Experiment: Apple iPhone 15 Pro's 28mm and 35mm modes are just digital crops

25 September 2023
We test the new 28mm and 35mm crop on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

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Is it even a surprise though. Digital hybrid zoom is the only possible way for modern smartphones of today with two/three/four fixed focal length. This makes me so miss the old Samsung Galaxy K zoom. That phones gives a truly legit physical zoom photo at any focal length up to 10x zoom. I'd be so happy if Samsung can resurrect it by giving it a 1" sensor and S23+/S23 Ultra body instead of focusing on the 200MP nonsense.

    Anonymous, 26 Sep 2023Yes, the G Master are only Full Frame, but changes FOV on a... moreIf you're using a large enough lens, the centre of mass shifts from the camera to the middle of the lens - at that point how large the actual camera body is becomes somewhat irrelevant as you'll be essentially holding a lens with a camera attached to it. Also, while full frame lenses are certainly larger and heavier, they also allow you to use the centre area of the frame which means you'll generally get a sharper image with less vignetting than you do with dedicated APS-C lenses.

    I've seen someone using a6600 with 50mm F1.4 GM and Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8. He told me that he'll likely get a7CII so that he can use a6600 (which has a smaller but more pixel dense sensor) as a sub camera when he needs an extra reach.

    A small APS-C standard zoom lens + A longer FF telephoto zoom lens + A FF prime lens combo on an APS-C body totally works, and makes you more prepared in case you want a FF body in future.

      GAMIR3DH, 25 Sep 2023Apple fans don't care. They will still think they got ... moreWhile some know that it’s not actually 7 cameras, the fact that the quality is like 7 hardware-based cameras will make them buy it

        JaiHind69420, 26 Sep 2023In your alternate reality, yes you are right.‘In your alternate reality, yes you are right.’
        https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-8-gen-2-vs-apple-a16-bionic

          JEFF, 25 Sep 2023no the sd8g2 is more stronger and faster than the a16 bioni... moreIn your alternate reality, yes you are right.

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            • Anonymous
            • 0p}
            • 26 Sep 2023

            Nick Tegrataker, 26 Sep 2023Ironically, the best lenses you can get for Sony's APS... moreYes, the G Master are only Full Frame, but changes FOV on apsc.
            They cost much more.

            Not really worth if ppl really need long range. Those huge 300mm, 400mm or 600mm are too heavy for tiny 6100 body.

              Cropping in a sensor and calling it focal length is legit misleading. The optical focal length has its own characteristics so it cannot be replaced by mere a crop. It that sense, I have "n" number of focal lengths are available to me at zoom-in/out level.

                If Apple says its the Best users and science be damned 😉

                  Anonymous, 25 Sep 2023For apsc, the best are Sony G 18-105 f4, Zeiss 16-70 f4, ... moreIronically, the best lenses you can get for Sony's APS-C body are often found in full frame. If the body has a stabilised sensor (e.g. a6700), a big zoom lens like Tamron's 35-150s f2-2.8 works very well.

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                    • TectonicTiger
                    • utT
                    • 26 Sep 2023

                    dexton, 25 Sep 2023Can every phone start cropped every time photo app starts? ... moreThat's a different setting within the camera app already, just open the camera and go into it's settings and there's an option about remembering last used modes and settings

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                      • BMT
                      • B}X
                      • 26 Sep 2023

                      jerem06, 25 Sep 2023You repeat the Geekbench tests which only measure CPU speed... moreAntutu themselves stated that you should NOT compare scores between iOS and Android.
                      https://www.antutu.com/en/doc/119646.htm
                      while a16 has a better CPU, sd8g2 has a better GPU(not talking about antutu). and each of these has its benefits, but for current use of smartphones, what a16 offers is much better(none of these will lack in daily tasks for years and arguing about which one is better is ridiculous)

                        Anonymous, 25 Sep 2023Dxomark? LOL P50 Pro with much weaker cam hardware comp... moreDxOMarks takes the field of view into account when rating an UWA camera, so one with a narrower angle lens would get a significant deduction in the total score compared to enother with a wider angle lens even if the image quality itself is superior.

                          Of course it is digital crop, since:
                          24mm -> 48MP downsampled to 24MP
                          28mm -> 35.3MP (1.36x crop) downsampled to 24MP
                          35mm -> 22.6MP (2.13x crop) slightly upscaled to 24MP

                          Apple is just cropping at arbitary magnifications from the same 48MP image, so the detail level should be very much comparable between all those 3 "wide angle" modes. While the former 2 should have a slight advantage in the *per-pixel level* detail rendition, since the final output resolution is already so large at 24MP, the difference would never be drastic to begin with.

                            Anonymous, 25 Sep 2023The A16 still has stronger CPU then SD8G2 if I am not mistakenYou repeat the Geekbench tests which only measure CPU speed. Antutu tests the CPU, GPU, RAM/ROM memory, UX, it is more representative

                              What's the problem if the sensor is big and good enough? My Ricoh GR works the same way.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • r3c
                                • 25 Sep 2023

                                Lol.Iphone users couldnt care less about if the pictures were cropped or not . As long as the pictures come out good, they are okay

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                                  • Anonymous
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                                  • 25 Sep 2023

                                  Lccy, 25 Sep 2023Only in lower light situations would that be true, in good ... moreDxomark? LOL

                                  P50 Pro with much weaker cam hardware compared to P40 Pro+ got much higher score. This is beyond ridiculous.

                                  P50 Pro with 1/3" super wide got higher score for it compared to P40 Pro+ that has 1/1.5" super wide.

                                  Size difference is over 200%. Software can never compensate this. Impossible.
                                  And this is same brand.

                                  In 2019, Digital Chat Station posted on weibo how it works.

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                                    • Lccy
                                    • pKE
                                    • 25 Sep 2023

                                    dexton, 25 Sep 2023The Pro phones have a bigger sensor and will inherently giv... moreOnly in lower light situations would that be true, in good light, the smaller sensor on the iPhone 15 with a 26mm equiv lens will produce more detail than the 24mm iPhone 15 pro lens cropped to 28mm. The idea that a larger sensor gives more detail is not necessarily the case, you have less diffraction if you are using a larger sensor with the same f stop and there's less electronic noise, but it doesn't mean your sensor can sample more than a smaller sensor with the same number of pixels. The second possibility is that it's less demanding on the lens as the pixels are larger, but this factor seems to be fairly minor.

                                    I've looked at whether I could get equivalent detail from a 27mm crop (~9mp) of the 24mm lens on the pixel 6/7 compared to the 27mm lens on the pixel 4-6a. Under certain lighting conditions, yes a crop of the sensor would still match or outperform the 6a, but in good light the 6a has more resolution than a crop of the pixel 7.

                                    The Huawei P60 and mate 50 have smaller sensors than most flagships but get number one dxomark. Samsung has decided not to go any bigger with sensor size on the s ultra.

                                    Another downside to a larger sensor is shallower depth of field, it's possible that the camera can focus on the wrong subject.

                                    It is this obsession with sensor size that had led to 23mm focal lengths on the main sensor of many new phones.

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                                      • JEFF
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                                      • 25 Sep 2023

                                      Anonymous, 25 Sep 2023The A16 still has stronger CPU then SD8G2 if I am not mistakenno the sd8g2 is more stronger and faster than the a16 bionic processor

                                        yalim, 25 Sep 2023you can do 1.2x, 1.4x or 1.6x manually in every phone out t... moreCan every phone start cropped every time photo app starts? I don't see this option in my Samsung phone at least. If I exit the photo app at 1.7x and then lock the phone... the photo app will start with 1x next time I launch the camera.

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