The iPhone's got a camera problem: the one change that needs to happen soon
I've got 99 problems, and the iPhone zoom camera is one.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
It's summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere and this means it's time to travel, visit new places and take lots and lots of photos and videos.
And after spending the weekend in the mountains and doing just the above, I realized one thing: the iPhone that I took with me has one big camera problem.
1X thing I love, 5X things I hate
Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoy using the iPhone camera app. The interface is well-thought out, you almost don't notice the switch between the cameras, and most operations can be done with just one hand. The option to tap on the camera presets to quickly switch between focal lenses (tap on the main lens to switch between 24mm, 28mm and 35mm) is absolutely great, and it was no surprise that many phone makers copied it so quickly.
The user-friendliness of the iPhone camera app will improve even further with iOS 26, but in my humble opinion, Apple is much closer to the perfect interface than any other company.
But when it comes to the choice of lenses your expensive Pro iPhones come with... I have some thoughts.
Tetra-prism criticism
Apple introduced the 5X tetra-prism telephoto lens with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and in 2024, it arrived to the smaller iPhone 16 Pro size too.
I get the appeal of a long zoom range. Zoom in on far-away objects, get more detail or shoot birds, whatever makes you happy. And if this was the Galaxy S25 Ultra which has the in-between 3X lens, I would actually welcome a 5X zoom lens.
But it's not. And most people are not bird photographers.
I just couldn't capture half the photos I wanted
Most people take pictures of their friends and family, or some landscapes. On the trails with some friends from work, there were so many opportunities to capture an amazing portrait photo and a 2X or 3X zoom lens would be far more helpful. Instead, I found myself just... not taking a picture at all.
Who wants a face close-up when you are hiking that summit? A 5X zoom lens would be perfect if I wanted to snap a picture for my passport, but not much else.
As you can see above, the 5X zoom lens was most useful for capturing photos of mountain goats, but not much else.
Well, maybe I can at least be happy that Apple didn't go with a 10X zoom lens (cough, Samsung) as that would be even less useful.
iPhone 17 Pro is Apple admitting its mistake
The iPhone 17 Pro camera will look different, but it will zoom different too
This September, all leaks agree that Apple will finally fix its zoom mistake.
The 5X telephoto lens is allegedly being replaced by a new 3.5X zoom lens that holds a lot more promise.
With a new and larger 48MP sensor, the telephoto camera on the iPhone 17 Pro series will be able to do sensor cropping, a feature not currently possible on the 12MP sensor of the 16 Pro family. Cropping the sensor is better than just digital zoom as it uses the full pixel size, and effectively, it means you can expect very good photo quality at 7X zoom. And while there might be a slight drop in detail when you compare photos at 15X zoom and further, I don't think the bird iPhone photographer community will mind it too much.
A 3.5X lens is FAR more versatile for everyday scenarios too. It's no secret that an 85mm lens is the most popular one in portrait photography, and that's exactly what you will get with the 17 Pro series.
There is one more advantage to a 3.5X telephoto camera. A longer zoom lens like 5X requires more sophisticated optics and it's just harder to pair it with a big sensor and a lens with fast aperture. Not so much the case for a 3.5X lens, where you can have a fast aperture, which translates in less noisy snaps and much better low light performance too.
Apple is in a bit of disarray, but this will help
Apple seems a bit confused with its botched AI roll-out these days, and the confusing new iPhone 17 Air with its tiny battery only seems to be adding to that confusion. But switching the telephoto camera on the iPhone 17 Pro to a more versatile one is absolutely the right move, and if there is one thing I'm excited about in Apple's next flagships, it's the company fixing its own mistakes. Even if it ends up callings this old-new lens the... super-prism!
Of course, I'm accepting your bets for the fancy word Apple's crack marketing team will come up with for this totally-never-seen-before-lens in the comments right below.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: