it! I mean, maybe the year it was coming out, I might have mentioned it, but do show me what you mean)
 
citysnaps said:
Most of my photos are of people I engaged in very underserved neighborhoods in San Francisco, such as the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods. Day and night. Many people consider that neighborhood dangerous.

I would love to see your similar photos with whatever you shoot with.

In other words... Good photography is not about gear. It's about the photographer, life experiences, ability to see, evaluate light, deciding what to include/exclude in the frame, evaluating environmental context, deciding what to drop in the shadows, finding subject matter that spurs a viewer's imagination to release potential narratives, and on and on.

It's not about having the best gear. That's merely about camera ownership - anyone can do that with a credit card.
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Of course, a camera is a tool, I've never claimed otherwise.

However, a smartphone is limiting to the majority of photography enthusiasts. Evidently you are talented at street photography and make great use of your phone camera.

I mainly shoot wildlife and can assure you a phone camera does not meet my needs.
 
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Makes sense to me. Granted, my opinion could change once I get a chance to compare models physically. I don't think I'm going to miss the gap between the 3x my 15 Pro can do and the next level above whether it was 5x or 10x.

As with stand-alone cameras before them, zoom and megapixels moved sales even though they often didn't deliver the kind of improvements the average person expected.
 
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Dulcimer said:
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.
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I think they mean it relative to the main camera, which makes sense to laymen.

P.S. I've heard young people refer to wide lenses as "zero point fives".
 
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Why it's limited to the Pro Max now it's just frustrating. Apple, if you want to make more money, then make the smaller pro more expensive. I don't buy the max because.. I don't want a big-ass phone. But I want all of the features.
 
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