- The iPhone 16 has a new capacitive, haptic button for controlling the camera.
- You can also use it for AI if you must.
- It’s the best new iPhone feature since the Dynamic Island.
The iPhone 16’s versatile Camera Control button stole the show at an otherwise ho-hum Apple even yesterday.
The most important feature of the iPhone 16 is probably its camera. It’s just excellent and has gotten to the stage that it’s, technically, as good or better than a dedicated point-and-shoot camera. But a real, purpose designed camera is still easier to use. Or was. Now, just by adding one (very fancy) button, Apple has turned the iPhones 16 into the ultimate pocket cameras.
“Having quick, tactile access to the camera features immediately makes the iPhone feel more like a traditional camera, reducing the friction between spotting a great shot and actually capturing it,” Jeffrey Wang, professional photographer and founder of Perfect Moment Photography and Video, told Lifewire via email. “This is a huge deal in fast-paced environments, like weddings, where every second counts, and you only have one chance to capture a moment. It’s a feature that brings the iPhone closer to the experience of using a professional camera, giving you that manual control right at your fingertips.”
Camera Control Button
The new Camera Control button sits on the right edge of the phone, below the sleep/wake button. When you hold the camera horizontally, it falls under your right forefinger, and when held vertically, it falls under your thumb. Press it when the iPhone 16 is sleeping, and it will wake to the camera, ready to snap. Press to take a photo, and long press to capture a video.
That’s already enough to make the camera way faster to access, but it’s just the beginning. The button is, in typical Apple style, absurdly over-engineered. It is a button, but it is also a tiny gesture-detecting capacitive pad with clicky feedback via Apple’s Taptic Engine.
By default, sliding your finger across the button will zoom the camera, but if you half-press (a familiar gesture on almost every camera), you can then slide to choose a different mode. Thus, the slide gesture can be used to focus, change exposure, pick a filter, and more. The button will also be available for third-party camera apps to use for whatever the developer can imagine.
In a future update, Apple promises that the button will support a half-press to lock focus and exposure, which is another great feature of pretty much all proper cameras, letting you intuitively reframe your photo without losing focus on the main subject.
“The sliding zoom control is a major upgrade over pinch-to-zoom or tapping between lens options, and the ability to adjust depth of field is another much-needed addition. Previously, f-stop control was locked behind portrait mode and required an awkward combination of taps and gestures, which could easily make you miss the moment,” photographer Johnny Wolf told Lifewire via email. “Being able to adjust all of these settings in one place will make for a much more natural and enjoyable photography experience.”
Apple Intelligence
Aside from being an amazing camera control, the new button can also be used to trigger Apple’s AI features. Press and hold the button as if you were summoning Siri, and the camera will snap a picture of whatever you’re pointing it at and give you information on it. Apple’s examples included snapping a concert poster to add its dates to your calendar or snapping a restaurant to see its menu.
But the weirdest part of the demo is when our iPhone 16-wielding tech bro sees a cute doggie, and asks the owner if he can take a photo. He then uses his phone to tell him what breed of dog it is, even though he could ask the dog’s human companion, who is stood right there in front of him, and who he already spoke to.
Even odder is that Apple only added this button when AI came on the scene.
“Apple could have added a hardware camera button at any time in the iPhone’s history. It did not until it wanted to use the camera for things not directly concerning photography and videography,” artist and designer Nick Heer says on his Pixel Envy blog.
Apple’s unique advantage is that it makes the hardware and the software for all its computers, so it can integrate the two in ways that are not possible for rivals like Microsoft and Google (although Google is working on that). This new button looks like a huge bet from Apple that AI is the future of computing.
Then again, this Camera Control button is amazing for anyone taking photos, aka every single person who uses a smartphone. So, maybe it’s just that Apple’s War on Buttons is officially over.
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News Summary:
- The iPhone 16's Best New Feature Is An Absurdly Over-Engineered Button
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