I’ve been using the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera for over six months now. In this blog, I will share my thoughts on this device from a camera and a creative workflow perspective.
First things first: I’m a photographer, not a tech reviewer. So, don’t expect to see details benchmark scores or opinions on video game performance and screen refresh rates. For reference, the device I’m reviewing is a 512 GB iPhone 15 Pro Max (this one). All the photos I was shooting were taken on the default camera app.
Why I upgraded
I was happy with my Apple iPhone 14 Pro and really didn’t want to upgrade. However, I wanted the bigger screen, the USB-C port, and the 120mm telephoto lens. You see where this goes – I ended up handing over £1400 and hoping for the best. At the time, I traveled with my Mac and my iPad Pro. So, I figured the USB-C connection would allow me to use the iPhone to back up on the road and ditch an extra device.
Furthermore, I figured the extra LOG capabilities would allow this to be my vlogging camera. This meant saving me from carrying one more device. Finally, I love telephoto lenses, so the 120mm 5x optical zoom was very appealing.
What’s good about the iPhone 15 Pro Max?
The Build
The phone is overall lighter and easier to hold. It feels less slippery and gives you a bit more confidence. However, I would still suggest using a rubber or silicone case for photographers. The screen is very bright even in harsh daylight, offering a great field of view for composing shots.
I would say this new feature alone has saved me from missing a few shots (when it works). The USB-C port is a great addition and easily allows certain devices to be plugged in. However, it’s not all perfect, as I will describe later in the blog.
The Cameras
The main iPhone 15 Pro Max camera at 24mm is as good as ever, and its Night Mode improves low-light shots significantly. It features an aperture that allows for solid low-light performance. Personally, I don’t see any meaningful difference between this and the iPhone 14 Pro. The ultra-wide camera at 12mm is great, and the 120mm telephoto camera adds some really cool compositional possibilities.
Personally, I used the telephoto lens the most. The ultra-wide and telephoto cameras do see a degradation in image quality, but not to the point where it’s bad. Still very usable, in my opinion.
iPhone 15 Pro Max for Video
Finally, the standout feature is still the video quality, especially with Cinematic Mode and HDR Video, which enhances depth of field for a more professional look, regardless of which lens you use. The autofocus is spot on, the colors are good, and you have plenty of room for some grading. The optical image stabilization is also impressive, considering it’s a mix of optical and digital stabilization.
Neutral aspects
The LOG capabilities are a great addition for those who wish to color grade and get the most dynamic range. However, it comes at a huge cost. You can only record LOG while recording in ProRes HQ. This means huge file sizes, and even my 512 GB model can’t record more than 45 minutes or so at a push.
Of course, you can plug in external drives and record directly onto an SSD or a memory card. However, the whole point of using the phone is the compact size. As soon as you start adding accessories, you lose that.
Despite the marketing talk, this camera hardware only has three physical lenses. The main camera at 1x is then split into crop options designed to simulate focal lengths such as 28mm and 35mm. You also have a 2x digital zoom option, which is a 50mm-ish focal length; however, it’s not an actual lens but a 2x crop on the 24mm focal length.
Of course, you have that 48-megapixel sensor to give you the cropping ability, however, it’s still a crop, and the loss of quality is evident.
Although this phone is touted to be more durable, I already managed to put a giant scratch on the screen. No idea how, as generally I’m very careful.
The bad things about the iPhone 15 Pro Max
Bugs
It’s not all good news, and there are some fundamental issues that make this phone not suitable as a main camera. The first major issue is all the bugs throughout the iOS user experience. One in every five attempts to open the camera app using the action button resulted in a freeze and the camera app not working. This was frustrating because I missed a few shots. Also, there was no clear way to get it working again other than to close the camera app and try again.
Although it has a USB-C port, not all devices are supported, and the Files app is full of bugs. For example, one day, it would not recognise my Sandisk SSD or Sony CFExpress card. The next day, it would. There is no clear pattern of when it would recognise a drive and when it would ignore it. File transfers are equally frustrating, with the photo app crashing halfway through a file transfer.
Overheating and Slowing You Down
Yesterday I was out shooting with this phone all day, and it felt like the more I used it for filming, the more it got overloaded or ran out of RAM. The phone got warm, and everything slowed down. It seems like the phone is fine when you grab a few clips here and there however, as soon as you use it like a camera, it slows down.
Finally, if you’ve been shooting all day, chances are you have a lot of files to copy over. If you’re on a Mac, this is easy—just connect the phone using a cable and launch the Image Capture app. However, if you’re on an iPad, this becomes a huge pain in the arse because you can’t directly connect the phone to the iPad and let it copy the files over.
You can try Airdrop, which is great for one or two clips; however, it is useless for anything bigger. You can try copying the footage from the photo app to an external drive, but good luck if it works without crashing. This isn’t all the time, but it happens enough times that it becomes a make-or-break issue, I think.
Conclusion
To summarise, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a great phone and a very capable camera; however, there are many bugs that need to be ironed out before it can become a truly useful tool. I think the bugs will go away with time; however, given it’s already been out for nearly half a year, I feel it should have been done sooner.
If you are considering this phone solely for the cameras, I would personally suggest picking up a DJI Pocket 3 for video quality and a Fuji XT30 for portraits and general photography. Combined, they will cost roughly the same as this phone and give you much better results.
However, if you’re in the market for a new phone, then this is a solid option, especially given the USB-C port, which I feel will only get more reliable with time.
