[Extra Quality] Solid Edge V20 Crack Mega Full
Osman Blunt
As iPhones become better and better over the years, small steps eventually bring tip-over points, when technology starts to enable things that we couldn't imagine years before. These developments enable not mere steps, but leaps forward: the iPhone X's all-screen form factor and Face ID; iPhone 7's Portrait mode; last year's Dynamic Island and 48 megapixel main camera.
I have to get this out of the way: I find physical camera design important. It seems superficial, but camera design has been a playground and muse for artists and designers through the history of photography. There's nothing more magical to design than a box that traps light and converts it to creativity.
Few companies appreciate this, but Apple certainly did this year. The new Pro line depart from jewel-like appearance of last year. Gone are the reflective, shiny polished stainless steel rails, replaced with an almost imperceptible brushed finish titanium frame that feels fantastic and grippy thanks to its soft finish. The rounded edges make it comfortable in the hand and contoured to your fingers. It might be an illusion, but even the clearance and contour of the buttons make the entire thing feel more tactile.
I went into the 15 Pro Max expecting a little discomfort with a giant slab of glass and metal in my hand, but to my surprise, it felt manageable. That titanium frame and rounder edges really make a difference. If next year's standard size models offer same telephoto lens, I'm not sure if I'll downsize. It's that comfortable.
Tactile feedback improves camera usability, and there's a reason that dedicated cameras still have physical buttons: it's hard to make tapping glass feel satisfying. This year we gained a button, which we'll dive into later.
Its field of view remains so incredibly wide that if you don't watch yourself, your body can accidentally end up in your frame. This is a solid, sharp lens that's always fun, because there's almost no framing involved.
I noted very clear improvements in its handling of very bright light: while the occasional ghost can glint around the viewfinder, it happens a lot less often. In the dark it does fine, but in daylight, it does great. Shots are incredibly detailed and sharp, and the macro mode is astonishingly close focusing.
One thing that I'd love in a future iPhone: an extra 'lens' in between this hyper-ultra wide and the regular camera, offering me a 16/18mm equivalent field of view. It would help keep subjects framed with a bit less distortion near the edges and fewer accidental finger photos. Hopefully this can be achieved similar to 2 mode, using a higher-resolution sensor that creates a virtual lens.
Apple's touting some serious improvements on this camera as a result of an improved imaging pipeline. While not mentioned explicitly during the event, the iPhone camera now combines a 48 megapixel high-resolution frame with a 12 megapixel frame to create a highly detailed, high-resolution-but-manageable 24 MP shot by default.
This is going to be a huge jump for most users, which have previously shot 12 MP shots (even on iPhone 14 Pro, which always shot 12 MP images unless set to ProRAW 48) and it makes absolutely perfect sense.
Speaking of Night mode: in some modes, the camera app will output lower resolution images where needed. Night mode, for instance, combines pixels for higher light sensitivity on-sensor and only gets you 12 MP, no matter the capture format. I found it a solid tradeoff in my usage.
Unfortunately, I can't personally shoot in 24MP, because it isn't available when shooting ProRAW. Your choices are only 12MP or 48MP. It's a real bummer because 48MP ProRAW files get absolutely massive.
Even if you're fine shooting HEICs, native 24MP capture is sadly not available to third-party apps like Halide. Some apps now take 48MP photos and then downscale to 24MP, for the slowest possible experience with none of the processing benefits. We're here just hoping Apple will roll out genuine 24MP support in an update.
Last year's virtual lens was, more or less, a straightforward crop of the higher resolution sensor. Apple says that these new modes use a special capture pipeline to get more detail out of the sensor.
I have to say, I love this approach. It's a great way to add depth and control to the camera. For most users, it's not more than a stop along their zoom wheel, but for those that care it is a discrete lens. I can't help but escape the feeling that it's still kind of a digital zoom. The quality is certainly there, but there's more freedom in shooting at 24mm and cropping afterwards.
