I received this week the new iPhone 16 Pro Max. Many of my photographer friends are using, at least for personal images after hours and in week-ends their Smart Phone to take images and Videos and are very happy. Some even started to replace their traditional digital cameras, for tasks where 26+ Megapixel resolution are not needed, with their Smart Phones.

I am, known as a traditional photographer that loves even manual focusing, very much in doubt that I would be happy just with a Smart Phone as a daily camera. Well as I also love to leave my comfort zone, I decided to make for 3 month, a self-test of just using the new iPhone 16 Pro Max as my camera.

My new iPhone 16 Pro Max 1 TB natural titanium. (Image made with iPhone 12.)

Let´s start with some facts as the camera specifications of the iPhone 16 Pro Max (copy from the Apple Homepage.)

Camera

  • Pro camera system
  • 48MP Fusion: 24 mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture, second‑generation sensor‑shift optical image stabilization, 100% Focus Pixels, support for super‑high‑resolution photos (24MP and 48MP)
  • Also enables 12MP 2x Telephoto: 48 mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture, second generation sensor‑shift optical image stabilization, 100% Focus Pixels
  • 48MP Ultra Wide: 13 mm, ƒ/2.2 aperture and 120° field of view, Hybrid Focus Pixels, super-high-resolution photos (48MP)
  • 12MP 5x Telephoto: 120 mm, ƒ/2.8 aperture and 20° field of view, 100% Focus Pixels, seven-element lens, 3D sensor-shift optical image stabilization and autofocus, tetraprism design
  • 5x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 10x optical zoom range
  • Digital zoom up to 25x
  • Camera Control
  • Customizable default lens (Fusion)
  • Sapphire crystal lens cover
  • Adaptive True Tone flash
  • Photonic Engine
  • Deep Fusion
  • Smart HDR 5
  • Next-generation portraits with Focus and Depth Control
  • Portrait Lighting with six effects
  • Night mode
  • Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner
  • Panorama (up to 63MP)
  • Latest-generation Photographic Styles
  • Spatial photos
  • 48MP macro photography
  • Apple ProRAW
  • Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
  • Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
  • Advanced red-eye correction
  • Auto image stabilization
  • Burst mode
  • Photo geotagging
  • Image formats captured: HEIF, JPEG, and DNG

Video Recording

  • 4K Dolby Vision video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, 60 fps, 100 fps (Fusion), or 120 fps (Fusion)
  • 1080p Dolby Vision video recording at 25 fps, 30 fps, 60 fps, or 120 fps (Fusion)
  • 720p Dolby Vision video recording at 30 fps
  • Cinematic mode up to 4K Dolby Vision at 30 fps
  • Action mode up to 2.8K Dolby Vision at 60 fps
  • Spatial video recording at 1080p at 30 fps
  • ProRes video recording up to 4K at 120 fps with external recording
  • Log video recording
  • Academy Color Encoding System
  • Macro video recording, including slo‑mo and time‑lapse
  • Slo‑mo video support for 1080p up to 240 fps and 4K Dolby Vision up to 120 fps (Fusion)
  • Time‑lapse video with stabilization
  • Night mode Time‑lapse
  • QuickTake video up to 4K Dolby Vision at 60 fps
  • Second‑generation sensor‑shift optical image stabilization for video (Fusion)
  • 3D sensor‑shift optical image stabilization and autofocus for video (Telephoto)
  • Digital zoom up to 25x
  • Audio zoom
  • True Tone flash
  • Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
  • Continuous autofocus video
  • Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video
  • Playback zoom
  • Video formats recorded: HEVC, H.264, and ProRes
  • Spatial Audio and stereo recording
  • Four studio-quality mics
  • Wind noise reduction
  • Audio Mix

Conclusion

Impressive! This are performance values that even beat many 5 year old system cameras. “Sensor shift optical stabilization” something my Fujifilm X-PRO3 cannot offer. Same for the 48 Megapixel RAW resolution, the X-PRO3 offers only 26 Megapixel.

After seeing all this, my motivation to take on this 3 month challenge has improved a lot. Here my plan. In the first month I will use the iPhone 16 Pro Max with the default camera software from Apple. In month 2 and 3, I will extend my tests to additional Photo Apps from the APP Store of Apple with the hope to get more control of all possible features of this advanced camera system.

Stay tuned to join me on this journey. I will provide you with many pictures and my findings.

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