Once again, I have my annual wishlist of new features I want to see in the next edition of iPhone Pro cameras, which Apple will unveil to the world on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.
It’s not like Tim Cook and co. have listened to me in years past, but that hasn’t stopped from me from trying.
First, the logistics: Apple is expected to introduce four new editions of the iPhone 17 Tuesday, highlighted by an ultra-thin, light model called the iPhone Air, modeled after the Mac Air and iPad Air models. If analysts are to be believed, this model will only have one camera lens, instead of the three we’ve come to know and love in the Pro models.
So my interest is all in the top of the line Pro model, which is expected to have a higher price tag than last year, due to the Trump tariffs.
My wish list:
Sharper Telephoto
The 5X lens on the iPhone is buggy. Sometimes it’s sharp, other times it looks pixelated like digital zoom. I want a consistent sharp lens. Period. (And we might be getting that, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who predicts the 12 megapixel resolution of the 5X lens will be upgraded to 48 MP.) I also want a huge upgrade in telephoto focal length, to 10x, in true optical fashion, not digital. Let’s cross our fingers everyone.
Ditch the digital zoom wheel
As you may have surmised, I hate digital zoom, phone camera manufacturer speak for giving you the user crappy looking photos and videos. Digital zoom, when we pinch in to get closer, is nothing but a bad crop of a portion of the image, and when we look at the final results, we get pixelation. I find the digital zoom wheel, the one that kicks in sometime between the true optical numbers (.5, 1x, 2x, 5x) to be incredibly annoying and hard to turn off. Please ditch!
Fix the .5 distortion
The .5 wide ultra wide angle lens, which I love having, can get distorted sometimes. Apple has offered us this lens for several years now—isn’t it about time we fixed the weird warp?
Low Light Improvements
Every year Apple tells us the new iPhones perform better in low light, and every year, the results rarely ring true. Low light—shooting at night, at parties, in dark halls, etc. is still sub-par on iPhones, especially on the.5 and 5x lenses. Readers, the solution is always to just use the 1x lens in low light for the sharpest, best performing photos and videos, but how about an upgrade to the other lenses as well?
That awful sunset and light flare
We’ve all been there. We shoot a sunset and some weird little yellow dot appears in our shot. Or, we’re taking a photo near a light, and it wreaks havoc in our image. I once asked an Apple exec how to deal with this stuff, and he told me to just keep moving and it would go away. All true, but Apple can’t we do better?
Can we get a real flash for the iPhone?
Those of us with Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fuji and Olympus cameras buy accessory flashes for our cameras and love them. The built-in flash is unusable, and the one accessory flash unit that’s available for the iPhone sells for over $1,000. How about a software fix that would allow us to use a portable, great little flash from the likes of Godox?
Make Night Mode understandable
I love Apple’s Night Mode feature, which leaves the shutter open for longer in super low light to produce great photos. The only problem: most people have no idea how it works. Night Mode works like magic—it only comes out when it’s super dark. You can’t will it on earlier. You have to tweak the auto controls and switch to manual to make it useable. It will keep the shutter open longer if it senses that you’re on a tripod. I know all this. Do you? Can we make Night Mode relevant to the average user?
Make Night Mode for Video
Again, I know and understand Night Mode, but what I don’t understand—why isn’t there something comparable for video? You can greatly improve a picture in dark settings, but you can’t do the same for a video. As Apple surely knows, we’re living in a video world of Reels, Shorts and TikToks. And we need help!
Solve the Bounce
When you walk and talk and shoot video, the camera bounces with you. Apple tried a solution for this with Action Mode, but that’s really made for running, not walking. The bounce drives me crazy. How about you?
And in non-iPhone 17 news: the Latest Horrors from Selfie Land
The publication Petapixel does a great job chronicling the pitfalls of selfie photographers. The latest: a Russian woman who attempted a selfie after bungee jumping, and slipped. She didn’t live to be able to share the photo.
Be careful out there!
Meanwhile, yes, I’m back home….but not for long.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read, watch and listen. If you enjoyed this, share with a friend.
Jeff