Camera
Got a new camera? Change these settings before you shoot!
| There’s nothing like unwrapping a new camera for the first time. |
You may have noticed a recent tsunami of new product launches. From camera bodies to lenses, accessories, software and computers, it seems every manufacturer has something new to hawk. With school graduations, Father’s Day, travel season and world events like the Olympic Games, there are plenty of new cameras vying for your attention.
If you’ve just bought a new camera, we have some tips on key settings to adjust so you can get the most out of your new gear. So before you head for the hills, the studio or a far-flung destination, take a look at these important camera settings first. A few tweaks and adjustments up front can mean the difference between fluid work and frustration.
Also, bookmark this guide for the future. We continually update our guides as we gather more knowledge, respond to changes in industry products, and take in questions from our readers on what you need and want. Let us know in the comments if we missed anything. We’re always here to help bring the joy of photography and video to everyone.
How you set up your menu and customize your buttons and dials is a very personal matter. It depends on what you shoot, which features you use and how you like to work. No matter what you’re focused on, there are a few common settings that all photographers need to get set right straight out of the box.
The Great Menu Expansion
Perhaps the most consistent change in cameras in the digital era is the size and complexity of the menu system. As an example of this growth consider Canon’s first mainstream DSLR, the Canon D30 from the year 2000, whose menu featured a total of 31 items on one long scrolling list. Canon’s recent pro-level R3, on the other hand, offers 433 menu items organized into 8 categories or tabs.
Canon and other manufacturers have done a reasonable job (some better than others) at organizing all these features into relatively logical categories like: Image quality, Playback, AF, and Wireless. However, they give you no clue as to which items you should adjust straight out of the box – which ones are better to turn off or keep on most of the time.
Perhaps the most consistent change in cameras in the digital era is the size and complexity of the menu system.
For this reason, many photographers tweak a few items as they need them and leave the rest of the menu for a time when they have nothing better to do than read a camera instruction manual – which is likely never. They then wind up living with discomfort in their shooting experience that would be easy to fix.
This article provides a short list of must-change items for all photographers. The out-of-the-box factory settings (or worse, the previous owner’s settings) may not have these settings adjusted for your needs. While I could go on all day about this, let’s start with a few hot items you’ll want to adjust on your new camera.
Diopter
Yes, the topic of this article is on menu settings and the first item isn’t in the menu. Point noted, now let’s move on. The diopter is the focus adjustment for your camera’s viewfinder. Somewhere near the eyepiece is a small knurled knob, possibly with plus and minus labels. Turning this knob will adjust lens elements in the viewfinder to adapt the clarity of the view for people with different vision needs.
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| You’ll see clearly once your diopter is correctly adjusted. |
When the diopter is adjusted properly, you’ll have a way better time seeing both your subject and the information displayed in the electronic viewfinder of a mirrorless camera or the focusing screen of a DSLR. If the diopter is slightly off you’ll likely still see a sharp image but your eyes will need to strain to keep everything in focus. A properly adjusted diopter will make viewing comfortable and strain-free.
These little knobs can easily be adjusted by accident and it’s not uncommon to look through your viewfinder and be suddenly shocked at how bad your eyesight has gotten. While some knobs have better locks than others, almost every camera I’ve used has needed this adjusted at the start, and again at various intervals. This is a rather unglamorous way to start the personalization of your camera, but without it the whole world could be a blur to you.
File Format
There is perhaps no setting as important as the file type. We’ll sidestep the whole Raw vs JPEG debate here, and we’ll simply state that whatever you decide is right for you is something you need to set up on your camera right away.
A Raw file, for the newbies out there, contains all the original capture information in an image, far more than the efficient subset contained in a JPEG. It allows you greater leeway in post-processing to recover details from shadows or highlights and to change fundamental aspects like white balance or color. The downside is that the file size is a bit on the big side (compared to JPEG) and requires special software to view and work on the image. While your camera manufacturer provides free software to do so, many people prefer to use popular photo-editing software from companies like Adobe or Capture One.
