Exploring the iPhone 15’s Camera Capabilities: A Deep Dive into Photography and Videography
Powerful new camera features come to the iPhone
The Apple iPhone 15 introduced some major features and performance upgrades to Apple’s camera system. The sensor received a massive update, as did the processing pipeline and display to allow for faster processing and more vibrant images.
If you’re considering upgrading to the 15 for its camera features, here’s what you can expect.
New 48MP primary camera
The 48MP camera in the iPhone 15 is a substantial upgrade over the 12MP camera that came standard for so many years on previous iPhones. The pixels themselves are smaller — 1-micron vs 1.9 on the iPhone 14 — but this isn’t a problem thanks to the use of pixel binning and more advanced processing.
Pixel binning is a process where the data from multiple sensor pixels is combined to create a large virtual pixel. With this technique, the iPhone 15 can use the full 48MP sensor to create either highly detailed 24MP images, or less noisy 12MP images.
This works because 48MP binned by a factor of four equals 12MP, but with virtual pixels that are twice the size of the ones found in the iPhone 14. Secondly, binning isn’t so important in good light, allowing for finer detail to be captured when enabling the 24MP mode.
In addition, the extra pixels allow the iPhone to emulate a 2x digital zoom by cropping the sensor. In effect, this gives the iPhone 15 zoom options of 0.5x, 1x, and 2x despite having only two cameras.
On top of this, the A16 Bionic now supports Smart HDR5 for improved processing. It’s also possible to adjust colour tone and warmth either manually or via built-in styles to adjust how we want our images to look by default.
Another update is to portrait mode, which is now faster and more capable at separating the subject from the background.
The rest of the cameras are similar to the previous generation ones. The 12MP ultrawide and 12MP selfie camera both capture excellent images, but they’re nowhere near as good as the ones from the main camera.
Dolby Vision support for video
The big upgrade on the video front is support for Dolby Vision HDR capture. Dolby Vision is a premium HDR format (it requires a license) designed to deliver video with more true-to-life dynamic range. While previous iPhones shot in HDR, support for Dolby Vision is good as it offers a more consistent colour and tone that professionals will prefer.
As for the rest, the Cinematic mode still captures at 4K30, there’s an action mode that stabilizes shaky footage, and you can capture slo-mo video at up to 240 FPS at 1080p.
The iPhone 15’s camera is a noticeable upgrade over that of its predecessor and worth upgrading for if you’re on an older iPhone. The Pro cameras take things a step further with support for Prores and ProRaw recording formats, but those features aren’t worth it unless you intend to shoot professionally.
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