The world of photography is irrevocably changed.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic

Back in 1971, having diligently saved my pennies for two years, I finally picked up my first serious camera, a Leica M3, nicely used, with a collapsible 50mm Elmar lens. We were made for one another and great snaps and – more importantly for this impoverished student – prize money, came to me like a tsunami. The possibilities seemed endless – one camera, one lens, one film and one developer. TriX and D76, of course. It worked for HC-B. Who was I to argue?

I felt that thrill, along with an awestruck realization that anything was possible, just twice in my life as a snapper. The second time it came in the combination of the iPhone 11 Pro and a $13 application named Focos. The latter was recommended to me by a friend who just happens to be a professor at CalTech. A blown away friend of the prof’s had demonstrated Focos to my friend, who was in turn blown away. Now there are three exploded heads to be found. I have joined the caste of the blown away.

First, before we get to the fancy stuff, Focos offers a raft of aspect ratios, from square to letterbox.

By contrast, the iPhone offers just square, the unutterably boring 4:3 of Kodak prints of yesteryear, and the too-wide-most-of-the-time 16:9. Naturally, I immediately switched to 3:2 because that’s the way Oskar Barnack decreed it and it’s how I learned to see with the film Leica. I still see in 3:2 today, unless I’m watching a movie.

But that’s just the tip of the Focos iceberg. Focos integrates the picture taking and cataloging/processing functions into one app. There’s a horizon level which beats anything I have used, using rangefinder Leica style alignment lines plus a haptic buzz when the camera is level. You can’t miss it, even in bright light when the lines are hard to see. That’s great for architecture photographers and for ultrawide lens users and with a killer ultrawide in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, it could not be more useful.

Now the magic begins as every still image captured by the iPhone 11records its own depth map, telling the software the distance of every point of detail. Yes, that even includes images taken with the ultrawide, which is fixed focus. And Focos allows you to add your favorite lens blur from a choice of 15 classic lenses, not to mention your specification of focus point (just touch the screen) and aperture. It’s all trivially easy to do, the only problem being it gets harder as your head has just exploded.

Long time readers may recall my ruminations about the Lytro camera which tried to bring depth data to image recording. That valiant effort failed, courtesy of a minuscule capital budget, and I rather unfairly styled it “a solution looking for a problem”. It was the quality and implementation of the solution that were poor. The idea itself, enhancing creative options in post processing, remains valid and Apple’s infinite funds and the genius of a brilliant Chinese developer behind Focos have made the Lytro dream a reality.

Let me cut to the chase.

Here’s a straight-out-of-camera ultrawide image, the fixed focus lens option of the iPhone’s trio of choices:

As usual the vast dynamic range is automatically controlled and everything is sharp from here to eternity.

Here are some of the lens profiles available for blur in Focos:

Now, loading the image in Focos, I touched the central area of the yellow Lantana blooms, and cracked the aperture slider to f/2. As it was Barnack time I elected the blur profile of the Elmar lens and here is the happy result:

Another touch on the horizon and a second later I got:

So now you can get an ultrawide field of view with crazy narrow focus – or not – and your lens blur of choice.

And just as I was writing the above, contemplating the evening cocktail, who should email me but that self same CalTech prof, the one with the large brain which dictates widened doors in his abode, who tells me that you can distinguish focus and exposure points when taking the picture using Focos. Sure enough. You touch the ‘x’ sign on the yellow focus rectangle and a purple circle appears which is the exposure metering area. Oskar is now spinning in his grave.

This is serious magic.

The world of computational photography, with an additional layer of depth data stored with every image, has changed how we see picture taking and processing for ever. I cannot wait to explore the creative possibilities of limited depth of focus, something unavailable in my last decade with Micro Four-Thirds hardware, where everything is pretty much sharp all the time. The world of Auto Blur is now a great deal easier to enjoy.

Other magic? Why, yes. You don’t like the direction of the lighting? The 3D map and Focos can fix that. Do I want to do that? No. But it’s nice to know that I can.

