These rumored iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max features suggest Apple is planning its biggest camera upgrade for years

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New buttons, apps, and zoom could be on the cards

The iPhone 16 Pro on a grey background
The iPhone 16 Pro (Image credit: Future)
  • The top iPhone 17 models could get 8x optical zoom
  • An extra camera button could also be added
  • Apple is said to be working on a pro-level camera app

If Apple sticks to its usual schedule then we're less than two months away from the launch of the iPhone 17 models, and it sounds as though the Pro and Pro Max models are in line to get three key upgrades related to cameras and photography.

According to an anonymous tipster who contacted MacRumors, the first upgrade is going to be a jump to 8x optical zoom, which would be up from the 5x optical zoom you can find in the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Second, there's apparently going to be a second Camera Control button on the opposite side to the current Camera Control on the iPhone 16 models – which is on the right hand side of the handsets if you hold them in portrait mode.

The original Camera Control button lets you open the Camera app and tweak a variety of settings for taking pictures, including exposure and tone. Apparently the new button will "complement" the existing one with its own choice of settings.

A new camera app?

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max REVIEW

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Finally, the third upgrade predicted by this tipster is a new "pro camera app" from Apple for photos and videos. It's not clear if this would be an iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max exclusive – it might be made available for other iPhones too.

The new app would take on the likes of Halide and Filmic Pro, available on the App Store. The tipster says that this app may arrive as an update to the Final Cut Camera app that Apple already makes, though presumably it would come preinstalled.

We don't really know anything about this tipster, so of course take these rumors with a grain of salt. The information is said to come from a commercial that's being filmed for Apple – and which will be used to show off this year's big new features.

If all of this is accurate, it would be one of the most significant iPhone camera upgrades in quite some time, and 8K video might be included as well. We're also expecting the Pro and Pro Max models to get a noticeable design refresh too.

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David Nield
David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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