A familiar primary camera with an upgraded ultrawide
No, we did not accidentally copy the section’s headline from the iPhone 16 review. For a second year in a row Apple has given some love and attention to the ultrawide camera, but not to the main camera.
In keeping with tradition, Apple is really tight-lipped about the camera hardware it uses. As far as we have managed to gather, the main camera on the iPhone 17 is based on the same Sony IMX904 sensor as the main camera on the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 15 before that. It is a 1/1.56″ 48 MP sensor and 1.0µm individual pixels. The sensor sits behind a f/1.6, 26mm lens, just like before. You also get Apple’s sensor-shift OIS and dual pixel PDAF. It’s a potent camera, but far from the most impressive out there.
The iPhone 17 gets a new ultrawide camera, replacing the 12 MP units of its predecessor with a 48 MP one. As far as we can tell, this is the same ultrawide module as on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models, as well as the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. We aren’t exactly sure of the sensor model (our best guess is a Sony IMX972), but it has a 1/2.55″ size and 0.7µm pixels. It sits behind a 13mm, f/2.2 lens and features PDAF, allowing it to double as a macro shooter.
- Wide (main): 48MP Sony IMX904 (1/1.56″, 1.0µm), f/1.6, 26mm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS; 4K@60fps
- Ultrawide: 48MP Sony IMX972 (1/2.55″, 0.7µm), f/2.2, 13mm, 120-degree, PDAF; 4K@60fps
- Front camera: 18MP Sony IMX914 (1.0µm), f/1.9, 20mm, PDAF, OIS; 4K@60fps
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 with a unique octagonal shape sensor.
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iPhone 17 series selfie camera sensor (image courtesy of WekiHome on YouTube)
Yes, it’s not really a square, like you would expect from watching the product keynote, as the corners have been shaved off. We aren’t sure exactly why, but the missing corners mean photos taken in 1:1 aspect ratio are of actually lower resolution than both 4:3 and 3:4 ones.
The new sensor is what we would call “multi-aspect”. It is designed to capture selfies in approximately 18MP resolution, with a 4:3 aspect ratio, in either portrait or landscape orientation, maintaining the same diagonal field of view. Meaning you get to have full-res horizontal selfies when holding the phone vertically. 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.
That is, unless you have the resolution set in the phone (as opposed to the camera app) settings at 12MP, in which case you’d be looking at 12MP 4:3 shots and 9MP 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.
Anyways, the selfie camera has PDAF. It uses a 20mm f/1.9 lens with OIS.
iOS 26 simplifies the camera interface by bringing Photo and Video modes to the forefront, with other modes accessed by swiping left or right. Users swipe up to reveal capture options, such as flash and exposure. Controls such as exposure, depth, zoom, and camera switching are managed via a dedicated Camera Control strip at the bottom, while resolution and frame rate settings are found in a new menu at the top of the screen.
The Camera Control dedicated capacitive touch area/button is present on the iPhone 17. In iOS 26, the “Camera Control” feature has been simplified to be more intuitive, allowing users to customize which camera settings appear in the control overlay by double-clicking the control button and accessing “Customize” within the Camera Control settings. You can now choose your most frequently used options, such as exposure, depth, zoom, or camera switching, making the control button less overwhelming and more efficient.
In keeping with tradition, unfortunately, Apple’s camera settings remain incredibly convoluted and unorganized. With the new camera UI redesign, you can at least quickly access a subset of the camera resolution controls, but not entirely (no 12 MP/24 MP switching) and only after you enable a toggle in the camera setting menu, within the main phone settings menu. Most advanced options are still hidden away and utterly disorganized within said settings menu.
Daylight photo quality
Main camera
The iPhone 17 captures stills with its main camera in 24 MP resolution by default. You can embark on a quest around the settings menu and switch to 12MP, if you so desire, but we really think that the 24 MP photos are a “sweet spot” for quality and size.
These main camera stills offer very good quality overall. Detail is plentiful. The phone does go overboard with sharpening from time to time, but it is only really noticeable when pixel-peeping; otherwise, it looks very natural and is done maturely. The colors are spot on, and the contrast is pretty good.
Apple iPhone 17: 24MP main camera samples
The only real deficiency we can complain about is the dynamic range. It is not as wide as we would have liked it to be, with both crushed shadows and clipped highlights.
You can choose to capture in the full 48 MP resolution of the main camera and your photos will get a bit of extra fine detail. You will have to deal with larger file sizes and slightly slower capture times, though, so we’d only use that for scenes where fine detail is absolutely critical.
Apple iPhone 17: 48MP main camera samples
Apple has really perfected the portait mode over the years. The dynamic range limitations are still largely present, but aside from that, portraits from the iPhone 17 look great. Subject detection and separation are practically perfect, and the quality of the background blur is also excellent.