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| Whether you value the flexibility of Raw files, or the convenience of JPEG, make sure you’ve picked a file format before heading out the door. |
The JPEG file is a small convenient file that can be opened and viewed by pretty much any computer or viewing device made in the last 25 years. The downside to the JPEG is that the file is processed and compressed. While convenient for sharing online and fine for printing unaltered, it lacks the information depth of color and tones that a skilled photo editor would appreciate when working in the digital darkroom.
Thankfully, most camera manufacturers know that file type is an important setting, and it’s usually located at or near the top of the menu. You’ll also often find a shortcut to this feature in the Quick or Function menu or Control grid screen.
You can shoot Raw and JPEG at the same time, but this should only be done if you truly need it. If you have a Raw file you can make a JPEG anytime you want, in any quantity, with any adjustment you like, so long as you have a computer, the right software and the time to do it. The best time to simultaneously shoot both Raw and JPEG is when you have an immediate need for the JPEG and a long-term desire for the Raw.
Thankfully, most manufacturers know that file type is important and it’s usually located at or near the top of most menus.
Get this set right first, and if you change your photography workflow from time to time be sure to come back and revisit it. The current file type status is often displayed in the viewfinder or on the rear screen for easy monitoring.
AF beep, AF lock and AF assist lamp
Cameras tend to have AF beep, AF locked to shutter and AF assist lamp set to be active by default.
There are many reasons to keep them active; perhaps they aid people with color blindness, for instance. It often comes down to how you intend to use the camera and your personal preferences.
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| Knowing the different ways you can control autofocus can help you adjust the camera to your habits, rather than adjusting your habits to the camera. |
To fully understand what is right for you, let’s take a look at what each one does.
Autofocus (AF) beep settings allow for an audible confirmation that what you are trying to use AF on is in focus. It is an additional cue to the visual cue you’ll see when a focus box changes colors to confirm focus. Some users may like the sound or may need the sound if they have trouble seeing the visual color change. Others may feel it is a distraction. DPReview editor Richard Butler says, “Turning off the beep and AF illuminator are the first things I do,” because it’s potentially distracting to others while he’s trying to make images.
“To fully understand what is right for you, examine each setting’s function. In the end, it all comes down to your personal preference.”
The AF assist lamp is a feature that shines a light on whatever you’re framing to help the AF focus. The camera uses this light to have enough light to create enough contrast to help it focus. Here again, it comes down to your personal preference. DPReview editor Shaminder Dulai says he hates it and it’s the first thing he turns off, “I feel like the lamp is like shouting ‘Hey look at me, I’m about to take a picture,’ and it completely takes you out of the headspace of making images and is often annoying to others around you. Since I do documentary work, I aim to be a fly on the wall and earn trust to get to more ‘real’ moments and beeps and lights don’t help me get there.”
Most cameras come from the factory set to activate their AF with a half press of the shutter. Many photographers prefer using a dedicated AF button if they have that option, and we encourage you to try that as well to see if it suits you better.
With a little time spent trying it both ways, you may decide you love the shutter half-press or that you hate it, the key is to be aware of both and to try them for yourself.
Dulai says for him, “The focus being tied to the shutter leaves me fighting the camera and not focused on the story. It’s all preference at the end of the day. I sometimes leave my focus point centered and like to focus, meter and then recompose the image with a dedicated button.” On the other hand, DPReview editor Dale Baskin likes the half press, saying, “I’ve tried switching to back button focus many times over the years, and it just doesn’t work for me. I have no problem shooting fast action sports using the half press method and never miss a beat.”
So, opinions vary even among the DPReview editors. The point is to be aware of what your camera is doing, learn how to try all the options across the settings and see what works best for you.
Card Format
Photos from your camera will likely be stored on a removable memory card, and like any storage area (digital or real) it should be cleared of unnecessary clutter before use. Each camera manufacturer has a slightly different way of communicating with the card and storing images on it. To create a clean, reliable line of communication between camera and card it is highly recommended that you ‘format’ a new card inside the camera before heading out to capture photos.
