Why do I wholeheartedly support the upcoming "Master Mode" on the iPhone?

Fruit-style Professionalism

Simplicity Governs Complexity

Recently, two new pieces of news have emerged regarding the imaging department of the iPhone 17 Pro.

Firstly, as reported by ifanr a couple of days ago, the telephoto lens on the iPhone 17 Pro series may support up to 8x continuous zoom.

While domestic mobile phones are in fierce competition and shooting the moon is no longer the limit, it seems that Apple has finally realized and started to catch up with the trend of "shooting far".

However, through years of practice in the market and among users, it has long been understood that a longer focal length is not necessarily better. The telephoto on the iPhone has gone from 3x to 5x, and now it's going straight to 8x. Users will surely buy the iPhone, but whether this new telephoto lens will satisfy them is really hard to say.

However, compared with this somewhat controversial telephoto news, I wholeheartedly support the other piece of news:

Apple is going to develop a professional camera app on its own, which will be launched along with the iPhone 17 series and iOS 26.

However, I may have different thoughts about the description of "professional".

The Professional Camera App on Mobile Phones Doesn't Have to Be That Professional

Let's first look back at the current native camera on the iPhone. It has two major pain points that users have long complained about: it's too complicated and too automatic.

It may sound a bit contradictory at first? Let me explain it slowly:

Firstly, the interface has been in use since iOS 7, and now the interface of the original camera is stuffed with various functions. The bottom mode bar has as many as seven or eight types (slow-motion, time-lapse, etc.), and the hidden secondary menu has a very complex structure. If you're a non-heavy user, you may not figure out all the functions even after using an iPhone for two or three years.

Secondly, being too automatic makes it even more difficult to start. Today, when Android phones are full of professional modes, RAW support, and AI parameter customization, the iPhone's camera still adheres to the "foolproof" shooting philosophy, like an authoritarian parent saying "You just press the shutter, and I'll decide the rest". As a result, although the iPhone's imaging system has a top-notch ISP in the industry, it fails to fully release the hardware potential to users.

On iOS 26, we finally see Apple taking action. With the new liquid glass visual language, the native camera has undergone a rare major overhaul:

The previously complex and piled-up functions have been orderly split. The two most commonly used modes, photo and video, have become the "main axis", while the rest, such as slow-motion, time-lapse photography, and panorama, have been put into sub-menus and will only expand when you slide to switch. The secondary menu that was originally buried in a corner also has a clearer hierarchy and structure.

Click here to see ifanr's detailed interpretation of the new design of the iOS 26 camera: iOS 26 is not satisfactory, but the camera app is worth learning from for all manufacturers.

It can be said that starting from iOS 26, the original iPhone camera finally doesn't look so intimidating.

However, the problem has also become clearer: it's still automatic, and the parameters still can't be adjusted.

Since the WWDC was held and ifanr installed the iOS 26 beta version immediately, there has been a question:

Can such an original camera really release all the imaging potential of the iPhone?

Indeed, although simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, if the price is to suppress the creative space, it may not be "subtraction in design" but rather a deprivation of creative freedom.

Following this logic, it's quite reasonable for a "professional" camera app that combines video and photo functions to appear.

However, I still have doubts about this so-called "professional".

Although there isn't more detailed information yet, from a series of Apple's actions in recent years, we may be able to get a glimpse of the whole picture:

Apple may not follow the path of completely replicating the settings of cameras and movie cameras like Blackmagic Cam. Instead, it's more likely to choose to open up control over some key parameters and create a semi-professional app.

This isn't baseless speculation. Since the launch of Apple Log, Apple has been quietly trying a more "Apple-style" professional path - Final Cut Camera.

As a native video app developed by Apple, Final Cut Camera doesn't have a lot of hardcore parameters like shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. Instead, it only retains a few key controls: video specifications, focal length selection, and volume monitoring.

After setting the frame rate, users can basically start shooting with one click without having to worry about the three elements of exposure.

One of the major features of Final Cut Camera is multi-camera shooting. It supports remote synchronous recording between multiple iPhones and iPads. All the footage is automatically synchronized with time codes and can be imported into Final Cut Pro right after shooting, with seamless native integration. It's truly the smoothest shooting front-end tool in the Apple ecosystem.

