This upcoming fall, Apple is set to unveil the sleek iPhone 17 Air, which promises to capture attention. However, it does come with limitations, such as featuring only one rear camera. Yet, through a bit of research, I’ve realized that this may not impact my experience as much as I initially thought.
iPhone 17 Air will have a single rear camera
For a long time, Apple’s flagship iPhones have included multiple rear cameras.
The iPhone 7 Plus introduced its dual-camera setup back in 2016—almost ten years ago.
Since then, having two or more rear-facing cameras on iPhones has become the norm.
However, the iPhone 17 Air will launch with just a single rear camera.
Both the Ultra Wide and Telephoto lenses found in the Pro models will be absent, leaving users with only the single Main ‘Fusion’ camera.
While I’m eager to see the ultra-thin and modern design of the iPhone 17 Air, I’ve had my concerns about the camera features.
To ease my worries, I researched my recent photo usage.
I pondered: how many photos have I taken using the Ultra Wide and Telephoto lenses lately?
Unfortunately, Apple’s Photos app doesn’t simplify this process. There aren’t specific albums for images captured using the various rear cameras.
A quick manual count was all it took.
I discovered that among my last 50 photos:
- 4 were Telephoto
- 0 Ultra Wide
- 46 used the Main camera
This aligned with my expectations, perhaps even slightly lower for Telephoto.
Honestly, I always suspected that the loss of the Ultra Wide would be insignificant for me — I hardly ever use it.
I anticipated the Telephoto count to be low, but four out of fifty surprised me; I would have guessed closer to eight.
So, I continued to count, and the numbers kept decreasing.
In my next batch of 100 photos, not one was captured with the Telephoto or Ultra Wide lenses.
Next, I counted another 100 photos before concluding my analysis.
After compiling data from my last 250 photos, the findings were as follows:
- 7 Telephoto
- 3 Ultra Wide
- 240 Main
It seemed wise to stop counting here, as the results were quite clear.
iPhone 17 Air’s camera isn’t the issue I anticipated
It appears my iPhone 16 Pro Max’s additional cameras are mostly unnecessary.
Out of the Telephoto images I captured, only a few would I miss, while none from the Ultra Wide perspective would be missed at all.
I know I’ve utilized the Telephoto lens more when traveling and might miss it during those times, but in day-to-day life, clearly, I don’t use it, at least not nearly as much as the Main camera.
There’s a chance that Apple might introduce innovative camera features on the iPhone 17 Pro that could make me reconsider. However, with what I know at this moment, I feel much more confident saying that the iPhone 17 Air is the right choice for me.
Do you often capture photos with the Telephoto or Ultra Wide lenses? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Top image credit: iDeviceHelp
