Why the iPhone 7 Plus Telephoto Won’t Shoot in Low-Light Situations

Serenity Caldwell:

And yes, let’s be straight: It’s designed to be a system, working in tandem with the Camera app to minimize shortcomings or aberrations that come from taking a photo with a smartphone camera one-fifth the size of a DSLR or pro mirrorless camera. Those two photos of Rene, above, were both taken using the Camera app’s “2x” setting — but only one of them actually used the telephoto lens. (The one on the right.)

That’s because the telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus isn’t really designed to be a stand-alone shooter, no matter Apple’s “Shoot at 2x!” marketing: It shines, appropriately, when in bright light and adding detail. If you don’t find yourself taking lots of sunlit images with the Camera app, however, you may not actually be looking through that telephoto lens when framing pictures as often as you might think.

This is fascinating. Can’t wait to dive into my own tests. Please remember that you will be able to choose which camera you want to use via third-party apps, such as Obscura — the feature should be added soon. I’m pretty sure other apps will adopt this soon enough