from Hacker News

How The iPhone 15 Pro camera works and why you’ll want to shoot 24MP photos

by matco11 on 9/19/23, 4:10 AM with 25 comments

  • by shortcake27 on 9/19/23, 6:14 AM

    I’m keen to see the results when people get their hands on these phones. I own one of the last iPhones which can save non-HDR shots when using the default camera app. I set it up to save both, but the vast majority of the time I prefer the non-HDR photo as it usually has more contrast and captures the scene more accurately. I was really disappointed when Apple removed this option on newer iPhones, and even more disappointed when I saw how much they also jacked up the post processing on the 14 Pro. Yeah, the cameras may be better, but good lord the processing is absolutely awful to my eyes. I don’t really want to use apps like Halide because in typical Apple fashion, you can’t change the default camera app (which I use a lot, as it’s accessible without unlocking the phone, which is important as FaceID rarely works for me when I’m outside). Unfortunately my phone is dying so I’m just hoping they’ve dialled in the processing for the 48mp sensor.
  • by kart23 on 9/19/23, 5:43 AM

    12MP can capture incredible amounts of detail when your sensor is big and your lens is good, and especially if you don't have a Optical Low-Pass Filter, which literally blurs your images:

    https://petapixel.com/what-is-a-low-pass-filter/

    They also advertised that the sensor in the 15 pro is a 'larger 48mp sensor' which isn't true: it's the SAME EXACT sensor as last years 14 pro, its just larger than the regular 15. Tech journalists need to start calling this out more.

    https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2668153890/apple-s-iphone-...

  • by Reubend on 9/19/23, 5:29 AM

    It's really misleading to describe any of the fake focal lengths as "prime lenses". All of the iPhones lenses are technically prime lenses, but the new focal lengths are just digital zoom with some extra post processing.
  • by esafak on 9/19/23, 4:51 AM

    tl,dr: "So what you end up with in the 24, it’s a bit of a ‘Goldilocks moment’ of you get all of the extra dynamic range that comes from the 12 and the detail transfer that comes in from the 48.”
  • by seydor on 9/19/23, 5:45 AM

    What i dont get is why they need all those bulky lenses if they are going to do anything with AI
  • by edandersen on 9/19/23, 7:08 AM

    Apple should just use the words "sensor crop". The contortions they are going through not to use the words are getting very contrived.
  • by insickness on 9/19/23, 5:59 AM

    This is the most interesting part to me:

    Apple wants to keep an uncluttered experience and will rely on app developers in order to give power users more. McCormack points to this as the fine line that Apple is looking to walk: give the features but leave it to developers to service those who want to push the hardware and software to its max.

  • by mirsadm on 9/19/23, 6:45 AM

    For people that care about the quality of footage above anything else you can already record better quality footage with a $200 Android phone. You can record RAW video with an app I wrote (it's free for the raw video part of anyone cares). Every year every phone manufacturer claims to do the next best thing with video and photography and every year it's fairly mediocre. I'll wait to test it for myself as always.
  • by raavikant on 9/19/23, 5:22 AM

    As per the tech vloggers, the camera setup in iPhone 15 is more powerful then before.