Apple’s component suppliers are beginning production for iPhone 18 parts, and a new report says this includes elements of a brand new camera feature for the iPhone 18 Pro.
Specifically, China’s Sunny Optical has reportedly begun manufacturing a key component needed to control the iris in the lenses in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max …
You can find a detailed explanation with examples in an explainer we wrote a couple of years ago, but the executive summary of the key benefit is the ability to control the depth of field (DoF) in a photo.
You can have a shallow DoF when you want to isolate a person from the background, a medium DoF when you want isolation while ensuring the background is still recognizable, or a deep DOF when you want everything in shot to be in focus, as in a landscape or cityscape shot. (Shallow DoF is the effect that Portrait mode emulates in software.)
Apple including a variable aperture lens in an iPhone has been expected for years, but there is now good evidence that this is the year.
With every new iPhone, Apple has to work backwards in its supply chain. A camera module requires the individual cameras within it; each camera requires a lens; and for variable aperture lenses, an actuator is required to open and close the iris.
The further back you go in this chain, the earlier production has to begin. Sunny Optical needs to make the actuators now in order for LG to assemble the camera modules from around June, and that’s what ET News reports today.
China’s Sunny Optical has started manufacturing actuators for Apple’s variable-aperture camera. An industry official with knowledge of the matter said, “The actuator manufacturer has recently started manufacturing parts, and LG Innotech will start manufacturing camera modules around June to July this year.”
There have been false starts in past reporting on this, with the feature rumoured for previous generations of iPhone. However, there does now seem enough cumulative evidence to be confident that the feature will be appearing in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
It’s important not to expect too much from a variable aperture. iPhone cameras already have very wide apertures but don’t offer very shallow depth of field because the sensor is just too small. It will, however, be a tiny step in the right direction.
Photo: Apple
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