The iPhone 16 series is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event on September 9. The lineup is expected to include a base iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Rumors about the phones have been swirling online in recent weeks, suggesting early design elements and expected specs. A new report suggests some camera features that the iPhone 16 Pro phones could launch with, including improvements to video recording.
iPhone 16 Series Camera Features (Expected)
According to a report from 9to5Mac, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max could feature 48-megapixel rear camera sensors with ultra-wide lenses. Both phones would also support tetraprism lenses with 5x optical zoom, while on the existing iPhone 15 series, only the Pro Max model has one.
The report added that the Pro variants of the iPhone 16 lineup could also support 4K video recording at 120 frames per second (FPS). Users will likely be able to record ProRes 4K at 120 FPS when connected to external storage. It is unclear if this feature will be available on all the phones' cameras.
For comparison, the iPhone 15 supports 4K recording at 60 FPS. QuickTake recordings on these devices can also support 4K resolution, which may be an improvement over the current 1080p support.
In particular, Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and Vivo X100 Ultra currently support 4K video recording at 120 FPS.
Apple has reportedly tested 8K video recording with the Wide and Ultra Wide lenses on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The rumored 48-megapixel sensors, as well as the A18 Pro chipsets, are expected to support this resolution quality. However, the report noted that 8K recording could be introduced with the iPhone 17 lineup.
The report added that the iPhone 16 series of smartphones could launch with support for the JPEG-XL format. The camera app could also pause and resume a video recording feature, remove wind noise in videos, introduce new photo styles with better machine learning to preserve skin tones, and introduce new spatial photo capture modes for viewing in 3D on Apple Vision Pro.
The report adds that the rumored camera button on the iPhone 16 could work with third-party apps alongside the native camera app. The touch-sensitive button is expected to allow for multiple camera controls. A gentle press can trigger autofocus, while a hard press allows you to take photos or start video recording. Meanwhile, swipe gestures could be used to adjust exposure or zoom levels.