iPhone 18 Pro gets more camera control with mechanical aperture

Wielding what Apple calls “the most advanced camera in an iPhone”, the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max range is about to hit Australia.

Behind this claim is a new 48MP “Fusion Main” camera exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro range. It sports a new sensor that, alongside updated software processing, helps take better photos. Most importantly is the addition of mechanical aperture blades, enabling variable aperture settings for the first time on an iPhone.

This means you can use Apple’s native camera app to manually adjust the aperture to either let more light in and take photos with softer backgrounds, or shoot with a narrower aperture, which is ideal for shooting landscapes in brighter conditions. As part of this, the iPhone 18 Pro handsets support Apple’s new “Pro controls” designed to make it easier to manually adjust camera settings, view a histogram, and get the look you want.

Mechanical aperture blades are a big new addition for photographers. Image: Apple.

Elsewhere, the camera hardware is largely the same as last year’s iPhone 17 Pro range. There’s still a 48MP ultra-wide lens and a 48MP telephoto lens with up to 8x optical zoom levels.

Under the hood is the new A20 Pro chip, which Apple claims is faster than competing processors, while powering up to 40 per cent faster GPU performance than the A19 Pro. Last year’s Pro iPhones claimed up to 37 hours of video playback on a single battery charge. This year, Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro Max lasts up to 43 hours, roughly a 16 per cent increase.

As expected, based on increasing component and manufacturing costs due to the AI-driven global memory shortage, the iPhone 18 Pro range costs more than last year’s models. In Australia, $2,099 is the starting price for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro, $100 more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro.

Across both the new Pro and Pro Max models, the 256GB and 512GB configurations carry a $100 price increase. Once you get to the 1TB and 2TB versions, the cost bump is more dramatic. Compared to last year, the 2TB iPhone 18 Pro Max costs $900 more, more than a 23 per cent increase.

Australian iPhone 18 Pro price and release date

Launching ahead of Apple’s first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max launch in Australia on 18 September. Pre-orders begin on 12 September at 10:00 PM AEST.

These are the four colours the iPhone 18 Pro comes in: burgundy, glacier, silver, and black. Image: Apple.

Here’s how much each configuration costs in Australia:

iPhone 18 Pro

• 256GB: $2,099
• 512GB: $2,499
• 1TB: $3,299
• 2TB: $4,499

iPhone 18 Pro Max

• 256GB: $2,299
• 512GB: $2,699
• 1TB: $3,499
• 2TB: $4,699

Better performance, longer battery life, and a more advanced camera all sound like nice upgrades. We’ll soon see just how much of a difference it makes when the new iPhones launch next week.

Valens Quinn attended the iPhone launch event in Cupertino as a guest of Apple.

The post iPhone 18 Pro gets more camera control with mechanical aperture appeared first on GadgetGuy.

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