By the way, for these aging eyes the iPhone display is too small to work on. I simply export the image to the iPad where I have also installed Focos, and have at it on a decent sized display.

The telephoto lens.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic

Traditionally, a ‘telephoto’ lens was one whose physical length was lower than it’s optical length. One of the great early designs was the Tele-Elmarit for the Leica M which squeezed its 90mm into something
more like 70mm. In modern vernacular ‘telephoto’ implies ‘long’, which I suppose means anything from an 85mm portrait lens (FFE) to a 500mm monster beloved of animal spotters and Kremlin operatives.

So while it’s a stretch calling the 52mm FFE 2X lens in the iPhone Pro a telephoto, it is a nice long length compared with the other two lenses and is distinguished by its presence on the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max only. The regular iPhone 11 gets the two shorter lenses only.

As with the 1x standard optic, the 2X works in Portrait mode, meaning blurred backgrounds are automatically added in processing in the iPhone.

There’s not a lot to be said about the telephoto that is not obvious, and suffice it to say that it’s nice to have and trivial to switch to with a touch of the screen. And I’ll bet you dollars to dougnuts that a future iteration of the iPhone will add a fourth rear facing lens of 100mm focal length.

Here are some snaps from the 2X lens:

All of these are straight out-of-camera. The absence for much need for post processing with the iPhone 11 Pro’s images is a noteworthy enhancement, care of the clever software programming powered by that wondrous A13 CPU. It’s also notable in adjacent snaps switching between the three lenses that color, dynamic range and exposure are superbly balanced.

The standard lens.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic

When I was a lad, happily snapping away with my Leica, a 35mm lens was the street lens to have. Not too wide, not too long, small and fast, it was just the ticket for my preferred genre. Times have changed as the ‘standard’ lens for the iPhone Pro is just 26mm long in Full Frame Equivalent terms. That used to be seriously wide, meaning close subject distances, but with the inherently stealthy nature of a cellphone it works well for street action. Pixel peeping imports from the three iPhone Pro lenses in Lightroom, it’s just about discernible that the 1X or Standard lens has the best micro contrast of the three, but that’s barely distinguishable on my 30″ Apple Cinema Display (yes, old tech, but still superb).

I find that just a tad of sharpening helps matters along with all the lenses when importing images to LR, and here are my preferred settings:

The definition, even in big enlargements , is extraordinary. Easily equal to anything from FF or MFT hardware.

Here’s an image from the full frame:

And here’s a 1:1 enlargement, meaning a 30″ wide print – straight out of camera, no post-processing:

There, in one prosaic image, you have the story of the demise of MFT, APS-C and most FF writ large. The iPhone effortlessly equals what they can deliver, and in high contrast situations its ‘always on’ HDR processing is streets ahead of the big hardware. Add a little sharpening on import to LR and the resolution in the image is breathtaking.

Here are some snaps taken with the standard lens:

In the iPhone 7, HDR was a switchable option. It’s on all the time in iPhone 11 Pro, there when it’s needed. Washed out highlights and heavy post processing, like you are used to with your traditional hardware, are things of the past. You can spend all your time on clicking the button, wasting none stuck in front of a computer display trying to get Photoshop or whatever to fix the issues. The standard lens in the iPhone 11 Pro, along with the brilliant on board image processing, are wonders of the designers’ art.

The ultrawide lens.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic

The ultrawide lens – available in both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro – is thrilling. There’s no other way to say it. Apple claims the 1.54mm focal length (1.54mm!) figures to 13mm Full Frame Equivalent and comparing it to defished images from the 7.5mm Rokinon fisheye on MFT, which computes to 12mm FFE, I can confirm that’s pretty accurate. It’s very wide indeed. It’s also very fast at f/2.4 – faster than anything for FF or MFT at that focal length.