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| Formatting your digital storage medium with a new camera ensures they’ll become fast friends. |
Be advised that formatting a card will delete all the photos on it, along with any folders, seen or unseen, and will set up a new storage structure and path. Formatting is also recommended when heading out on a new shoot, so long as the photos from the last shoot have been downloaded and backed up first. There’s nothing like starting with a clean slate.
Date and Time
Mundane and trivial to some, the capture date and time of every image is stored in its metadata (extra information that can be viewed by software) and having it correct may potentially save headaches in the future. Many cameras now have simple adjustments for traveling to different time zones and adjusting for daylight saving time so that you don’t need to fiddle with the actual time setting. I’ve found that cameras are not particularly accurate in their timekeeping over the long haul, so if you’re fussy about having exactly the right time stamp on your photos you may need to revisit this feature every few months or so.
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| Having the correct date and time set on your camera can help you remember when you captured photos. |
Copyright Info
Another item in the image metadata that may be beneficial at some point in the future is setting your name and any other pertinent personal info. Be advised that this data can be overwritten by anyone with access to your digital file. This setting is for information that may be helpful to you or others, but it is not in the realm of lock-tight security options.
Adding your name in the copyright field provides a very low level of security; think of it simply as a note that it is you who took the photo, or at the very least an image that came from your camera. This can be convenient if your images have been casually mixed with others and you need to identify the owner or creator.
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| Embedding copyright information can help identify your photos or even recover your camera. |
You can also use this setting to put in specific copyright information like ‘All Rights Reserved,’ to let anyone else with access to the file know what your intentions are. Once again, though, be advised that this can easily be overwritten by the laziest of hackers. A potential use for this area is your contact information, usually in email form. Should your camera be lost or stolen it could provide a link back to you. True, the bad guy won’t care about this, but the honest one who does want to do the right thing will have information on how to contact you.
Firmware updates
Like everything else, today’s cameras are packed with powerful electronics, and increasingly, software is advancing faster than hardware to take advantage of improvements. We recommend looking on your manufacturer’s website to check for any new firmware update that has been issued for your camera and reading up on what they does.
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| Firmware updates aren’t required but they can sometimes address bugs that help you enjoy it longer. |
Some updates are minor, fixing things like a typo in a menu, while others can improve camera performance or add new features. Your camera will still work without the firmware update, so it’s up to you to decide when and if you want to update. But, a word of caution from Dulai, “I never jump on new firmware updates, preferring to wait a few months if possible. This gives me time to research the firmware and time to let any potential bugs surface from the wave of early adopters.”
As an alternative to checking manufacturer websites, virtually all cameras released today have accompanying smartphone apps. These apps can be set to alert you when new firmware is released.
Registering your product and document your serial numbers
This one may seem obvious, but it’s important to call out. Registering your product with the manufacturer may grant you a warranty or other support services; just remember to opt out of any promo e-mails if you don’t want them.
More crucial is that you document your serial number, product name, purchase date and price paid. You don’t have to keep this information anywhere fancy: an e-mail, spreadsheet, or paper journal are all great options. The goal is to have everything documented and saved because if you ever are robbed and need to file a police report or an insurance claim, this is the information you’ll need.
“None of these settings will help you create great photos, but they can make the experience of shooting with your new camera a bit easier.”
Set up and head out
None of these settings will help you create great photos, but they can make the experience of shooting with your new camera a bit easier. Paging through the labyrinth of the menu system isn’t the first choice of activity for a photographer, but trust me, there’s a lot of useful stuff in there. Getting your camera set up specifically for your needs is like getting a custom-tailored suit – it will prepare you for whatever may come and give you confidence when you head out into the world.
Did we miss anything? What settings and adjustments do you make straight out of the box? Tell us in the comments.
| Images: Tamron |
Tamron has announced a firmware update that it says will ‘significantly’ improve the autofocus tracking performance on the Sony E-Mount versions of its 70-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III RXD and 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD lenses. The company’s press release says the lenses should now ‘keep excellent track of moving subjects.’