Apple iPhone 17: 24MP main camera portrait samples
The vanilla iPhone 17 lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, like its Pro siblings, but it can still capture some great-looking 2x shots by digitally zooming from its main camera. Apple likes to call these “optical”, but in reality, they are merely 12 MP crops from the center of the sensor.
Apple’s 2x shots have always looked great, and these are no exception. The detail is excellent, and so are the colors. The contrast is good, and the only real gripe we have, once again, is with the rather limited dynamic range.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples
Ultrawide camera
While the resolution increase is significant shots from the new 48 MP ultrawide camera don’t really looks miles better than those from the the old 12 MP one. In regular use, both seem to struggle with fine detail as well as dynamic range. At least the colors are good.
Apple iPhone 17: 24MP ultrawide camera samples
Just like the main camera, the new ultrawide shoots in 24 MP by default. Enabling 48 MP mode on the ultrawide makes a much bigger quality difference than on the main camera. The fine detail is noticeably increased.
Apple iPhone 17: 48MP ultrawide camera samples
The ultrawide excels at are macro shots. For some reason, once macro mode is triggered automatically, the shots come out at a resolution of approximately 12 MP. Even so, the detail is excellent, and the colors are equally impressive.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP ultrawide camera macro samples
Selfie camera
The new 18MP selfie camera offers excellent overall quality and is highly dependable. There is plenty of skin texture coming through, and skin tones look nice and natural. Again, the dynamic range could be wider, but that’s a relatively small gripe.
Apple iPhone 17: 18MP selfie camera samples
Apple iPhone 17: 18MP selfie camera samples
We love the flexibility afforded by the two selfie orientations. Additionally, the presence of autofocus and OIS is greatly appreciated.
Low-light camera quality
When light is limited the main camera captures excellent 24 MP stills with top-notch detail and an impressive dynamic range, featuring well-developed shadows and highlights. Light sources are well preserved. There is a little bit of noise on surfaces.
Apple iPhone 17: 24MP main camera low-light samples
The iPhone 17 has an automatic night mode that triggers by itself very consistently and does a great job. While you can’t force night mode outright when the phone doesn’t deem the ambient light low enough, you can increase the intensity of night mode and the capture time by setting night mode to Max.
One interesting detail about using Max Night mode is that photos come out in 12 MP resolution. The detail in these photos is indeed a bit better. Surfaces are a tad cleaner. Still, we are unsure whether the small improvement in quality is worth the significantly extended capture time, which can sometimes be as high as 8 seconds.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP main camera night mode Max samples
The digital 2x zoom mode works quite well in low light. The noise is a bit more noticeable, but other than that, the detail is great, and so are the colors and dynamic range.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP main camera zoom 2x low-light samples
Using night mode Max cleans up noise quite nicely. A bit more sharpening is applied here, but it’s not too heavy-handed.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP main camera zoom 2x night mode Max samples
The ultrawide camera struggles somewhat in low light. Photos from it are not particularly detailed and have a lot of noise.
Apple iPhone 17: 24MP ultrawide camera low-light samples
If you really want to use the ultrawide in low light, we definitely recommend using night mode Max. You will definitely have to sit and wait for a while for photos to capture and process. However, you get much better and cleaner shots.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP ultrawide camera night mode Max samples
The new 18MP selfie camera does quite well in low-light conditions. It also captures photos in 12 MP in these conditions. The detail is good, though not exactly perfect when it comes to skin texture. Colors are great though, and noise is well contained.
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP selfie camera low-light samples
Apple iPhone 17: 12MP selfie camera low-light samples
Video capture quality
The iPhone 16 can record 2160p video at 60 fps across all of its cameras. This includes the selfie. Stabilization is also included in all modes. It is always on and can not be turned off. If you want to capture 4K@60fps videos, you must do so in the “high-efficiency” HEVC/H.265 format, which is not supported everywhere for playback. Otherwise, videos are captured in a standard AVC/H. 264 video stream at around 45 Mbps. There are two audio tracks recorded – stereo AAC and four-channel APAC. All of this is stored inside a MOV container.
The main camera produces excellent 4K video with minimal flaws. Detail and sharpness are impressive, while dynamic range is wide and well-balanced with pleasing contrast. Colors are rendered with high accuracy as well. Overall, the iPhone 17 fully upholds Apple’s reputation for top-tier video recording.
At 2x zoom, videos are largely the same quality-wise, just a bit softer and noisier, but not by much. 4K video from the ultrawide camera is quite enjoyable. It offers solid detail with crisp, sharp imagery, while dynamic range is impressively wide. Colors lean a bit more vibrant compared to the main camera, which comes as a pleasant surprise.
The main camera captures truly great low-light videos. The detail is excellent in both shadows and highlights. Light sources are handled masterfully. At 2x zoom, videos are still great and just a bit softer, as expected. Ultrawide videos are decent. In fact, even better than the low-light photos, in our opinion.
Stabilization works great across all cameras. We have no complaints.
You can check out the playlist below, which includes a multitude of video samples across different modes.