Posts tagged with "camera"

Halide and Kino Developers Review the iPhone 17 Pro’s Cameras→

Source: Lux.

Source: Lux.

Earlier this week, I shared my early impressions of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and included a few galleries of photos I’d taken at each of the model’s standard zoom levels. I was impressed by the results, which made me all the more excited to learn more of how Apple pulled this off.

One of my favorite annual iPhone camera reviews is from the team at Lux, the makers of Halide and Kino. Their experience with the iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras was similar to mine, but with a lot of nerdy camera detail that I love. The overall conclusion of their testing in New York, Iceland, and London is that:

This is, without a doubt, a great back camera system. With all cameras at 48MP, your creative choices are tremendous. I find Apple’s quip of it being ‘like having eight lenses in your pocket’ a bit much, but it does genuinely feel like having at least 5 or 6: Macro, 0.5×, 1×, 2×, 4× and 8× .

The story covers every camera and each zoom distance. Of the 2x, Lux found that:

Shooting at 2× on iPhone 17 Pro did produce noticeably better shots; I believe this can be chalked up to significantly better processing for these ‘crop shots’. Many people think Apple is dishonest in calling this an ‘optical quality’ zoom, but it’s certainly not a regular digital zoom either. I am very content with it, and I was a serious doubter when it was introduced.

Lux’s highest praise was probably for the 8x zoom:

The overall experience of shooting a lens this long should not be this good. I’ve not seen it mentioned in reviews, but the matter of keeping a 200mm lens somehow steady and not an exercise in tremendous frustration is astonishing. Apple is using both its very best hardware stabilization on this camera and software stabilization, as seen in features like Action Mode.

There are loads of beautiful photos in the post and a lot more detail than I’ve quoted here. Be sure to read through the entire post because what Apple is doing with camera hardware and software is really quite remarkable.

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iPhone 17 Pro Max: The First Three Days

Last Friday, just before midday, my new iPhone 17 Pro Max arrived at my home – a Deep Blue model with 512 GB of storage. Since then, it’s dropped neatly into my daily iPhone routine. In many ways, it’s not that different from the iPhone 16 Pro Max that I’ll be trading in. I’ve been on iOS 26 for months, so the operating system isn’t a big change, but there are some notable differences that I thought I’d share.

Setup

This year’s setup process was smoother than usual. I was in a rush to set up my iPhone because it arrived at about 11:30 AM and Federico and I were planning to record this week’s episode of AppStories all about our hardware first impressions. Given time differences, that didn’t leave me much time to get up and running.

I decided to go with restoring from an iCloud backup, which gets your iPhone to a usable state faster than other options but can take a long time to download all of your apps. It was a good call because by the time we started recording about 45 minutes later, not only did I have access to the basics, but most of the apps assigned to active Home screens had already been downloaded, giving me a chance to play around with things a bit before recording.

I had plans to go out late in the afternoon and was hoping to get as much of the transfer finished by then as possible, so I connected my iPhone 17 Pro Max to an Ethernet adapter and let it do its thing. When I left the house around 4:00 PM, I was pleasantly surprised to find that nearly all of the 520 apps I had installed were already downloaded.

Heat

The 17 Pro Max dissipates heat with the help of a vapor chamber.

The 17 Pro Max dissipates heat with the help of a vapor chamber.

Apple made a big deal of the iPhone 17 Pro line’s new vapor chamber, which, combined with the aluminum case, is designed to dissipate heat better than before. In my experience so far, it absolutely does manage heat better, but that’s not to say the phone doesn’t get pretty warm. When I was setting up my new iPhone, it got quite warm, as did my old 16 Pro Max. However, while the 16 Pro Max got hot above the Apple logo on the back of the phone, the 17 Pro Max’s heat was more evenly distributed. That meant no one spot got as hot as the 16 Pro Max, but more of the phone got warm, including the sides, which I’d never really noticed with the previous model.

In the three days since I set up the 17 Pro Max, I’ve noticed it get warm now and then, but nothing close to as warm as the 16 Pro Max typically did. I’ve been out a couple of times on warm (80—85℉) sunny days taking photos and videos, and while the 17 Pro Max gets a little warm, it’s much less noticeable than before.

