It seems my iPhone 13 Pro Max is occasionally using the wrong lens to shoot telephoto (3x). You can see with the incorrect lens that the picture looks like water color. Anyone else experience this?
This one was shot correctly
Here's the photo info, notice Telephoto and 77mm:
Here's where it chose the ultra-wide angle lens.
Here's the info for the second pic, note ultra-wide and 77mm
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15
You can force it to use whichever lens you want with 3rd party camera apps like Manual. The stock camera app’s “feature” does this digital zoom more on the iphone 13 since they went with a more longer focal length telephoto lens (77mm vs 52mm on the iphone 12) and likely had to make it a little slower (f2.8 compared the iphone 12’s f2 telephoto) to fit size constraints. The switch happens when there isn’t enough light at f2.8 and so the iphone instead does digital zoom using the faster wide lens (f1.5).
That's your opinion.
It's actually quite easy to determine both which lens will be used as well as which was used.
There are in fact many commercial photographers who use these phones in their business every day.
Your definition of "pro" is not everyone's, nor is Apple's.
However there is nothing misleading about stating the presence of the three lenses and the fact they are used when conditions warrant.
Can you show me with some screenshots how you can determine before you take the photo which lens it is using? I can't seem to figure this out. When I click 3x, until after I look at EXIF, I can't tell whether it used the wide lens or the 3x lens.
And of course, everything is each person's opinion :)
Got it. Thanks for the tip. I'll try to use this when I can. I was hoping for something on the screen for the quick "grab and shoot" scenarios to not miss something quick. I find that even between two identical shots it can change lenses if my hand moves even a bit. Even the pic I posted above was shot at ISO50 and 1/4115th where chance of shake is close to zero and it was very bright, but it chose the wide lens. Maybe some algorithm improvement will be made over time.
Anyone have recommended third party app that can select lens and be more deterministic?
But this is a different matter than being able to keep it from switching to wide lens and digitally zooming to achieve the same effective focal length just because it wants to use the f1.5 aperture of the wide lens. If I select the 3x camera, I put the control of holding the camera steady enough in my own hands and it should allow me to do so, not change to the 1.5 and higher shutter speed because it didn't think I could get the shot. There is where the problem is. I consider this a faulty piece of equipment if the lens selection does not work.
I've been asking for that or an annunciator denoting whether the zoom is optical or digital for years now without success.
Not great options, but, I've noticed that if you hold the phone very very steady, it tends to use the actual 3x lens, or prop it on something to reduce shaking. Portrait mode seems to pick the 3x optical more often than not. Need to try some third party app also as have heard that will allow to pick the actual lens.
I've submitted a feature request to be able to turn off "digital zoom."
If more people request, maybe they will eventually add it in.
https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/
iPhone 13 Pro Max Camera Overriding My Choice of Telephoto Lens?
