Other iPhone 13 Pro Telephoto ƒ/2.8 aperture compared to ƒ/2.0 aperture on 12 Pro - anything to be worried about?

[Steve121178]

A question for the photography experts as this seems to be a signifiant difference and not for the better. So, what does this actually mean? And does it make the 13 Pro inferior for certain scenarios? Letting less light in is worse for image quality or am I wrong?

Thanks.

 

[Zapdoc]

No not necessarily so. The slightly smaller aperture (bigger number) should if anything make image slightly sharper in the new phone

 

[aRByJr]

Right it’s not that much of a difference, but the plus side would be more depth of field, a little less background blur…

 

[douglasf13]

It lets in half as much light, but that's a common trade-off for a longer lens. It will be useful for most, although I like shooting 50mm lenses, generally, so I'm personally not thrilled with the change to a longer lens.

 

[Mark1269]

It lets in half as much light, but that's a common trade-off for a longer lens. It will be useful for most, although I like shooting 50mm lenses, generally, so I'm personally not thrilled with the change to a longer lens.

A question for the photography experts as this seems to be a signifiant difference and not for the better. So, what does this actually mean? And does it make the 13 Pro inferior for certain scenarios? Letting less light in is worse for image quality or am I wrong?

Thanks.

No not necessarily so. The slightly smaller aperture (bigger number) should if anything make image slightly sharper in the new phone

Right it’s not that much of a difference, but the plus side would be more depth of field, a little less background blur…

It lets in half as much light, but that's a common trade-off for a longer lens. It will be useful for most, although I like shooting 50mm lenses, generally, so I'm personally not thrilled with the change to a longer lens.

Ultra wide lens in iPhone 12 Pro Max is 2,4 aperture and it has very low quality in low light. I hope it’s an error and it’s 1,8 aperture.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Hoping for more. But it's a minimal upgrade.
Depth of Field may be a tad sharper.

The "Cinematic " video mode..ok, looked cool on the keynote, which I always take a slight grain of salt (like the iPhone photo examples) If you have an 11/12 Pro/ProMax..play around with the free Focos Live app. That has "Portrait Video" Not perfect, it does have to process...but heck it's free.

I expected a lot more for the Pro models. But I am underwhelmed to say the least. The trade in value sounded very tempting though...but even that has a catch.

Oh well, Keeping the 12 for another year. Sadly it just needs a new battery ASAP.

 

[cannono]

Telephoto has often been worse than using the Wide instead unless in high sunlight.Will be no different here - you shouldn't be using it in low light. Do not worry about that.

 

[Mark1269]

Telephoto has often been worse than using the Wide instead unless in high sunlight.Will be no different here - you shouldn't be using it in low light. Do not worry about that.

You shouldn’t be using it in low light? XD The same solution with the iPhone 4 and the antennagate xD. I prefer 2,0 aperture with 2x than 2,8 with 3x

 

[cannono]

You shouldn’t be using it in low light? XD The same solution with the iPhone 4 and the antennagate xD. I prefer 2,0 aperture with 2x than 2,8 with 3x

No, that is literally how aperture works, even on Pro cameras. You shouldn't whip out a slower aperture lens for lower light and expect it to not suffer. Let's not pretend it's some kind of bug in the design. They chose a longer length and it happens to be slower - don't pretend they are unaware of the change. They could have kept 2.5x if they wanted to prioritize aperture over telephoto... on a telephoto lens.

There are physics limitations to lenses and smartphones are fighting them constantly, slowly creeping into thicker phones and fatter camera arrays. It is very obvious Apple adjusted almost everything about their array, so this isn't some oversight that they accidentally chose longer zoom while aperture shrank.

 

[Mark1269]

No, that is literally how aperture works, even on Pro cameras. You shouldn't whip out a slower aperture lens for lower light and expect it to not suffer. Let's not pretend it's some kind of bug in the design. They chose a longer length and it happens to be slower - don't pretend they are unaware of the change. They could have kept 2.5x if they wanted to prioritize aperture over telephoto... on a telephoto lens.

There are physics limitations to lenses and smartphones are fighting them constantly, slowly creeping into thicker phones and fatter camera arrays. It is very obvious Apple adjusted almost everything about their array, so this isn't some oversight that they accidentally chose longer zoom while aperture shrank.

Ok sorry, you’re right. The S21 Ultra has 4,9 aperture in 10x telephoto. I can imagine those physics limitations. However, the 3x telephoto has 2,4 on the Samsung. I think Apple could have put a better aperture to this sensor.

 

[douglasf13]

Ok sorry, you’re right. The S21 Ultra has 4,9 aperture in 10x telephoto. I can imagine those physics limitations. However, the 3x telephoto has 2,4 on the Samsung. I think Apple could have put a better aperture to this sensor.

It's all a system with tradeoffs, especially on these tiny cameras. You have to balance resolution, focal length, aperture, pixel size, pixel design, cost, etc. That Samsung lens is only a half stop brighter, which isn't a big deal, and, if we use larger lenses as a guide, it may not have consistent resolution across the frame compared to the iPhone lens. Who knows??

I have a medium format Hasselblad 80mm f2.8 "standard" lens, and also a 150mm f4 tele. This gives me the option of choosing between lower light or more magnification, and each is a trade off. Shooting on a phone warrants the same decisions.

 

[aRByJr]

Shooting on my iPhone compared to shooting with a “real” camera, on an 85mm f1.2 lens, if i shoot a subject wide open there is such a narrow field of view, using as a “portrait lens” the distance from the subjects eyes to their ears is blurred, well there is also a noticeable bokeh from the nose to the eyes in some situations, even if I stop down the lens to f2.8 the field of view is still very narrow, and the difference from f2 to f2.8 is also noticeable, However, on the phone the depth of field is nowhere near as accurate, I really don’t think the difference between f2.2 - f2.8 is going to be that notable, even the difference in allowing more light in I don’t think there’s going to be that much of a noticeable difference…

 

[Movitz]

In the overview section of the iPhone 13 pros apple states that the Telephoto will get night mode for the first time this year, therefore I don’t personally think that low-light performance will be much worse despite the smaller aperture.