I Want Apple to Do These Issues to the iPhone 17’s Digicam

The iPhone 16 Professional‘s superior digicam can take among the finest pictures it is attainable to squeeze from a telephone. With a number of crystal-clear lenses and new Photographic Types, it is received rather a lot to impress even essentially the most demanding of photographers. It even put up a robust battle in opposition to the finest digicam telephones round, together with the Galaxy S24 Extremely, the Pixel 9 Professional and the Xiaomi 14 Extremely. 

Learn extra: iPhone 16 Professional takes on Xiaomi 14 Extremely

Nevertheless it’s not the proper digicam. As each an skilled telephone reviewer and knowledgeable photographer, I’ve exceptionally excessive expectations for top-end telephone cameras and having used the iPhone 16 Professional since its launch, I’ve some ideas on what wants to vary. 

Listed here are the details I wish to see improved on the iPhone 17 when it seemingly launches in September 2025.

Bigger picture sensor

Although the 1/1.28-inch sensor discovered on  the iPhone 16 Professional’s fundamental digicam is already a great measurement — and marginally bigger than the S24 Extremely’s 1/1.33-inch sensor — I wish to see Apple go greater. A bigger picture sensor can seize extra mild and provide higher dynamic vary. It is why professional cameras are likely to have at the least “full body” picture sensors, whereas actually high-end cameras, just like the wonderful Hasselblad 907X, have huge “medium format” sensors for pristine picture high quality. 

Xiaomi understands this, equipping its 14 Extremely with a 1-inch sort sensor. It is bigger than the sensors discovered on nearly any telephone, which permits the 14 Extremely to take beautiful pictures in quite a lot of situations — together with Taylor Swift concert events. I am eager to see Apple at the least match Xiaomi’s telephone right here with an analogous 1-inch sort sensor. Although if we’re speaking pie-in-the-sky needs, possibly the iPhone 17 could possibly be the primary smartphone with a full-frame picture sensor. I will not maintain my breath on that one — the telephone, and the lenses, would have to be immense to accommodate it, so it’d seemingly be extra environment friendly simply to allow you to make calls together with your mirrorless digicam. 

Variable aperture

Talking of the Xiaomi 14 Extremely, one of many different causes that telephone rocks so laborious for pictures is its variable aperture on the principle digicam. Its widest aperture is f/1.6 — considerably wider than the f/1.78 of the iPhone 16 Professional.That wider aperture permits numerous mild in dim situations and extra authentically achieves out-of-focus bokeh round a topic. 

However Xiaomi’s aperture also can shut right down to f/4, and with that narrower aperture, it is in a position to create starbursts round factors of sunshine. I really like reaching this impact in nighttime imagery with the telephone. It makes the ensuing pictures look way more like they have been taken with knowledgeable digicam and lens, whereas the identical factors of sunshine on the iPhone simply appear to be roundish blobs. 

Extra Photographic Types

Although Apple has had varied kinds and results built-in into the iPhone’s cameras, the iPhone 16 vary took it additional, with extra management over the results and extra firming choices. It is sufficient that CNET Senior Editor Lisa Eadicicco even declared the brand new Photographic Types her “favourite new function on Apple’s newest telephone.”

I feel they’re nice, too. Or fairly, they’re an excellent begin. The totally different colour tones, like those you get with the Amber and Gold kinds, add some beautiful heat to scenes, and the Quiet impact provides a classic filmic fade, however there’s nonetheless not a complete lot to select from. I would like to see Apple introduce extra Photographic Types with totally different colour firming choices, and even with tones that mimic classic movie shares from Kodak or Fujifilm. 

And positive, there are many third-party apps like VSCO or Snapseed that allow you to mess around with colour filters all you need. However utilizing Apple’s kinds means you possibly can take your pictures with the look already utilized, after which change it afterward in the event you do not prefer it — nothing is hard-baked into your picture. 

Higher ProRaw integration with Photographic Types

I do assume Apple has barely missed a possibility with its Photographic Types, although, in that you should use them solely when taking pictures in HEIF (high-efficiency picture format). Sadly, you possibly can’t use them when capturing in ProRaw. I really like Apple’s use of ProRaw on earlier iPhones, because it takes benefit of the entire iPhone’s computational pictures — together with issues like HDR picture mixing — however nonetheless outputs a DNG uncooked file for simpler enhancing. 

The DNG file usually additionally provides extra latitude to brighten darkish areas or tone down highlights in a picture, making it extraordinarily versatile. Beforehand, Apple’s colour presets could possibly be used when capturing in ProRaw, and I liked it. I ceaselessly shot street-style pictures utilizing the excessive distinction black-and-white mode after which edited the uncooked file additional. 

Now utilizing that very same black-and-white look means solely capturing pictures in HEIF format, eliminating the advantages of utilizing Apple’s ProRaw. Oddly, whereas the older-style “Filters” are not accessible within the digicam app when taking a uncooked picture, you possibly can nonetheless apply these filters to uncooked pictures within the iPhone’s gallery app by way of the enhancing menu.

LUTs for ProRes video

And whereas we’re on the subject of colour presets and filters, Apple must carry these to video, too. On the iPhone 15 Professional, Apple launched the power to shoot video in ProRes, which leads to very low-contrast, nearly gray-looking footage. The thought is that video editors will take this uncooked footage after which apply their edits on prime, typically making use of distinction and colour presets often known as LUTs (look-up tables) that provides footage a specific look — assume darkish and blue for horror movies or heat and lightweight tones for a romantic drama vibe. 

However Apple does not provide any form of LUT for enhancing ProRes video on the iPhone, past merely ramping up the distinction, which does not actually do the job correctly. Positive, the purpose of ProRes is that you’d take that footage off the iPhone, put it into software program like Davinci Resolve, after which correctly colour grade the footage so it appears to be like smooth {and professional}. 

However that also leaves the recordsdata in your telephone, and I would love to have the ability to do extra with them. My gallery is plagued by ungraded video recordsdata that I will do little or no with as a result of they want colour grading externally. I would like to share them to Instagram, or with my household over WhatsApp, after reworking these recordsdata from drab and grey to superbly colourful.

With the iPhone 17, and even with the iPhone 16 as a software program replace, I wish to see Apple creating a variety of its personal LUTs that may be instantly utilized to ProRes video recordsdata on the iPhone. 

If Apple have been in a position to implement all these modifications — excluding, maybe, the full-frame sensor which even I can admit is a contact formidable — it could have an absolute beast of a digicam on its palms.