What full-frame equivalent focal lengths do iPhone 13 Pro Max zoom levels correspond to?
Asked 3/7/2022
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On an iPhone 13 Pro Max, the built-in cameras are approximately 13mm equivalent (ultrawide), 26mm equivalent (main), and 77mm equivalent (3x telephoto). For zoom levels above 3x that use digital zoom, what full-frame equivalent focal lengths do those settings correspond to, up to 15x?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
3
The equivalent focal lengths of the three cameras in the iPhone 13 Pro Max are:
- [ultrawide] 13mm [1/3.4" sensor, 8.18x crop, so really a 1.5mm lens]
- [primary] 26mm [1/1.65" sensor, 4.46x crop, so really a 5.8mm lens]
- [tele] 77mm [1/3.4" sensor, 8.18x crop, so really a 9.4mm lens]
I referred to this dpreview article for the sensor sizes and equivalent focal lengths; and this chart to help calculate the crop factors.
The optical zoom factors are all calculated relative to the primary camera:
- 13mm/26 = 0.5x
- 26mm/26 = 1x
- 77m/26 ≅ 3x
so just take the zoom factor, multiply it by 26mm and you'll get the equivalent FoV focal length. E.g., 15x26mm = 390mm.
But, of course, digital zooming is really just cropping and upscaling, so it's not really equivalent to using a different focal length. See also: What is crop factor and how does it relate to focal length?
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
3y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
On the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple’s zoom multipliers are referenced to the 26mm-equivalent main camera. So for any zoom setting, you can estimate the full-frame equivalent focal length as:
zoom factor × 26mm
Examples:
- 3x ≈ 78mm (matches the 77mm tele camera)
- 4x ≈ 104mm
- 5x ≈ 130mm
- 10x ≈ 260mm
- 15x ≈ 390mm
The three native camera equivalents are roughly:
- 0.5x = 13mm
- 1x = 26mm
- 3x = 77mm
Important: above the native lens focal lengths, this is digital zoom, which is mainly cropping and upscaling rather than a true longer focal length lens. So while the field of view may correspond roughly to, say, 390mm equivalent at 15x, image quality will not match an actual 390mm optical lens.
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