iPhone 16 camera upgrades and capture button details have leaked – here's what you need to know

Expect much better low-light photos on all models, and the new shutter-style Capture button for smarter shooting

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
(Image credit: Future)
Carrie Marshall
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Quick Summary

The iPhone 16 range is getting a host of camera upgrades including a better ultrawide on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. Both Pro models are getting the 5x telephoto, and all models get the new Capture button.

Almost all the details of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro have leaked in advance of next month's iPhone 16 launch. And that means we now know a lot about the camera upgrades you can expect in all of the incoming iPhone models, and exactly how the new Capture button will work.

Following on from yesterday's leaks posted on the former Twitter, AppleInsider has been given very detailed information about the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max cameras – a level of detail that I haven't seen before, right down to aperture sizes for different cameras.

Here's what you need to know.

What's new in the iPhone 16 camera and iPhone 16 Plus camera

Both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will have twin cameras on the back: a main camera with 1x and 2x zoom, and an ultra-wide camera for 0.5x zooming out. They'll be stacked vertically instead of diagonally this time around.

The primary camera will be the same as in the iPhone 15: 48MP with an f/1.6 aperture and 2x telephoto. But the ultrawide is getting a faster aperture of f/2.2 compared to f/2.4, which should mean better low light shooting.

AppleInsider says that for the first time, the non-Pro iPhones will be able to shoot in macro mode.

What's new in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max cameras

The Pro and Pro Max have three rear cameras: wide, ultrawide and telephoto. The primary sensor is still 48MP with f/1.78, but this year both the Pro and Pro Max will get the 5x telephoto lens, up from 3x in the iPhone 15 Pro. It's 12MP and f/2.8.

The ultrawide lens is getting a boost to 48MP and will have the same pixel-binning feature as the main camera, shooting in quad-pixel mode to capture more light. It's expected to support 48MP ProRAW photos too.

All of the iPhone 16 cameras are believed to support a new image format, JPEG-XL, and the Pro models are expected to support 3K video at 120fps with Dolby Vision. 

All four iPhones are getting the new Capture button. It's in the lower right corner so should feel in the right place for a shutter button when you hold your phone in landscape mode, and it's designed exclusively for camera apps including third party ones. It has a half-press function like in a traditional camera, and it can detect slides as well as presses – perhaps for features such as zooming in and out.

Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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