There are many things you can do with an iPhone besides use it as a phone. You can use it to track your fitness, store health information, give you directions, play the latest album by Taylor Swift, and countless other things, both useful and frivolous. But one of the most popular uses is: using it as a camera.
The first question might be: is the iPhone 17 Pro Max a better camera than the phone that I already have? The answer is probably: yes. Here are some photos, comparing the front-facing camera (for selfies) and the rear-facing cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Both phone camera settings are set to the highest resolution, and the cameras were set to save photos in DNG (Digital Negative) format using optical zoom. All the photos were resized to the same width for viewing on the web.
The photo subject was the James “Lord James” Balch grave and totem at Graymarsh Farm, north of Sequim, Washington. It was a gray, overcast day.
iPhone 16 Pro Max photos
iPhone 17 Pro Max photos
Differences
The most obvious difference between the two phones is the 8X optical telephoto setting on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The 8X optical zoom eclipses the capabilities of most high-end “point and shoot” cameras. The resolution (size of image, richness, and saturation of the image) eclipses the capabilities of most DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras. Some numbers:
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | iPhone 17 Pro Max |
| 4032×3024 pixels, 22.4 megabyte DNG (front facing) | 4896×3672 pixels, 25.7 megabyte DNG (front facing) |
| 8064 x 6048 pixels, 82.9 megabyte DNG (wide angle) | 8064 x 6048 pixels, 78 megabyte DNG (wide angle) |
| 8064×6048 pixels, 108.1 megabyte DNG (1X) | 8064×6048 pixels, 108.1 megabyte DNG (1X) |
| 4032×3024 pixels, 28 megabyte DNG (2X) | 4032×3024 pixels, 28.4 megabyte DNG (2X) |
| 4032×3024 pixels, 28.9 megabyte DNG (5X) | 8064×6048 pixels, 80.3 megabyte DNG (4X) |
| 4032×3024 pixels, 26.5 megabyte DNG (8X) |
Note that the iPhone 17 Pro Max front-facing (selfie) camera has a significantly higher resolution than the previous model, and the 4X zoom image of the iPhone 17 Pro Max is far better than the 5X zoom image of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
But on a day-to-day basis, what does this mean practically? It means you can take better quality selfies, and in dimmer light. It means that you can take much better “regular” photos, both in dimmer light and over a wider range of distances. In the past, to get a photo of a distant object, you may have had to use a bulky DSLR camera with multiple lenses. But with an iPhone 17 Pro Max, you might do just as well with a phone that fits in your pocket, and costs less than a DSLR and lenses.
To demonstrate this, five photos were taken at the Dungeness Nearshore and Estuarine Restoration Project, on the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, pointing at the New Dungeness Light. It was raining, and right at sunset, which is not a great time for taking photos. All photos were taken from the same spot with an iPhone 17 Pro Max using optical zoom.
Standing in the same spot, on a cold, rainy day in dim light, you can take photos that range from a dramatic panorama (without even using the panorama settings) to a more intimate photo of a lighthouse in stormy weather. (And yes, I know the images are tilted to the right; my excuse is I was cold and wet.)
Apple first started selling digital cameras in 1994, with its QuickTake 100. It was followed by the QuickTake 150 (1995), QuickTake 200 (1997),
and iSight camera (2003). All of these cameras took images that were 640 pixels by 480 pixels, or 307,200 pixels overall.
The mighty iPhone 17 Pro Max, at 8064×6048 pixels, is 48,771,072 pixels, or 159 times the resolution of the original QuickTake camera. That is an impressive evolution.
More photos are taken every day with iPhones than were taken by all cameras, combined, from the invention of the camera until the end of the 20th century.