GoKawiiliPhone 18 Pro packs lots of camera upgrades (great rundown here), with the tentpole addition being variable aperture. But there’s one other Main camera change that users like me might deem their favorite.
iPhone 18 Pro’s new f/1.48 lens could prove popular for the average non-‘pro’ user
As impressive as Apple’s new iPhone Duo foldable is, when it comes to camera features, it’s a clear loser to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max (see our iPhone Duo-iPhone 18 Pro comparison here).
Not only does iPhone Duo lack a Telephoto camera, but its Main camera also misses out on the improvements coming to iPhone 18 Pro.
For a rundown of iPhone 18 Pro camera upgrades, I recommend my colleague Ben’s piece here.
As I’ve been thinking about the new camera system, many of the changes appear meant for users that are more “pro” than me. All of the manual ‘Pro controls’ iPhone 18 Pro offers intimidate me, and I don’t expect to ever use them. Even the tentpole variable aperture feature feels a bit over my head, though I’m glad it can work automatically.
Relevant background: I have zero training in photography outside of a single ‘Today at Apple’ class I took years ago. But of course, I love to take photos with my iPhone.
And the iPhone 18 Pro camera change I’m most intrigued by is something highlighted by The Verge. Antonio G. Di Benedetto writes:
I think the real star feature of the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera is its f/1.48 maximum aperture…People love bokeh. Last year’s Pro iPhone cameras had an f/1.7 aperture, and now being at f/1.48, the 18 Pro camera should work better in low-light as well as have a slightly shallower depth of field. Will f/1.48 be a huge difference in bokeh from f/1.7? Probably not. It’s likely to have depth of field that’s just a smidge shallower — but that’s the look that people often like. I speak from experience here, as I usually shoot on full-frame cameras and one of my go-to lenses is a 50mm with an f/1.2 maximum aperture. A lens that fast, with depth of field that shallow gives a unique look that’s easy to overuse, but it almost never fails that people swoon when I take their portrait using that lens — with that blurry, “dreamy” blur isolating them from the background. The f/1.48 of the iPhone 18 Pro is obviously not going to compare to an f/1.2 on full-frame, but f/1.2 and similarly wide apertures on big sensors is the look that people often want to emulate. It’s the whole reason Portrait Modes on smartphones came into being in the first place.
I haven’t used an iPhone 18 Pro yet. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the new f/1.48 aperture proves a hit among users like me.
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