48MP is good for photography but for video, not so much. There is a reason why the best cinema cameras are 2MP-12MP on a huge sensor. Just the first Arri Alexa is like 2MP and looks magical.
Awesome video, thank you for the comparison. I’ve believed the upgrades have been meant for every other year for awhile now, as in the 15 Pro is for 13 Pro users while the 16 Pro is for 14 Pro users. Granted they want to upgrade, if I’m remembering correctly when this comparison was done for the 13 and 14 it yielded similar results with the 13 being better in lowlight video and the 14 being better with photography.
15PM 12MP sensor has a larger pixel size of 1,4ųm compared to the 0,7ųm of the 16PM. Yes with pixel binning the size is the same but that in reality a larger pixel is always better in low light than multiple small pixels combined when aperture and lens are the same off course.
Thanks for the review. For the last 5 years I have always upgraded to the latest iPhone except this year. One of the main factors is that I finally got a real camera. Even though the iPhone is very convenient and it’s always in your pocket Sony is making the cameras so small I would rather carry a little bit of weight just to get a better video and photo quality. This was the real iPhone video review I was waiting for. Thanks for saving me $1600 😂.
Just because it has higher MP does not mean it will resolve higher details vs 12mb, they are probably at the limit of what these small lenses can give. If you crop in on the 12mp file so that the size of the object is the same in both shots, im not sure how much difference is there.
I’m not sure whether I’ll buy the iPhone 16 Pro Max or go for the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which is coming out soon with a global version. Not only is the system more pleasant to use, but the sensors are also much larger, so in theory, the photos and videos should be better.
Thanks for the thorough comparison. I’m skipping the 16th gen and sticking with my 15 Pro. I noticed you’ve tested many lens mounting systems for the iPhone, and I’m looking for one that comes with the best everyday carry protective case while allowing me to mount additional lenses. I don’t want to swap cases between daily use and shooting videos. Also, do these attachment lenses help with the ghosting/reflection issue that iPhone cameras tend to have when shooting against light sources?
The lenses can help a little bit in some situations, but not much. Unfortunately those weird flares are part of the deal. Maybe one day Apple will get rid of them. And I would look at Sandmarc for a good EDC setup. There’s a link to them in the description of the video.
i realize this is random and unrelated but i just watched your "Best Cage" video form 2 years ago and would kindly like to suggest / ask that you consider doing videos for the Moment Filmmaker Cage as well as the new Moment Supercage which is soon to release, in order to make a comparison & how they compete against each other & the current best in the market.
Coming in September 2025, Apple Inc. will unveil the regular iPhone 17 models to come with the 48MP ultra-wide camera lens alongside the iPhone 17 Pro models.
It is not surprising when it comes to video. I have always been led to believe that megapixels in video is not too important. Here is an artical from Amateur Photographer and this is what they say: Megapixels and video don’t mix Too many megapixels can be a bad thing for video because makers have to figure out what to do with the extra pixels. It is an issue. A 24MP sensor, for example, will have a horizontal resolution of around 6,000 pixels, but if you want to capture 4K UHD video (3840 pixels) the camera either has to crop the image to a smaller frame size, ‘oversample’ the full sensor data and handle a much larger processing overhead, or use ‘line skipping’ or ‘pixel binning’. Some cameras do two or more of these depending on your selected frame rate or compression settings.
You talking about the built-in cameras or adding an external lens? I’ve done a lot on the 15 but I don’t have a case or a cage yet for the 16 to add a lens, but I will in the not too distant future.
@@iphoneographers I guess I worded that weird but I suppose an external ultra wide on the primary camera of the 16 pro vs the ultra wide on the 15 pro.
Haven’t tested the 16 shooting macro. But the 15 does fine so I’m sure the 16 will be OK. And once I get a new case to try out the lenses that’s where I really like to use macro (versus the built-in way).
@@iphoneographers I would really appreciate if you could compare the built-in macro mode in 16 Pro and 15 Pro, because while 48MP doesn't perform well in low light, maybe at least it's better than 15 Pro in terms of macro. There are some videos about it but you're one of the few creators who tell it how it really is (kudos!). And thank you so much for this video btw, I was hoping that the wide angle of 16 Pro would be just like the main camera in low light conditions, but here we are.
A shame. But good thing I barely use the ultrawide anyways. I mainly use it for macro photography in bright light. And that it excels at compared to the 15 Pro.
If you do a lot of video editing (like post production zooming and panning), the iPhone 16 Pro is worth it right because it has more resolution and zoom is more crisp?
If you’re talking about using photos in there then yes that’s what I demonstrated. If you’re talking about shooting video then they’re the same as they’re both 4K.
