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I’m at the picturesque Dunton Valley Campground in southwestern Colorado, where I’ve spent the past week testing the iPhone 18 Pro’s new cameras and features.
In addition to variable aperture and Pro Controls, Apple has also built in a series of new features on the new iPhone, such as Photography Style 3 with film texture and grain control, 4K time-lapse photography, and Focus Tracking. As always, every time I start field testing, I ask myself one question:
How will these new technologies make our photos and videos better?
Dunton Valley Campground has been our base and it has been perfect. We were completely immersed in nature, with light, shadow and beauty everywhere we looked. Thank you to everyone at Dunton for inviting us to this extraordinary place and hosting us with such warm hospitality.
Special thanks to Taylor McKay for filming the film and for her support, testing and insights throughout.
Let’s get right to the point.
More light, deeper depth of field
The new variable aperture allows us to obtain a natural, soft shallow depth of field when needed, and can also switch to a deep depth of field when not needed. It also increases the amount of light entering by 50% in low-light environments.
The night sky in Dunton is breathtaking, so when I heard that the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera had a wider ƒ/1.48 aperture, the first thing I did was check the moon phase. Luckily, we arrived in Dunton on a new moon the night we arrived, so we were able to shoot against the extra dark sky all night long.
Starburst under variable aperture
I did a lot of testing on variable aperture starbursts, and finally found that I like the effect at ƒ/1.8 aperture the best. It has a balanced and classic look, and it looks particularly good when paired with sunlight.
I have heard some discussions about this effect, and I would like to clarify it here – this starburst is produced naturally by optics and is due to the optical physical characteristics of the variable aperture lens, not an algorithmic simulation.
The following four photos were taken using the four apertures available with the 1x lens… Please pay attention to the changes in the starburst between each stop.
Note: I recommend leaving the aperture in automatic. The iPhone 18 Pro’s camera is very good at picking out the best aperture for a scene, often better than I can. Indoor dinner? It automatically selects ƒ/1.48; there is enough light outdoors but you need depth of field? It will select a higher aperture value to keep the overall picture clear.
I only leave automatic when I have a clear creative intention: shallow depth of field, motion blur, or starbursts.
It’s easy to get excited about these new creative spaces, but don’t forget the real point:
Variable aperture means everyone’s photos get better overall.
Professional controls are finally here
There was a lot of talk about variable apertures at the launch keynote, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one. But what really surprised me was that I discovered the manual focus function after opening the camera app, which had not been mentioned at all before.
Separating exposure and focus controls is one of the most requested features among photographers, and now it’s finally here! You just set the focus manually (focus peaking is really useful!) and click where you want the meter to be.
Independent control of focus and exposure is indeed a big deal, and it is the main reason why many photographers use third-party camera apps.
Take a look at the following set of photos, from shallow to deep depth of field:
This photo is a good example of where manual focus can shine. The autofocus always wanted to focus on the window itself, but what I wanted was the reflection of the mountains – I switched to manual focus and captured it easily.
Freeze and blur motion
Professional photographers have long controlled shutter speed to achieve different effects on their cameras – motion blur (longer shutter times) and frozen motion (shorter shutter times).
Freezing motion on the iPhone camera has never been difficult because the default shutter speed is extremely fast. However, it becomes quite tricky to achieve motion blur with the same default settings, which is one of the main reasons why I prefer to use a third-party camera app – Halide.
As long as the subject moves fast enough, the shutter does not need to be opened very long to achieve a blurry effect. I stopped down the aperture to ƒ/4, pulled down the shutter to 1/15 second, and tried to stabilize the iPhone camera to take the photo below.
Let’s look at another example of motion blur: This time I didn’t hold the iPhone camera completely steady, but panned along with the rider, injecting strong movement and tension into the picture.
focus tracking
I wasn’t too excited about focus tracking at first because I don’t usually have trouble focusing on the iPhone. However, the iPhone 18 Pro’s new camera has a very shallow depth of field at ƒ/1.48, and I quickly realized that having the right focus tool does matter.
This feature really helps when shooting macro and close-ups. In the past, when I wanted to take a close-up of a flower, it was very difficult to keep the focus due to the extremely shallow depth of field: it was difficult for the camera to remain completely still. Even if it was mounted on a tripod, the flower would sway with the wind, and the focus would always wander between virtual and real. With the new focus tracking function, this is no longer a problem – after double-clicking to lock the focus, it can firmly hold the focus regardless of the camera moving or the flower swinging.
Focus tracking is extremely useful and it performed better than I expected.
This demo shows how focus tracking works:
The focus tracking function is also very useful when looking past foreground objects to focus on distant subjects, and the effect is surprisingly good. Double-click on the target you want to lock on, and then you can move the camera freely.
