Apple’s digital camera lens placement for its iPhone Professional fashions has been constant because the three-lens digital camera system got here to the iPhone 11 Professional Max in 2019. Nevertheless, which may be set to vary as the corporate prepares so as to add a brand new periscope lens system to its bigger iPhone 15 Professional Max mannequin this 12 months.
Though it’s not obvious until you begin masking the person lenses, the iPhone 14 Professional places its 3X telephoto lens within the prime nook, with the first digital camera lens under it and the ultra-wide lens off to 1 facet. Whereas the iPhone 13 modified up the design of the two-lens system for the non-pro fashions, the triple-lens format has remained unchanged for almost 4 years aside from including the LiDAR Scanner with the iPhone 12 lineup.
Nevertheless, in response to a tweet from a leaker who goes by the deal with of Unknownz21, Apple is planning to flip the positions of two of the lenses on this 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional Max, inserting the telephoto lens off to the facet, within the place at present occupied by the ultra-wide lens.
Such a change could also be essential as a result of transfer to a periscope digital camera system on this 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional Max. Since this employs a number of lenses and mirrors alongside an extended imaging chamber that’s positioned perpendicular to the seen, outward-facing lens, it’s not onerous to see how the present digital camera placement wouldn’t supply a lot room for this new part if it needed to be positioned behind the first digital camera sensor or LED flash.
Transferring the telephoto lens to a brand new place would permit Apple to both prolong the periscope system sideways, towards the placement of the mute/silent change, and even probably downwards beneath the LiDAR sensor, which takes up significantly much less inside house than the first digital camera lens and sensor system.
What’s much less clear is whether or not Apple will make this alteration solely on the bigger iPhone 15 Professional Max — the one mannequin anticipated to get the periscope lens system this 12 months — or deliver the brand new format to each of its Professional fashions for consistency. Latest studies have advised that Apple plans to increase the periscope system to incorporate the iPhone 16 Professional subsequent 12 months; that mannequin can be anticipated to extend to a 6.3-inch display, which can be wanted to accommodate the brand new digital camera system.
Even when this report seems to be correct, it’s unlikely the iPhone 15 Professional digital camera array will look any completely different on the floor. Whereas the telephoto lens requires an extended focal size for its elevated zoom issue, Apple has all the time designed the iPhone to that every lens protrudes the identical distance. Most iPhone customers aren’t even consciously conscious of which lens is which, so swapping two of them ought to go unnoticed until Apple intentionally chooses to vary issues as much as spotlight the digital camera capabilities with a brand new design.
It’s additionally not clear but precisely how a lot a periscope lens will enhance the optical zoom capabilities of the iPhone 15 Professional Max. Whereas Apple managed to push the telephoto lens to 3X with the 2021 iPhone 13 Professional fashions, it’s hit the restrict of how a lot farther it may well go with out both adopting a periscope system or a fair longer lens on the again. Different smartphone makers, lots of which have been utilizing periscope lenses for years, supply 5X, 6X, or 10X optical zoom ranges. Nevertheless, since increased zoom ranges require extra inside house, 5X is the commonest, and most studies counsel that Apple will stick to one thing within the 5X-6X vary.