For realstate I record with 15 pro max with wide lenses, do you think upgrading to 16 pro max just to record with the new wide angle lense, worth it? or i wont notice the diference
I have seen three types of reviews: 1) do NOT upgrade since its actually BAD tech 2) do not upgrade since its the same as the 15 3) ohh its a new phone model, i guess go ahead and upgrade, you know, because its new. Even the positive reviews aren’t glowing. The negative reviews are harsh truth.
If you shoot a lot of video Apple log (starting with the 15 Pro) is well worth the upgrade, and of course USB-C is great too. But the 14 PM is a solid phone! I still have mine around.
48MP is good for photography but for video, not so much. There is a reason why the best cinema cameras are 2MP-12MP on a huge sensor. Just the first Arri Alexa is like 2MP and looks magical.
Yeah, that’s the tricky part to having a camera that does both good photo and video.
Nah, the 48MP ultra wide on the 16 is not worth it, the 15 looks fine to me for now
I have the 16 pro max
I’m literally hoping and waiting Apple updates the phone to take better photos.
Awesome video, thank you for the comparison. I’ve believed the upgrades have been meant for every other year for awhile now, as in the 15 Pro is for 13 Pro users while the 16 Pro is for 14 Pro users. Granted they want to upgrade, if I’m remembering correctly when this comparison was done for the 13 and 14 it yielded similar results with the 13 being better in lowlight video and the 14 being better with photography.
15PM 12MP sensor has a larger pixel size of 1,4ųm compared to the 0,7ųm of the 16PM. Yes with pixel binning the size is the same but that in reality a larger pixel is always better in low light than multiple small pixels combined when aperture and lens are the same off course.
Very useful review. Thanks for posting. I'm skipping the 16PM upgrade.
Finally a honest answer 😮
Which lens looks better with anamorphic is it the 3x or 5x lens ? I’m kinda leaning towards iPhone 15 pro but I’m not sure 🤔
You should do the 14 Pro vs 16 Pro, to see if 2 Years is a Big upgrade
Yeah I might throw in a few comparisons in a future video, but in regards to video and using Apple log (starting with the 15 Pro) it’s a good upgrade.
Extra resolution is not worth the low light trade off , plus I prefer the contrast look out of the box even though that can be adjusted
Perfect comparison!
Thanks for the review. For the last 5 years I have always upgraded to the latest iPhone except this year. One of the main factors is that I finally got a real camera. Even though the iPhone is very convenient and it’s always in your pocket Sony is making the cameras so small I would rather carry a little bit of weight just to get a better video and photo quality. This was the real iPhone video review I was waiting for. Thanks for saving me $1600 😂.
Understood! If I didn’t run this UA-cam channel I would’ve skipped this generation as well.
Nice review ♥️ from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
Interesting results. I wonder if the 16 wide angle lens performance can be improved in software?
Pixel binning, in theory will help in low light
Just because it has higher MP does not mean it will resolve higher details vs 12mb, they are probably at the limit of what these small lenses can give. If you crop in on the 12mp file so that the size of the object is the same in both shots, im not sure how much difference is there.
thanks dude. very fair and helpful test
Thanks, will you also test the other 2 lenses on both these devices to see the differences ?
I’m not sure whether I’ll buy the iPhone 16 Pro Max or go for the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which is coming out soon with a global version. Not only is the system more pleasant to use, but the sensors are also much larger, so in theory, the photos and videos should be better.
Thanks for the thorough comparison. I’m skipping the 16th gen and sticking with my 15 Pro. I noticed you’ve tested many lens mounting systems for the iPhone, and I’m looking for one that comes with the best everyday carry protective case while allowing me to mount additional lenses. I don’t want to swap cases between daily use and shooting videos. Also, do these attachment lenses help with the ghosting/reflection issue that iPhone cameras tend to have when shooting against light sources?
The lenses can help a little bit in some situations, but not much. Unfortunately those weird flares are part of the deal. Maybe one day Apple will get rid of them. And I would look at Sandmarc for a good EDC setup. There’s a link to them in the description of the video.
i realize this is random and unrelated but i just watched your "Best Cage" video form 2 years ago and would kindly like to suggest / ask that you consider doing videos for the Moment Filmmaker Cage as well as the new Moment Supercage which is soon to release, in order to make a comparison & how they compete against each other & the current best in the market.
For sure, will be getting one of the Super cages in the near future I hope and will make a video. Looks very promising!
@@iphoneographers oh wow, thanks for responding! really appreciate it & look forward to your video / review 🙂↕️🫡✨
Coming in September 2025,
Apple Inc. will unveil the regular iPhone 17 models to come with the 48MP ultra-wide camera lens alongside the iPhone 17 Pro models.
It is not surprising when it comes to video. I have always been led to believe that megapixels in video is not too important.
Here is an artical from Amateur Photographer and this is what they say:
Megapixels and video don’t mix
Too many megapixels can be a bad thing for video because makers have to figure out what to do with the extra pixels. It is an issue.
