Key iPhone 15 Pro Max photography feature gets independent corroboration says tipster

A Twitter tipster with the account name of @URedditor claims to be a researcher whose "discoveries" have been cited by 9to5Mac and MacRumors. His latest leak, posted on Twitter (via MacRumors) is what he calls "independent confirmation" that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the first and only iPhone model to date equipped with a periscope lens. Such a lens is folded inside the body of a smartphone and uses prisms to bend the light from the lens to the image sensor.

This allows a phone's telephoto camera to deliver optical zoom capabilities that normally could not be possible due to the size of the average smartphone. In the case of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the periscope lens will give users 5x to 6x optical zoom. That compares to the 3x optical zoom available without a periscope lens on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Last month, a similar rumor was making the rounds with TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo calling for the iPhone 15 Pro Max to feature 5x optical zoom thanks to a periscope lens. This is a position taken by the highly-respected analyst since July 2022. Last month, a source with a track record not nearly as accurate as Kuo, DigiTimes, said that Apple was looking at two potential suppliers for the periscope lens. Citing industry sources, DigiTimes' paywalled report said that Largan Precision and Genius Electronic Optical (GSEO) are both potential periscope lens suppliers to Apple.

The technology was first introduced to the world by Oppo in 2017 and debuted inside 2019's Huawei P30 Pro allowing the phone to deliver 5x optical zoom. However, some claim that the technology was actually used by a 3G flip phone back in 2004, the Sharp 902. The latter offered 2x optical zoom with only one camera and had the tell-tale squarish camera lens which even today is the sign that a periscope lens is being deployed.

Regardless of which phone used the technology first, it has become a mainstay of premium Android phones and a periscope lens can be found on such devices as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Google Pixel 7 Pro, the Huawei P60 Pro, and others. And now it appears that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will become the first (and only) iPhone model to include a periscope lens.