Mastering the iPhone 15 Pro digicam: Here’s what Apple’s marketing terms actually mean

Apple put a variety of its deal with the skilled digicam options in the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max throughout this week’s launch occasion.

In truth, Apple dropped so many ideas, terms, and acronyms in such a brief area of time that it may need left your head spinning. 

Also: Everything Apple simply introduced: iPhone 15, Apple Watch Ultra 2, AirPods

Fear not, as now we’ve got time to breathe, we are able to return over these options and clarify their significance.

Let’s begin with the info dump on this one slide:

Focal size is a shorthand for explaining how broad a picture the digicam lens will seize. The smaller the quantity, the wider the seize. 

Technically right here, the lens is not a 24 millimeter lens, however a 24 millimeter-equivalent lens, however we’ll overlook that.

2.44 µm (micron) is the measurement of the pixels capturing the gentle in the sensor, and quad-pixel refers to how 4 pixels are grouped to behave as a bigger 2.44 micron pixel. 

Also: Every iPhone 15 mannequin in contrast: The key variations it is best to know

Each 2×2 grouping of pixels is assigned a single coloration, and 4 of those pixel bundles are then grouped collectively in two inexperienced bundles and one blue and crimson bundle. Green will get extra pixels as a result of the human eye is the most delicate to that coloration.

100% focus pixels means all the pixels are used for the functions of focusing the picture. In the previous, solely a few of the pixels have been used, however utilizing all the pixels is now frequent in high-end sensors.

Aperture refers to how a lot gentle is let onto the sensor by the lens, and is measured in f-stop numbers. The decrease this quantity, the extra gentle the lens permits.

OIS stands for Optical Image Stabilization, which is a method the place the lens or sensor is shifted with a view to compensate for the motion of the digicam whereas the shot is being taken.

Other terms dropped throughout the occasion have been RAW and ProRAW.  

RAW may be considered a digital unfavourable (keep in mind movie negatives?), which is a file format that saves the uncooked knowledge captured by the sensor with out processing it or changing it right into a file, similar to a JPG. RAW recordsdata are greater and include extra element, however require modifying earlier than being printed or posted on social media. 

ProRAW is an Apple file format that makes use of the trade customary digital unfavourable (DNG) file format to permit the file to be edited in high-end modifying instruments, similar to Adobe Lightroom. 

Also: What is ProRes and why does Apple maintain mentioning it?

Another closely used time period was optical zoom, which is a method the place the picture is magnified by the lens itself, versus digital zoom, which merely crops in on the picture, and in consequence loses element.  

There’s additionally HDR, which stands for High Dynamic Range pictures. This is a method that mixes a number of photos right into a single picture to get extra element in the highlights (vivid areas) and shadows (darkish areas). 

Macro pictures is the place you get in near the topic — similar to flowers or bugs — to take close-up pictures.

Also: A17 Pro deep dive: A take a look at Apple’s new iPhone 15 Pro chip

Now, let’s transfer onto video — and the very first thing I want to clarify is ProRes. 

Apple talks loads about ProRes as a result of it is a video codec (brief for encoder/decoder, or typically compressor/decompressor) developed by Apple. ProRes, which dates again to 2007, is particular as a result of, whereas it compresses the video — and this compression will invariably end in the lack of some picture element (that is also known as “lossy”) — this misplaced picture element is just not visually noticeable.

To put that one other manner, ProRes is a visually lossless, lossy video compression format.

The draw back of ProRes is that file sizes are large, but it surely does make modifying a lot simpler and higher.

To mitigate the large storage wants that ProRes places on videographers, the iPhone 15 Pro helps recording to exterior drives — similar to the Samsung T7 SSD — which implies that you are not restricted to the cupboard space you’ve out there on the iPhone. 

Two different bits of jargon sprinkled into the protection of the digicam have been Logencoding and LUTs. 

Log encoding is a profile that data video with a flat, muted coloration profile to seize and preserve extra particulars in highlights and shadows. The iPhone 15 Pro is the first smartphone to assist ACES, the Academy Color Encoding System.

Also: iPhone 15 Pro vs. iPhone 14 Pro: Which mannequin is greatest to purchase?

The draw back is that this format must be edited earlier than use, and considered one of the modifying steps it to use a LUT, or Look Up Table, which is a file that comprises info to remap and rework the flat footage into video that has coloration and distinction, which may then be additional edited to match no matter type is desired.

Editing video that is formatted in Log — and dealing with LUTs — requires skilled instruments, similar to Adobe Premier Pro.

I hope this rundown helps these of you who have been confused by a few of the terminology used, and maybe it is even inspired you to be a bit of extra artistic — or technical — in your pictures or videography.