Genius or cheating: Chameleon Phone 16 camera can shoot like a Samsung, Pixel, and Xiaomi
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
When Huawei first started working with Leica to make the cameras of the Huawei P20 series better, everyone in the smartphone industry was sceptical of the collaboration, which looked more like a marketing scheme.
Fast forward a few years, Leica now works with Xiaomi, and we also have a bunch of other similar collaborations like the ones between OnePlus and Hasselblad, as well as Vivo and Zeiss.
And would you believe it - Apple is on board too! But of course, in true Apple fashion, iPhone 16 takes it to the next level.
iPhone 16 is low-key one of Apple’s biggest camera upgrades ever - just not in a way you’d expect
Vivo X100 Ultra Zeiss filters in action.
Pixel 9 Pro vs Vivo X100 Ultra - notice Vivo’s dramatic image processing, which comes from a Zeiss filter. Taken by Ben Sin.
Now, to be clear, Apple isn’t “collaborating” with anyone for the camera tuning of the iPhone 16 series - God forbid we saw anything other than Apple’s own logo on the back of the iPhone! But the idea of what Tim Cook & Co are going for is similar, or actually… even better.
Long story short, Apple has taken the “Photographic Styles” it introduced a few years back, and made them actually useful. You no longer have to choose between four styles - you can now tweak the original output of the iPhone’s camera to take exactly the kind of photos you like.
We're talking about being able to control the shadows, highlights, brightness, exposure, and colors to a level we haven’t even dreamed of. Apple took Xiaomi, Vivo, and OnePlus’ awesome camera tricks and made them even better.
In simple terms, you can have the equivalent for Xiaomi’s “Leica” style image processing on iPhone - but it’s even more powerful and flexible.
And you don’t even have to make this choice at the time of taking the photo, as Apple does something no other phone-maker can - it lets you change the style of the photo after the fact - just like Portrait Mode on iPhone. Truly remarkable.
With iPhone 16, Apple gave up on deciding what kind of photos the iPhone camera should take - you have all the power now
As you can see in the samples, you can take a flat-looking image, which the iPhone would take by default, and turn it into something way more dramatic. Or vice versa.
Add to that the three new cameras in the smaller iPhone 16 Pro, and suddenly we have an exciting cameraphone for those who like taking photos with character but aren’t pro photographers.
Now, the choice is yours - do you want to use Apple’s default image tuning? Or do you want to go for something natural, or stylistic? The great news is that you can set up the Photographic Styles and switch between them as you wish. Or simply choose one and make it your default style, which means every photo you take will have a similar vibe - of course, this will vary depending on the scene.
However, the same Photographic Style might make things too dark in low-light. Therefore, it’d be awesome if Apple’s planning to introduce a quick toggle, which lets you switch between at least two styles with just one tap on the screen, without having to go into the Photographic Styles menu at all.
Samsung and Google can’t compete with iPhone 16 in pro-grade flexibility when taking photos now - Apple’s Photographic Styles should come to video
iPhone default photo mode (left), Galaxy default photo mode (middle), iPhone with Amber Photographic Style right). Taken by SuperSaf.
All in all, I think it’s good to understand exactly what’s happening here.
With the powerful updates to the Photographic Styles on iPhone 16, which used to be pretty basic before, Apple gave up on deciding what kind of photos the iPhone camera should take.
Instead, you have all the power now, and you can make the photo output of your iPhone truly your own, and that’s a big statement from the same Apple known for making iPhone users settle for what Apple thinks is best.
Again, these are not filters you apply on your photos - you choose the way the camera takes photos. This means even if the Pixel 9 Pro or Galaxy S24 Ultra manage to take a “better” photo than the iPhone 16 Pro by default - you’d be able to adjust the iPhone’s camera to match or surpass what the competition can do. It’s a big deal!
As you can see in the photo from above (courtesy of SuperSaf), Apple’s default shooting mode can sometimes make darker skin tones appear quite muted. Just like Saf mentions in his evaluation, applying the “Amber” Photographic Style easily solves this, making the iPhone’s photo more similar to that of the Galaxy. But you can adjust the look even further if you wish.
Apple’s Photographic Styles are next-level stuff - they should come to video mode
Apple’s select Photographic Styles as seen in the iPhone 16’s camera app. You can tweak them to your liking.
If I have one “complaint”, it is that I’d love to see the same level of freedom in video mode. Of course, I know allowing such a level of editing in video mode would be way more challenging as it requires more processing power, but I’m sure Apple can eventually pull it off.
Lowering the shadows and making the highlight control a little less aggressive could bring the iPhone’s video way closer to that of a “DSLR” - at least in style.
I say… keep going, Apple! This is the level of flexibility a “Pro” phone deserves.
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