A 24MP sensor, for example, will have a horizontal resolution of around 6,000 pixels, but if you want to capture 4K UHD video (3840 pixels) the camera either has to crop the image to a smaller frame size, ‘oversample’ the full sensor data and handle a much larger processing overhead, or use ‘line skipping’ or ‘pixel binning’. Some cameras do two or more of these depending on your selected frame rate or compression settings.
Yeah, exactly. Sensor size matters the most for low light, along with a faster aperture.
Such a shame they didn’t give us a bigger sensor and better aperture on the ultra wide.
toooooo good and well explained
punching in for video is also a thing, and the 16 would be better for that.
They both shoot 4K UHD, so they are the same in that regard minus if you shoot 120FPS. The 16 will do that in 4K and the 15 is HD.
Can you compare a wide angle lense on the 16 pro main camera vs the wide angle on the 15 pro?
You talking about the built-in cameras or adding an external lens? I’ve done a lot on the 15 but I don’t have a case or a cage yet for the 16 to add a lens, but I will in the not too distant future.
@@iphoneographers I guess I worded that weird but I suppose an external ultra wide on the primary camera of the 16 pro vs the ultra wide on the 15 pro.
When shooting a video in macro mode, does 16 pro or 15 pro result in better quality of details?
Haven’t tested the 16 shooting macro. But the 15 does fine so I’m sure the 16 will be OK. And once I get a new case to try out the lenses that’s where I really like to use macro (versus the built-in way).
@@iphoneographers I would really appreciate if you could compare the built-in macro mode in 16 Pro and 15 Pro, because while 48MP doesn't perform well in low light, maybe at least it's better than 15 Pro in terms of macro. There are some videos about it but you're one of the few creators who tell it how it really is (kudos!). And thank you so much for this video btw, I was hoping that the wide angle of 16 Pro would be just like the main camera in low light conditions, but here we are.
A shame. But good thing I barely use the ultrawide anyways.
I mainly use it for macro photography in bright light. And that it excels at compared to the 15 Pro.
Can you test it against wide lens 😮on the 1x 😅
I will do that once I can attach an external lens to get a similar focal width. Right now I don’t have a case or a cage that will work.
@@iphoneographers oh right I forgot about the cages
If you do a lot of video editing (like post production zooming and panning), the iPhone 16 Pro is worth it right because it has more resolution and zoom is more crisp?
If you’re talking about using photos in there then yes that’s what I demonstrated. If you’re talking about shooting video then they’re the same as they’re both 4K.
@@iphoneographers I’m talking about videos. The 48MP doesn’t affect the video quality of the a wide angle video?
I'm just curious, does the anamorphic lens work on the 5x lens or is it better on 3x lens? specifically on moment m series
Why does 15 pro max look better in my eyes 😮
For video it does look better! For photo they look very similar except for the resolution.
@@iphoneographersI wonder if the 15 pro max or iPhone 16 (not pro) ultra wide would do better in video
Da pra desativar essa opção de 48 mp na ultra-wide e continuar a usar 12 mp com melhor qualidade?
For realstate I record with 15 pro max with wide lenses, do you think upgrading to 16 pro max just to record with the new wide angle lense, worth it? or i wont notice the diference
I would not upgrade just for that from a video perspective.
15 pro max image spice balancing is better than 16 pro max somehow. It maybe the hardware or maybe the ios 18 culprit
I have seen three types of reviews:
1) do NOT upgrade since its actually BAD tech
2) do not upgrade since its the same as the 15
3) ohh its a new phone model, i guess go ahead and upgrade, you know, because its new.
Even the positive reviews aren’t glowing. The negative reviews are harsh truth.
Actually the 3) point you made they usually add "if you are on a iphone 12 and want to upgrade"
Yeah that pretty much covers it. I’m in the 2 & 3 camps with the caveat that the 120 FPS is super nice. :)
Ultrawide picture in low light on iPhone 16 Pro are the worst... like u can even see the lense shape around the picture...
The 15 pro max wide camera looks better actually..
❤
Your video and the new "button" makes me stick on my 14 Pro Max. What a cr*p this 16 is.
If you shoot a lot of video Apple log (starting with the 15 Pro) is well worth the upgrade, and of course USB-C is great too. But the 14 PM is a solid phone! I still have mine around.
It is possibile ti disabile HDR on 16 Pro Max and shoot on SDR on Apple Camera app? I dont think so, unfortunately
Yep! That’s actually what I did in this video. It’s under Camera settings in the main phone menu then choose Record Video and deselect HDR.
@@iphoneographers yes, but for the photos option and not for the videos they removed the function to disable Smart HDR from iPhone 13 and later :(
They should give only 1 primary lens only and offer separate lenses like mirrorless cameras
Who knows one day they might. There’s been rumors that Apple wants to make a more professional camera.
@@iphoneographers let's hope it happens in near future.
It's a joke