Apple usually focuses its yearly updates on one built-in camera, and this year was no different. Last year, with the iPhone 16 Pro, it was the 0.5x Ultra-Wide camera that saw major improvements. However, this year, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max received an upgraded 4x telephoto camera.
Let’s take a look ateach built-in lens.
It’s Apple’s term for its advanced image processing system (introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro). It combines the power of neural engineering in the A19 chip, the camera hardware, and the ISP (Image Signal Processor). Similar to how HDR works, the iPhone captures multiple frames and then merges them into a single image during the processing stage. This is the role of the Photonic Engine. What hasn’t changed with this year’s built-in lenses is the lens coating, so unfortunately, lens flaring is still present.
Although it’s not an upgrade to the built-in cameras, it’s worth mentioning that the display now reaches 3000 nits of brightness, and the phone itself features a vapor chamber cooling system. Thanks to this, the screen remains clearly visible even in bright sunlight, and the device can maintain its performance level even in extremely hot conditions. In other words — if you’re shooting video or photos in strong summer sunlight, Apple won’t limit the screen brightness, and the phone’s performance won’t throttle either.
Basically, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max use the same sensor and built-in lens as last year’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, but there’s one very important improvement. With last year’s 48-megapixel sensor, we could only take full advantage of it when shooting in ProRAW format; if we chose HEIF or JPG, the photos were limited to 12 megapixels. However, this year, with the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the 0.5x Ultra-Wide lens can capture 24-megapixel photos even in JPG and HEIF formats.
This built-in camera hasn’t changed physically at all. It features the same sensor, field of view, and coating. That may be bad news for those who were expecting major changes, but it’s good news for anyone using Moment lenses, because it means the T-series Moment lenses work perfectly with the built-in 1x wide lens.
This camera received the biggest change this year. Apple switched from the 5x optical zoom found in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max to a 4x optical zoom, and it now features a 48-megapixel sensor that delivers much more detailed images. Using the 4x optical zoom, you end up with about a 100mm equivalent focal length.
According to early tests, if you zoom in 5x with the 4x telephoto lens of the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max, you actually get better results than with the 5x built-in lens of last year’s iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max, meaning that even with digital zoom, the results are superior.
This is not only because the telephoto lens now has more megapixels, but also because the sensor size has increased by 56% this year. As a result, it can capture a better dynamic range and store significantly more data in each image, and its low-light performance has also improved substantially thanks to the larger sensor.
Another change is that the minimal focal distance of the 4x telephoto camera is slightly better than last year’s 5x. However, it’s essential to note that if you move closer and cross the minimum focus distance threshold, you can only capture 12-megapixel photos instead of 48 megapixels, most likely because in those cases, the native camera app crops into the 4x sensor.
Let’s talk about the other most important change: the 8x zoom. Apple used a very catchy term for it: “optical quality zoom.” It sounds great, but in reality, this is just a digital zoom option. In this case, the system essentially crops into the 48-megapixel sensor to achieve that field of view. According to early reviewer tests, the phone can still produce extremely good quality in this way. Apple claims to’ve refined the so-called pixel binning technology this year, and thanks to the faster chip, performance has improved even further. With the 8x zoom, you can reach a 200mm field of view.
However, there’s one important detail worth mentioning: in most cases, Apple applies heavy post-sharpening to the images in order to mask the shortcomings of digital zoom. This, however, results in an overly sharpened image that looks, so to speak, “too digital.” No matter how clever Apple’s engineers are, they can’t defy physics; a digital crop will never replace the quality of a real lens with multiple glass elements. Not to mention, every lens has its own unique character, whereas digital zoom has none.
So, to summarize: the 4x is the optical zoom, and the 8x is the digital zoom. Additionally, there is a 2x zoom, which is also a digital zoom and not an actual physical telephoto lens. Beyond that, several other digital focal length simulations are available, which are also made possible by pixel binning, essentially simulating different focal lengths. I know this can be confusing, so let’s break it down and see which fields of view we actually get, and which ones are digital versus actual lenses.
The standard iPhone 17 comes with a 0.5x telephoto camera and a 1x wide-angle camera, which, in theory, means that all the fields of view mentioned above are available, except for the 100mm and 200mm options. (Although Apple hasn’t yet clarified on its website whether the 28mm and 35mm options are also included.)
The iPhone Air, on the other hand, only has a single 1x wide fusion camera, so in theory, the FOVs of 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, and 48mm are available.
To everyone’s surprise, this camera also received the biggest changes this year, something that can be extremely useful for most content creators.
According to Apple, the sensor found in the front-facing camera is “almost 2x larger” compared to the one used in the iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max device. The sensor isn’t rectangular but square, which allows the system to automatically switch between landscape and portrait depending on how people fit into the frame. Put simply, even if you’re holding the camera vertically, you can still capture landscape shots without losing image quality.
(Currently, this feature only works in photo mode, but hopefully a future software update will bring it to video as well.)
