iPhone 16 Camera Control button — the ultimate guide

I think this is really innovative and I like it.

Some quick thoughts after experimenting with Camera Control for a couple of hours this morning:

The Good:

• Very intuitive: just plunging in with no guide, it took me all of 2 minutes to figure out how to access, scroll through and select the various functions. 
• Not fussy or fidgety! This was a surprise after reading reports to the contrary. YMMV, of course, but using the default pressure setting, I had no problem with the single or double light presses, or the slider at the top of the button. 
• Love having a screen cleared of the usual control icons so I can focus on just the image I'm trying to capture.
• Good to have another way to immediately access the camera app. 
• Fantastic that third party camera apps like Halide and ProCamera are already supporting Camera Control. New interfaces like this from Apple have often died out from a dearth of third party support. (I'm looking at you 3D Touch and Touch Bar.) Seems like this one will be different. 

• Why can't I decide which camera functions get assigned to Camera Control? I often toggle between 4:3 and 1:1 Aspect Ratios, so I'd love to have that at my fingertip for switching, but no-can-do. At least for now, you're stuck with the ones Apple has assigned to it, and there are a couple I will never use, so a partial waste of this feature for me. Likewise, why can't Apple give us three app choices to be called up by the Action Button, based on whether it's a single, double or triple press? I know I can use Short Cuts, but this functionality belongs in the Action Button settings and shouldn't be a kludge using Short Cuts. 

• So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release. 

charlesn said:

• So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release. 

 You've got to be doing something wrong if the phone is actually moving when pressing the Camera Control button. I have a SupCase on mine which covers the Camera Control, and even with that, it does not take must effort to depress activate the shutter or start a video, certainly not enough to cause camera shake.

SxyGayjust said:

charlesn said:

• So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release. 

 You've got to be doing something wrong if the phone is actually moving when pressing the Camera Control button. I have a SupCase on mine which covers the Camera Control, and even with that, it does not take must effort to depress activate the shutter or start a video, certainly not enough to cause camera shake.

After decades in photography, I know my way around a shutter button. PetaPixel did an in-depth, 25 minute review of the 16 Pro/Pro Max camera system from a camera professional's perspective and had the same critique of excessive pressure needed for shutter release, causing the same issues. But hey, if it works for you, have at it.