{"id":449880,"date":"2025-09-25T07:41:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449880\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T07:41:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:41:54","slug":"apple-iphone-17-pro-max-review-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449880\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max review: Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

New telephoto on the back, square selfie sensor (kind of)<\/p>\n

Major camera hardware upgrades from one generation to the next have almost become unthinkable lately, but what we’re seeing on the iPhone 17 Pro Max (and the small Pro) can just about qualify. A new telephoto makes all rear cameras equal in resolution while dialing back the reach a bit makes for better mid-range performance. And an entirely new selfie camera on the front is done in a way that we haven’t seen before.<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

The new telephoto employs a 48 MP 1\/2.55″ sensor, the same nominal resolution and size as the one on the ultrawide camera. It’s paired with a tetraprism lens with a 100mm equivalent focal length and an f\/2.8 aperture. Apple prefers to stabilize the sensor instead of the lens, and you’re getting sensor-shift stabilization here – like on the previous-gen telephoto and some five previous generations of main cameras.<\/p>\n

So in summary, the new telephoto gives you a larger and higher-res sensor than the previous one (12 MP, 1\/3.06″) but sacrifices a little bit of zoom reach – it’s 4x optical zoom on the 17 Pro Max vs. the 5x on the 16 Pro Max. However, that 48 MP new sensor might have potential to be significantly better than the old one beyond their optical zoom levels – Apple is confident enough in its capabilities to offer an 8x shortcut in the viewfinder. We’ll see about that.<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

The ultrawide camera is the same as last year, and so too is the main unit. Both use 48 MP sensors, and the one on the main camera is pretty big, with a 1\/1.28″ optical format. The main camera is also sensor-shift-stabilized.<\/p>\n

All three rear cameras now offer 24 MP shooting capability – up until now it was only on the main camera. All three can also shoot in 48 MP too.<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

Apple’s new 18MP selfie camera is a star attraction that makes a debut across the entire lineup (as is more or less the norm with iPhone selfie cameras). It is an interesting concept for at least a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the octagonal shape of the sensor.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s not really a square, like you would expect from watching the product keynote, but the corners have been shaved off. We aren’t sure exactly why, but it does make sense from a practical standpoint since regardless of the selfie photo orientation, the corners are never getting used. All the while, this might be saving some valuable wafer space in production – enough to warrant what has to be an entirely custom and more difficult to produce imager.<\/p>\n

And that’s the other thing, the new sensor is what we would call “multi-aspect”. It is meant to capture selfies in around 18MP resolution in a 4:3 aspect ratio in either portrait or landscape orientation – with the same diagonal field of view. Those shots come out at 4,892×3,672px, but if you want a 1:1 image, you’d get a center crop from the sensor, at 13.5MP.<\/p>\n

\"iPhoneWekiHome on YouTube)”>
\niPhone 17 series selfie camera sensor (image courtesy of WekiHome on YouTube<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is, unless you have the resolution set in the phone (as opposed to the camera app) settings at 12 MP, in which case you’d be looking at 12MP 4:3 shots and 9 MP in 1:1 aspect – that’s rather maniacal and you don’t get a resolution indicator in the selfie viewfinder like you do for the rear cameras.<\/p>\n

Anyways, the selfie camera has PDAF. It uses a 20mm f\/1.9 lens with OIS.<\/p>\n