Its core value proposition is to allow users to experience a shooting workflow close to that of a professional team with one or several iPhones in hand.

After Final Cut Camera, Apple's choice at the App Store Awards last year also confirms the feasibility of this "semi-professional path" from the side:

The highest award, "iPhone App of the Year", was given to an app called Kino.

This is a video shooting tool specifically designed for Apple Log. It has dozens of professional LUTs for Apple Log built - in. Even if you don't understand color grading at all, you can quickly produce stylized blockbusters.

However, Kino won the App of the Year not only because of its Log LUTs but also because it strikes a very good balance between professionalism and ease of use.

When you open the main interface of Kino, you'll find it very restrained:

LUT List

Focus

Focal Length Selection

Video Specifications

Volume Monitoring

Besides these, there are no other professional parameters for you to control. Even the white balance is placed in the secondary menu.

This design brings simplicity in use. You don't need to know what shutter speed corresponds to 24fps, don't need to be able to read histograms to judge if the exposure of a gray card is correct, and you don't even need to adjust the ISO.

After confirming the frame rate, just pick up your phone and you can shoot blockbusters.

This idea of "retaining" key parameters and "hiding" technical details essentially liberates users from complex parameter settings and refocuses their attention on the picture itself.

It can be said that Kino has found an accurate middle ground between professionalism and ease of use, building a bridge for ordinary users to use professional functions.

After Final Cut Camera and Kino, if Apple really develops an official "professional camera" app, ifanr believes it will probably follow this path.

"Master Mode": Empowering Masters and Paving the Way for the Masses

Some friends may say that the examples just mentioned seem to be all about video, but this new Apple camera app is supposed to cover both photos and videos.

Is there any room for imagination in photography?

Don't worry, there really is. Let's turn our attention to domestic mobile phones.

On this year's Find X8 Ultra, OPPO's newly upgraded Master Mode provides a very valuable solution:

It combines Hasselblad's classic tone and OPPO's computational photography technology. At the same time, it gives users a high degree of creative freedom, creating an organic experience that is neither "foolproof" nor "too complex/professional".

What does it mean?

On the one hand, it doesn't require users to understand parameters like shutter speed, sensitivity, and white balance as in the professional mode, and they don't need to adjust each item manually.

On the other hand, it's not like the traditional automatic mode that produces fixed - style photos with one click. Instead, it retains just the right amount of control over the tone, allowing you to adjust the tone, texture, and color to express your own aesthetics.

You don't need to be a photographer to have the freedom to control the picture. This is actually a "middle - ground" design between simplicity and complexity, "foolproof" and "professional".

This middle ground is large enough for Apple to explore.

On the iPhone, another app has also set a good example for Apple in terms of functionality:

Recently, Indigo, a computational photography software launched by the former father of Google Camera after moving to Adobe, not only brings image quality comparable to optical zoom to non - native focal lengths like 2x and 10x through algorithms but also allows the iPhone to finally get rid of the awkward sharpening/smudging effect of DeepFusion and even solves the noise problem after zooming in very well.

Shot on Project Indigo

More importantly, it doesn't require you to shoot in RAW or know how to adjust LUTs. You can start shooting right away, and what you see is what you get.

This finds an accurate boundary for the middle ground between ease of use and professionalism: professionalism doesn't necessarily mean complexity. Precise experience design and algorithm support can also create another aesthetic path for photography.

Of course, there isn't much information about the new camera app yet. The content mentioned above is more like an attribution of results based on Apple's past actions and existing facts.

But then again, why did I say at the beginning that I strongly support Apple in developing a new camera app?

If we look back at the development path of smartphones in recent years, we'll find that:

Processors are in a race, screens are getting brighter, fast - charging batteries have become standard, and system interactions are gradually becoming homogenized...

Imaging has become one of the few main battlefields where mobile phone manufacturers can still tell stories.

Whether you like it or not, before there is a breakthrough technological innovation, the quality of mobile phone photography and video recording will still be the main theme at this stage.

In this context, not only Apple but all leading manufacturers will move closer to professionalism.

I believe you've already felt this trend: Dolby Vision, HDR, RAW, Log, LUT...

- These terms that used to belong only to the professional photography circle are appearing more and more frequently at mobile phone press conferences and are being presented as selling points in PPTs.

Manufacturers are very enthusiastic in their promotion, but users are