The updates also add support for Sony’s AF Assist function, which lets you manually focus even when autofocus is enabled. That should be handy for videographers who want to use autofocus to initially grab focus but then rack focus to something else in the frame, provided they have a Sony body that supports the feature.
The firmware is now available to download from Tamron’s site.
| Image: Apple |
It’s that time of year: Apple has announced its new suite of iPhones, raising the question of whether current owners should upgrade or stick with their older model.
There are many factors to consider – those still using the Lightning port could potentially justify an upgrade for USB-C alone– but we’ll mainly focus on the cameras for this article. This year, more than ever, the price premium on the Pro phones doesn’t make much sense if you’re not using them for photography and videography, so we’ll be trying to answer a straightforward question: will upgrading let you take better pictures?
Note: unlike last year’s models, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max appear to have identical camera setups. We’ll talk a lot about the ‘iPhone 16 Pro’s’ cameras in this article, but anything we say will apply to both size options.
Scenario 1: You have an iPhone 15 Pro
We’ll start by comparing the 16 Pro to the last-generation 15 Pro since it lets us talk about the brand new features that will be an upgrade over the 14 Pro and 13 Pro too. However, we’ll start by saying it’s hard to recommend the year-over-year upgrade unless you have a specific use case that requires the new features.
Even Apple quietly admits this; during the announcement, whenever it compared the iPhone 16 Pro to previous models, it was usually put up against the iPhone 14 Pro instead of its direct predecessor. The iPhone 15 Pro is also the only other phone in Apple’s lineup capable of running all the Apple Intelligence features, which are the main selling point of the iPhone 16 line.
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| Image: Apple |
However, there are still some improvements to be found in the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera system. Apple says that the 16 Pro uses a ‘second-generation’ sensor for its main camera, which can read out data two times faster, ‘enabling zero shutter lag’ even when taking Raw photos.
The 5x, 120mm equiv. camera from the 15 Pro Max is also now available on the regular-sized iPhone 16 Pro, replacing the 3x, 77mm equiv. camera from the 15 Pro. That’s not necessarily a clear win, though. The extra reach may be useful if you often shoot far-away subjects, but it makes it a little bit harder to take portraits; you’ll have to stand further away from your subject if you want to get the classic 80mm portrait framing, which will also compress the foreground and background more. However, if you want a 5x camera in a smaller phone, the 16 Pro is Apple’s first model to offer it.
iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 15 Pro cameras
| iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 24mm equiv. | 48MP / 24 / 12MP | Type 1/1.28 (9.8×7.3mm) | F1.78 | ~3.5x |
| 13mm equiv | 48MP | Type 1/2.55 (5.6×4.2mm) | F2.2 | ~6.2x |
| 120mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/4 (4.5×3.4mm) | F2.8 | ~10.8x |
| iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 24mm equiv. | 48MP / 24 / 12MP | Type 1/1.28 (9.8×7.3mm) | F1.78 | ~3.5x |
| 13mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/2.55 (5.6×4.2mm) | F2.2 | ~6.2x |
| 77mm equiv / 120mm equiv. (Max) | 12MP | Type 1/3.5 (4x3mm) / Type 1/4 (4.5×3.4mm) | F2.8 | ~8.7x / ~10.8x |
There are a few other minor improvements to the 16 Pro’s camera system compared to the 15 Pro’s. It can now shoot 3D-esque Spatial Photos, and Apple has upgraded the Photographic Styles system, which lets you apply different looks to your photos straight out of camera. Previously, they were baked-in, meaning you couldn’t shoot a picture with the ‘Warm’ Photo Style and then change it to the ‘Cool’ or ‘Rich Contrast’ one – now you can.
The 16 and 16 Pro also have slightly larger screens than their predecessors, which makes taking and viewing photos nicer, and the QuickTake video that you can access from the photo mode is now 4K60p instead of 1080p30p.
The most significant changes relate to the iPhone 16’s ultrawide camera and video modes. That brings us to a few reasons you might be able to justify an upgrade.
Scenario 1a: You’re a macro/wide-angle photography enthusiast
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The ultrawide camera used for macro shots now has a much higher-resolution sensor.
