Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 16 series next month, possibly on September 10. Ahead of the event, camera details of all four models have been revealed today.
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will have two cameras like their previous models, only this time they will be aligned vertically at the back. The primary camera will be 48 MP, just like 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 model), which should improve low-light photos, and the non-Pro iPhones will reportedly support macro photography for the first time.
Both the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will have a 5x telephoto camera, no longer limited to the larger model like last year. It will be the same 12 MP camera 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 48MP pixel binning sensor with .7 micrometer pixels that create an effective pixel size of 1.4 micrometers when used in binning mode. You should also be able to shoot 48MP ProRAW photos.
Apple is also rumoured to add a new photo format, JPEG-XL, this year. Both Pro models will also support 3K video at 120fps with Dolby Vision.
Eventually, the capture button will come to all four iPhone 16 models, a move that would surely make real sense to Sony – after all, it has had such a button for ages. However, Apple’s button will be capacitive, so it won’t actually move when you press it. It will only be available for use by the camera app, and third-party apps will be supported.
It will have a force-sensitive half-press that will be accessible via a developer API to enable things like locking exposure and focus before pressing down fully to take a photo. Since it’s capacitive it will also be able to act as a trackpad – sliding a finger across it can trigger different actions. Apple may use this gesture to zoom in and out, but third-party developers will be able to use the corresponding API to do other things with it.
