Ahead of the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro arriving to the first customers on September 22, Apple executives have shared some behind-the-scenes details on the new camera systems. That includes the company’s design approach, how the new 24MP default works plus the benefits, and more.
Jon McCormack, Vice President of Camera Software Engineering, and Maxime Veron, Senior Director of iPhone Product Marketing sat down with PetaPixel.
When it comes to who Apple is designing the iPhone camera systems for, McCormack shared it ranges from parents of young kids all the way to pros:
“It really is, in my mind, all about allowing people to go chase their vision and this goes from the harried parent of a toddler where their vision is, ‘can I get my kid in frame as they take their first step’ all the way through to a pro or a creative who has got a very specific artistic vision in mind and want to get there as quickly as possible,” Jon McCormack, Vice President of Camera Software Engineering at Apple says.
Continuing on with the importance of capturing a vision, McCormack highlights that what’s going on in the moment is “the most inspiring part of any photograph or any video.”
Digging into the new option to choose between three focal lengths with the main camera on the iPhone 15 Pro, McCormack shared that was made possible with a combination of “the sensor’s resolution and Apple’s software.”
Notably, the 24, 28, and 32mm focal lengths are only available for still photos, not videos with the main iPhone 15 Pro. Here’s why:
But video shooters might notice that these specific focal lengths aren’t available to them, and there is a reason for that. McCormack explains that when you’re shooting photos, the iPhone is constantly active, shooting and combining that information into a final photo.
“When you’re shooting [photos], we gather a bunch of data to let you keep shooting and then sort of keep processing in the background, so we have more time and this is just something we can’t do in video,” he explains.
In video mode, the iPhone has to process each frame at that frame rate, limiting the computational photography capabilities, which is why it only offers a zoom ring and not dedicated prime focal lengths. Luckily, the addition of ProRes Log encoding and easier file management due to external SSD support via USB-C mean video shooters aren’t left without something to be excited about.
Moving on to shooting video with the new log option, McCormack notes that it’s set to give a “middle-ground exposure.” Because there’s no tone mapping, users get “much more precise control” over exposure.
Alongside log recording, Apple is planning to release LUT profiles as soon as September 22.
McCormack also explained how the new 24MP default photos work with the new iPhones and the benefits users should see:
“You get a little bit more dynamic range in the 24-megapixel photos,” McCormack explains. “Because when shooting at 24-megapixels, we shoot 12 high and 12 low — we actually shoot multiple of those — and we pick and then merge. There is, basically, a bigger bracket between the 12 high and the 12 low. Then, the 48 is an ‘extended dynamic range,’ versus ‘high dynamic range,’ which basically just limits the amount of processing. Because just in the little bit of processing time available [in the 24 megapixel] we can get a bit more dynamic range into Deep Fusion. 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.”
Moving on to computational photography and videography, Maxime Veron shared Apple’s approach:
For the vast majority of our customers, we just aim to process everything in the background so that the process is invisible and out of the way so that people can take great photos and videos and capture beautiful, true-to-life moments in one click.
Veron says that at the same time, Apple wants to meet the ever-growing demands of its enthusiast customers, allowing them to use the same hardware to capture images that can grace the cover of a magazine.
Check out the full interview with PetaPixel here.
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