Hardware Design

Initially, I was a little underwhelmed by Apple’s iPhone lineup this year. I love the Air, but the camera tradeoffs were more than I was willing to make. As for the Pro line, I’m not a huge fan of the two-tone style and giant camera bump. It feels too industrial to me, which may be the point, but I prefer a sleeker look.

The orange case is great, but Cosmic Orange isn't for me.

The orange case is great, but Cosmic Orange isn’t for me.

I was also disappointed by the Cosmic Orange color. I like orange but prefer something brighter like the orange Apple Silicone Case. As you can see from the image above, it’s brighter than the Cosmic Orange iPhone. I had a chance to compare them in person at a local Apple Store over the weekend, and all it did was confirm to me that I’d made the right choice getting the Deep Blue model.

Apple didn’t make a black iPhone 17 Pro this year, which led some people to expect the Deep Blue model would be closer to black than blue. As it turns out, although Deep Blue is a very dark blue, it’s not a blue that would be mistaken for black. It looks great and minimizes some of the phone’s industrial look that I don’t like, so it’s a big win in my eyes.

My Nomad MagSafe-compatible wallet usually covers the part of the 17 Pro Max with the Ceramic Shield.

My Nomad MagSafe-compatible wallet usually covers the part of the 17 Pro Max with the Ceramic Shield.

The only caveat is that the Ceramic Shield on the back makes a rectangular patch that looks a little closer to gray than I’d prefer. It’s not a huge deal since I usually have a MagSafe wallet hiding that area, but again, I’m not that into the two-tone look.

I love the rounded edges of the 17 Pro Max.

I love the rounded edges of the 17 Pro Max.

Surprisingly, another aspect of the 17 Pro Max that I absolutely love is the unibody design. There’s something about how the metal wraps around from the back to front that really works for me. Part of it is that the edges are rounder than on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, making the 17 Pro Max more comfortable to hold. The unibody design also makes the phone seem more sturdy. Plus, while I know intellectually that my new phone weighs 6 grams more than the 16 Pro Max, it doesn’t feel that way when I hold both, which I think has something to do with the fact that the rounder edges of the 17 Pro Max make it feel slimmer than it really is. In what may be another mind trick, the front glass of the iPhone 17 Pro Max feels a little smoother, too.

As I mentioned, I swung by my local Apple Store on Sunday to check out the iPhone Air and the latest accessories. I’ll get to the accessories in a bit, but when I saw the Air, I had that moment of amazement that it could be so thin and light, but not one moment of regret. The Air looks great, and I’m excited for what that sort of miniaturization of iPhone hardware means for future models, but it’s not for me.

I just like having a big battery and three cameras too much to trade those for a thin iPhone. Yesterday, I charged my phone early in the day, used it relatively lightly while I was working at my desk, and then headed out in the afternoon to test the cameras some more. When I went to bed last night, I left my phone on the couch by accident, where it sat until I got up today. It still had about 50% of its battery left. I love that I rarely have to think about whether my iPhone is charged, let alone worry about it.

The Cameras

Over the past few days, I’ve been experimenting with the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s three rear-facing cameras. In Austin Mann’s review of the iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras that I linked to yesterday, he said:

On the 16 Pro, the 5x (120mm) often felt a little too tight. The new 4x (100mm) feels far more natural and much more familiar. It’s a classic portrait and landscape focal length in the photography world, and with the bump up from 12MP to 48MP I’ve been really happy with the results.

I’m no pro photographer, but having used the new zoom cameras, I have to agree. Both focal lengths feel great, but the real star is the detail both can capture thanks to their 48MP sensors.

To show off what these cameras can do, I picked three scenes of things I might snap a quick photo of while out on a walk. I left the cameras on the Standard Photographic Style and didn’t do any cropping or editing, taking 24MP shots, which is also a default setting, with the Wide, Main, 2×, 4×, and 8× options.

First up is an island in Lake Norman:

Next, I walked over to Davidson College and took a series of photos of the steeple of the campus church:

Finally, I took a similar series of shots of Chambers Hall on campus:

I’m really pleased with the results. It was a bright, sunny day, which always helps, but to my untrained eye, there’s a noticeable improvement in image quality now that all of the iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras have 48MP sensors.

