Apple's iPhone 17 Pro camera could offer support for optical zoom up to 3.5x with the upgraded 48-megapixel telephoto camera.
A leaked render of the purported iPhone 17 Pro, which is expected to debut later this year
Photo Credit: FrontPageTech/ @asherdipps
Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are reportedly expected to arrive later this year with an upgraded 48-megapixel telephoto camera, and details of the camera's capabilities have now surfaced online. While previous reports had suggested that the iPhone 17 Pro models would be the first to feature a high-resolution telephoto camera, a tipster claims that Apple is also planning to introduce a new lens that delivers additional improvements over last year's iPhone 16 Pro models.
According to a post by tipster 'Majin Bu', the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will be equipped with a 48-megapixel telephoto camera that has a 35-mm equivalent of a 85mm lens. Its predecessors, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, arrived last year with a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with a 120mm lens. The tradeoff is expected to enable support for better portrait images on the upcoming handsets.
As a result, the iPhone 17 Pro models are said to offer up to 3.5x optical zoom, which is lower than the 5x optical zoom on Apple's current flagship models. However, the 48-megapixel telephoto camera will also allow users to access up to 7x "lossless" digital zoom, using the same in-sensor crop zoom used by the primary camera on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.
Improved portrait images aren't the only benefit expected from the new telephoto camera on the iPhone 17 Pro models. It is expected to offer support for better low-light shots, as the camera will be able to capture more light.
Photographers should be able to crop images captured using the 48-megapixel telephoto camera without losing a lot of detail, when compared with the lower resolution 12-megapixel telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro models.
It's worth taking these claims with a grain of salt as we aren't likely to hear any confirmation from Apple on upgraded camera specifications until the iPhone 17 series is launched later this year. Based on previous launch schedules, we can expect the company to unveil its iPhone 17 lineup in September.
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