Some follow-up thoughts on my earlier piece, regarding the second-gen iPhone Air’s additional camera lens being a 0.5× ultra-wide, not a 3× or 4× telephoto:
Ultimately, it’s the fact that I use my 0.5× lens not so much for photography but for scanning documents and notes, and taking “What is this?” images of things in my hand, that explains its utility compared to a telephoto. I think of photography as meaning, roughly, “I’m trying to capture an aesthetically pleasing image that I intend to keep in perpetuity, to enjoy and remember for years to come.”
A telephoto is only good for photography, in that sense. The ultra-wide lens is a tool with additional utility beyond capturing photos you want to keep in any artistic or emotional sense. You can always grit your teeth and use digital zoom if you don’t have a telephoto, but you can’t fake going wider or, importantly, closer. The minimum focal distance of the iPhone 17 Pro 1× lens is 20 cm. The minimum focal distance of the iPhone Air 1× lens is 15 cm. Those extra 5 cm make a difference, but the iPhone Pro’s 0.5× lens has a minimum focal distance of just 2 cm. It can focus on pretty much anything you put in front of it. The iPhone Air’s 1× lens can’t do that. With Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, taking macro photos of objects and text, simply to ask Siri or another chatbot about them, is increasingly important.
One reader, who previously owned iPhone Pro models, but bought an Air last year, emailed to say: “It would be nice to have the telephoto; it’s annoying not having the ultra wide. When I was buying it I thought I’d miss the telephoto but actually it’s the other way around. If they add ultra wide it will be an instant upgrade for me.”
I think that sentiment sums it up.
