With the intensification of competition, the telephoto ability of mobile phones is becoming more and more important, even Apple has to add a 5x telephoto lens to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but Apple's telephoto is not a periscope telephoto, but a 5x telephoto achieved by using "quadruple prism refraction" technology.
Apple's quadruple prism refraction compared with periscope telephoto, its advantage is that under the same volume, a longer focal length can be obtained, and at the same time, the thickness of the module can be reduced, so as to better control the thickness of the fuselage, the disadvantage is that the number of refractions of light reaches 4 times, while the periscope telephoto is only 1 time, so the light loss of Apple's scheme will be greater.
But anyway, Apple's 5X telephoto is a relatively big upgrade, and recently it was reported that the iPhone 16 Pro will also be upgraded to this 5X telephoto, which will undoubtedly effectively improve the image capabilities of the iPhone 16 Pro, thus avoiding the embarrassment that the iPhone 15 Pro is inferior to the iPhone 15 Pro Max in terms of image.
In addition to the upgrade of the telephoto, the main camera of the iPhone 16 Pro series should also be upgraded, and it was previously reported that Apple asked Sony to customize the 48 million pixel IMX903 with double-layer transistor technology, and its size came to 1 114 inches, with the stacking of images, the body size of the iPhone 16 Pro series will also increase, of which the screen of the Pro comes to 63 inches, and the Pro Max is 69 inches.
I believe that many netizens will use the same 5X telephoto of the iPhone 16 Pro Max as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, or will it use a more excellent module, I can only say that there are other related revelations about this matter, anyway, if it is the 5X telephoto of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, don't look forward to its photo performance.
Because the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 5x telephoto sensor size of 1 306 inches, f28 aperture, whose equivalent light intake is not at all their opponent of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, that 5x periscope telephoto of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, with a larger sensor size, came to 1 251 inches, the aperture is also larger f25 apertures, whose equivalent amount of light entering is 1 of the other partyAbout 9 times, less than a direct double.
As far as the actual use experience is concerned, the iPhone 15 Pro Max's 5X telephoto has these shortcomings, first of all, the equivalent light intake is not large, resulting in its low-light image quality performance is average, and it is more likely to appear in low-light scenes, the telephoto is not actively called, and in the end, the main camera is cropped, and the image quality is really a bit miserable.
Secondly, the minimum focusing distance of this 5X telephoto is more than 80cm, so basically you don't have to expect any telephoto macro, on the other hand, the telephoto of the Android camp has a clear advantage in the closest focusing distance, like Xiaomi 14 Ultra's 5X telephoto The closest focusing distance is 30cm, and it also has a 3The 2x vertical telephoto supports a minimum focusing distance of 10cm.
In addition to the above two 5x telephoto problems, the gap between the main camera and the 5x telephoto is too large, because in this case, the middle focal length has to rely on the main camera digital zoom to achieve, and the image quality performance of some focal segments will deteriorate significantly, if there is a telephoto relay of about 3x like the Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra, it will be better.
However, the iPhone 16 Pro series is unlikely to use dual telephotos, so the most you can count on is that the iPhone 16 Pro series' telephoto itself is expected to be upgraded, resulting in better low-light and macro performance.
Overall, the image upgrade of the iPhone 16 Pro series is not small, but it is still a bit unrealistic to expect to flip the domestic image flagship in terms of photography.