Apple to make major change to its iPhone 16 camera design

Apple is planning a sleeker, pill-shaped camera system for its new iPhone 16, capable of capturing 3D 'spatial video' for replay on Apple's Vision Pro VR headset

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Apple is rumored to make a major change to the iPhone 16 camera, marking the first of its kind redesign since 2013.

Industry leakers shared photos of the upcoming smartphone, showing a sleeker, pill-shaped camera system capable of capturing 3D 'spatial video' for replay on Apple's Vision Pro VR headset.

The change would be a far-cry from the currentiPhone layout that features a clunky diagonal camera design.

While Apple has yet to reveal any details about its upcoming smartphone, the new leaks reveal an apparent two-camera setup with one devoted to Wide and Ultrawide fields of view.

Alleged demos of the iPhone 16's two Pro models, however, show those devices are still likely to come with a triangular camera arrangement for even higher quality 3D.

Up until now, only the iPhone 15 Pro had the capacity to record the kind of uncanny and fully immersive 3D 'spatial video' for viewing on the Vision Pro headset.

For months, industry insiders have been reporting that Apple is going to make several significant tweaks to the camera system for its upcoming iPhone 16.

A brand new button — which appeared on the side of the new iPhone case prototypes — has been reported to be a new 'capture' button for calling up the camera faster from the device's lock screen, for example.

And now, a report by Tom's Guide has investigated the new pill-alignment on the iPhone 16's alleged entry-level phones.

These vertically stacked cameras on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus would be the first major switch in alignment since the diagonally aligned lenses were first introduced with the iPhone 13's debut in September 2021.

The new alignment, according to this report, will allow the phone to capture footage from both its main and ultrawide cameras at the same time.

The synthesis of those two video feeds will allow even the lower-end iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus to create video with a sense of depth that creates the illusion of watching a real-life scene unfold right before your eyes.

'Spatial video will probably be added,' one prolific Apple leaker, who goes by Majin Bu on X, agreed. Bu posted schematics and prototypes alleged to be the iPhone 16.

But iPhone 16's two Pro models will also have unique additions to improve their capacity for producing immersive spatial video.

All of the models, from the iPhone 16 to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, will come with a new 48 megapixel ultra-wide angle which is said to be better for recording spatial video.

But the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will have a 5x telephoto lens and improved camera sensors augmenting that capacity, which could help the device take more detailed spatial videos and perhaps even spatial videos from a distance.

Majin Bu and other leakers have also reported that the new phone's cameras will come with a redesigned anti-glare lens coating — applied in precise 'atomic layer deposition' (ALD) technique — that will improve 'the long-standing ghosting problem' with iPhone's cameras.

'Ghosting' is a type of camera artifact, similar to a lens flare, in which secondary or duplicate images faintly appear, most often on the opposite side of a bright light.

The phenomena occurs as light bounces between the two surfaces of the camera's lens and its sensor.

In early May, well-known Apple insider Sonny Dickson leaked photos of four alleged prototypes for the upcoming models of the iPhone 16: the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Posting to social site X, Dickson's photo was one corroborating indication that at least the cheaper models of the iPhone 16 could have this vertically stacked, pill-shaped camera configuration.

But the leak also revealed a major potential size change, with the iPhone 16 Pro promising to be 6.3 inches long compared to the same model in 2022, which came to 6.1 inches.

This major change to the higher-end models would be the first size update Apple has done since the iPhone 12 Pros that were .6 inches more than the previous model.

However, experts note that these 'proof of concept' iPhones may not be 100 percent accurate.

So, the public will only know for sure if these images are truly correct when Apple officially unveils its new line of iPhones later this year.

The company holds several events throughout the year regarding new products — like its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) held this past June for third party app makers and Apple fans — and it has traditionally revealed it's new iPhone models in September.