It’s been a while since Apple’s news about the upcoming iPhone 14 series, and we recently learned that the iPhone 14 Pro models are likely to feature a 48MP camera to join the “megapixel” race.
Now with iOS 16 on the iPhone 14 Pro you have what Apple call the “Dynamic Island.” This is their way of incorporating the notch within a new display within the full display. They had to minimize the TrueDepth camera cluster by 31% to do it, but it does give the user more real estate to play with.
Once again iPhone 14 has been separated into two tiers—the straight 14 and the 14 Pro. Both models then have their own size choices. The straight 14 comes along with a bigger Plus model with a screen height of 6.33 inches (diagonally 6.7 inches) while the basic model is 5.78 in height (diagonally 6.1 inches).
The New Camera
The Pros get the new camera—with a 65% bigger sensor than the 13 Pro-rated at a 2mm with 48MP and a ƒ/1.78 aperture. It also has the second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization which Apple describes as “gimbal-like” in its use.
Other new cameras are a 12MP Ultra Wide 13 mm, ƒ/2.2 aperture and a 12MP 3xTelephoto 77 mm, ƒ/2.8 aperture, plus optical image stabilization (not marked as the second generation).
It’s important to note that this isn’t digital zooming but a beautifully worked crop enabled with what they call the quad-pixel sensor. Apple has managed to group four pixels together into a quad pixel, which then as a larger photosite bucket gathers more light. This is how they arrive at the 12MP crop, but it’s a “super crop” really.
The full 48MP raster is also available as PhotoRAW for photographers with the quad-pixel feature available for software zooming.
The Photonic Engine
Apple introduced what they called Deep Fusion in a previous model and they’ve improved it with iPhone 14 models.
It was a type of HDR setup where a number of images were blended together to make one super shot in typical HDR fashion. Now they’re applying Deep Fusion straight off the sensor in a RAW state.
They call this the Photonic Engine and it’s available on all iPhone 14 models. They’re talking about over twice the low-light performance with the new camera and roughly 2x for the others.
14MP camera on iPhone 48, periscope lens on iPhone 15
Apple is likely to include a 14-megapixel camera in the iPhone 48 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max … This is similar to Jeff Poo’s suggestion, who revealed that the 48MP main camera on the Pro model will be accompanied by a 12MP ultra-wide camera and Telephoto lens. The information surfaced earlier this year.
“Continued upgrades to iPhone camera lenses over the next two years will help increase the company’s market share, revenue, and profits,” the note says . Rumors suggest a periscope lens for the 2023 iPhone lineup. That means the so-called iPhone 15 could have one. Cameras will help increase the optical zoom capabilities of your phone without the need for bulky structures.
This isn’t the first time it’s predicted that the upcoming iPhone will feature a periscope lens. Earlier this year, an analyst said that Apple could launch a periscope lens as early as 2022. However, that didn’t happen, and it looks like it could carry over to the iPhone 15 lineup.
As far as other specs go, we don’t know much about the 2023 iPhones. While past rumors about the 2022 iPhone have hinted at leaky screens, up to 8GB of RAM, improved camera features, and more.
Are you excited about future iPhone camera enhancements? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
