In an environment where so much information is leaked, it's always nice to learn something new at an Apple event. Last year, the whole programming aspect of Dynamic Island was one of those things. This year, all the surprises are related to the camera system of the iPhone 15 Pro.
Some surprises were in the wrong direction. For example, the optical zoom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is 5x. Not 6 or even 10 times, as they say. However, you can't blame Apple for not living up to the rumors, which were never accurate, and good things really are good.
48MP HEIF
For example, 48MP HEIF is attached to 48MP ProRaw on the main camera. Taking advantage of the 48MP sensor no longer requires advanced editing knowledge.
When the iPhone 14 Pro launched last year, it required a third-party camera app. Luckily, this feature isn't limited to the iPhone 15 line.
2x optical zoom everywhere h2>
There were rumors that a 48-megapixel sensor would be installed in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. What I didn't consider is that the higher resolution sensor actually adds a 2x optical zoom lens to the 0.5x and 1x zoom camera system.
I'm sure some people tied everything together in advance. Of course, this is how the iPhone 14 Pro works, but it's nice to see it on non-Pro phones as well.
Spatial videos
Best comment: call me if you get the broth
Don't forget the fact that the 15 Pro's main camera now defaults to 24MP (by default) -apparently using some new pixel binning method) and allows you to set the default focal length to 24, 28 or 35mm (presumably then cropped to give a resolution between 12 -24 MP). As someone who always thought the focal length of the main camera was too wide, I'm as excited about this as I am about the improvements to the 5x telephoto lens and portrait mode.
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Spatial video capture is another highlight. Everyone knew spatial video capture was coming to the iPhone eventually after Vision Pro introduced the feature. We just didn't know it would happen until the Vision Pro actually launched. Impressive.
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Other software surprises include editing the focus of photos in portrait mode. This is technically a previously unannounced iOS 17 feature, but we weren't expecting it.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max also make good use of the new USB 3 data transfer speed. Recording video to an external drive? Sending photos to your Mac while shooting? This all adds up to some great new things we learned this week.
And this list of surprise features doesn't even begin to cover everything new with the iPhone 15 Pro camera! We are very excited that we will be able to test all the new features soon.
