Two new iPhone 13 Pro camera features that Apple promised would be coming in future software updates have shown up in the latest developer beta of iOS 15.1. Now users can record video with Apple’s ProRes codec, and there’s a switch to turn off the automatic macro mode switching (via 9to5Mac). With this release of the third beta, users have gained access to the toggles, which could indicate that the features are coming soon.
In the current versions of iOS, the iPhone 13 Pro will automatically switch from the main camera to the ultrawide camera when it detects that you’re close up to a subject, enabling the close-focus macro mode. Some reviewers found the switch (which happens without much of a UI indication) jarring, and Apple said it would add a setting to turn it off. Now that it’s shown up in the beta, though, some Reddit users have reported difficulty getting the same results with the Auto Macro setting turned off, even after manually switching to the ultrawide lens. Of course, with this being a developer beta, it’s possible the setting has some bugs or that it could work a bit differently by the final release.
(If you’re looking for macro mode and have a non-Pro iPhone 13, or even an older model, Halide has just released an update that includes a macro mode for the iPhone 8 and up.)
9To5Mac has a look at what using ProRes to shoot video is like in the new beta and reveals that Apple’s using the 422 HQ flavor of ProRes. Like the macro feature, shooting in the color grading-friendly ProRes format is limited to iPhone 13 Pro models, with the 128GB phones only recording the codec in 1080P instead of 4K.
While these features may show up in the official 15.1 release, that’s not a sure thing — SharePlay was in early versions of the iOS 15 beta before being removed (though it showed back up again with the first iOS 15.1 beta). The 15.1 beta also includes support for adding a COVID vaccination card to Apple Wallet, so if everything ends up making it in, this could be a pretty big release.
With its recent spate of updates and betas, Apple has been checking off a list of features that were announced but not yet released. On Tuesday, Apple released firmware enabling better Find My support for AirPods Pro and Max. While macOS Monterey and the impressive-looking Universal Control feature that comes with it are still missing, we’ve already gotten the promised Safari redesign on older versions of the OS (unfortunately, perhaps).