Image: Apple |
The iPhone 15 Pro’s 0.5x, 13mm equiv. F2.2 ultrawide camera uses a 12MP, 5.6×4.2mm sensor and produces broadly disappointing photos. While the ultrawide camera on the iPhone 16 Pro appears to be using the same size sensor, it’s now using 48MP quad-Bayer technology.
This will allow for pixel binning, though the real-world effect remains to be seen. Given that the sensor is the same size and will likely bin down to the same resolution, it’s hard to imagine there being much of an improvement in low-light performance, which is where the previous iteration of the camera struggled.
If the 0.5x camera is your favorite, it’s probably worth waiting for the reviews to see how much of a difference the resolution bump makes. We’ll be sure to update this article as soon as we can with some wide-angle comparison shots.
Scenario 1b: You are going to shoot The Weeknd’s next music video with your iPhone
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The Weeknd’s new music video is the latest addition to the Shot On iPhone gallery.
Image: Apple |
The next-generation sensor in the iPhone 16 Pro’s main camera enables a big jump in video performance: it can now shoot 4K footage at 120fps, double the speed of the previous Pro. You can even shoot at 120fps in Apple’s ProRes codec, provided you’re recording to external storage via USB-C.
Apple also claims the 16 Pro has much-improved audio with the addition of a ‘studio-quality’ four-microphone array. The microphones allow for wind noise reduction and some fancy software tricks called ‘Audio Mix’ that enable you to fine-tune how a video’s subjects sound.
As with the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple showed off the 16 Pro’s video prowess by having a famous artist shoot a music video with it. This year, it was The Weeknd, whose video for ‘Dancing in the Flames’ (seen above) was shot with the iPhone 16 Pro, making heavy use of the new slow-motion features. Feel free to judge how the footage fares, though do keep in mind that the video was shot by top-tier professionals using thousands of dollars of lighting and grip equipment.
Scenario 1c: You can’t live without the Camera Control
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| Image: Apple |
We get it: new buttons are exciting, especially when they’re providing a new function. Apple’s new Camera Control button promises to let you launch the camera from anywhere, will act as a shutter button once you’ve opened the app, and you can slide your finger across it to adjust parameters like the focal length or aperture.
Apple also promised to improve the button via a software update that will make it act like a traditional shutter button that locks focus and exposure with a half press, and takes a picture with a full press. The Camera Control will also be available for third-party developers, so you may get some milage out of it even if the default iOS camera app isn’t your go-to.
There will be some people who call the Camera Control a gimmick, and who say that there’s no way it’d be worth upgrading from a perfectly good phone that’s only year old for it. And sure, it’s possible it won’t end up being very useful because of its placement, or its relatively complicated control scheme, which mixes gentle taps and press with swipes.
But if it actually improves the ergonomic experience of taking pictures with an iPhone, it could a real nice-to-have – though it’s up to you whether it’s ‘immediately upgrade’ compelling, or ‘look forward to it the next time you get a new phone’ compelling.
Scenario 2: You have an iPhone 14 Pro
The iPhone 14 Pro introduced the 48MP, 9.8×7.3mm quad-bayer sensor that Apple has iterated on for the iPhone 16 Pro, but that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been improvements in the past two years. The 16 Pro’s faster readout speeds should provide the same speed boost compared to the 14 Pro as they did to the 15 Pro.
The lenses on the 16 Pro’s cameras also have a variety of coatings not found on the 14 Pro, and, similar to the 13 Pro, the 14 Pro is stuck with the slower Lightning port instead of the near-universal USB-C one found on the 16 Pro.
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The 16 Pro can shoot slow-mo ProRes 4K. The 14 Pro can’t. (The 128GB 14 Pro can’t shoot ProRes 4K at all; it’s limited to 1080p.)
Image: Apple |
For the main camera, many of the iPhone 16 Pro’s upgrades lie in software, not hardware. The 14 Pro can only shoot 4K ProRes at 30fps, which rules out the possibility of using it for slow motion like you can with the iPhone 16 Pro’s 120fps 4K mode. The 16 Pro also has a ‘next-generation’ portrait mode, which Apple says offers ‘2x better low-light performance.’ Given that the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera hardware isn’t taking in any more light, that’s almost certainly down to changes in how it handles multi-shot photography.
By default, the 16 Pro will also bin images to 24MP, versus the 12MP that’s the only option for the 14 Pro. You also no longer have to shoot in ProRaw to capture a 48MP image, as the 16 Pro has a ‘HEIF Max’ mode that offers compressed images with higher resolution. (Do note that it’s not available in all modes, though; night mode and flash photos are still binned to 12MP.)
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The ultrawide camera is one of the iPhone 16 Pro’s most notable upgrades.
Image: Apple |
The iPhone 16 Pro’s other lenses have more notable improvements. The iPhone 14 Pro’s ultrawide camera is the same as the one found on the iPhone 15 Pro, so any jump in quality provided by the 48MP sensor will apply here as well.
The 16 Pro’s telephoto lens also has a larger sensor, and tighter focal length; the 14 Pro’s 3x (77mm equiv.) camera has a 4x3mm sensor, where the 16 Pro’s 5x (120mm equiv.) camera bumps that up to 4.5×3.4mm – a 27.5% increase. Both cameras produce 12MP images, and have F2.8 lenses.
iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 14 Pro cameras
| iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 24mm equiv. | 48MP / 24 / 12MP | Type 1/1.28 (9.8×7.3mm) | F1.78 | ~3.5x |
| 13mm equiv | 48MP | Type 1/2.55 (5.6×4.2mm) | F2.2 | ~6.2x |
| 120mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/4 (4.5×3.4mm) | F2.8 | ~10.8x |
| iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 24mm equiv. | 48MP / 12MP | Type 1/1.28 (9.8×7.3mm) | F1.78 | ~3.5x |
| 13mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/2.55 (5.6×4.2mm) | F2.2 | ~6.2x |
| 77mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/3.5 (4x3mm) | F2.8 | ~8.7x |
Overall, the 16 Pro’s cameras are iterative improvements over the 14 Pros. However, if you take tons of images on your phone or are serious about video, there’s probably enough there for you to notice a difference. If you’re more of an occasional shooter, though, it may be worth sitting this one out.
Scenario 3: You have an iPhone 13 Pro
If you have an iPhone 13 Pro or one of its predecessors, the 16 Pro’s cameras should be an upgrade in pretty much every way. The 13 Pro has a 12MP F1.5 main camera, while the 16 Pro bumps the resolution up to 48MP. While its F1.78 lens is slower, its 9.8×7.3mm sensor also has 65% more area versus the 13 Pro’s 7.6×5.7mm sensor – that equates to around 0.3EV more light gathering ability, even with the brighter aperture.
That extra resolution enables a lot of camera features on the 16 Pro that the 13 Pro doesn’t have. The most obvious is the pixel-binned 12MP or 24MP shots, as well as the 48MP ProRaw mode. It also allows for the 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm ‘faux-cal’ lengths for the main camera, which work by taking different crops off the sensor. The iPhone 13 Pro also lacks the ‘2x’ option, which crops in to the 12MP middle section of the sensor.
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The 16 Pro’s main camera is a notable improvement from the 13 Pro’s.
Image: Apple |
The ultrawide and telephoto cameras also use larger sensors, and the 16 Pro’s 5x camera offers a 120mm equiv. focal length compared to the 13 Pro’s 3x 77mm equiv.
