The iPhone 17 Pro has just lost a key camera feature, and Apple won’t explain why

• The iPhone 17 Pro has lost a popular photography feature
• The change has been confirmed by an official Apple document
• Yet Apple won’t say why the change was made

Usually when you buy one of the best iPhones, you expect its features to be more advanced than what came before it. In most cases, that’s true with the iPhone 17 Pro, but some eagle-eyed users have just noticed that it’s missing a key camera feature compared to the iPhone 16 Pro – and people are disappointed.

Users on both Reddit and Apple’s official forums have noticed that the iPhone 17 Pro does not allow Night mode to be used when shooting Portrait mode shots, with catalyticclover on Reddit saying, “Portraits at night don’t look nearly as good as they could, and it’s a downgrade compared to the quality that previous models could achieve.”

News site Macworld has confirmed that an Apple Support document supports the users’ claims, as it lists the iPhone 12 Pro to the iPhone 16 Pro Max as devices that can use Night mode and Portrait mode together – excluding the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Considering that last year’s iPhone 16 Pro allowed these two features to be used at the same, it seems that the latest high-end iPhone comes with a notable camera downgrade (in this area at least).

Portrait mode lets you shoot studio-like photos that tastefully blur the background with bokeh effects while keeping your subject in focus. Apple’s Night mode, meanwhile, enables long exposure photos that let you take better images even when there’s very little available light. When put together, you can create artful photos even in low lighting conditions.

Or at least you could on the iPhone 16 Pro. Macworld says that Night mode images taken on an iPhone 17 Pro lack the depth information that is used to create Portrait mode shots, preventing the two features from being used together. Conversely, when you try to take a Portrait mode photo in the dark, the Night mode option disappears. With the iPhone 17 Pro unable to combine these two tools, photographers will be left with fewer weapons in their arsenal.

An unexplained move

Despite this disappointment, the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera is still a sizeable upgrade over that of its predecessor. It now comes with all three lenses boasting 48MP resolution, the ability to capture photos and videos at the same time, a Center Stage-enabled front-facing camera, and more.

It’s not known why Apple has dropped the ability to combine Portrait and Night modes in the iPhone 17 Pro as the company hasn’t commented on the move. We've asked Apple for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

Hopefully Apple will decide to bring it back via a software update, but without knowing why the change was made in the first place, we don’t know whether it’s due to a technical reason that would prevent its return.

All we do know is that it’s highly unusual for Apple to drop a popular feature like this, especially since you’ve been able to pair up Portrait mode and Night mode since the iPhone 12 Pro launched in 2020. If you’re a fan of creating portrait photos in darkened environments, the iPhone 17 Pro might not be the phone for you.

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