Here’s a short demo:
A new photography style: texture and grain control
The photography style function is very powerful, but I always feel that many people have not used it seriously. These photographic styles are sophisticated and offer advanced adjustment options that are hard to replicate even in Photoshop… and this year it goes even further. I really like the new film texture and grain controls, which allow me to quickly and easily change the look of my photos. Dunton itself has a sense of the old days, and it’s so interesting to be able to use these tools to make photos have less of a digital feel and more of a film feel.
One thing I noticed is that, like real film, the grain in Photographic Style is thicker in the shadows than in the midtones and highlights.
There will also be a halo around the highlights, which can be increased or decreased using the film slider in Photography Style. A subtle example can be seen by looking closely at the edge of Dunton’s Tavern’s bar. In traditional film, haloing is a physical phenomenon: light from extremely bright areas passes through the emulsion layer, scatters or reflects within the film, and again sensitizes the emulsion, creating a soft, diffuse halo around highlights.
I’ve noticed this effect appearing in some of my photos with very bright highlights as well, and love the texture it adds to the overall vibe.
Trivia: Look closely at the bar and you’ll spot the legendary Butch Cassidy’s name. Legend has it that he hid in Dunton after robbing a bank in nearby Telluride.
In addition to the “film” texture, we can also choose the “soft skin” or “halo” texture, which is the texture used in the two photos below.
Here’s what all photography styles look like with default settings:
As you can see, I played around with these photography styles… Here’s how I get the best results with film…
- Shoot darker, say -1.0, and open the aperture wide to ƒ/1.48. Using manual focus will make the image slightly softer (and that’s okay!).
- Shoot with HEIF so you can apply a photography style.
- In the later stage, drag the point on the D-Pad to the lower right corner. This weakens the tone mapping (aka that HDR look), darkens the shadows, and overexposes the highlights.
- The Film Effect can be turned down to reduce haloing, it can be a bit over the top at times.
I rarely use ProRAW now, and mostly use HEIF… unless I’m shooting starry skies or low-light scenes, where I need to control grain and noise reduction myself.
Reference image
When Apple began to introduce the Reference Image at the conference keynote, my first question was: “How is it different from RAW or DNG, which are also uneditable?” As far as I can tell, the difference lies in the “signature”. Think of it like a paper contract: your RAW is a clean original locked in a drawer; the reference image is the same original with a notary stamp. The copy in the drawer is probably genuine, and the notarized copy iscan be provenis true.
Turn it on in “Settings > Camera > Reference Image > Add Reference Mode”. It will get a separate mode in the Camera App, next to “Photo”, suitable for the main sensor (1x and 2x), but not 0.5x, 4x and 8x.
why it is important
For the first time in history, photographs no longer inherently constitute evidence. Anyone can generate a fake image in a matter of seconds, so the default assumption is reversed – from “true unless proven false” to “false unless proven true.” Since the birth of photography, “I have a photo” has been enough to end the debate; Photoshop began to erode that trust, and AI delivered the final blow. Reference images are the way to go.
If Apple opens this technology to third parties (which I think it will), it can be imagined that it will be used for vehicle damage verification in insurance claims, landlords’ check-in and check-out photos, and product photos for second-hand transactions. I also really hope Instagram launches a “verified photo” logo, especially now that Leica and Sony are already using Content Credentials to sign documents.
This sounds like a feature meant for photojournalism and historical recording, but it’s just as important to us. With Clear, Extended and Reframed, we can now extend reality so that six months or six years later we can no longer remember what we changed. The timing was perfect: while the camera team gave us a tool to reshape our photos, they also gave us a tool to authenticate them.
Photographs are important because they represent moments that actually happened. Somewhere, light falls on the sensor. Reference images provide us with this foundation when it really matters.
4K time-lapse photography
I absolutely love taking time-lapse photography. Remember our time-lapse video shot in Switzerland with an iPhone 6S?
Previously, time-lapse videos shot with the native camera app were only 1080p, and it was always awkward to put them into our review videos. Now with 4K, the time-lapse video clips are the same resolution as our video.
Here is a 4K time-lapse video of the ranch:
After taking this time-lapse video, I noticed that there was a moment where the light was more dramatic, illuminating the trees on the left. Since the time-lapse video is already 4K, I hope there is an easy way to export this high-resolution single frame… To my surprise, this function actually exists!
This is the final exported frame:
In addition, there is a new feature in the camera app called “Adaptive” delay, which slows down the delay when motion is detected. I’ve tried it a few times and honestly haven’t quite figured out how it works. Looking forward to seeing how everyone uses it.
I’m glad that time-lapse photography is finally being taken seriously, and I hope there are more improvements to come.
The lens combination is just right
I don’t know about you, but for me, the lens combination of the iPhone 17 Pro is just right… 0.5x and 1x have always been excellent, but what often changes is the optical telephoto. The 5x viewing angle is a bit too narrow, and the 3x on previous generations of iPhones wasn’t always adequate. The 4x on iPhone 17 Pro not only provides a just-right viewing angle of 100mm, but also has 48 million pixels.
