September is often a busy time for gadget lovers. Lots of conferences tend to take place in this month, including IFA and Photokina. Apple is also known to hold its release conferences in September – and this year is no different. There’s an event on September 7th, during which, many are assuming that the new iPhone 7 release date, price and specifications will finally be announced.
The iPhone camera has always proved extremely popular, so one of the key highlights of the announcement is likely to be how the camera and imaging specs stack up compared to the previous version. We’ve put together a wishlist of things we’d like to see – some of which may come true when the announcement happens… stay tuned to find out if so.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: sensor size
It would be great news if Apple decided to equip the iPhone 7 with a larger sensor as this would be better for low light capture, as well as more creativity when it comes to shallow depth of field. Apple stuck with 8 megapixels for a long time, finally upping it to 12 megapixels for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. This still lags behind some other smartphone manufacturers in terms of resolution, but cramming extra pixels on to a sensor of the same size usually results in poorer low light performance. If Apple decides to increase the sensor size, it wouldn’t be surprising therefore if we also see a jump in resolution.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: lens
At the moment, the iPhone 6S sports a fixed lens with an f/2.2 aperture. It seems incredibly unlikely that we’ll see an iPhone with a zoom lens any time soon, but it would be good if aperture could be widened to f/1.8. Again, this would be good news for low light capture, helping to let more light on to the sensor.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: native camera app
It’s safe to say that the current native app for the iPhone 6S (and previous versions of the phone) is pretty basic. That’s fine for a lot of users, but for more advanced photographers, it can be a little frustrating. Plenty of Android phones give you the opportunity to change key parameters, such as exposure compensation, ISO, metering and so on. We’d like to see Apple giving us that option straight from the native camera app so it’s always on hand.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: raw shooting
The capability to shoot in raw format is something that has been available on Android phones for some time. Apple has already announced that iOS 10 will see the introduction of raw shooting support (so that also means that older phones than the iPhone 7 will be able to access it too). However, it’s not certain whether raw shooting will be included in the native camera app, but rather, limited to any developers who want to include it in third-party apps. Again, we’d prefer to see it as standard in the native app.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: optical image stabilisation
At present, OIS is included in the iPhone 6S Plus version of the camera, but not the iPhone 6S. This is likely to be because the larger size of the Plus makes it more difficult to hold steady, thus making stabilisation necessary. But if the technology is there, it would make sense to bring it over to all versions of the phone to help keep shots as sharp as possible at all times.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: battery life
Battery life is (probably) the biggest bugbear of any iPhone user. Especially so if you’re using the camera a lot. It would be great if Apple could come up with a way of increasing the battery life. Rumours suggest that the device could be even slimmer than the 6S, which may be bad news for those holding out for an increase in battery size. Quick charging would also be a good bonus for those times that the battery drains.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: increased storage options
Many Android phones have Micro SD card capability. No iPhone has ever done that – and while we don’t expect that to come to the iPhone 7, it would be nice if it did. What seems more likely is that Apple will ditch the lowest capacity iPhone (16GB) altogether, and increase the maximum size available to 256GB – hopefully enough for even the most snap-happy photographer.
iPhone 7 camera wishlist: weatherproofing
It would be great if Apple were able to make its iPhones weather or water resistant. There’s plenty of great photography opportunities when it’s raining, or there’s water in the vicinity, but iPhoneographers may be worried about getting their precious device wet . Just think of how many more photos you’d be able to take if that worry wasn’t there (better get the biggest capacity available, then).
We’ll find out how many of wishlist specifications are met on September 7 – stay tuned and let us know if you have any of your own in the comments box below.
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