In the native camera app, we can enable the system to automatically use this feature depending on the situation, or we can manually decide whether the phone should take a portrait or landscape photo when held vertically.
Another useful feature is that we can now shoot videos in ProRes Log using the front-facing camera. (However, the ProRaw format is not available.)
The video looks promising this year as well, below are some of the biggest highlights for the latest 17 series.
Previously, we were limited to ProRes 4:2:2, but now the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max can record in ProRes RAW. This unlocks far greater flexibility in post-production, allowing filmmakers to fine-tune color, exposure, and dynamic range with much greater precision. The trade-off is that ProRes RAW requires significantly more storage, which is why this option works only with an external SSD connected directly to the iPhone.
Apple has also introduced OpenGate recording, a feature that allows you to use the entire sensor and shoot in a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is particularly useful for productions where you want maximum flexibility in cropping to different formats later on. The downside is that stabilization isn’t available in this mode, and you’ll need the Final Cut Pro Camera app to access it to this feature.
Another professional-grade feature is Genlock, which lets you synchronize multiple iPhones. This is essential for advanced productions, such as creating “frozen time” or multi-angle slow-motion effects, where absolute frame sync is required.
Finally, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max give us dual video recording, meaning you can capture footage simultaneously from the front-facing camera and the rear camera. This opens up new creative workflows, especially for documentary, event, or behind-the-scenes shooting.
Some questions arise every year about our lenses and the latest iPhone. Below is a breakdown.
One of the most important questions regarding the new iPhones: which of our lenses work with which built-in lens?
Let’s start with the bad news: the M-series lenses aren’t compatible with the iPhone 17 lineup. Unfortunately, this also means we won’t be releasing M-series Drop-in Lens Mounts for iPhone 17 devices. This is due to Apple’s rapid upgrades in the technology found in their new phones. One reason is that the built-in wide lens FOV has decreased from 26mm to 24mm, and another is that the built-in sensor size has also increased.
The M-series lenses were compatible with iPhones for over 6 years, but unfortunately, they didn’t perform well starting with the iPhone 14 Pro. As a result, the M-series lenses had to be redesigned, and we introduced the T-series lenses, which perform much better with the newer phones.
So we recommend using T-series lenses with the iPhone 17 devices, and the good news is that we have a Trade-in Program for M-series lenses (you can find it here: Moment M-Series Trade-in Program).
For all iPhone 17 devices, Moment lenses are essentially compatible with the 1x main wide built-in lens.
The 0.5x Ultra-Wide built-in lens is not compatible with Moment lenses due to its extremely wide field of view, and attaching a Moment lens to it would result in significant vignetting. For this reason, the Drop-in Lens Mounts do not include a mount for this built-in lens.
With the Pro and Pro Max devices, the 4x built-in telephoto camera is a bit trickier. Except for two Moment lenses (the Macro 10x and the Macro 75mm), unfortunately, Moment lenses are not compatible with the 4x telephoto lens.
This isn’t really an issue for the Wide 18mm lens, the 14mm Fisheye lens, or the Anamorphic lenses, since their purpose is to provide a wider field of view; it wouldn’t make sense or offer any benefit to attach them to a telephoto lens. However, in the case of the Tele 58mm lens, unfortunately, this is bad news.
So unfortunately, the Tele 58mm Lens is not compatible with the 4x built-in telephoto lens of the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max. One reason for this is that when the Tele 58mm lens is attached to the built-in telephoto, it results in a zoom distance that would be very difficult to hold steady by hand (it’s worth mentioning that the Tele 58mm lens is a heavier lens). The other reason is the new tetraprism system that Apple integrated into the 17 Pro and Pro Max.
**Technically, you can mount the Tele 58mm Lens on the 4x built-in lens, but it would result in hazy, soft images. So we only recommend using the T-series Tele lens on the iPhone 17 Pro's built-in 1x main wide camera (without the use of any digital zoom). Using the Tele 58mm Lens on the main 1x built-in camera will give you 2x optical zoom.
However, the good news is that there are still benefits to using the Tele 58mm lens in conjunction with the main 1x wide built-in lens. Although Apple gave the telephoto camera a major update this year and increased the sensor size, the 1x main wide lens still remains the built-in lens with the best sensor.
So, to achieve the best results, it’s always recommended to use this built-in lens. However, this built-in lens has a 24mm field of view, which isn’t suitable for every photographic scenario, and that’s where our Moment lenses come in. With our lenses, you can take advantage of the best sensor while also accessing different fields of view without compromise. Your photos won’t be over-sharpened, and you won’t have to worry about lower image quality caused by digital cropping. In short, with the help of the Moment T-series Tele 58mm Lens, you can shoot telephoto photos through the main 1x sensor. This means that you can reach the best image quality even in low-light conditions.
Another advantage is that every optical lens has its own unique character (just think of the Anamorphic lens with its beautiful flare, and with Moment lenses, you can achieve truly distinctive results.
I’ve shot Sony and Super 8, but the iPhone 17 Pro is the first phone I actually want to vlog with.
Camera cases, lenses, filters, & more.