I have been using these “eight lenses” very smoothly throughout the year, and I am glad that the iPhone 18 Pro camera maintains this combination.
iPhone Duo and iPhone relay
I tried out the iPhone Duo at Apple Park and it was amazing. It feels great to hold and the screen is amazing. I really like SmartTake – it can recognize the scene and automatically press the shutter when everyone is ready in the group photo; and Kid Cue, which uses the external screen to attract the attention of the children in the frame. Thanks to its unique design, iPhone Duo can stand on its own without the need for a tripod.
The Duo’s camera system is excellent: 48-megapixel ultrawide and wide-angle, but no telephoto. I can hardly live without the 4x, otherwise it would be my daily main machine. However, since the new iPhone Handoff function allows two iPhones to share the same mobile phone number… would it be too much to bring two of them at the same time? 🤔
Worth mentioning
At the press conference, Apple’s Kaiann Drance said that AirDrop can now be up to 80% faster, and is achieved by software. I didn’t do a side-by-side test, but I do feel that AirDrop on my iPhone is incredibly fast.
The display of the new model uses a new color calibration based on Apple’s Color Matching Function (CMF), resulting in more accurate and consistent colors. In Apple’s words, “This advancement bridges the gap between the ability to display color and its true perceived quality.” I love hearing how much hard work engineers put in behind the scenes to make this possible.
What expectations
- The new professional controls are exciting and very welcome, but they take time to get used to. There are so many options that it’s hard to remember where everything is, change the settings I want, and get back to shooting. I think I’ll get used to the new camera interface over time, but it’s made me rethink years of discussions about “professional camera apps” – now with variable aperture and true manual controls, I’m wondering if it’s really time. Apple made Final Cut Camera for serious filmmakers, and I would love to see a professional camera app for photographers along the same lines.
- I really like the grain effect and appreciate the intelligence of it, but I wish I could freely increase or decrease the intensity. Most of the time, I add grain as a subtle touch–you won’t necessarily notice it when you look at the image, but you can feel it. Sometimes it’s for a certain atmosphere, sometimes it’s because I’ve done some retouching and the particles can help make the transition more natural (like after using the “Clear” function).
- I wish there was a speed option for time-lapse photography! Such as fast, faster, extremely fast. When ending time-lapse shooting, you can choose the desired speed.
- I hope SmartTake, which is only available on iPhone Duo, will also appear on iPhone 18 Pro. It’s going to be very useful, and I can’t wait to field test some of these features on the Duo’s cameras.
iPhone 18 Pro tips for photographers
- As always, do your “creative warm-up” first! After you get a new camera, use it to its limit and find out its temperament.
- Go to “Settings > Camera” to view the newly available features.
- You can customize the camera top bar! Press and hold the icon bar at the top of the camera, then choose which items to put in and in what order. I put aperture, shutter speed, focus mode, exposure compensation, night mode and file format.
- Play around with your photography style. There’s a lot of power in it… whether it’s fine-tuning a tonal base or completely changing an image with a film atmosphere.
- Leave the aperture on automatic except for specific purposes.
- Shooting in HEIF rather than ProRAW in most cases. Photography style only takes effect on HEIF, not RAW…and HEIF files take up less space than RAW.
- Focus on shooting on location… then review and edit the photos after you get home.
Buying advice for photographers
Fortunately, the camera system of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max is exactly the same as last year. The iPhone 18 Pro’s camera angle is the same as last year’s iPhone 17 Pro, which I think is a perfect combination. If you have the 17 Pro (a great camera) and are considering upgrading… the main things to consider are variable aperture, excellent focus tracking, and of course the style of photography with film and grain control that I enjoy! Should you buy iPhone 18 Pro or wait for iPhone Duo? It’s really hard to choose. The iPhone 18 Pro’s camera system is stronger, but the Duo’s camera is no slouch either, and will be great for framing, editing, and sharing. If you are a professional who relies on iPhone to produce photos, the 18 Pro is probably a more stable choice; but for most people, the Duo’s camera system is more than enough. Battery life is impressive on both models, especially the Max. If you often run out of battery, choose Max. Buy black. The camera should be black, glad to see it back and I will buy this one too. The iPhone 17 Pro cases and accessories can still be used on the 18 Pro, which is really thoughtful!
Summarize
Since the original iPhone, the goal of the iPhone camera has been to take sharp, color-accurate photos. This makes sense and is exactly what most people need.
But for creative professionals, this means that even something as simple as “artistic motion blur” can sometimes feel like competing with the camera. This year, things have changed.
With these new tools that allow us to lengthen the shutter and deliberately introduce film imperfections, we have new ways to capture and express our personal perspectives—even if the results are not “technically correct.”
Technical accuracy is important. But a great photo is rarely just accurate. It captures a feeling, and this year’s tools give photographers unprecedented freedom to do just that.
As David Alan Harvey said: “Don’t shoot how it looks, shoot how it feels.”
