All About 48Mpx Photography In iPhone 14 Pro (Max)
A small revolution in iPhones
Apple has introduced two major photography innovations in the new iPhone 14. The first is Action Mode, available across the range, and the second is a 48Mpx primary camera that only the 14 Pro models have. But if you thought you could use its potential in every photo you take, you're in for a disappointment.
If we go by the practice of charging Apple's competitors, it's pretty common to have cameras of 50MP or more here. In the settings, specify how many pixels you want the resulting image to have — whether to take advantage of their stacking.
The result will be only about 12Mpx, or whether to use the sensor's full potential and get a full-resolution result. This setting is also found directly in the native app, not the system settings options. Apple has gone about this in its way, but whether it's smart, you'll have to judge for yourself. So the iPhone 14 Pro doesn't shoot at 48MP by default.
They still present you with 12Mpx photos by default from whatever camera. If you want 48 megapixels, you have to force them. No algorithm automatically determines — now it's super bright, I'll use 48 Mpx. Now it's dark. I'd instead stack pixels to get a better result.
How to activate 48 Mpx resolution on iPhone 14 Pro
- Open Settings
- Select the Camera menu
- Select Formats
- Turn on Apple ProRAW
- Tap ProRAW Resolution and select 48 MP
In Photo mode, you will see the RAW icon in the camera interface. If it's unchecked, you're shooting in JPEG or HEIF at 12Mpx resolution; if it's on, you're shooting in 48Mpx in DNG format. When you select a resolution, Apple states that 12Mpx photos will be about 25MB, and 48Mpx ones will be 75MB. In our testing, we must admit that this is, unfortunately, true for owners of devices with lower storage.
12Mpx photos have a resolution of 4032 x 3024, while those in 48Mpx are 8064 x 6048 px. Of course, it depends on the complexity of the scene. But the first photo below was 96 MB, the second even 104 MB. But most often, we were between 50 and 80 MB. Remember that a RAW photo always looks worse because it's not run through so many clever algorithms designed to make the result as good as possible — you have to do that yourself and manually afterwards.
Apple also states with ProRAW that zoomed-in photos have lower resolution, which is logical as there is cropping, especially when using the new 2x zoom. RAW photos in night mode, macro mode or flash will only be 12MPx. Some macro photos are also attached in the download link.
It's not for everyday shooting, and it's a shame
In my personal opinion, Apple has made their job a lot easier. If you want to shoot at 48MP, expect a lot of data usage and work with such a photo afterwards, which needs some care. If you don't want to worry about this, don't turn ProRAW on. Of course, you'll appreciate the benefits of 48Mpx even with the resulting 12Mpx photo, as many software adjustments try to get the most out of the result.
Unfortunately, Apple no longer offers us to shoot with its clever algorithms up to 48Mpx, which other manufacturers allow, thus depriving us of choice. At the same time, this means only one thing — 48 Mpx is unlikely to make it into the entry-level lineup. If Apple wants the Pro series to be professional, this is what sets the two models apart.
If it then put 48 Mpx in the base iPhones and didn't give them the more complex ProRAW after all, it could be heavily criticized for misleading advertising, as the user would be virtually unable to shoot up to 48 Mpx (one wonders how third-party app developers would feel about this). Simply put, it's disappointing that Apple has managed to get us pretty drunk on a roll.
However, it doesn't change the fact that the iPhone 14 Pro (Max) is still the best iPhone Apple has created.
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