Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 16 series next month, perhaps on September 10. Ahead of the event, today the camera details for all four models have been outed.
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will have two cameras like their predecessors, only this time they will be vertically aligned on the back. The primary camera will be the same 48 MP one as in the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus.
The ultrawide will get a faster f/2.2 aperture (compared to f/2.4 in last year’s models) which should improve low-light shots, and the non-Pro iPhones will allegedly support macro photography for the first time.
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will both have a 5x telephoto camera, it no longer being exclusive to the larger model like last year. It’s going to be the same 12 MP with f/2.8 aperture.
The main camera on the Pros is also unchanged from last year, but there will be a significant change in the ultrawide. This will be a 48 MP pixel binning sensor that will have .7 micrometer pixels that will create an effective pixel size of 1.4 micrometers when used in binning mode. You should also be able to shoot 48 MP ProRaw photos.
Apple is also rumored to add a new photo format this year, JPEG-XL. The two Pros will also support 3K video at 120fps with Dolby Vision.
Finally, the Capture Button will land on all four iPhone 16 models, in a move that will definitely make Sony feel truly understood – after all, it’s had such a button for ages. Apple’s button, however, will be capacitive, so you won’t actually move it when you press it. It will only be available to be used by camera apps, and third party ones will be supported.
It will have a force-sensitive half-press which will be accessible through a developer API to enable things like locking exposure and focus before you press all the way down to take a photo. Since it’s capacitive it will also be able to act like a trackpad – sliding a finger over it can trigger different actions. Apple might use this gesture for zooming in and out, but third party developers will be able to use the associated API to do other things with it.