New telephoto on the back, square selfie sensor (kind of)
The iPhone 17 Pro gets as close to being a major camera hardware upgrade as we can expect from one generation iPhone to the next. There is a new telephoto camera on the back, as well as a new selfie camera – each solving specific issues, some of which we didn’t even know we had.
For the new telephoto camera, Apple has upgraded the sensor – it’s now a 48MP 1/2.55″ unit like the one on the ultrawide camera. The tetraprism lens design remains, but the equivalent focal length is now 100mm, while the aperture is kept at f/2.8. Sensor shift stabilization keeps things steady – like on the previous telephoto and 5 generations of main cameras before this one.
The new lens’ shorter focal length (vs. the 120mm of the previous one) should be better for midrange shots, while the extra resolution, in theory, should be able to produce superior photos beyond the nominal focal length – though that has proven not to be the case in experience.
The ultrawide camera is the same as last year, and so too is the main unit. Both use 48ÐœP sensors, and the one on the main camera is pretty big, with a 1/1.28″ optical format. The main camera is also sensor-shift-stabilized.
All three rear cameras now offer 24MP shooting capability – up until now it was only on the main camera. All three can also shoot in 48MP too.
Apple’s new 18MP selfie camera makes a debut across the entire lineup, bringing an interesting concept for at least a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the octagonal shape of the sensor. That enables shooting in portrait and landscape orientation with the same diagonal field of view without actually rotating the phone.
WekiHome on YouTube)”>
iPhone 17 series selfie camera sensor (image courtesy of WekiHome on YouTube)
Wide (main): 48MP Sony IMX 903 (1/1.28″, 1.22µm-2.44µm), f/1.78, 24mm, dual-pixel PDAF, sensor-shift IS; 4K@120
Ultrawide: 48MP Sony IMX 972 (1/2.55″, 0.7µm-1.4µm), f/2.2, 13mm, PDAF; 4K@60fps
Telephoto 4x: 48MP Sony IMX 973 (1/2.55″, 0.7µm-1.4µm), f/2.8, 100mm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift IS; 4K@60fps
Front camera: 18MP Sony IMX 914 (likely 1.0µm), f/1.9, 20mm, PDAF; 4K@60fps
iOS 26 simplifies the camera interface by bringing Photo and Video modes to the forefront, with other modes accessed by swiping left or right. You might think the other modes have disappeared, but if you swipe sideways from the active mode, they show up – perhaps not the most intuitive implementation.
You swipe up to reveal capture options like flash and exposure – another thing you don’t have a visual clue for, so you have to know it’s there. The same menu is also accessed from an icon in the far corner, so the options are available to those who aren’t familiar with Apple’s ways. Some contextual indicators/buttons also show up there, like the auto Night mode crescent, and there’s also an always featured flash toggle there in addition to it being present in the swipe-up menu – it’s a bit of a mess, yes.
iPhone camera app on iOS 26 • Camera settings in Settings
The Camera Control dedicated capacitive touch area/button is present on all the models in the iPhone 17 series. In iOS 26, the feature has been simplified to be more intuitive (supposedly), and you can customize which camera settings appear in the control overlay by double-light pressing the control button and accessing “Customize” within the Camera Control settings. You can now choose your most frequently used options, such as exposure, depth, zoom, or camera switching, making the control button less overwhelming and more efficient.
In keeping with tradition, unfortunately, Apple’s camera settings remain incredibly convoluted and disorganized. With the new camera UI redesign, you can at least quickly access a subset of the camera resolution controls, but not all of them – sorely missing is 12MP/24MP switching, which you still operate from the main settings. Most advanced options are still hidden away and utterly disorganized within the main settings menu.
Daylight photo quality
Main camera
The iPhone 17 Pro brings some minor but welcome improvements in the color science compared to the previous generation and we’re now getting livelier, more easily likeable rendition, on top of a typically accurate white balance. There’s plenty of detail in the default 24MP shots, even though random textures may not be the most organic. There’s great overall contrast and wide dynamic range with well developed shadow and highlight transitions.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 24MP
Human subject rendition has its peculiarities on the iPhone 17 Pro – a tendency to soften facial detail as well as aggressive highlight restoration resulting in overly warm and saturated skin tones in some scenes.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Portrait mode
If you’d like to save some storage space, you can choose to shoot in 12MP and that should be easily good enough for almost all use cases.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 12MP
The 48MP mode on the main camera produces shots with an added level of detail – perhaps you wouldn’t shoot that way all the time, but you can use it occasionally when you want to extract the most out of a scene.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 48MP
The 12MP 2x shots are properly great, with nice detail even in random textures. That’s an improvement over the previous generation too, which itself wasn’t too shabby.
Daylight samples, main camera (2x)
The dedicated Portrait mode defaults to 2x zoom and we can appreciate why that is – the 48mm-equivalent focal length is better for facial features, perspective and shooting distance. It’s the same in terms of dynamic range and skin rendition as the 1x zoom level.
Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Portrait mode
Telephoto camera
The new telephoto camera captures good but ultimately not amazing photos. Saved in 24MP, the images have good detail but lack absolute 1:1 sharpness, plus they have an artificial rendition of random textures. Other than that, however, we’re happy with the output – dynamic range and colors are excellent.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (4x), 24MP
The 12MP versions of the photos also have a fairly processed look to detail, though they do look sharper on a pixel level.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (4x), 12MP
You could also choose to shoot in 48MP and do your own post-processing to extract more detail and have better control of how it’s rendered.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (4x), 48MP
Shooting people at 4x, you’d still get more or less the same color and dynamic range treatment as on the main camera, as well as the facial detail smoothening. On the flipside, the 100mm focal length will give you nice compression and tighter framing for head-and-shoulders portraits.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (4x), Photo mode
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (4x), Portrait mode
We weren’t truly excited by the 8x zoom shots. They’re not necessarily better than what the iPhone 16 Pro could do, though they do offer decent detail and excellent global properties.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (8x)
Another thing that we’re not raving about is the close focusing capability of the iPhone 17 Pro’s telephoto camera – at roughly 85cm, its minimum focusing distance renders it unsuitable for closeups.
Closeups
There’s a silver lining, however, and that’s in the main camera’s 2x zoom results at close range. You’ll be getting very good sharpness and detail and pretty decent reproduction, if not quite macro. You’ll certainly be way better off at 2x on the main camera than trusting the iPhone’s auto ‘macro’ mode that relies of on the ultrawide camera and comes with a wide-ranging set of issues stemming from the super close subject distance (disturbing the subject, shadows, iffy perspective).
Closeup samples, main camera (2x), Photo mode
Ultrawide camera
If you’d limit your ultrawide camera’s usage to interiors, expansive vistas, or exaggerated perspectives, the iPhone 17 Pro will do just fine. Sharpness is good in the 24MP photos, dynamic range is great, the white balance is accurate and colors are alright, if a little bit more muted than on the main camera.
Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 24MP
The 12MP mode will get you better pixel-level sharpness than the 24MP results with essentially the same detail.
Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 12MP
Here’s how some of those scenes look when saved at the nominal resolution.
Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 48MP
Selfies
Selfies from the iPhone 17 Pro aren’t too different from those you’d get out of the previous generation if you stick to 1:1 detail examination. But the new model does feature a notably wider field of view and has the extra pixels to cover it, which is great for fitting more people or surroundings in the frame. It’s also helpful that you don’t have to rotate the handset itself to get landscape shots without losing quality.
Selfie samples
Low-light photo quality
Main camera
The iPhone 17 Pro’s auto Night mode kicks in relatively rarely, meaning you can have 24MP low-light shots in most conditions other than complete darkness (though you can, of course, opt to shoot in 12MP yourself).
Shooting on the main camera at night, you can expect excellent results. There’s a little grain in the shadows, but detail is great. Dynamic range is nice and wide, with a little bit of a tendency to leave some highlight clipping with point light sources that doesn’t get in the way. The auto white balance is dependable and colors are looking excellent as well.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x), 24MP
Here’s how the above scenes look when shot at 12MP, plus an extra scene where the phone wouldn’t give us a 24MP shot in full auto.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x), 12MP
The 2x results are also top-class – sharp and detailed, like they came out of a good dedicated 2x camera.
Low-light samples, main camera (2x)
Telephoto camera
Global properties remain excellent at 4x zoom, so you can expect wide dynamic range and great color rendition. Looking from up close, you’d be less pleased to see extra graininess and relative softness – in both 24MP or 12MP.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (4x), 24MP
Here’s how these scenes would look in 12MP, plus a couple extra ones without a 24MP counterpart.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (4x), 12MP
You can still just about get away with shooting at 8x at night, with the shots looking great from a global standpoint. Detail isn’t great, but at fit-to-screen on a computer or on the phone’s own display you won’t know.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (8x)
Ultrawide camera
We shot the samples on a new moon, so that might partially explain the dim ultrawide shots, but with a field of view this wide you’re bound to end up with pretty dark shadows here or there. These photos are more or less on par with other competing phones – not because they’re all that good, but rather because even high-end phones tend to skimp on ultrawide camera hardware. Softness and graininess is what you can expect from up close.
Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 24MP
You don’t benefit much in terms of sharpness from shooting in 12MP, but you could save some kilobytes.
Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 12MP
Video recording
The iPhone 17 Pro can record video up to 4K at either 60, 30, or 24fps with all of its cameras (the three rear ones, and the front-facing one). The primary camera on the back can also do 4K120, at both 1x and 2x zoom. On our retail European units we also had PAL modes (25fps and 100fps). You get Dolby Vision recording capability in all modes too, plus ProRes and Apple Log 2 options, though you will need to record to external storage for some of the higher fps modes to be able to work.
If you want to capture 4K60 or higher, you must do so in the ‘high-efficiency’ HEVC/h.265 format, while for lesser modes you can choose between that and the AVC/h.264 option.
As before, the iPhone can be set to record Spatial Audio, in which case it will embed two audio tracks – stereo AAC for backwards compatibility and four-channel APAC. Simple stereo and mono options are also available.
Stabilization is always on in all modes (including 4K120) – you can’t turn it off if you have other means of ensuring stable footage.
You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.
The 17 Pro, in typical iPhone fashion, captures excellent video footage. You’ll get the same quality whether you’re shooting at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps on the three rear cameras and that also applies to the 2x and 8x zoom levels. The 2x and 8x modes are pretty good in terms of detail, while the native zoom levels are excellent. You can also count on great contrast, wide dynamic range and pleasantly vibrant colors.
In the dark, you’ll probably be quick to notice a long-standing problem of Apple camera lenses – internal reflections caused by lights pointing into the phone. They’re present at 1x on the main camera, but become more evident at 2x, and the telephoto’s tetraprism also suffers from its own kind of those. At least the ultrawide doesn’t get them. On a positive note, you’ll appreciate the wide dynamic range, excellent color, and sharp detail from the main camera at 1x. The ultrawide and the telephoto are a notch below, but still offer very good quality.
Stabilization is awesome too, as we’ve come to expect from iPhones. If you’re standing in one spot, the clips are nice and steady and pans are smooth too. Walking shake is also expertly dealt with.