In 2011, I got my first iPhone and started taking photos with it. Over the years, I upgraded from the 5, to the 6, to the 8, to the 13 mini, to the 14 regular.

But there's one upgrade I've never done. Until last week.

I upgraded to a Pro iPhone.

That's right, for the first time ever, I have an iPhone Pro!

I was perfectly fine with my iPhone 14, and you know me: I'm always encouraging everyone to develop their photography skills with any old camera they have.

But there was one thing I was always wanting out of my iPhone camera that I just never had: a third lens.

A telephoto one.

And that's what you get with a Pro iPhone. It's a third, optical zoom lens, allowing you to zoom in without relying on digital zoom.

Digital zoom is lower quality, produces blurrier photos with less detail.

The digital zoom on my iPhone 14 was fine. I still used it a lot and loved the look of a photo slightly more zoomed in.

Zooming in not just lets you see a subject closer up, but it also controls the shape and space between objects at different depths from your camera. This results in photos that are more pleasing to the eye.

Yes, the digital zoom degrades the quality, but controlling the depth of my images made them more interesting: and that's what I loved.

Now that I have an iPhone 17 Pro, I can continue to zoom in, but now my zoomed-in photos have much more clarity, sharpness and detail.

As a professional photographer, I just cringe whenever my photos look low-quality. I know it's just an iPhone, and quality is not the most important thing in phone photography. But now knowing that iPhones have better quality zoom lenses, I wanted one.

So what do I think of the new iPhone 17 Pro camera?

I love it. The main reason I got the iPhone 17 Pro and not the iPhone 16 Pro is that the telephoto zoom lens got an upgrade.

The iPhone 17 Pro telephoto zoom lens now has a 48MP sensor. It was only a 12MP sensor on the iPhone 16 Pro.

That's a huge jump in quality, and since the telephoto zoom lens was the main attraction for me, it made more sense to spend more to get the 17.

Why did I upgrade after saying I wouldn't?

A couple of months ago I talked about why I wasn't going to be upgrading my iPhone 14. If I really wanted to take a higher quality zoomed-in photo, I'd just use my professional camera gear.

And yes, my professional camera gear still produces higher quality images than the iPhone 17 Pro.

But a family member needed a new phone, so donating my iPhone 14 to them and getting a new one seemed like a convenient excuse to upgrade my iPhone. :)

How do I shoot differently, now that I have a fancy zoom lens on my iPhone?

In so many ways! It has surprised me. From taking gorgeous shots of snow falling through my window, to capturing stunning compositions "on the fly", my iPhone 17 Pro camera has allowed me to expand my creativity because the tool is just that much more powerful.

--> Yes, limited tools can expand our creativity. But in other ways, upgraded tools can do that too.

What does it mean for you?

If you're new on your journey to becoming a better photographer and you have a small budget, I would recommend sticking to simple phones. Don't stress about not having a pro iPhone.

The most learning you will do will happen with or without a fancy zoom lens on the iPhone.

In fact, owning a phone camera with all the bells and whistles could actually distract you from focusing on the core learning needed to improve your skills.

The main things you should focus on are:

• learn to read light well
• improve your composition and design
• nurture your creativity
• explore storytelling to become a better visual communicator
• develop good editing skills in apps like Lightroom Mobile
• get a good teacher, mentor or coach (something simple as just continuing to read my emails will help!)

Focusing on those 6 things with any simple point and shoot camera will take you much further than buying a fancy camera and "hoping for the best".

The gear is not what takes you to the next level.

But when you do get to the next level, having fancy gear can be fun. ;)

•••

Hi I'm Gabrielle. I run a full time photography business in Winnipeg, specializing in portrait and commercial photography. This newsletter started with my passion for helping everyday people realize their full photography potential. With a bit of technical and creative help, you too can take better photos with the phone camera you already have.

Find more of my resources here:

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Gabrielle Touchette Photography

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