Apple has long been rumored to be working on a significant improvement to the main iPhone camera in the form of a variable aperture lens. Some reports claimed that this would be introduced in the iPhone 17, but this of course didn’t happen. Ming-Chi Kuo first reported plans to introduce the feature in the iPhone 18, and this has now been corroborated by a supply chain report which says that work is already underway on the new hardware … Variable aperture lenses You can find a detailed explanation with examples in our earlier explainer, but the executive summary of the key benefit is the ability to control the depth of field (DoF) in a photo. You can have a shallow DoF when you want to isolate the subject from the background, a medium DoF when you want isolation while ensuring the background is still recognizable, or a deep DOF when you want everything in shot to be in focus. Portrait mode creates an artificial shallow DoF effect, and the telephoto lens offers some degree of optical effect, but a variable aperture lens would offer more control in more circumstances. Reducing the aperture would also have benefits for filmmakers wanting to shoot at 24fps in sunlight. Supply chain report says work already underway ETNews says that Apple has advised suppliers of its plans to introduce the hardware in the iPhone 18 and that development work is already underway. According to industry sources today, Apple decided to put a variable aperture on the iPhone 18 series. The installation plan has been confirmed, and the commercialization of related parts and modules is being promoted. Specifically, it is known that the iPhone 18 series will implement a variable aperture for the main cameras of ‘Pro’ and ‘Pro Max’, which are high-end models. Apple manufacturing partners LG Innotech, Foxconn, Luxshare ICT, and Sunny Optical are said to be working on different aspects of the new camera system. 9to5Mac’s Take After several years of speculation, this does now seem very likely. It’s important not to expect too much in the way of shallow depth of field (DoF) control. iPhone cameras already have very wide apertures, but you get limited DoF control because the sensor is very small compared to DSLRs. It’s likely that the bigger impact will be the ability to narrow the aperture when you want to ensure that everything in a scene is in focus from foreground to background when shooting things like landscapes and cityscapes. Highlighted accessories