Such limitations as exist are unimportant in use. It’s fixed focus, which is fine because at 1.54mm everything is sharp all the time. It does not work in Night Mode and I have to think it’s a matter of time before Apple fixes that. The 2x Telephoto does not work in Night Mode either, the camera using digital zooming to fool you into thinking that the 2x lens is being used. Apple does not correct barrel distortion, unlike with the other two lenses, in camera. It’s easily done in post processing if it matters, and on straight lines near the edge of the frame the distortion is serious. The ultrawide does not work in Portrait mode – the one which blurs backgrounds – but that’s hardly important to have.

Uncorrected:

Corrected in Lightroom:

Lightroom settings for best correction:

You can see that the simple spherical correction in LR does not quite cut it, leaving vestiges of ‘mustache’ type non-linearity; accordingly I have created a custom lens correction profile using Adobe’s tools. This does it right and you can read about it and see results here.

I have had no problems with fingers intruding into the frame. Here’s how the lens assembly looks in my credit card case, which not only protects the lenses but also materially enhances the poor handling ergonomics of the iPhone:

The shutter button (the volume ‘Up’ key) is on the other side of the lens assembly, which moves your fingers out of the way.

Here are some images snapped yesterday using the ultrawide lens.

Center definition is everything you could ever wish for. Extreme edges compare favorably with those from the Panny GX7/Rokinon fish-eye, which is to say they are very good indeed.

The superb ultrawide lens in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro is reason enough, right there, to buy the device. Scummy realtors who charge 6% to show buyers the bathroom will be lining up for it. “Look at the huge open spaces” (sucker).

Notice that Apple has finally toned down its formerly aggressive azure skies, which now look far more natural.

Upgrade considerations.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic

The iPhone 11 Pro is a few millimeters taller and wider than the iPhone 7, and just 0.04″ thicker.

I skipped iPhone X on my upgrade path. I was very uncomfortable with the Face ID security technology, which replaced the fingerprint sensor, a work of genius. And while I cannot speak to its functionality on iPhone X I can confirm that Face ID works perfectly on the iPhone 11 Pro. Easily programmed, it’s so fast to respond to the user’s face that you begin wondering whether it’s performing any sort of check at all. So I covered my face with a hand before raising the iPhone to face level and, sure enough, it failed to recognize me, refusing to log me in. It gets better. I ride a classic motorcycle a lot. It’s my preferred mode of transport, and always sees me wearing a Shoei flip-top helmet, the easier with which to remove and replace it, as I wear eyeglasses. With the top flipped up and my face somewhat squashed by the protective foam padding the iPhone 11 Pro had no difficulty recognizing me and logging in. Nice. I can continue buying my morning croissant without having to remove the helmet! And as face ID uses infra red beams, I can confirm it works every bit as well in total darkness.

Let’s get the nasty things out of the way first.

The Apple Store. These used to be havens to visit, no sales pressure, an orderly queue for a sales clerk and no time wasted. Today it’s a nightmare and I confess to a feeling of dread when a visit beckons. Fortunately that’s a rare occurrence, required only when buying a new iPhone or having the battery replaced. Otherwise, everything Apple can be had from online vendors.

The Apple Store has gone from a professional sales environment to one aimed at tattooed hipsters. Sales clerks are hard to find, generally mulling around in the permanent crowd these places attract, and their distinguishing T shirt colors change frequently, compounding the problem. They seem more intent on socializing with one another than actually servicing customers and such was the case yesterday when I spotted three of these clerks and had to break up their conversation to pick up my new iPhone. Yes, they all had the requisite tattoos disgustingly covering every square inch of exposed flesh, with hair colors to match. Really Apple, what don’t you understand about “Old Guys Rule”? It’s where the money is and we want prompt, polite, efficient service without an attitude. That’s because we got to be old and successful, unlike your clerks.

