iPhone 16 Pro Camera control options

[jaredlipsitz]

Maybe I’m just not knowledgeable enough about cameras…but not understanding why there are two ‘zoom’ options in camera control.

One is basically a slider, all the way to 25x, labeled ‘zoom’. The other is labeled ‘camera’ and has pre-set options. I presume the pre-set options tie to the 3 different lenses, but surely you’d use those anyway using the zoom slider?

 

[Chateaunole-du-Pape]

The default zoom that goes all the way to 25x has stops for the native focal lengths of each of the lenses: 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 5x. Everything in between uses a digital zoom off one of the three lenses, which means you'll introduce some level of distortion or lose some degree of resolution vs. each lens's true focal length.

The "camera" selection just selects between each of the four native focal lengths of the three different lenses, so if you use those, you're never using any digital zoom and are not introducing any distortion or loss of resolution.

In practice, I have not noticed much in the way of issues when being, say, at 1.5x or 2.5x, but I'm not a super serious photographer. I imagine a pro or serious enthusiast could spot issues. I do avoid using digital zoom beyond the maximum fixed-length lens, historically 3x on my 14 Pro, and now 5x on my 16 Pro.

 

[jaredlipsitz]

The default zoom that goes all the way to 25x has stops for the native focal lengths of each of the lenses: 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 5x. Everything in between uses a digital zoom off one of the three lenses, which means you'll introduce some level of distortion or lose some degree of resolution vs. each lens's true focal length.

The "camera" selection just selects between each of the four native focal lengths of the three different lenses, so if you use those, you're never using any digital zoom and are not introducing any distortion or loss of resolution.

In practice, I have not noticed much in the way of issues when being, say, at 1.5x or 2.5x, but I'm not a super serious photographer. I imagine a pro or serious enthusiast could spot issues. I do avoid using digital zoom beyond the maximum fixed-length lens, historically 3x on my 14 Pro, and now 5x on my 16 Pro.

Thank you so much!