Smartphones are a great tool to test and document compositions. They can’t compete in landscape photography with my Sony A7R III, but they’re a good way to get started. For several years, my iPhone has been the primary video camera I use for landscape videos. It’s that good.
In the future, we won’t be considering secondary factors like audio, stabilization and battery life, or dynamic range when filming landscapes. In the field, my iPhone can handle these tasks without missing a beat.
This peace of mind allows me to focus fully on taking photos for my portfolio. After I have composed and refined the shot, I hold my iPhone up, tap to focus, and then capture a high-quality clip.
With the iPhone 14 Pro launch, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the key improvements Apple made this year. Put them into context and see what they mean for landscape photography and video.
I’ll begin with the widest camera first, then the ultra-wide, and finally the telephoto.
1. WIDER FIELD OF VIEW: FROM 26 TO 24 MM
This may seem like an insignificant change, but it could have a major impact on the way I frame and capture scenes using my iPhone.
Since the first generation of 2007, every iPhone camera has had fixed focal lengths. For the last few years, the iPhone’s main camera has had a fixed focal length of 26mm.
Landscape photographers often choose wider angles in order to highlight the vast vistas of a landscape and draw attention to striking foregrounds like rushing waters and lush ferns.
Since the iPhone 4S, all models have had a 13mm ultra-wide camera. However, I found it to be far too. The corners are often distorted, warped, and unfocused. Not to mention that the narrow aperture and smaller sensor struggle with the low light at sunrise and sunset. This year, things will be different. See section 4 below.
The main lens of the iPhone 14 Pro has been enlarged from 26mm to 24 mm.
The additional 2 mm may not seem much, but it brings the focal length closer to my sweet spot for wide-angle lenses of 20mm.
The wider field of vision will also result in less camera shake for landscape videos. The less telephoto lens you use, the less shake there will be in your clips.
2. BIGGER SENSOR, LESS VOICE: FROM 1/1.65″ – 1/1.3″
This is a major upgrade.
In the last year, I have been using the iPhone 13 mini with a main sensor of 1/1.9″. With this camera, I shot the highlight videos for my last three landscapes. It’s also held up very well in dark forest scenes, where there is little light.
The iPhone 13 Pro’s main camera had an even larger sensor, measuring 1/1.65″. In 2022, the iPhone 14 Pro will go even further by expanding the main camera sensor to 1/1.3″.
This size increase comes with a 4x increase in megapixels from 12MP up to 48MP. By default, however, images are reduced to 12MP – grouping four pixels to create one “quad pixel” to improve light capture and reduce noise – unless you shoot in ProRaw. The 48MP ProRaw photos take up to 80MB per photo.
The larger sensor offers better low-light performance, even though most people will not need it. The sensor is overall 65% bigger than last year. This means less noise and sharper images.
3. BRIGHTER APERTURE: FROM F/6.9 TO F/6.2 (FULL-FRAME EQUIVALENT)
The iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera aperture has dropped to f/1.78. On the iPhone 13 Pro, it was f/1.5.
Isn’t this a bad thing, then?
If the sensor size remained unchanged, then yes. It’s crucial to factor in the equivalent full-frame aperture, especially with the (bigger) jump in sensor sizes. To do this, multiply the aperture stated by the crop factor, which is the comparison of the sensor size to a full-frame 35mm sensor.
The iPhone 13 Pro has a crop factor of 4.6x and an aperture of f/1.5. This gives a comparable aperture value of f/6.9.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a crop factor of 3.5x and an aperture of f/1.78. This is equivalent to f/6.2.
More light and brighter apertures are always welcome. However, this shift has one disadvantage for landscape photographers: depth of field.
Landscape photography is often about getting the entire frame in focus. In nature, I prefer to use f/8 or even f/11 on my Sony A7R III. Wider apertures are great for portraits.
With the switch to f/6.2, you will need to pay more attention to where you place your focus when you are taking a picture or recording a video.
4. ULTRA WIDE IS ULTRA GOOD: BRIGHTER APERTURE, BIGGER SENSOR
The Pro models improved their ultra-wide angle cameras from f/2.4 down to f/1.8 last year. The sensor size, however, remained the same.
The ultra-wide sensor will expand from 1/3.4″ up to 1/2.55″. This new sensor, while still smaller than the 24mm main sensor, is almost twice the size of the previous generation.
Calculating equivalent apertures shows that this ultra-wide camera is brighter than the f/15.7 of last year. On my iPhone 13 mini, the equal ultra-wide aperture is a dimming f/20. The phone will increase the ISO to compensate for the narrow aperture. This results in grainy and mushy videos, especially when shooting wide-angle seascapes at dawn or dusk.
What is this new improvement for landscape photographers about?
The time has come when an ultra-wide camera can be a useful tool. You can frame and test compositions in real time with high fidelity before you unpack your dedicated camera or tripod. You’ll also be able to share clips from behind the scenes of colorful skies 10 minutes before sunrise without having to deal with garishly loud clips.
FINAL TIDBITS
- There is no change to the 3x telephoto sensor or lens. The tiny 1/3.4″ camera is still there, with its narrow f/2.8 opening. This is equivalent to a meager f/23.8 for a full-frame camera. Maybe next year with the rumored “periscope” style lens, the telephoto will get the love it so desperately needs.
- The Imagenic Engine From Deep Fusion to Dynamic Island this year, Apple markets its features better than anyone else. But beyond the fancy name, the new image processing pipeline- which merges pixels from multiple images before compression- promises to deliver 2x the low light performance of all three cameras.
- 48MP ProRaw Files With the larger sensor of the wide camera, you can capture high-resolution images using ProRaw. I will likely still use 12MP for the majority of my photos, but I am eager to examine the 48MP images in Lightroom to see how much detail it can render.
- Selfie Camera Improvements The aperture of the front-facing selfie camera (also known as ‘TrueDepth,’) has been increased from f/2.2 up to f/1.9. It also gains autofocus for the very first time. It looks like a good upgrade for those who document and vlog their travels.
