Apple Launches iPhone 18 Pro With Variable-Aperture Camera System (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0185565004
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/09/09/1837238/apple-launches-iphone-18-pro-with-variable-aperture-camera-system
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-launches-iphone-18-pro-with-upgraded-camera/
> The new Pro series camera features a 48-megapixel camera with variable aperture, made with six thin blades. This system will likely improve low-light photography quality and speed. There are also new pro controls in the camera software, including white balance, shutter speed, aperture and histogram. There are also new photographic styles with texture and grain controls. [...]
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> The new camera can record 4K videos in Dolby HDR Vision, and also apply cinematic effects after shooting the footage. The new Pro devices also have a smaller dynamic range island on the front of the device, which now allows you to track three live activities instead of two.
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> Both phones are powered by Apple's latest A20 Pro silicon and feature a newly designed vapor chamber for improved cooling. The company has also improved the battery with a better design. Apple also said the iPhone 18 Pro supports video playback of 36 hours, and the 18 Pro Max has 45 hours of playback capacity.
[2]Apple Unveils the iPhone Duo, Its First Foldable iPhone
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-launches-iphone-18-pro-with-upgraded-camera/
[2] https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/09/09/1821247/apple-unveils-the-iphone-duo-its-first-foldable-iphone
Am I missing something? (Score:2)
> ... camera with variable aperture, made with six thin blades. This system will likely improve low-light photography quality and speed.
I wouldn't expect this to improve low-light photography specifically over what would be available from the same sensor without a mechanical aperture. In low-light conditions you likely need the aperture to be wide open anyway.
I WOULD expect much better control over depth-of-field in brighter lighting though. If closing down the aperture still allows sufficient light levels at the image sensor, then more of what's in the field of view can also be more sharply focused.
A continuously variable aperture on a ph
Re:Am I missing something? (Score:4, Informative)
The chip is larger so it collects more light and thus improves low-light photography, but this would make bright-light photography worse (by reducing depth of field). The aperture fixes this for bright light, thus allowing the better low-light performance.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually probably not the chip is larger, but the lens is larger. The aperture allows it to be less blurry in bright light.
A bit expensive (Score:2)
$1199 for the iphone 18 Pro. After the initial flurry of people who will just buy anything new from Apple, I'll be curious to see how these sell at that price point. I'm guessing the plain Jane iPhone 18 will come later on.
No Qualcomm modem? Ew. (Score:1)
For years my kids iPhone got great signal and my Android got crappy signal. I got tired of it eventually and looked into it and found it because the iPhones had a Qualcomm modem and it works a hell of a lot better than the shitty modem in my mediatek Android. Purchasing a later model Qualcomm device solve that.
Looking online you can find plenty of people bitching about Apple C2 modems.
Don't get me wrong the Qualcomm modem has its own issues specifically it guzzles battery so you need a phone with a
Re: (Score:2)
> Looking online you can find plenty of people bitching about Apple C2 modems.
Who is going to bitch about a C2 modem when Apple has never shipped one? Weird claim to make.
Dude it's a new product (Score:2)
And what I read online is that the newer iPhone 18s are going to have the C2 modem. That's why I'm bitching about it.
I guess technically you're right the older Apple modems are what I'm comparing to but they are kind of crap just like the Google modems are kind of crap. Apple is prioritizing a short-term profit gain by using their own chips over a much better known and more reliable technology.
Maybe you're right and Apple has fixed the connectivity issues but I don't think so because Qualcomm seems
Sounds risky. (Score:2)
Adding a mechanical aperture feature to a phone... I thought Apple was all about the subtraction of failure points?
As a person who does photography.. (Score:1)
Having the ability to control aperture is pretty cool, but since the sensor size is super small, I guess it doesn't really matter for photographs. Even at f2.8, the background is still going to be pretty sharp. However it is pretty important for taking videos, and making sure you get proper motion blur for 24fps, 30fps, or 60fps footage.
Re: (Score:2)
[1]Depth-of-field [seekingalpha.com]. Sometimes it's not all about sharp.
This reminds me: Have they ever fixed the phone camera landscape mode problem yet? Hint: Use it.
[1] https://static.seekingalpha.com/cdn/s3/uploads/getty_images/1947466873/image_1947466873.jpg
Re: (Score:3)
That's the OP's point. Small sensors create very large depths of field which make aperture control somewhat meaningless. As it stands the phones often currently fake a narrower depth of field. Also the iPhone 18's sensor is smaller than those of Chinese flagship cameras which would benefit from this more.
Re: (Score:2)
> Small sensors create very large depths of field
Not really. Depth of field depends on f-stop, not aperture or sensor size. Field of view is affected by these other factors, as is magnification.
Re: (Score:2)
It depends on focal length as well as f-stop (shorter focal length gives more depth of field at the same f-stop). Smaller sensors need shorter focal lengths for the same field of view, so a "50mm equivalent field of view" f/2.8 lens for a smaller sensor will have more depth of field than a "50mm equivalent field of view" f/2.8 lens for a larger sensor.