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.

Sort by:

Lccy, 25 Sep 2023I wish Apple didn't cripple the standard iPhone with t... moreThe Pro phones have a bigger sensor and will inherently give better image quality, especially in low light situations. Cropping the Pro's 24mm lens (slightly) will likely give same image quality as normal iPhone 15 native 26mm lens.

I would say get a 15 Pro and set it to use 28mm by default. More versatile, less visible distortion than 24mm or 26mm.

I zoom my Samsung S22 beyond 1x zoom in as much as 30-40% cases, shooting mostly in 50MP mode. Up to 1.5x I will always have more details than a 12MP camera on a phone.

Now standard iPhone 15 also has 48MP camera but Pro's have a bigger sensor. So just crop and be happy :)

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • g8$
    • 25 Sep 2023

    Lccy, 25 Sep 2023I wish Apple didn't cripple the standard iPhone with t... moreThe A16 still has stronger CPU then SD8G2 if I am not mistaken

      You call that detail? It's an abomination, water painting effect everywhere.

        • L
        • Lccy
        • pKE
        • 25 Sep 2023

        vrvly, 25 Sep 2023Having Hi res lenses with processing able to get hi res det... moreThe only way you could get the equivalent level is detail as a bayer sensor of equivalent size as the cropped area is through pixel shift multi shot, but that requires a static subject, if there's any movement you lose detail so there is still a strong advantage to get dedicated 2x lens, but it's falling out of favour for longer 5x lenses.

          • L
          • Lccy
          • pKE
          • 25 Sep 2023

          I wish Apple didn't cripple the standard iPhone with the previous years processor as I prefer the longer 26mm (vs24mm) lens on the standard iPhone. Unfortunately every phone on the market now uses a very wide lens as the main camera, the pixel 6a uses a 26.7mm lens but it uses a very old sensor, and the 7a has a 24.7mm equivalent lens.

            • c
            • cgardan
            • 8@Z
            • 25 Sep 2023

            Maybe a sue let apple to think more about this "7 lenses" marketing

              Having Hi res lenses with processing able to get hi res detail at the lvl of normal Bayer, they can simulate few 12mp modes or lossless digital zoom. That is, if you are satisfied with 12mp.
              This also does not change that you not always have hi res raws on every phone with such a great hdr and detail(or like its very rare), or you don't get it on superwide or super tele, which would made it great for macro and bokeh, besides being able to get more details.
              Compared to optical it's way better as you get all in 1 with 1 sensor.

                Apple fans don't care. They will still think they got 7 cameras 🤣

                  • A
                  • Average user
                  • 0xU
                  • 25 Sep 2023

                  Honestly? I don't think anyone should care for this apart from photographers, since for daily use this is quite useless.

                    Are people surprised why the iPhone came out with some problems? Rest assured that Apple will solve all these problems the way Samsung and maybe Xiaomi would, we are technological, not girls in a girls' park.

                      Stereotypical Apple deception-based marketing.

                      From the compare slider, I would even say Photoshop's method does a mildly better job at upscaling than the built-in 28mm mode.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 0p}
                        • 25 Sep 2023

                        www.phonearena.com/news/Lower-standards-for-A17-Pro-could-be-behind-iPhone-15-Pro-thermal-throttling-issues_id150917

                        https://wccftech.com/defective-iphone-15-pro-units/

                        https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/09/24/iphone-15-pro-overheating-due-to-a17-pro-chip/

                          Just lol 😂

                            I can definetly see slightly more detail in the stock photos, but of couse, the more you crop intop the 48mp, the less details it will have, because of the Bayer nature. If the cropes were downscaled to 12mp it would look better.

                            Not enougth details to be groundbreaking, but enough to not call it just a simple digital crop.

                              Anonymous, 25 Sep 2023Still mate 60 series will be far more popular than xiaomi 1... moreand be 3x worse than all of them

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • 0p}
                                • 25 Sep 2023

                                yalim, 25 Sep 2023you can do 1.2x, 1.4x or 1.6x manually in every phone out t... moreBecause apple was claims these were from " different portions " of imx803 instead of just cutting the photo and upscaling back to original resolution like digital zoom does.

                                In the end, same crap other do.

                                  Those few samples look a lot more natural than recent iPhone models. Will wait for the final review but maybe they toned down their over the top processing.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 05e
                                    • 25 Sep 2023

                                    Apple outright lies about what they sell?
                                    That's a first!

                                    Again.

                                      🥱

                                      So this is what apple "news" is about huh

                                        • y
                                        • yalim
                                        • mu4
                                        • 25 Sep 2023

                                        you can do 1.2x, 1.4x or 1.6x manually in every phone out there. all apple did is to add a labeled toggle to the viewfinder.