Choosing iPhone 14 Pro storage variant: 48MP ProRAW photos will take 3x more space than 12MP

Published On: September 14, 2022

Highlights

Images clicked from iPhone 14 Pro’s 48MP primary camera takes up three times the storage than iPhone 13 series’ 12MP sensor.
The 48MP ProRAW photos will take approximately 75MB in size.
The ‘2x telephoto’ camera on iPhone 14 Pro is simply cropping the image in from the main camera.

iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are the first Apple phones to get a new 48MP rear camera, which is a big upgrade from the standard 12MP sensor on the previous gen models. Now, according to code found by MacRumors contributor, Steve Moser within the iOS 16 release version this week, the 48MP ProRAW photos will take approximately 75MB in size. This is three times larger than photos taken with the 12MP sensor on the iPhone 13 Pro and standard iPhones. While this may seem logical, it is important to note as the storage variant will matter a lot during the time of purchase.

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Separately, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max come with a 12MP 3x telephoto lens for zoom but the Cupertino giant is going to the level of claiming that it has a ‘2x telephoto’ camera capabilities while it is simply cropping the image in from the main camera.

iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max camera

In a brief hands-on video by YouTuber Sara Dietschy following Apple’s ‘Far Out’ event, a photo taken with the 48MP sensor has taken up 80.4MB in size at an 8,064 by 6,048 resolution. The increased storage consumption of the 48MP ProRAW photo is an important aspect to consider for customers when picking the storage variant while buying the phones. The ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ Max are offered in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options.

The new 48MP primary sensor can capture ProRAW photos in sharp and crisp detail and comes with a “new machine learning model [that] delivers sharper images and less noise for unprecedented detail.”

Apple’s 12MP telephoto lens

On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max come with a 12MP telephoto lens. The company claims it can offer 2x zoom wherein reality, all the sensor does is just crop the image in from the main camera. Apple says that it’s able to offer a “2x telephoto” option by cropping into the centre of the viewfinder, therefore using the centre 12MP of the 48MP sensor.

“With this approach, we can go beyond the three fixed lenses of the Pro camera system, adding a new 2x telephoto option for our users. We use the middle 12MP of the new sensor to deliver a full-resolution photo and 4K video with optical quality,” said product manager Vitor Silva during the iPhone 14 series event.

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The ‘2x telephoto’ functionality is also mentioned on Apple’s website, where it describes it as “optical quality.” However, this isn’t a separate 2x telephoto camera or optical zoom instead this is simply digital zoom from the main non-telephoto camera. This solution doesn’t appear to be using the image fusion tech. Nor does it seem to use software tricks like Google’s Super Res Zoom or multi-frame image processing.

While there is nothing wrong with Apple offering a 2x option in the camera app, the use of ‘2X telephoto and ‘optical quality’ will certainly fool people into thinking that this is more than just digital zoom or just cropping. The Android competition offers far more zoom capabilities compared to Apple.