The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are both largely built on the same hardware we saw last year, but the new A17 processor brings a number of major upgrades. How good is that 5X 120mm lens on the Pro Max? Is log encoding for video from a phone any good? What file type should you shoot? We have all the answers.
Note: We recommend you watch this video on an HDR-compatible display!
Rental equipment provided by The Camera Store
0:00 – Intro
1:09 – Sample photos
1:50 – Lenses
3:15 – Resolutions
4:32 – Custom button
5:29 – Digital lenses
7:52 – Portrait mode
10:23 – Video features
13:26 – Photo quality
17:04 – Video quality
20:00 – Conclusion
Comments
28 responses to “iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max Review for Photographers!”
I'd love to know if 3rd party apps can support recording standard 4k/30 to a memory card directly to save from having to then copy back out of onboard storage for editing projects.
is it only me that thinks the colours are horible, over saturated and this smoothing filter turning the skin into mush?
It actually looks quite good, almost as good as like a 1500 dollar camera with a 800 dollar lens produces
I'm liking the images from my Pixel 7 more than these iPhone examples.
The standout feature for me this year is the 5x telephoto lens. I am amazed with the amount of background compression in this 120 mm shot 12:38. Imagine if i phone 16 pro max comes with something like 300 mm telephoto lens and a good stabilization. The depth of field should be at par with a budget mirrorless zoom camera, and that's a fantastic thing. You would't need the gimmicky portrait mode and cinematic video because you will get the true bokeh in both photos and videos. Wishlist- i phone 16 pro max, 300 mm optical zoom, take my money.
This looked amazing in HDR on my OLED TV and my iPhone! Why can't you film every video in HDR? The difference is very noticeable!
Thank you. After 3 minutes this video tells me all I needed to know. Nothing much has changed since the 14 Pro camera wise. Unless they put the 48mp sensor behind all 3 lenses I probably won’t bother upgrading.
Where is the apple lut located?
Im disappointed they removed the 77mm lens on the max. So there is no real “portrait lens” 5x or 120mm seems too close…Too much of a gap from the 2x to 5x. Would love to hear from portrait photographers using the. 15 max. Would have been nice to see 4 lenses.
Fatal flaw? On iPhone 15 Pro Max shooting in range 77mm to 119mm will now require extensive cropping of a 24mm lens. Would you do that on your digital camera? Even if it were 48mm?
The 120mm lens should have been a FOURTH lens. We need the 77mm lens to avoid severe cropping in range 77-119mm.
My brain hurts.
Love how at 1:11 we see the sign warning of uneven surface and then Chris trips in the next short cut. It’s these little things plus so much more that has me stalking you on YouTube wherever you go.
1:14 :p
Very nicely done. Too bad you-all are Canadians. But hey, who's perfect.
The ONLY thing I’m interested in as a hobby photographer is the quality of the raw stills. I don’t understand why everybody just skips over that as unimportant. On the 14 pro, the raw mode is an absolute game changer.
Gift me your old phone.
I prefer my "Real" cameras for photography and video work, one the image is superior, two because I paid for them so I'm saving the planet by not dumping perfectly good electronics for no good reason. And more importantly they don't track me and give away my data. Having said that pretty impressive nonetheless.
Very HDRry in some of the clips
also you look like Ryan Reynolds 😅
06:55 how can a high-tech team like PetaPixel, have struggle with WIFI??? wherever I travel, I always have an unlimited data sim or e-sim in my phone and it works perfectly fine. please explain what's different in the US???
This is the worst I've ever seen newer Iphone footage look – I think you had an issue processing in your HDR workflow. Everything is crushed and pushed way too hard to the point a lot of detail is lost. Chris' face ends up looking so soft that it looks out of focus at times.
I just saw an interesting comparison of the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs the Samsung S23 Ultra by an American youtuber, with different photos… I wanted to buy the iPhone 15 pro Max to find the Apple ecosystem, but I will keep my S23 Ultra because in terms of the photo, the quality of the S23 Ultra is just sublime and I confirm it on a daily basis.
Finally, an informative video on the new iPhones. Thank you! It is kind of disappointing that Apple decided not to enable the 24MB photo for the main cam for iPhone 14 users, so more people will upgrade. I will still upgrade tho, eventually, maybe.
Hmmm…I've yet to get my hands on the new iPhone 15 but by looking at this video, I still say the Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera capabilities has the edge. I think Apple should expand more on their Pro Res capability
I love you ❤ Chris and Jordan
But this iPhone is a waste of money. If I need a video and photo, I would rather buy a real camera, Sony or Fujifilm.
The new Blackmagic App for iPhone looks awesome for better control of the iPhone video
Thanks for testing out removable media! That's so exciting that it's possible to roll to something other than SSDs.
I have to say, I watched this episode with interest because I happened to use my iPhone to film parts of my episodes a few times (albeit with third party apps), and having a 12 pro max due for an upgrade I was curious to see how the 15 pro max did.
The quality of still photos taken with Apple devices (as we have gotten used to by now) is very good. I also welcome the introduction of a 5x zoom so I can save on the weight of carrying a pocket camera with me when hiking and climbing mountains.
But to my surprise… well I have to say the quality of the videos seems absolutely abysmal! That’s so disappointing considering I have been able to use footage from various iPhones in the past and mix it with that of Panasonic cameras, to the point that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference.
Watching this video was utterly painful. I don’t know if it depends on using third party apps vs Apple stock Camera app, but saved for a couple of shots, the video quality (I’m talking about colours, highlights, the weird skin smoothing, etc. not the natural DOF, which we all know can’t compete with DSLR cameras) is completely insufficient for any use apart from family videos.
The “pro” in Pro Max and Pro Res seems really wasted here. I was going to blindly upgrade my phone but after watching this useful video (I love all PetaPixel videos, you guys rock!) I’m going to reconsider my purchasing options.