Apple is just days away from its September 9 “Awe dropping” event, where the company will unveil the iPhone 17 lineup. While all four models are expected to get performance and design updates, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will stand out for their significant new camera upgrades that put photography and video front and center.
Camera improvements have long been the most compelling reason to upgrade an iPhone, and this year Apple is pushing hard to deliver tools that appeal directly to creators. The Pro models are expected to introduce a 24-megapixel front camera with a six-element lens, doubling the resolution of the selfie camera found in previous generations. This will mean sharper details, higher-quality crops, and improved low-light performance, making front-facing shots and video calls clearer than ever.
On the back, Apple is preparing to upgrade the Telephoto lens to 48 megapixels. Combined with the Wide and Ultra Wide lenses, this would make the iPhone 17 Pro the first iPhone with an all-48MP camera system. The Telephoto lens is also rumored to support up to 8x optical zoom, up from 5x on the iPhone 16 Pro, with a redesigned camera bump to house the moving components required for continuous zoom.
Another highly anticipated addition is a variable aperture system, which would allow photographers to mechanically adjust the lens opening for better depth-of-field control and improved results in a variety of lighting conditions. The iPhone 17 Pro is also expected to support dual video recording, capturing video from both the front and rear cameras at the same time. This feature, already available in third-party apps, would become a powerful built-in tool for vloggers and social media creators.
Bloomberg has reported that Apple plans to emphasize “major enhancements” in video recording with the Pro models. While details remain under wraps, possibilities include 8K video capture and other new features designed to encourage videographers to use the iPhone instead of dedicated cameras. This would represent one of the most significant leaps in Apple’s video strategy to date.
(via Bloomberg)
