GoKawiilIf ever there was a head versus heart moment in terms of Apple tech, it was in yesterday’s unveiling of the new iPhones.
I already started the morning by wiping the drool from my desk after watching the iPhone Duo sections of yesterday’s keynote, but the true hero of yesterday’s show for me was the iPhone 18 Pro/Pro Max, thanks to the new camera features …
The variable aperture – with caveat
Given the supply chain needed to introduce a variable aperture lens to the iPhone, it was no surprise that this was well and truly leaked prior to the launch. The only thing that wasn’t completely clear is whether the feature would be included in both iPhone Pro models or just the Pro Max, and the good news is that the former applies.
Apple also confirmed that while the iPhone will vary the aperture automatically in some cases, we can also take full manual control. I said beforehand that we might need to temper our expectations of just how much difference the feature will make.
The main limiting factor of iPhones is not the lens aperture – which is already rather wide – but rather the size of the sensor. Again, all else being equal, the larger the sensor, the shallower DOF you’ll be able to achieve. Compared to DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, iPhones have absolutely tiny sensors, and that isn’t going to change this year. Given the same size sensor and a very slightly wider aperture, physics would suggest that we shouldn’t expect very much.
But I also speculated about whether Apple might have improved the Portrait mode capabilities in this latest model and actually be using a combination of the wider aperture and computational photography in order to deliver a more impressive result than would be obtained from the hardware alone. That remains to be seen, but based on some of the sample photos shown, I do suspect I may have been right about this.
I’ll be experimenting with this and will of course share the results.
Low-light photography and videography
The widest aperture is also close to one stop brighter – up from f/1.78 in the iPhone 17 Pro to f/1.48. While it may not make much difference to depth of field in itself, it should be a worthwhile improvement for low-light captures, including night shots.
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