The super-thin iPhone Air solely has one digital camera on its rear: a 48-megapixel sensor with a 26mm-equivalent f/1.6 lens. It’s the identical as the primary digital camera of the common iPhone 17 (which additionally contains a second 0.5x ultrawide digital camera). The 17 Professional and Professional Max have a similar-but-not-the-same fundamental digital camera, consisting of a 48MP sensor and 24mm-equivalent f/1.78 lens — and it additionally has the ultrawide and provides a 4x telephoto lens.
So these are the telephones and their cameras, however what about Apple’s sophisticated lens math?
Apple confirmed a slide of pattern pictures indicating that the iPhone Air’s one rear sensor and lens can be utilized as 26mm, 28mm, 35mm, and 52mm-equivalent lenses. In keeping with Apple’s technical specifications of the iPhone Air, when you zoom to the 52mm-equivalent focal size (a 2x magnification), you’re right down to 12MP of decision. The 28mm and 35mm “lenses” are possible much like what we first noticed within the iPhone 15 Professional, which works like this:
As for the iPhone 17 Professional, its three precise lenses are billed as equal to eight (up from the claimed seven of final 12 months’s 16 Professional mannequin). If its eight “professional lenses” begin with the 4 of its fundamental digital camera, just like the Air’s, then its 48MP ultrawide and telephoto cameras make up the opposite 4. The Verge reached out to Apple for clarification on this and to enumerate all these “professional lenses” within the iPhone 17 Professional and iPhone Air, however the firm didn’t reply by the point of publication. So right here’s my finest estimation of how Apple received eight lenses from three:
In order that’s how Apple’s lens math works throughout its cameras. Apple reps referred to as these lenses “optical high quality” throughout the firm’s keynote presentation. However are these optical zooms? No, not likely. Like most smartphones, they’re a mixture of mounted focal size optics and intelligent computational pictures. “Optical high quality” is clearly a loose-fitting advertising and marketing time period. However what’s much more unusual and complicated is how Apple’s website lists lenses throughout its iPhone 17 line as “optical zoom choices.”
If you wish to get technical, none of those are optical zooms within the conventional sense. An precise optical zoom is a lens that adjustments focal size optically. Like if you flip a hoop on the barrel of a lens or a toggle on a point-and-shoot and the lens bodily strikes, rendering a special field-of-view on the picture aircraft. I do know on the planet of smartphones, we use “zoom” a bit loosely to imply any telephoto lens or cropping / digital zoom, however being this quick and free in your advertising and marketing phrases feels prefer it’s moving into deceptive territory.
Apple isn’t any stranger to being obscure in its advertising and marketing to make it appear to be you’re getting extra of one thing — simply attempt to learn a few of its charts from previous movies and keynotes. However this lens depend appears like pseudo-math designed to juice up a characteristic record and piss off digital camera nerds on the similar time. Utilizing precise optics for extra focal lengths will all the time be higher than one optic and a few software program, as my colleague Allison Johnson confirmed in her glorious shootout between the Google Pixel 10 Professional and all its AI gimmickry versus a Nikon digital camera with a bonkers optical zoom. (Sure, the Pixel fared properly with correcting warmth haze, however so would the Nikon if you deliver it into put up.)
The iPhone Air is just not actually 4 lenses. However is it like having 4 lenses? 4 “professional” lenses? How about 4 good lenses? We’ll have to seek out out.