I had mentioned before the keynote that I was anticipating ordering an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the reason for that was largely due to the functionality of the Camera Control button. And it turned out that this was even more appealing than I had initially expected.
Despite the fact that the button itself had inevitably leaked beforehand, Apple still managed to keep a lot of its features a secret…
Apple Surprised Me
We first heard about this almost a year ago, and it was later confirmed by leaked CAD drawings and dummy units. We referred to it as a dedicated Capture button at that time.
I had said last month that this was likely to be a more significant deal than it might seem at first glance, considering that it was reported to combine a shutter release button with half-press and capacitive swipe. The swipe function was said to be for zoom, and it made me think that it might come close to a feature request I made back in February: a hardware focus/zoom ring. I had mentioned at the time that smoothly zooming while shooting on a touchscreen was quite tricky.
The problem is that achieving smooth zooming when sliding a thumb on a glass surface is quite challenging. The variation in pressure applied when holding the phone in the same way means that the friction also changes, so it’s not uncommon for there to be no response followed by a sudden jump instead of the smooth movement we desire.
I imagine parents who are recording their children running around might experience the same thing. What is needed for smooth focus adjustment and zooming is a hardware control.
At that time, I didn’t think that this would ever be integrated into an iPhone directly, so what I envisioned was an accessory case. However, what Apple has done is… they have actually integrated it into an iPhone.
Now, granted it’s not the exact wheel I had hoped for, and we’ll have to wait and see how much better a capacitive button is compared to a glass screen in terms of providing smooth and reliable control, but the fact that Apple has introduced it indicates their confidence that it will at least be an improvement over the touchscreen.
But Apple went even further.
With the same double-half-press action, you can select other controls, such as (artificial) aperture for changing the depth of field; exposure compensation for brightening or darkening a shot; and photo styles, which allow you to preview filters while taking the photo.
We won’t fully access all the functionality of the button until later in the year, but this combination of features was enough to convince me to get one.
Other Camera Enhancements
I had mentioned beforehand that I was looking for other camera improvements, and Apple has indeed delivered on that.
I covered those in a separate article, but I’m particularly excited to try out the 48MP Ultra Wide lens. The ultra-wide camera has so far been the less prominent one compared to the main and telephoto cameras, offering notably lower quality, so I’m eager to see a significant improvement here.
I’m also looking forward to experiencing the audio-mixing capabilities when shooting with the built-in mics.
There is also the slightly larger screen, but I don’t expect it to be particularly noticeable.
Stay Tuned
My pre-order process wasn’t the smoothest I’ve ever had. The Apple Store app not only lost my pre-selected order details but also my card details!
This slowed things down, but thankfully I still received a delivery date on the first day. Of course, I’ll be sharing my experience with the new model, including some side-by-side comparison photos between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its replacement.
