iPhone 17 Pro Max Camera control is the dumbest, most useless, most in the way feature in smartphone history

[revenent]

I dont exactly love that button. Coz I find it hard to control. However when it does work I kinda enjoy it. Its a love and or hate relationship with that button for me.

 

[Spinarelo]

It serves as a glorified camera launcher for me. It's allowed me to remove the camera shortcut from the lock screen and the camera app from the home screen. So in a way it's a bit useful to me.... I've never had an issue with accidental presses on my 16PM

 

[barondebxl]

When I gave my mom my iPhone 16 Pro two days ago and tried to teach her how to use the camera button, she just told me "oh I can do all of that on the screen, it's way faster", and asked me to turn the button off.

She's 68, by the way.

Yup there you have it, couldn’t agree more with her

 

[HouseLannister]

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[huanbrother]

Yup there you have it, couldn’t agree more with her

Honestly I really tried to persuade her to bind her favorite slide to the camera button, and she looked at me and showed me how to do it on screen as if I was the one who knew nothing about iPhone photography.

 

[iPhone-Guy]

I really like using it for quickly opening the camera and visual intelligence and on phones without it I barely know how to get to their cameras anymore but the swiping is not really useful. A simplified button would be nice on the 18’s. On a side note I also really like the Action Button, customized it so from 8 am-9 pm it’s recognize music (Shazam) and any other time is toggle flashlight, really useful.

 

[Lab1]

I really like using it for quickly opening the camera and visual intelligence and on phones without it I barely know how to get to their cameras anymore but the swiping is not really useful. A simplified button would be nice on the 18’s. On a side note I also really like the Action Button, customized it so from 8 am-9 pm it’s recognize music (Shazam) and any other time is toggle flashlight, really useful.

I like the camera control as well, as it’s easier for me. I get not everyone feels that way.

As for the action button, I wasn’t aware you could customize by hours. Nice. I have mine to open a calculator app of all things. I use that app so much, though.

 

[Torq]

I use it for what it was designed for.

Took about a month of casual use before it became a natural/subconscious thing (during which time there was some frustration and gnashing of teeth). And since then it's a feature I would definitely miss ... as I tend to make adjustments to the shot settings more often than not.

 

[Paddle1]

Did you read the examples I gave? I thought it was clear? Taking up your phone from your pocket and fumble with tapping the screen and then tapping the screen button for camera app (sometimes it will fail first time due to whatever reason and you need to fumble more) get the app up and sorry now you missed that golden photage bc of all that hassle.

Now I can start the camera while taking the phone out of my pocket or bag in one smooth go.

Even a nano second counts in moments with animals and nature (or like small kids etc). If you don’t photograph that type of motives then you probably can’t understand what the problem is for people like me🤷🏽‍♀️

The Action Button can be used to do this as well.

 

[Paddle1]

its already well rumored that apple is not intending to use it in iPhone 18 phones.

something that gives credence to the above rumor is that it was not mentioned in this year's Keynote, at all.

i tend to think of it sort of like the Touch Bar, which was an adaptive display on some MacBook Pro models that changed based on the active application. which also was never popular, and also eliminated after a while.

Rumors have been saying that the Camera Control will be simplified on the iPhone 18, not removed.

 

[gwang73]

I like the camera button and I use it. I configured it simple. Double press to open the camera and another single press to take the picture. Light press just switches between my 1x and 2x cameras on my Air. That's it.

I do think the button would be better if it was more configurable like the Action button is now.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Probably off to join 3D Touch & the TouchBar in the Apple cemetery.

 

[Bobajobbob]

I was so excited for it last year. Got my 16PM, tried it once, hated it, never used it again. I was so disappointed. I thought it would allow for seamless zooming in and out while filming but that was a no. That function would have been life changing for me lmao but of course it doesn’t work that way 🙃

That's exactly how I use mine. I disable all the exposure nonsense and just have it set to zoom in/out. Slide right to zoom in and left to zoom out. This alone makes it worth while for me.

 

[jgbr]

Many people use it all the time to quick launch the camera, which is faster than a swipe or Home Screen wake/press. Its quite useful once use to it.

 

[diego.caraballo]

something that gives credence to the above rumor is that it was not mentioned in this year's Keynote, at all.

I was very intrigued about the same exact thing. They not only not mentioned the camera button through the keynote, but no one used it in the videos showing the cameras.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I was very intrigued about the same exact thing. They not only not mentioned the camera button through the keynote, but no one used it in the videos showing the cameras.

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Apple have probably done their research and realised most users are not naturally using it. Whenever I have asked people if they use the button, they generally answer no and thats just a tiny snippet. I forget its there most of the time and use the on-screen controls which has been natural after 18 or so years using smartphones.