The iPhone 15 Pro Max was the first time Apple used a high-magnification 5X zoom camera. Instead of a traditional periscope that would’ve made the module larger and also given a square bokeh, Apple used a tetraprism design for the lens, which gave it a round bokeh like a normal lens. The iPhone 17 Pro is set to upgrade this lens, and improve the zoom performance.
Unfortunately, this came with multiple problems. The more times the lens folds internally, the worse the quality of the photo is. While the iPhone was very good for human portraits at 5X, the rest of the Zoom experience was not on par with the competition. It has a very poor minimum focus distance of over 85cm, so it couldn’t focus on objects easily.
The hardware was also quite poor. At just a 1/3″ sensor size and 12MP resolution, it wasn’t on par with Samsung or Google’s 1/2.55″ 50MP cameras. Another problem with the 5X camera was that Apple completely abandoned the intermediate 2X and 3X zoom ranges, leaving them with digital zoom. Digitally cropping in doesn’t produce good results when compared to a real zoom lens.
For a while now, the main sensors of iPhones have had enough resolution for 8K videos. You need over 33MP, and the 48MP ultrawide of the iPhone 16 Pro models is also capable of it. However, Apple still doesn’t let you capture in 8K since the zoom lens is still stuck at 4K, and it’ll be confusing for users if they can’t switch lenses. The iPhone 17 Pro could be the first iPhone to support 8K video recording for all three lenses.
As per a leak from Majin Bu, Apple might revolutionize the entire telephoto system on the iPhone 17 Pro. It’s going to be a complete revamp. Instead of directly using a 5X camera, the company could use a 3.5X periscope zoom camera. This covers the intermediate range perfectly fine, and also offers strong long-range zoom, provided the size of the sensor is now larger.
The leak mentions an advanced telephoto camera with much better optical zoom. For now, only Sony has continuous optical zoom technology. Apple mostly isn’t adopting this yet, however, they’ll compensate with software and processing. The leak mentions the “versatile” focal length of both the 3.5X and 5X being optical zoom, but this is unlikely. It’s probably cropping into 120mm from 3.5X.
The key upgrade for the zoom sensor of the iPhone 17 Pro is a 48MP resolution. There’s no information on sensor size or aperture values yet. The leak mentions “Sharp details at long distances,” which might imply AI software processing. Apple will probably advertise this as a 7X optical zoom camera, using sensor crop technology. The company already calls cropping into 2X from the 1X sensor a “lossless” 2X optical zoom, and other companies do it for the telephoto as well.
While the leak is exciting, we won’t suggest completely believing it since we don’t have any other sources confirming the same. Majin Bu also has a very mixed track record with Apple leaks, so it’s better to wait for more sources. In case it comes true, Apple won’t be the first company to start prioritizing lower magnifications. Recently, Samsung dropped from a 10X to a 5X optical zoom camera as well.
