Early thoughts on Apple's camera shutter button

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I spent the weekend playing around with the Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Max. Lucky me!

There's a lot to look at, and a lot to consider for Apple's annual update, but the biggest change this year is the addition of the camera shutter button across the whole family of devices.

Naturally, this is where I started my testing. And after a few days of trying to take photos with it, I have some thoughts. You can watch the video above, or read through some of my rantings below. Your choice!

It takes some getting used to

I still find myself consciously activating the camera with the shutter button, framing my shot, and then hitting the touchscreen shutter to take the photo.

After more than a decade, muscle memory is definitely pointed at the on-screen button for taking shots. It needs to be a conscious effort to use the button.

The controls are around the wrong way

When you use the zoom on a digital camera, you push the zoom to the right to zoom in and to the left to zoom out. But using the shutter button, scrolling to the left zooms in, while going left zooms out.

When you look at the on-screen display it makes sense, I guess. You start with the widest angle or zoom length then increase from left to right, and the dial is like you're dragging it across.

But give me an inverted mode, Apple.

I want the half press to focus

I've read this is coming via a software update, which is something. But currently the half press opens the control options, which is too easy to scroll through before you take a shot.

Let the half press focus before a full press shoots, and a double half press open the options. And let it come soon, please Apple.

I want to remove options from the shutter button menu

I don't want to use Apple's fake zoom between each camera lens while taking a photo. I only want to use the cameras' natural focal length. That's an option, but it's too easy to swap between them.

Similarly, I don't think I'll ever want to adjust tone or style using this menu. Let me remove it so I don't accidently set all my photos to sepia.

It doesn't let you adjust shooting modes

This is probably the biggest surprise for me. I try and use the phone's portrait mode to take pictures of my kids, and currently I can't use the shutter button to quickly switch between the standard camera and portrait mode or video.

I would find that much more useful than manually adjusting aperture or exposure. Give me much more control over what I can put into that menu please Apple.

Final thoughts

I know I've listed out problems here, but there's pretty much nothing that can't be fixed with a software update. Ultimately, I think this is a good thing for smartphone photography, but it's not quite there yet.

Have you been playing around with the button at all? Do you agree? Let me know in comments.