Other Is Apple going to keep telephoto as premium only feature?

[ian87w]

It’s been 5 years since the iPhone 7 Plus introduction, and telephoto lens have been available on Plus size iPhones. This continued as the price drop, allowing people to enjoy telephoto for less as Apple keeps the 7 Plus iPhones when they release the 8/8 Plus. But this stops at the Xs where Apple decided that pheasants shall not get telephoto, and they discontinue their flagship Pro phones after every year so we can never enjoy telephoto for less. I find this really annoying. The only workaround is to find old inventory or used Pro phones of old.

What gives? I don’t need fancy stainless steel or Pro-motion. But if I want to have telephoto capability when upgrading from my 7 Plus, I can only go for the top of the line new Pro series.

And seems like this is a permanent decision as it’s been like this for a few years. Telephoto lens means you have to spend $1000+.

 

[now i see it]

The number one selling point they always push with a new phone model is the camera. Makes sense that the $$$ iPhones get the lens that everyone wants. More incentive to fork out the cash & buy one.
Makes perfect sense from a marketing perspective but sucks for a consumer.

Just think, if you owned a nice Canon pocket camera (that would forever kick an iPhone’s butt) suddenly new iPhones wouldn’t look so appealing because new ones aren’t much different than older ones - except for the camera.

 

[macsound1]

It is rough. I have the same opinion as @now i see it where any pocket camera would alleviate this issue.
Personally I love carrying my Canon DSLR and it's 185mm equivalent lens and it's ability when I need a long lens.
My GF has a 12 pro and the telephoto is just barely more zoomed than the 1x so it doesn't really solve that need for me.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It’s been 5 years since the iPhone 7 Plus introduction, and telephoto lens have been available on Plus size iPhones. This continued as the price drop, allowing people to enjoy telephoto for less as Apple keeps the 7 Plus iPhones when they release the 8/8 Plus. But this stops at the Xs where Apple decided that pheasants shall not get telephoto, and they discontinue their flagship Pro phones after every year so we can never enjoy telephoto for less. I find this really annoying. The only workaround is to find old inventory or used Pro phones of old.

What gives? I don’t need fancy stainless steel or Pro-motion. But if I want to have telephoto capability when upgrading from my 7 Plus, I can only go for the top of the line new Pro series.

And seems like this is a permanent decision as it’s been like this for a few years. Telephoto lens means you have to spend $1000+.

I’ve been saying this for a while. Apple only offering a 2 lens camera system on an £800 iPhone is very outdated now. They might have been able to do it with the iPhone 11 but have continued it with the 12 and 13 and this is a bit ridiculous now. It’s all to justify the Pro model but they forget that most iPhone users don’t upgrade to Pro models and they need to make their standard iPhone appealing going forward. Most smartphones £800 and under are coming with triple and quadruple lens camera systems as it is nearly 2022.

 

[Daniel Narciso]

If apple keeps selling as well as they do while doing this separation, there’s only reason to keep it like this unfortunately.

 

[ian87w]

It is rough. I have the same opinion as @now i see it where any pocket camera would alleviate this issue.
Personally I love carrying my Canon DSLR and it's 185mm equivalent lens and it's ability when I need a long lens.
My GF has a 12 pro and the telephoto is just barely more zoomed than the 1x so it doesn't really solve that need for me.

The 2X telephoto is not just for mere zoom purposes, it’s also for better portrait as the longer focal length provides compression and less distortion on faces vs using the standard wide lens.

I guess I’m just annoyed that since Apple discontinued their flagship models on a yearly basis, you can no longer wait for the Pro models to be cheaper (unless you hunt for the older model or buy used). You would always be forced by Apple to fork out $1000 if you want telephoto, no matter when you buy an iPhone.

 

[ian87w]

I’ve been saying this for a while. Apple only offering a 2 lens camera system on an £800 iPhone is very outdated now. They might have been able to do it with the iPhone 11 but have continued it with the 12 and 13 and this is a bit ridiculous now. It’s all to justify the Pro model but they forget that most iPhone users don’t upgrade to Pro models and they need to make their standard iPhone appealing going forward. Most smartphones £800 and under are coming with triple and quadruple lens camera systems as it is nearly 2022.

I think the simplest comparison is with Samsung Galaxy S flagship. Even the lowest Galaxy S proper will have triple lens (ultra wide, wide, telephoto).

 

[usagora]

But this stops at the Xs where Apple decided that pheasants shall not get telephoto

Why would the pheasants need any sort of camera? We take pictures of them, not vice versa

 

[ian87w]

If apple keeps selling as well as they do while doing this separation, there’s only reason to keep it like this unfortunately.

Yeah you’re right. Apple keeps breaking revenue records YoY, so I don’t see why they would do anything different. It just sucks for someone like me who prefer trickled down tech for less.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Yeah you’re right. Apple keeps breaking revenue records YoY, so I don’t see why they would do anything different. It just sucks for someone like me who prefer trickled down tech for less.

Although Apple are leaders in customer service, they are one of the least receptive to customer feedback strangely. They get the very maximum out of older specs compared to their competitors.

 

[MacCheetah3]

It just sucks for someone like me who prefer trickled down tech for less.

My plan is to go Apple refurbished — would be my first iPhone purchase that way. Like you, paying those top tier premiums is becoming tough to swallow. The problem i am notiving, Apple still does not have the recent iPhone models in the refurb section. The newest I have seen is the iPhone 11. Not that I think the 11 is bad, but I am hoping to snag only one generation behind.

 

[BigDO]

Vote with your wallet.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Vote with your wallet.

And hope tens of millions of people also hang onto their iPhones for years in order for the ripple effect to reach Apple and hope they notice lol.

