The iPhone 14 Pro (Max) was the first to have a 48 MP camera, the iPhone 15 (Plus) and iPhone 15 Pro (Max) also have such a camera, but it is more extensive. This way you can take 24 MP photos instead of 12 megapixels.
On an iPhone 14 Pro (Max) you could choose between 12 MP or 48 MP when you used Apple ProRAW, this had the disadvantage that the photos were super large and not actually for everyday use. This is the case with the arrival of 24 megapixels.
24 megapixel photos
The standard wide-angle camera of the iPhone 15 (Pro) consists of a 48 megapixel camera with Apple’s advanced quad-pixel sensor technology. On the 14 Pro, four pixels were merged into one superpixel and you got a 12 megapixel photo.
On the 15 (Pro) models you can choose to take 24 MP photos. Then not four, but two pixels are merged. Do you still want to use the full 48 megapixels? Then you have to use Apple ProRAW.
Practical file format
The 48 MP main camera takes razor-sharp photos and videos thanks to a quad-pixel sensor and 100% Focus Pixels for fast automatic focusing. The main camera uses powerful computational photography that gives users a super high resolution of 24 MP as standard, resulting in incredibly good image quality. And all in a practical heif file format that you can easily share and save. You can also share the 24 megapixel photos as jpg.
The storage space a photo takes up depends on several factors. The heif structure ensures that files require 50% less storage space than jpg, but the quality is the same or even better. This makes a 24 MP photo about 40% larger than a 12 MP photo.
Set default megapixels
Do you want to take standard photos with 24 megapixels on an iPhone 15 (Pro)? Then you can set this up using the steps below:
- Open Settings
- Navigate to ‘Camera’
- Tap ‘File structures’
- Under ‘Photo capture’, select ‘Photo mode’
- Select 24 MP
It’s good to know that only the standard wide-angle camera can take photos that are 24 megapixels in size. The other lenses remain stuck at 12 MP. This is also the case for photos taken with night mode, flash, macro photos and live photos.