The iPhone 16 Pro also includes the latest iterations of Apple’s image stabilization and HDR systems, though the company hasn’t said much about what benefits they offer over the predecessors found on the iPhone 13 Pro.
iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 13 Pro cameras
| iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 24mm equiv. | 48MP / 24 / 12MP | Type 1/1.28 (9.8×7.3mm) | F1.78 | ~3.5x |
| 13mm equiv | 48MP | Type 1/2.55 (5.6×4.2mm) | F2.2 | ~6.2x |
| 120mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/4 (4.5×3.4mm) | F2.8 | ~10.8x |
| iPhone 13 Pro / Pro Max | ||||
| Focal length | Pixel count | Sensor size | f/number | Crop factor |
| 26mm equiv. | 12MP | Type 1/1.7 (7.6×5.7mm) | F1.5 | ~4.6x |
| 13mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/3.5 (4x3mm) | F1.8 | ~8.7x |
| 77mm equiv | 12MP | Type 1/3.5 (4x3mm) | F2.8 | ~8.7x |
The 16 Pro has several video features not found on the 2021 model, such as Apple Log, Spatial Video, the super-stabilized ‘Action Mode,’ and access to 60 and 120fps frame rates when shooting 4K. And if you’re shooting a lot of video and want to offload it to a computer, the iPhone 16 Pro will offer a much better experience; its USB-C port can transfer files at 10Gbit per second. That’s 20 times faster than the USB 2.0 speeds that the 13 Pro’s Lightning port provides.
Outside of the camera, the 16 Pro has a lot of quality-of-life improvements. To name a few, there’s satellite SOS, tougher front glass, faster charging, an always-on-display and both the Action button and the new Camera Control button. It’s also 5g lighter despite being physically larger because its frame is made of aluminium and titanium instead of stainless steel.
None of this is to say that you must upgrade your iPhone 13 Pro. In fact, two of the winning photos from this year’s iPhone Photography Awards were shot with an iPhone 13 or 13 Pro. If you’re happy with your phone, by all means keep using it. However, if you do feel ready for an upgrade the iPhone 16 Pro should offer enough features and camera improvements to make it well worth it.
Just five days after the arrival of first Mirrorless camera, and 16 years ago today, Canon revealed a camera that would help define the final years of DSLR dominance: the EOS 5D II.
This was no simple upgrade to the original EOS 5D, though in a move from 12.8MP to a better performing 21MP CMOS sensor, the addition of an improved viewfinder and the gain of features such as liveview, it was that, too.
What famously set the 5D Mark II apart was its ability to capture Full HD video, the first DSLR to do so. The Nikon D90 had added 720p HD capture about two weeks before but it was the Canon that caught the world’s imagination.
This was helped by the option to download the Cinestyle color preset developed by film processing company Technicolor and a successful PR stunt that involved an entire episode of the TV show ‘House’ being filmed using the camera.
In hindsight, the 5D II is a relatively basic filmmaking tool: all is footage is 8-bit, so has limited grading (an official Canon Log option wouldn’t arrive until the Mk IV), there were no tools such as focus peaking to help with focus and to monitor your sound you needed all manner of adapters to get at the audio feed from the A/V socket. It didn’t even gain full manual exposure control in video mode until a post-launch firmware update.
The 5D II became a popular video camera at colleges and schools around the world
But the 5D II became a popular video camera at colleges and schools around the world, putting the flexibility and ‘look’ of a full-frame sensor in the hands of budding film makers and letting them use relatively affordable EF lenses.
Beyond this, the Magic Lantern open source software project created an extensive array of video support tools to boost the 5D II’s capabilities way beyond those that Canon had developed for it, including focus peaking, false color and control over the A/V output level.
There are plenty of people that used the 5D II solely as a stills camera, and it certainly represented a major step forward, compared with its predecessor: it had a larger, higher resolution screen, a sensor happier to shoot at higher ISOs and could shoot 30% faster than the Mark 1, despite the much higher pixel count. It also gained features that we take for granted, such as Auto ISO.
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The newer sensor in the 5D II allowed a maximum expanded ISO of 25,600: three stops higher than on its predecessor.
Image: Don Wan |
Its top speed of 3.9fps looks disappointing once you got used to the option to capture the 30fps burst that its spiritual successor, the EOS R5 II can manage. But, even though 4K and 8K modes have become commonplace in the sixteen years since the 5D II’s launch, a well lit, well-exposed and interesting video shot with the 5D II still looks pretty great, even on a big TV.
In the original review we referred to its video capabilities as its ‘party trick.’ Well it proved to be quite the trick, and over a decade and a half later, we’re all still at that party.
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