 

[se95dah]

My plan is to go Apple refurbished — would be my first iPhone purchase that way. Like you, paying those top tier premiums is becoming tough to swallow. The problem i am notiving, Apple still does not have the recent iPhone models in the refurb section. The newest I have seen is the iPhone 11. Not that I think the 11 is bad, but I am hoping to snag only one generation behind.

I see the iPhone 12 and 12 pro in the refurb store now

 

[MacCheetah3]

I see the iPhone 12 and 12 pro in the refurb store now

U.S.? Genuinely curious. The following selection is generally what I have seen when checking a few times over the past couple of months. (Same in the Apple Store app.)

 

[Paddle1]

Not everyone is as in to taking pictures or video where they care about this sort of thing and I think they know that. They purposely limit the non pro devices in ways where most won't even notice or care but it will bother enthusiasts enough to get them to pay up.
Perhaps it's also possible they found that most users would prefer to have ultra wide.

I personally only just happen to have a telephoto lens because of other features that I wanted.

 

[JPack]

Apple has already conceded by making a 6.7” model for mainstream consumers. They’re not about to give up the most visible Pro feature. The reality is, most people don’t use the zoom feature enough to need a telephoto lens.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Apple has already conceded by making a 6.7” model for mainstream consumers. They’re not about to give up the most visible Pro feature. The reality is, most people don’t use the zoom feature enough to need a telephoto lens.

To my knowledge Apple have never surveyed their core mainstream consumers to find out their camera habits. Apple eventually meet market demand on things like larger phones and wireless charging, but half a decade behind the competition usually.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I still think a 3x telephoto lens would have more utility to the average consumer than the ultra-wide lens. It could make logical sense to make the ultra-wide lens a Pro feature, although then there’s less incentive to upgrade IMO.

 

[JPack]

To my knowledge Apple have never surveyed their core mainstream consumers to find out their camera habits. Apple eventually meet market demand on things like larger phones and wireless charging, but half a decade behind the competition usually.

If we look at the competitors like Google where they probably have lots of data on user habits, the Pixel 6 has the same wide and ultra wide lenses. If we look at Vivo or Oppo, again same thing for mainstream devices.

It makes the most sense to have ultra wide as you can always zoom in (digitally) but you can’t recreate the pixels that were never in the frame in the first place.

Apple’s mainstream iPhone ($829) is undoubtedly more expensive than other mainstream smartphones, but it’s been like that for a long time. Buyers just don’t care enough about telephoto to move to Android.

 

[MICHAELSD]

If we look at the competitors like Google where they probably have lots of data on user habits, the Pixel 6 has the same wide and ultra wide lenses. If we look at Vivo or Oppo, again same thing for mainstream devices.

It makes the most sense to have ultra wide as you can always zoom in (digitally) but you can’t recreate the pixels that were never in the frame in the first place.

Apple’s mainstream iPhone ($829) is undoubtedly more expensive than other mainstream smartphones, but it’s been like that for a long time. Buyers just don’t care enough about telephoto to move to Android.

Truthfully how many users are taking advantage of the ultra-wide lens? At a holiday party it could be useful for squeezing more people into a photo, but I think for everyday use we have more of a tendency to want to zoom and a 3x telephoto lens significantly increases optical quality and the digital zoom range to 15x.

 

[javisan]

Truthfully how many users are taking advantage of the ultra-wide lens? At a holiday party it could be useful for squeezing more people into a photo, but I think for everyday use we have more of a tendency to want to zoom and a 3x telephoto lens significantly increases optical quality and the digital zoom range to 15x.

Agree. In the last two years I’ve used the ultra wide maybe once every 100 pics at best. I would rather have a telephoto.

Apple knows this, that is why telephoto is only on the more expensive models. They know what they are doing.

 

[JPack]

Truthfully how many users are taking advantage of the ultra-wide lens? At a holiday party it could be useful for squeezing more people into a photo, but I think for everyday use we have more of a tendency to want to zoom and a 3x telephoto lens significantly increases optical quality and the digital zoom range to 15x.

I've got the complete opposite experience. I use ultra wide almost all the time, especially indoors. It gives you a much better perspective of the surroundings and is closer to our peripheral vision. Because it distorts images, I wouldn't use it to take images of people.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

If we look at the competitors like Google where they probably have lots of data on user habits, the Pixel 6 has the same wide and ultra wide lenses. If we look at Vivo or Oppo, again same thing for mainstream devices.

It makes the most sense to have ultra wide as you can always zoom in (digitally) but you can’t recreate the pixels that were never in the frame in the first place.

Apple’s mainstream iPhone ($829) is undoubtedly more expensive than other mainstream smartphones, but it’s been like that for a long time. Buyers just don’t care enough about telephoto to move to Android.

I’d much prefer the wide angle over the telephoto and wasn’t suggesting the lack of lens drives people to Android. It’s iPhone or nothing for me and Android doesn’t even factor in my decision making. The people I know with Pro iPhones rarely use telephoto but I suppose it’s nice to have and I think it’ll have to come to the mainstream at some point.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Truthfully how many users are taking advantage of the ultra-wide lens? At a holiday party it could be useful for squeezing more people into a photo, but I think for everyday use we have more of a tendency to want to zoom and a 3x telephoto lens significantly increases optical quality and the digital zoom range to 15x.

I think the wide angle on the whole is much more useful than the telephoto and perhaps this is the reason the mainstream iPhone has it. I use it a lot as it gives a better perspective indoors and outdoors. I had the zoom lens on my old 8 Plus and rarely used it. I can’t think of many everyday scenarios where you need to zoom in to take pictures of something or someone far away.