A leaker better known for posting about Android smartphones has made a claim potentially pointing to improved telephoto performance in the iPhone 18 lineup.
The combination of the vagueness of the report and the rather unlikely nature of it means there’s probably nothing to the claim, but we note it just in case there is some element of truth behind it …
Smart Pikachu posted the claim on a Chinese social media platform Weibo (machine
The series of variable aperture lenses has been prototyped. Teleconverters are also under evaluation.
Variable aperture lenses
This element of the post echoes what we are already expecting, either for the iPhone 18 Pro Max only or for both Pro models.
You can find a detailed explanation with examples in our earlier explainer, but the executive summary of the key benefit is greater 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.
However, as we’ve previously cautioned, you shouldn’t get too excited about this as the impact is likely to be a very small one.
Teleconverter
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