Siri and voice recognition. Siri remains as useless as ever. I have my iPhone set up to recognize English English (you know, the one that died out in England 30 years ago where the default pronunciation now is that adopted by soccer players and their slutty spouses) and Siri remains awful. A small device is crying out for anything that helps avoid keyboard use and Siri is not the answer. As for voice recognition, the system seems not to learn from its many errors. You will find you are spending as much time correcting voice recognition errors as you did dictating the narrative in the first place. This has not improved over several generations of iPhones.

iOS13. Quite how Apple can release so many versions of a bug-loaded OS beats me. The worst is the change in text editing. Where you used to get a nice magnified, localized image of what you touched, you now get a red vertical line, very hard to see and position, seeing as its mostly covered by your finger. Did anyone at Apple actually try using this? And ‘delete to the left’? Still missing after no fewer than thirteen major OS releases.

Email. It’s still impossible to collapse nested email directories. If you have dozens, as I do, you have to scroll through an interminable list to find what you need. How hard can it to be to confer OS X functionality from two decades earlier on this application?

Ergonomics. Just awful. Apple insists on placing the on-off switch opposite the volume buttons. As one of these is mostly used by photographers to take a picture – it offers tactile feedback the screen touch button lacks – it’s all too easy to turn off the phone when you hope to be taking a snap. That and the whole thinness obsession at Apple means that it’s very hard to securely grasp the device. The rounded sides compound the problem. I use a relatively bulky credit card case for mine which significantly helps, but Apple really needs to reposition that on-off button and revert to the slab sides of the magnificent iPhone 5 design. The iPhone 11 Pro is thicker than the iPhone X, with enhanced battery life as a welcome result, and I have yet to read of anyone complaining about the increase in thickness. Heck, you could double that dimension and I would be OK with it. Thinness should be restricted to American divorcees seeking a royal spouse and to amphetamine addicted supermodels.

So much for the grumbles, and putting those aside there’s an awful lot to like.

That Apple can release a device of such nightmarish complexity, relatively fault free, manufactured in the tens of millions and easy to use, is a tribute to great design and even greater (Chinese) manufacturing prowess. After many iPhones I have yet to have had a mechanical or key operational issue with any, the worst being the occasional battery replacement which can be had very speedily at the local tattoo parlor, and for very modest cost at that. Whether the latest A13 CPU really contains the claimed 8.5 billion transistors – an unverifiable statement – or not, is irrelevant. What matters is that the whole works, almost perfectly at that. I prefer not to contemplate all those chips and data paths as the thoughts overwhelm.

Upgrading from an older iPhone could not be simpler, and while there are several methods, I use the iCloud backup which is performed automatically and which service runs me a very modest monthly sum. The whole process, along with programming the device for Face ID and app installation, takes minutes to complete. That iCloud backup also works with my iPad and I have found the system to be well engineered and fault free. Recommended.

Why not iPhone 11? . This comes with two cameras – the ultrawide and standard, a slightly lower quality LCD screen and aluminum sides in place of the stainless ones on the Pro. I would miss the telephoto lens, the screen is almost as good and the material used for the sides is irrelevant if you use a case. So it’s a compelling case to save a few hundred dollars. I just wanted the best display and the long lens.

3D Touch: To reduce screen thickness, 3D Touch has been replaced with haptics. Instead of a harder press on the app icon you hold your finger on it a little longer. It works just as well.

Use with Lightroom: I have run into a couple of snags which only increase my incentive for exiting the awful world of Adobe and it’s annuity-grasping ways. I’m on LR 6.12 – the local version not the Creative Cloud one, as I refuse to make ransom payments for access to my images – and the system resolutely refuses to update to 6.13, hardly a surprise with this vendor. While my whole catalog of Photos came over from iPhone 7 only a few recent ones show in the import dialog in LR. Further, LR occasionally exits without warning or error message with the iPhone 11 Pro connected. It’s time to dump Lightroom.

Subsequent articles in this series will address the use of the three rear facing lenses (I do not take selfies, so forget the fourth), focusing on their opportunities and limitations. A healthy dive will also be made into the iOS 13 Camera app, much changed from previous versions. Finally I will take a look at some aftermarket camera apps to see if they add value.