A popular YouTube channel has described the claimed 48 megapixel resolution of the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera as “absolutely fake.” Professional photographer Tony Northrup says that the true resolution is “around six megapixels.”
Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of Lux – the developer behind Halide and Kino – takes issue with this, and says the reality is more nuanced …
48MP claim ‘absolutely fake’
Northrup doesn’t mince words in his video, entitled iPhone 16 Pro camera: DISAPPOINTING & MISLEADING (his caps).
First, the 48 megapixel resolution is absolutely fake. It delivers around 6 megapixels of actual detail in ideal circumstances. Second, when you zoom in using the fake 2X zoom lens, the quality becomes absolutely horrible. Apple has given the super-wide angle 13mm lens the same fake 48 megapixel treatment, and you can expect the same lack of actual improved image quality.
It’s worth noting that Northrup doesn’t even have an iPhone 16 Pro yet. Instead, he is basing his comments on the 48MP sensor in the iPhone 15 Pro. He’s also making comparisons with the output of an iPhone and a full-frame DSLR, which is frankly silly.
But is there any truth to his claim that the 48MP sensor is “fake?” Well, yes … and no.
The Quad Bayer arrangement
The sensor in the iPhone does have 48 megapixels. However, color overlays are used, so that each individual pixel captures only one color. The output from four of those individual pixels (two green, one red, one blue) is combined into a single photosite.
In this way, you can argue that the ‘true’ resolution is 12MP rather than 48MP. If Northrup were saying that, then it would be perfectly reasonable, though it would still be going a bit far to call Apple’s 48MP claim “fake” since the Quad Bayer arrangement does absolutely create greater detail than a simple 12MP sensor.
But he goes further, arguing that the overall quality of the output is similar to a full-frame 6MP sensor, which is, as I say, an utterly meaningless comparison.
Lux’s Sebastiaan de With responds
Top comment by Sam Johnson
Manufacturers have a problem selling products with lower numbers in the specs, no matter what those numbers mean.
Selling 48mp product with lower image quality is easier than 12mp product with higher image quality.
Because 48 is obviously better than 12.
PetaPixel spoke with de With, who is more polite than me when it comes to the meaningless of the DSLR comparison.
It’s of course never quite useful to compare an iPhone — or any smartphone! — to a full frame camera, because physics dictates your image output. You can’t defeat physics when it comes to gathering light and getting a certain kind of rendering. That’s why phones tend to compensate in the area they are far superior in: computation. Computational photography has enabled stuff your full-frame camera can’t even dream of, like 10-second handheld nighttime exposures with a sensor the size of your pinkie toe nail or smaller.
He notes that you can’t even talk meaningfully about resolution without factoring in the resolving power of the lens, among other things, and that the more sensible comparison is between the Sony 48MP and 12MP sensors used in iPhones.
Do users get higher resolution photos with more detail? Undoubtedly. Moving further, can you say that it truly offers four times the detail of the 12-megapixel sensors that precede it?
While it’s a Quad Bayer arrangement that optimizes for 12- megapixel (and now 24-megapixel) output — which makes fantastic sense for 99% of iPhone users’ photos and videos — I would go on a limb and say it is […]
People use [the 48-megapixel iPhone camera] every day and get higher resolution shots with more detail. Whether it’s the same resolving power as a full-frame camera? Probably not. But that’s comparing an Apple to an orange. Or Sony.
If you want the take of another professional photographer, who has actually used the iPhone 16 Pro, check out Austin Mann’s exhaustive test here.
Image: Apple
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