Photographer Austin Mann reviews the iPhone 18 Pro camera

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max bring several changes to the Main camera and iOS Camera app, and photographer Austin Mann has just published a great review of everything new.

Austin Mann publishes in-depth review of iPhone 18 Pro camera upgrades

Every year, photographer Austin Mann puts out an in-depth review of the iPhone’s new camera features—complete with plenty of photos, of course.

Mann’s review of the iPhone 18 Pro camera upgrades was published today. I highly recommend checking it out for an overview of the new features and sampling of photos they enable.

On the new variable aperture feature, Mann says:

I recommend leaving your aperture in Auto. The camera is very, very good at picking the best aperture for the scene, and it’s usually better at it than me. Inside at dinner? f/1.48, auto-selected. Outside with plenty of light and depth? It picks a higher f-stop to keep everything in focus.

He shares beautiful examples of iPhone 18 Pro’s new wider aperture capturing the Colorado sky at night.

Regarding the new Pro controls that are exclusive to iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Mann was especially excited to find Manual Focus:

One of the most-asked-for features by photographers has been the ability to separate exposure and focus, and now we can! All you do is set your focus manually (with focus peaking that works quite well!) and then tap where you want to expose.

In covering Photographic Styles 3, other reviewers like Tyler Stalman have highlighted the ability to create a film-like look with your photos. Mann echoes this and provides the following tips for the best film effect:

“Shoot dark, like -1.0, and shoot wide open at f/1.48. Use manual focus, which will make the image slightly softer (which is OK!).”
“Shoot HEIF so you can apply Photographic Styles.”
“Then in post, on the D-Pad, put the dot in the very lower right. This reduces the tone-mapping (aka the HDR look) and crunches your shadows and blows your highlights.”
“You can dial back the Film effect to reduce halation, which sometimes goes a bit overboard.”

You can watch Austin Mann’s video review below.

Also covered in Mann’s full review are features like Focus Tracking, Apple Reference Image, 4K time-lapse, and more.

Check out Austin Mann’s full iPhone 18 Pro camera review here.

What are your takeaways from the latest iPhone 18 Pro review? Let us know in the comments.

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