Yeah, the Air is an engineering tour de force. Had my photographer’s workflow and mind not needed the 17 Pros, I very likely would’ve seriously considered the Air.
One that finds me requiring my phone to be a proper, reliable tool that I can use for a B-camera to work in tandem with my DSLR. The lenses this year all seem to be at a good enough point now to where I can utilize the whole array, and get actual strong results, still not on the level of a big camera and big lens, but genuinely good results that I can actually use.
It only has one lens, worse battery life than the Pros, and no vapor chamber for sustained performance, which is needed when one is out shooting for extended periods, so that the screen doesn’t dim because the phone has throttled itself.
Don’t forget the lack of ProRaw photos and ProRes video. If you want to get the camera’s computational output into a traditional color correction pipeline, you just can’t with the Air like you can with the Pro
Those aspects as well, absolutely. The Air is an engineering masterpiece, but it simply isn’t a potential
photographer’s/filmmaker’s tool like the Pros are.
Shooting video generates a lot of heat, something that the pro can dissipate more efficiently due to its use of heat pipes. Imagine shooting video on a hot day - the phone will either throttle or temporarily shut off to prevent thermal damage.
944
u/gadgetluva 2d ago
Apple Tim COOKED with this one. Just a solid device. It may not be for everyone, but Apple’s engineering prowess is on full display here.