A new report from AppleInsider claims to have all the details on the camera upgrades we can expect from the iPhone 16 lineup when it launches in less than a month. It looks like all the phones are getting some hardware upgrades, but there are also some new software tricks on the cards.
iPhone 16 and 16 Plus get these improvements
The main wide-angle lens will remain the same as on the iPhone 15 (48 MP, f/1.6), but the Ultra Wide will have a wider aperture of f/2.2 (instead of f/2.4). It seems like it’s likely the same as the Ultra Wide on the iPhone 15 Pro.
Standard iPhones will support macro photography for the first time.
The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max get these improvements
The main wide-angle camera will remain unchanged (48 MP, f/1.78).
The telephoto lens will be the same as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a 12MP sensor and f/2.8 aperture, and 5x zoom. But the iPhone 16 Pro will also get it. It won’t be exclusive to the Max model this year.
The Ultra Wide will feature a 48MP camera that can either shoot at full resolution or use the same 12MP pixel binning feature as the Wide camera for better sensitivity and low-light performance. Apple is expected to support ProRAW for this camera for the first time.
Apple will be improving Dolby Vision recording to support up to 3K at 120 frames per second. Current devices max out at 1080P at 120 or 240 fps and 4K at 60 fps, so this new additional option gives you a better balance between high resolution and frame rate.
JPEG-XL
Apple is expected to introduce JPEG-XL in its cameras this year. It won’t replace other formats: you’ll still get JPEG, HEIF, and ProRAW.
JPEG-XL is a standardized royalty-free image format that was officially standardized about three years ago. It offers better compression than JPEG with fewer artifacts and can support both lossy and lossless compressed images.
It supports large images, high bit depth, HDR, and animation. And it’s very fast to encode and decode. It’s a suitable replacement in almost every way for the older JPEG, HEIC, WebP, and PNG formats, offering comparable or better quality, the same or better features, and comparable or better compression in most use cases.
JPEG-XL hasn’t been very popular yet, but Apple’s inclusion of the format in the latest iPhone should give it a real boost, especially if Apple makes it the new default.
Capture button
All four iPhone 16 models will get a new Capture button, located in the lower-right corner so that it sits like a camera shutter, just under your index finger, when your iPhone is held in landscape orientation.
This will be a capacitive button that uses haptics to mimic the feel of clicks. It’s meant to be used only with camera apps, and you can choose to open it with Apple’s Camera app or a third-party app. In addition to a full press to take a photo or start recording video, you’ll be able to half-press the button, which will have different functions in different apps. Developers can use an API to detect the half-press and decide what to do. On most professional cameras, a half-press locks focus and exposure, and that’s likely how Apple’s Camera app will work by default.
You’ll also be able to slide your finger along the button, which developers can use however they want via an API. (We think it’ll also have a haptic feel, like the notches on a DSLR’s dials.) It can be used to adjust zoom, exposure, cycle through filters, or really whatever a developer decides to do with it.
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