For everyday use, the 2 shines, but there are times where you'll find that it is indeed an extra-crispy, zoomed version of the main camera. Sometimes the depth of field isn't quite as sharp as you'd expect from a dedicated lens. But as a device with only 3 real lenses, the virtual 2 'lens' holds up surprisingly well:
I am not sure if the 15 Pro is any better, but one year later, it's clear that the 48 megapixel sensor has enough resolution headroom to make these kind of virtual lenses work quite well. I was a skeptic in last year's review, and this year I'm a cautious believer.
I will not quit until I have shown you an inordinate amount of comparisons between the main camera and its new, long 5 telephoto counterpart. Not because it's just fun to see how much it zooms, but also to show you how differently you have to look at the world around you.
Previously, you could see a shot that you wanted to capture because it was part of what you were seeing. Now, you have to look for a detail and then capture it. It's a very different way of composing shots, and kind of tricky.
... but the sharpness is easy to warm up to. A purely 'digital' zoom on the right is still retaining impressive detail at 48MP in the dark, but the sharpness of the shot left showcases just how much more reach this lens brings to iPhone.
It is, hands down, the sharpest telephoto lens Apple has ever shipped. "Of course!", you could argue. "Why wouldn't it be? It's 2023 and technology gets better. Why wouldn't it be sharper than the last one?"
It's very fun to play with the first point. Simply open the camera app and move around at telephoto zoom range to see how there is some 'inertia' to the movement. The heavier, slower movement of the viewfinder is a result of keeping that image somewhat stable instead of a trembling mess that is your minuscule (or large) amount of hand shake magnified by ten.
Getting a handheld shot, at night, without a tripod, or really too much effort on my part on a 120mm-equivalent lens is magic. There's no other word for that, because there's such complicated technology involved on a hardware and software level that it makes my head spin.
This is perhaps personal, but I'll go back to what I said about the ultra wide camera: you essentially don't have to think about framing with a field of view that wide. With the old, shorter telephoto lenses on iPhone, I enjoyed the creative challenge. I had to think a lot more: one has to be very intentional with what you frame, and how you capture it.
It seems that a lot of people in the photography world are a bit hung up on the idea of claiming that this phone packs 7 lenses. For what it's worth, if you rewatch the Apple Event, it seems nobody says that exactly. It's phrased as being like having seven lenses.
Is it like having seven lenses? For me, I wouldn't say so. I would not mind seven actual lenses, but I suspect most people would find that cumbersome and borderline insane. For most people, the iPhone 15 Pro feels like it has a bunch of extra lenses. It even managed to make me a pretty happy user of a virtual 2 lens.
Just a quick check here: not many people should really be upgrading their phone every year. iPhones get excellent, long term software update support and can easily last you a few years. I tested the iPhone 15 Pro against my iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 14 Pro, and for each you've got a pretty nice set of upgrades:
The Action button is an interesting addition with some clear photography applications. Apple showcases opening the Camera app to snap a photo in its keynote, and I was excited about a potential new physical control for the camera. This could have a huge impact on the usability of the iPhone as a proper photo-taking device.
In the Camera app, the Action button also takes a photo. This is great, as a dedicated shutter button is wonderful to have, but it doesn't do more than the volume buttons. There's no half-press for focus before the shot and you cannot hold the button down for a burst of shots.
I ended up really missing the regular old ringer switch behavior (this was not helped with iOS 17 having wonderful, non-disruptive new ringtones and sounds). As a result, I kept it on the default 'Silent Mode' setting for a while, until I discovered thanks to Steven Robles that the button can also show a list of options through the use of a Shortcut.
I still think there's a lot more potential for a dedicated button on an iPhone. Shortcuts unlock a lot of potential: some people have orientation-sensitive triggers, so your Action button can do different things depending on which way you hold your phone. There's some limited ways you can add a single- and double-click functionality.
In Halide, we decided to really try to push it to its limit: with the use of Shortcuts, we can actually use the button for in-app triggers. Our latest update, which is out today, has an entire Action button menu:
From there, we guide users to either set up our special 'In App Trigger' shortcut, which opens Halide and enables you to use the Action button while in the app to switch lenses, modes or more, or to set up the Action button the old fashioned way: with a single action or a custom menu as shown above.
We hope this update and further iterations on the Action button from Apple will start to bring that kind of flexibility and power to this newest tiny hardware addition. I'm excited that it's only going to get better from here.
b1e95dc632