This afternoon, Apple hosted its September keynote event, focused on iPhone, iPad and more. As a part of the event, the company announced the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
The cameras
iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini
Apple has made a slight change to the dual camera system on the iPhone, with them now appearing diagonally from each other.
But beyond that, the new Wide camera, with 1.7 µm pixels, comes with the biggest sensor ever in an iPhone dual-camera system and is capable of gathering 47 percent more light for less noise and brighter results.
Sensor-shift OIS — a technology introduced in iPhone 12 Pro Max and not found in any other smartphone — also comes to the Wide camera, even in the more compact iPhone 13 mini. It stabilizes the sensor instead of the lens so shots are more steady, while the custom-designed Ultra Wide camera with a new sensor captures images with more detail in the dark areas of photos and videos with less noise.
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini also adopt sensor shift image stabilization technology, which first debuted with the iPhone 12 Pro.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
The iPhone 13 Pro’s camera system has seen a big upgrade. The all-new Wide camera has a larger sensor with 1.9 µm pixels — the largest ever on iPhone — for less noise and faster shutter speeds needed across lighting conditions, producing even more detailed photos. Coupled with the larger f/1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offers a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) — unique to iPhone — is available on both models, stabilizing the sensor instead of the lens, so images are smooth and video is steady, even when the user is not.
The new Ultra Wide camera features a much wider f/1.8 aperture and a new autofocus system, bringing a 92 percent improvement for low-light environments, producing images that are brighter and sharper.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also boast a new 77 mm Telephoto camera, allowing users to get closer to their subjects while recording video and achieve even more classically framed portraits, offering 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range on the camera system.
“The new pro camera system offers even more pro photography capabilities like improved telephoto zoom, macro photography, Photographic Styles, Cinematic mode, as well as ProRes and Dolby Vision video,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
For the first time ever, Night mode comes to all cameras on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, including the Telephoto camera, and with Smart HDR 4, users can expect improved color, contrast, and lighting for subjects, even in group shots or challenging lighting situations, making images more true to life.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also offer popular features like Deep Fusion, Apple ProRAW, and Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting.
Automatic focus changes with Cinematic mode
Apple has taken advantage of computational algorithms to predict focus for subjects in your scene, often called rack focus. This is similar to what you experience with Portrait mode for still photography, but adapted for video.
iPhone predictably switches focus rapidly based on the subjects in your scene, blurring the background, without any work from you. However, you can also manually switch focus points, or lock focus in on the subject. The result is a look and feel you might previously only been able to see at the movies.
Cinematic mode is on the back cameras, but also on the front camera, and shoots in Dolby Vision HDR.
The great thing with Cinematic mode is you can change the focus and the depth after recording. Users can also adjust the level of bokeh in the Photos app and iMovie for iOS, and coming soon to iMovie for macOS and Final Cut Pro.
Macro mode
The new lens design, autofocus capability for the first time in the Ultra Wide on iPhone, and advanced software also unlock something never before possible on iPhone: Macro photography. Users can capture sharp, stunning images where objects appear larger than life, magnifying subjects with a minimum focus distance of 2cm. Macro also extends to video including Slo-mo and Time-lapse.
Photographic Styles apply real-time edits
Photographic Styles for iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro allow users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefiting from Apple’s multiframe image processing. Preset and customized preferences work across scenes and subjects, and unlike a simple filter, intelligently apply the right adjustments to different parts of the photo to ensure the important elements, like skin tones, are preserved.
ProRes video
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also introduce ProRes, an advanced video codec used widely as the final delivery format for commercials, feature films and broadcasts, to offer higher color fidelity and less compression. This powerful new pro workflow is enabled by the new camera hardware, advanced video encoders and decoders in A15 Bionic, and flash storage pipeline. iPhone is the only smartphone in the world to provide an end-to-end workflow — capture, edit, and share in Dolby Vision or ProRes.
Pricing and availability
The iPhone 13 mini will start at $699, while the iPhone 13 will start at $799. Both phones start at 128GB storage, with upgrades up to 256GB and 512GB.
The iPhone 13 Pro will start at $999, while the iPhone 13 Pro Max will start at $1099. Both phones start at 128GB storage, with upgrades to 256GB, 512GB and a new 1TB capacity.
Preorders for iPhone 13 start this Friday, September 17, 2021. They’ll launch on September 24, 2021.
