Admittedly, Apple has come a long way with regard to theiPhone’scameras. They’ve gone from being better than most rivals to genuinely practical for some professional work. For example, the movie Tangerine was shot on the iPhone 5S, and The Weeknd’s “Dancing in the Flames” music video was shot on theiPhone 16 Pro. You may need to jump through a few hurdles and rent some rigs and lighting gear, but it can be done.
However, there are still a few upgrades I’m waiting on before I consideriPhones worth treating like pro cameras. Some of them may never come – cost and a pocketable size being major restrictions – but the ones below should be halfway feasible, and could even make their way into theiPhone 17.
Is the iPhone 16 Pro worth buying for photographers and videographers?
Calling something Pro doesn’t always make it professional.
1Larger camera sensors
…with the same megapixel count
All photography (and by extension, videography) is about focusing light onto a recording surface, and in the case of digital photos, that’s an image sensor. The size of that sensor matters – aside from determining resolution, the size of individual pixels affects output quality, particularly when it comes to low-light shooting. Smaller pixels translate into more noise at higher ISO sensitivities, which is why some pro cameras can get usable images in near darkness, whereas the average smartphone has to resort to extra image processing for many low-light scenarios.
To match what pros are used to, Apple’s going to have to push sensor/pixel sizes as far as possible.
To its credit, Apple has made a lot of smart decisions on sensor tech, often concentrating on quality over raw megapixel counts (looking at you,Samsung). But to match what pros are used to, it’s going to have to push sensor/pixel sizes as far as possible.
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2Less lens flare in videos
Fix the J.J. Abrams effect, please
Something iPhones have been infamous for in the past few years is their tendency to record numerous “dots” of lens flare from some light sources. Flare is sometimes inevitable, even on the best cameras, but with iPhones, it’s happening more often than it should—including the iPhone 16 Pro. Something about the lens configuration Apple uses seems to exacerbate the problem.
There are tricks pros can use to minimize flare, such as changing the angles of light sources, but Apple needs to stamp out this issue if it wants to cater to professionals. The mark of a pro tool is something that’s versatile in many situations, and as things are, there are some artificial light scenarios where an iPhone is distractingly bad.
Are you planning to buy an iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10 or AirPods 4?
Now that Apple’s iPhone 16 is here, are you planning to buy one? While both devices offer minor upgrades over the iPhone 15 line, including the new Camera Control button, a revamped camera bump design with the iPhone 16, and the more powerful A18 chip, only those coming from an iPhone 12/iPhone 13 will really notice a dramatic change. The Apple Watch Series 10, with its more expansive screen, and the AirPods 4, with noise cancellation, are also now available, two new devices that offer decent upgrades, depending on your expectations. With all of this in mind, have you already bought one of these new Apple devices, or are you buying one soon? Let us know in the comments below.
3A better telephoto camera
Fill the frame
The telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro is respectable – offering the equivalent of a 120mm, optically-stabilized DSLR lens – but it’s still not something you’d want to use for most pro work. For one thing, its resolution is capped at 12-megapixels, which doesn’t offer much flexibility for cropping, let alone producing something large and sharp enough for a magazine spread. Apple needs to match the 48-megapixels on its wide and ultra-wide cameras.
…there are plenty of scenarios where a pro might want to capture long-range action in slow motion, such as sports and adventure.
120mm is also a little short for some purposes. When I was shooting weddings, I preferred an 80-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens, and even that wasn’t always enough if I was positioned at the back of a venue. I’m not sure how far Apple can push zoom technology on a phone, but 200mm seems like a reasonable target to aim for. Most people don’t need a 400mm wildlife lens.
Note also that while the iPhone 16 Pro can shoot at 4K/120fps, that’s only on its wide (“Fusion”) camera. Needless to say, there are plenty of scenarios where a pro might want to capture long-range action in slow motion, such as sports and adventure.
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4ProRes video without external storage
Give us freedom from rigs
Don’t worry, I get it – Apple’s ProRes format may offer the best quality and flexibility, but currently, it isn’t practical to shoot to an iPhone’s internal storage. A single minute of 10-bit 4K ProRes consumes 6GB, so even a 1TB iPhone might fill up too quickly without an external drive. The problem is that it means carrying a small brick tethered via USB-C, whether it’s stashed in your pocket or connected to a phone/camera rig. Sometimes you need the flexibility of shooting ProRes on the fly, say if you’re making a documentary but stumble on a scene you weren’t prepared for.
Presumably, the major obstacle here is memory buffering. Indeed it could be impractical to upgrade an iPhone to handle end-to-end 4K ProRes, at least in the short term, but it’s something Apple should have on its radar.
58K video resolution
Room to edit
Most people aren’t actually watching 8K video because8K TVsare ridiculously expensive, and the format consumes a lot of streaming bandwidth. The average person won’t even notice the difference over 4K unless they have a gigantic screen. For pros, however, shooting in 8K offers the option of cropping for 4K without losing quality. You can even create digital “zoom” effects for emphasis.
Apple’s 48-megapixel sensors already have the resolution for 8K, it’s just a question of enabling it. It’s almost guaranteed that the iPhone 17 will offer 8K support, given its presence on competingAndroid phonesfor years.
6Smarter image processing
Brighter doesn’t always mean better
Apple’s image processing pipeline tends to produce photos and videos that are good enough, occasionally delivering miracles. Yet it tends to skew towards making images brighter, sometimes blowing out highlights and minimizing shadows. You should of course be shooting in ProRes or ProRAW for most professional work, enabling extra leeway in editing, but all formats should be generating usable results.
You don’t “win” smartphone photography by capturing the most usable data – you do it by creating visual interest. That means preserving most highlight details while letting some shadows go dark or even completely black. The tone mapping options on the iPhone 16 lineup are a workaround, but seem to be an acknowledgment by Apple that it doesn’t know how to code “visual interest” into AI.
Apple iPhone 16
This year’s iPhone 16 line blurs the line between the “Pro” and the base-level iPhone by offering a new camera button and the Action Button, alongside the A18 chip.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro line features a few notable upgrades over last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, including a dedicated camera button, a new A18 Pro chip, a bigger screen, and several AI-powered Apple Intelligence features.
