iPhone 15 Pro Max: 50 photos that show what the new camera system can do

October 6, 2023

`iPhone 15 Pro Max: 50 photos that show what the new camera system can do`

iPhone 15 Pro in Blue Titanium in front of an Apple Store — Jason Hiner/ZDNET

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the pinnacle of iPhone cameras this year because it is the only one that has the new 5x “tetraprism” telephoto lens to zoom farther and take higher quality long-distance shots than any iPhone has taken before.

However, there are other new features in this year’s camera system beyond the 5x zoom lens. Here’s a quick reminder of the other important camera upgrades:

24MP high-resolution default images as well as 48MP standard photos (previously 48MP was only available in ProRAW mode and all other images were 12MP)
Portrait mode images are sharper, more colorful, and better in low light
Automatic portrait mode recognizes a person, cat, or dog and captures depth info on the subject even if you don’t take the photo in portrait mode, and lets you edit the portrait quality details after the fact
Night mode gets more detail, color, and night portrait mode powered by the LiDAR sensor
Smart HDR captures better “true-to-life renderings” (as Apple puts it) of skin tones, colors, and dynamic range
Three focal lengths in the main camera (24mm, 28mm, and 35mm) offer more flexibility for framing and composing shots

I experienced the benefits of all of these features in my two weeks of testing the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple also touted a new “nanoscale coating to reduce lens flare” but I didn’t notice any improvements to lens flare — the iPhone is still generally the worst smartphone camera system for generating lens flare and unwanted artifacts, especially when shooting into the sun.

iPhone 15 Pro review: Coming from iPhone 12 Pro or earlier? This upgrade will wow you

Still, lens flare aside, there’s a lot to like about the new camera system. Overall, I found that Apple has improved not just the sharpness and capabilities of the camera sensors and lenses, but also the processing in the camera app that uses machine learning to automatically refine photos and make adjustments.

With last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max, there were times when I felt like I was fighting the camera system to give me the photo I took and not over-process it with too much HDR. For example, when I’d take night photos, it would often over-brighten the night sky in a way that made it look more like daytime. There were other times when the iPhone 14 Pro Max would oversharpen and/or over-brighten spots of regular photos in ways that were much too heavy-handed for my taste. The result was photos that sometimes looked less real and too stylistic.

This year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max dials back on the HDR and gets “true-to-life renderings” (as Apple calls them) dialed in much more regularly — at least in my tests so far.

Also: The best new features in iPhone 15, iOS 17, and Apple Watch – and how to use them

I tested the new camera system in a bunch of different environments and tried lots of different kinds of shots — taking about 1,000 photos in my first couple weeks with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Below is a mix of different shots, including some of my favorites as well as ones that show the different capabilities of the camera, and a few of its challenges. In some cases, I’ve done some editing in the built-in Apple camera app or Adobe Lightroom to pull out the full quality of the photo.

Let’s start with a look at what Apple has designated as the seven different lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera system (Macro, 13mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 77mm, 120mm) to get high-quality shots at different distances, as shown in the image below from the Sep. 12, 2023 Apple Event where the iPhone 15 was announced.

These are the 7 lenses of the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera system.

Apple

Also: Mastering the iPhone 15 Pro camera: Here’s what Apple’s marketing terms actually mean

I replicated this with six of the seven lenses in front of an Apple Store with a glossy mirrored storefront. I didn’t use Macro because I haven’t been very impressed with the quality of Macro mode and it also didn’t make sense for this shot.