Accessories

I like the Neon Yellow Silicone Case with the Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I like the Neon Yellow Silicone Case with the Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro Max.

When I stopped by the Apple Store over the weekend, I checked out the latest accessories, too, but didn’t buy anything. I prefer to use my iPhone caseless, but I wanted to see what my “official” options are because I do use a case when traveling.

Purple Fog goes well with Deep Blue, too.

Purple Fog goes well with Deep Blue, too.

The TechWoven cases struck me as durable options, although I wasn’t wowed by any of the colors. Instead, I was drawn to the bright Silicone Cases. Historically, these cases aren’t the most durable, but as someone who gets a new phone every year, that’s less of a consideration. The bright orange is great, but for my Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro Max, I think I’d probably go with Neon Yellow or Purple Fog.

I like the new Beats case but wouldn't like having a lanyard full-time just to have a way to prop up my iPhone.

I like the new Beats case but wouldn’t like having a lanyard full-time just to have a way to prop up my iPhone.

I also checked out the new Beats cases. I love the little pill on the lanyard that you can pull apart to create a perfectly sized divot for propping your phone up. The colors are nice in person, too, but in the end, I didn’t buy one because I don’t want a lanyard on my iPhone.

So that’s my mini-review of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It does the same Pro Max things I love with some nice perks like better cameras and a unibody design that’s functional and comfortable to hold while making the phone feel more substantial. Photographers and fans of great battery life really can’t go wrong with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Austin Mann Tests the iPhone 17 Pro Cameras in the Dolomite Mountains→

Professional photographer Austin Mann published his annual tests of the new iPhone’s cameras. This year, Mann traveled to the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy to bike and photograph the mountain landscapes.

It’s probably not surprising that the 17 Pro’s telephoto cameras were a perfect match with the Dolomites:

After extensively testing the iPhone 17 Pro camera system, I can confidently say the biggest improvement for photographers this year is the new 48MP 4x lens and the 8x telephoto. These focal lengths feel right and open up opportunities to capture fresh perspectives.

Mann’s photos are stunning. What stood out to me the most is the level of detail that can be captured with the 4x and 8x cameras. I spent some time testing this over the weekend myself and it’s seriously impressive.

Mann is also a fan of the new selfie camera, using it to take selfies as he biked through the mountains:

This is one of those features that just works without any effort and will make everyone’s selfies better, and many users won’t even be aware of what it’s doing. Just as I hoped, I can hold the iPhone in horizontal or vertical orientation and the camera automatically adjusts based on whether I’m alone or surrounded by others.

As always, it’s worth scrolling through the entire post because the Dolomites are a beautiful mountain range that offered a lot of opportunities for Mann to show off the new iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras.

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Recording Video and Gaming: A Setup Update→

It’s been a couple of months since I updated my desk setup. In that time, I’ve concentrated on two areas: video recording and handheld gaming.

I wasn’t happy with the Elgato Facecam Pro 4K camera, so I switched to the iPhone 16e. The Facecam Pro is a great webcam, but the footage it shot for our podcasts was mediocre. In the few weeks that I’ve moved to the 16e, I’ve been very happy with it. My office is well lit, and the video I’ve shot with the 16e is clear, detailed, and vibrant.

The iPhone 16e sits behind an Elgato Prompter, a desktop teleprompter that can act as a second Mac display. That display can be used to read scripts, which I haven’t done much of yet, or for apps. I typically put my Zoom window on the Prompter’s display, so when I look at my co-hosts on Zoom, I am also looking into the camera.

The final piece of my video setup that I added since the beginning of the year is the Tourbox Elite Plus. It’s a funny looking contraption with lots of buttons and dials that fits comfortably in your hand. It’s a lot like a Stream Deck or Logitech MX Creative Console, but the many shapes and sizes of its buttons, dials, and knobs set it apart and make it easier to associate each with a certain action. Like similar devices, everything can be tied to keyboard shortcuts, macros, and automations, making it an excellent companion for audio and video editing.

On the gaming side of things, my biggest investment has been in a TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 Mesh System. Living in a three-story condo makes setting up good Wi-Fi coverage hard. With my previous system I decided to skip putting a router on the third floor, which was fine unless I wanted to play games in bed in the evening. With a new three-router system that supports Wi-Fi 7 I have better coverage and speed, which has already made game streaming noticeably better.

