Adam Kos Sure, Apple is often criticized for limiting its native Camera app, which many say doesn't offer professional settings. On the one hand, it's really true, because here we don't find the option to determine the ISO value, white balance, or set the shutter speed, etc. But it doesn't mean that Apple doesn't offer us a real Pro for photography.
Even though the best iPhones contain really powerful camera systems, especially in the Pro models of course, many people don't know how to get the true maximum out of them. After all, that's because these phones already produce stunning results by default, and most average users don't really need more. And while there's no manual or pro shooting mode in iOS 17 either, there are still some advanced settings that can affect the output of your iPhone's camera.
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Amaya Toman The following options are applicable to the iOS 17 operating system on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. If you have an older device and system or an iPhone without the Pro moniker, not all options may be available to you.
Search in Settings
A whole new world of photography opens up in front of you when you visit Settings -> Camera. You can determine the quality of the output and video recordings right here. They follow Formats, where you decide whether you want to save the results in HEIF/HEVC or JPEG/H.264. Here you have a nice description of what it means, and what advantages and disadvantages the given format has.
Gallery
In addition, you will find switches for Apple ProRaw and Apple ProRes. These options, when enabled, allow you to take higher quality photos and videos. So instead of getting 12MPx or 24MPx photos when you use the main camera on iPhone 14 Pro or higher, you can get full 48MPx images. These are ideal for those who plan to further edit the results. But they have considerably more storage requirements.
ProRes similarly allows for higher quality videos and is one of the most popular formats among film professionals. But such a setting literally eats up storage space. However, if you turn it on, you can also record to the format log. The latter preserves more information and provides greater flexibility for color corrections and additional adjustments. Without them, he looks gray and dull.
Camera app interface with ProRes
With the new iPhone 15 Pro, and of course we expect it with future generations, you can still adjust the menu Main camera. It can capture a scene with three focal points, and you can define here whether you want to use them or turn them off completely. You can also choose the default lens if the 24mm doesn't suit you.
The difference between the three focal points of the main camera
These are basically all the options you can adjust to take better quality or more professional photos and videos on your iPhone. Is it restrictive? Quite possibly yes, but quite possibly it is really enough for the overwhelming majority of users and many will not even bother with this at all. For everyone else, there are still all those third-party apps you'll find in the App Store.
The limiting factor is the optics and the chip, not post processing. It will never make professional photos.
Instead of 3 useless lenses, I would go for 1 somewhere around 35mm with a 1′ sensor and larger, high-quality optics. To this day, I compare photos from my old Lumia 1020 and the quality was simply higher than it is on the iPhone today. The new Xiaomi ones with a 1′ sensor must be a blast.
What's the point of 3 lenses when 2 of them have such poor image quality that you'd rather not take any photos with them anyway. It just looks stupid, makes the phone more expensive and limits the space for the main camera.