Ayn Odin 2 Portal Pro. Source: Ayn.

Ayn Odin 2 Portal Pro. Source: Ayn.

The other changes are the addition of the Ayn Odin 2 Portal Pro, which we’ve covered on NPC: Next Portable Console. I love its OLED screen and the fact that it runs Android, which makes streaming games and setting up emulators a breeze. It supports Wi-Fi 7, too, so it pairs nicely with my new Wi-Fi setup.

A few weeks ago, I realized that I often sit on my couch with a pillow in my lap to prop up my laptop or iPad Pro. That convinced me to add Mechanism’s Gaming Pillow to my setup, which I use in the evening from my couch or later in bed. Mechanism makes a bunch of brackets and other accessories to connect various devices to the pillow’s arm, which I plan to explore more in the coming weeks.

The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller. Source: 8BitDo.

The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller. Source: 8BitDo.

There are a handful of other changes that I’ve made to my setup that you can find along with everything else I’m currently using on our Setups page, but there are two other items I wanted to shout out here. The first is the JSAUX 16” FlipGo Pro Dual Monitor, which I recently reviewed. It’s two 16” stacked matte screens joined by a hinge. It’s a wonderfully weird and incredibly useful way to get a lot of screen real estate in a relatively small package. The second item is 8BitDo’s new Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller that works with Windows and Android. I was a fan of the original version of this controller, but this update preserves the original’s build quality and adds new features like L4 and R4 buttons, TMR joysticks that use less energy than Hall Effect joysticks, and 2.4G via a USB-C dongle and Bluetooth connection options.

That’s it for now. In the coming months, I hope to redo parts of my smart home setup, so stay tuned for another update later this summer or in the fall.

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Lux’s Sebastiaan de With on the iPhone 16e’s Essential Camera Experience→

As I read Sebastiaan de With’s review of the iPhone 16e’s camera, I found myself chuckling when I got to this part:

You can speculate what the ‘e’ in ‘16e’ stands for, but in my head it stands for ‘essential’. Some things that I consider particularly essential to the iPhone are all there: fantastic build quality, an OLED screen, iOS and all its apps, and Face ID. It even has satellite connectivity. Some other things I also consider essential are not here: MagSafe is very missed, for instance, but also multiple cameras. It be [sic] reasonable to look at Apple’s Camera app, then, and see what comprises the ‘essential’ iPhone camera experience according to Apple.

What amused me was that I initially planned to call my iPhone 16e review the ‘e’ Is for Essential, but I settled on ‘elemental’ instead. Whether the ‘e’ in iPhone 16e stands for either of our guesses or neither really doesn’t matter. Like Sebastiaan, I find what Apple chose to include and exclude from the 16e fascinating.

When it comes to the iPhone 16e’s camera, there are differences compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, which is the focus of Sebastiaan’s review. The 16e supports fewer features than the Pro and the photos it takes don’t reproduce quite as much detail, especially in low-light conditions. There are other differences, too, so it’s worth comparing the review’s side-by-side comparison shots of the 16e to the 16 Pro.

Overall, though, I think it’s fair to say Sebastiaan came away impressed with the 16e’s camera, which has been my experience, too. So far, I’ve only used it to shoot video for our podcasts, and with good lighting, the results are excellent. Despite some differences, the iPhone 16e combined with the wealth of photo and video apps, like Lux’s Halide and Kino, make it a great way to enjoy the essential iPhone photography experience.

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Lux Reveals Plans for Halide Mark III→

Yesterday, the team at Lux announced that they are working on the next major release of their pro camera app, Halide, which will be dubbed Halide Mark III. The next iteration of Halide, which Lux hopes to release in 2025 will focus on three areas:

  • Color Grades: Like Kino, their App Store iPhone App of the Year for shooting video, Lux plans to add custom color grading to Halide.
  • HDR: Lux is developing its own implementation of High Dynamic Range that will give Halide’s photos “a thoughtful and nuanced HDR look.”
  • Redesign: Although Lux has not revealed any details, Halide will be redesigned, which should include a focus on color grading.

In addition to upcoming features, Lux announced a new community Discord for Halide and Kino, to collect feedback from customers and to allow them to share their interest in photography. The Discord and social media will also be where users can participate in the Halide and Kino 52-Week Challenge:

Every week you’ll get a photography challenge on our Discord. We’ll also include resources to help with the challenge — like app-specific tips. The challenge will be shared there and on our social media. Once you’ve got your shot, you can share your shots and see what the rest of the community came up with.

I love both Halide and Kino, and I’m intrigued by Lux’s new approach to development. Running a community can be challenging, but I expect the feedback Lux gets from users will be invaluable, as they work on the next big update to one of the App Store’s best camera apps.

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Austin Mann’s iPhone 16 Pro Camera Review→

Unlike most reviewers who were given an iPhone to test, Austin Mann didn’t head home, he headed to Kenya. Mann, whose iPhone camera reviews we’ve covered many times in the past, took the new iPhone 16 Pro on safari (not the browser), photographing a variety of wildlife, landscapes, and people. The video Mann shot of the trip is stunning:

Both the video and Mann’s accompanying article and photographs do more than just showcase the kind of shots that are possible with the iPhone 16 Pro. They both go in-depth about the new features and what each means to photographers:

The iPhone 15 Pro had the same 13mm (.5x) ultra-wide lens, but the sensor was only 12 megapixels—just 25% of the resolution of the 24mm (1x) lens. Over the past year, especially while working with the iPhone 15 Pro, I often found myself torn. Sometimes I wanted the wider perspective, but I didn’t want to sacrifice resolution. I was thrilled when the new Ultra Wide was announced with 48 megapixels, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

An added bonus is that the iPhone’s Macro mode also uses the Ultra Wide camera, meaning Macro shots are now 48 megapixels as well. The detail is remarkable, and the iPhone 16 Pro might just be my new favorite camera for macro photography.

Mann likes the Camera Control button for quick access to the Camera app, too, but found that in circumstances like shooting from a helicopter, it could be hard to operate.

The video and post are both worth spending time with. You’ll learn what the new cameras in the Pro iPhones can do and perhaps be inspired to go out and try the new features yourself.

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Manual Camera App Halide Introduces Process Zero, a New Unprocessed Image Capture Mode

Images taken using Process Zero. Source: [Lux](https://www.lux.camera/introducing-process-zero-for-iphone/).

Images taken using Process Zero. Source: Lux.

Today, Lux released an update to Halide, its manual control camera app. The marquee feature is Process Zero, a mode that allows photographers to take images with no algorithmic or AI processing. As Lux’s Ben Sandofsky explains it:

Process Zero is a new mode in Halide that skips over the standard iPhone image processing system. It produces photos with more detail and allows the photographer greater control over lighting and exposure. This is not a photo filter— it really develops photos at the raw, sensor-data level.

The result is that it’s possible to capture finer details than a processed photo under some conditions. The resulting image is a RAW file that’s 12 MB, significantly smaller than a ProRAW photo. In addition to Process Zero, the Halide team introduced Image Lab, a feature accessed from your Halide photo library, that offers a single dial element for adjusting your RAW photos.

Process Zero comes with some tradeoffs as explained in depth in Sandofsky’s post. The images it produces are “less saturated, softer, grainier, and quite different than what you see from most phones.”

I’ve had limited time to try Process Zero, but it was immediately apparent that the process of taking photos is different and harder compared to relying on the iPhone’s image processing. The feature requires a more deliberate, attentive approach to Halide’s manual camera settings to get a good shot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is clearly different, and I imagine it’s also probably the best way to really learn how the app’s manual camera settings work.

I also appreciate that the Halide team is taking a human-focused approach to photography at a time when so many developers and AI companies seem all too willing to cast aside photographers in favor of algorithms and generative AI. Process Zero’s approach to photography isn’t for everyone, and I expect most of the time, it won’t be for me either. However, I’m glad it’s an option because, in the hands of a skilled photographer, it’s a great tool.

If you’re interested in checking out Halide’s new Process Zero and Image Lab features, which are the foundation of what will become Halide Mark III, the app is currently on sale. For the rest of this week, Lux is offering Halide membership subscriptions for $11.99 per year, which is a 40% discount. The app is also available as a one-time $60 purchase.