Apple’s Camera Control Button

You might already be up to speed on this, but after a long tradition of removing buttons and ports from the iPhone, usually controversially—the home button and the headphone jack come to mind—Apple has added a button to the iPhone 16, and I tried it. With the phone in landscape (horizontal) orientation and the lenses pointed outward, the Camera Control Button (CCB) is on the top right side of the body, and—it’s really nice. It makes holding the camera horizontally much more comfortable, and puts the lenses at operator’s top left where they won’t get in the way of your hand. I like it. It’s so natural it gave me a strong sensation of, “why didn’t they do this a long time ago?”

Even better, the first press of the CCB turns the camera on.

A short press takes a photo and a long press starts a video. The button is of course multipurpose—it’s also a touch slider and can be used to set and adjust settings. A light touch brings you back to the previous control. And the button can also be used for various functions within different apps.

I didn’t sort out all the functions at the store. But the basic haptics are a radical improvement to the experience and the iPhone’s usability.

By all means check it out for yourself if you’re in the ecosystem and get a chance to try it. It’s a nice, sensible improvement.

Mike

Comments

[psu]

As you say, this button also brings up various adjustments UIs when you do a light half touch on it (like the half press for focus, but touchier).

This is in theory sort of nice, but in practice it's easy to accidentally change things while the phone is in your pocket.

Also, I have long used the volume buttons on the other side of the phone body as the shutter button. In that contex aside from the quick "open camera" functionality it's not really clear to me how useful this new button is. I guess in some future release we are going to get "half press for focus", but that honestly doesn't really excite me all that much either.

I'd much rather have the old home button back.

[robert e]

I stumbled on a very "nerdy" discussion about the button with two iPhone designers who are also avid photographers, and it includes a detailed description of how it works. (Transcript is below the podcast player.)

https://surroundpodcasts.com/episodes/nerdy-details-the-apple-iphone-16s-camera-control-button/

I found the whole thing very interesting, especially for the glimpse into how the iPhone team operates, including how their goal of "never missing a photo" inspired the button. I envy their jobs! I wish they'd addressed the fact that the button replaces the mmWave antenna window that US iPhones used to have--coincidence or not?

(Design Tangents looks like a podcast series worth investigating, too.)

[Jeff Greenstein]

Bottom right side. The top right button is Siri.

[Sorry. I meant top right side with the phone held in landscape orientation. I'll go change that. --Mike]

[Robert Roaldi]

There's no headphone jack in newer iPhones? Why not?

The longer I live the more and more I am annoyed by high tech and almost everyone I know feels the same. And most of us used to work in tech before retiring.

[Tom Burke]

I've got an iPhone 16 Pro Max and I'm very ambivalent about the Cameral Control. I've found it to not be intuitive or easy; indeed, I've found it hard to use. I seem to be concentrating on getting the Camera Control right rather than concentrating on the photo. So after just a week I've pretty much stopped using it. It doesn't add any controls, just duplicates them. At the moment I'm still using it to turn on the camera - but in practice time I still tend to swipe from the Lock Screen to open the camera - so I might actually turn it off altogether.

So why did I buy a 16 Pro, I hear you ask? I was coming from a 14 Pro Max and I found the following improvements were enough to persuade me: a) 10GBps data transfer via that USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with the USB-C connector. My 14 PM just had Lightning, which was anything but, as regards data transfer; b) improvements to a couple of the camera sensors; c) ready for Apple Intelligence; d) the titanium side rails - the first iPhone for years I'm not using with a case.

(That said, it's also the case that I got a generous trade-in allowance for the 14 PM, I also had a separate Apple voucher for a bit more, and the actual price was £110 *less* than the equivalent phone two years ago - the Pro Max phones now start with 256GB, whereas I'd paid extra for an enhanced 14 Pro Max.)

[Keith]

I'm not a fan of most multi-function controls. The "infotainment" (geez what a horrible word that is) console on most cars is a perfect example. I hate having to wade through several buttons to change the heating or cooling, or the music volume. Don't get me started on watches, where you have to press buttons to get into a particular mode, then press other buttons to cycle through choices, and maybe a different button to say you're done.
Maybe I'm just an old and cranky geezer, but I'm beginning to feel more and more sympathy for the people that couldn't cope with VCR players back in the day. There are times now I've looked at a thing, and had no idea which button to click to do the thing I wanted to do.

[robert e]

I'm with the other cranky geezers: I hate that my iPhone has no headphone jack. But I hate wires just as much. Newer cars don't have enough buttons. Watches have too many. Don't get me started on cameras!

I've been using a bluetooth keyboard since this summer and I'm almost convinced. It's on pace for the promised 1 yr battery life and I'm rid of one of the most annoying wires on/around a desk. Replacing the trackball will be pricey, but I've got my eye out.

[Bear.]

1. I got an iPhone 15 pro max because it seemed like a good idea at the time. It has a dedicated button I've set to turn on the camera (long press) and which acts as a shutter. It's made all the difference for me using the phone as a camera, I never could get used to touching the screen to trigger the shutter. I use the iPhone a lot more for "sketching" than I ever did. I'm sure the "action button" with half press focus would be even better but it can wait a few years.

2. I eventually got over the lack of headphone jack when my trusty old sennheiser's died and I replaced them with whiz bang Sony WHXXXX4 somethings that are bluetooth and have a battery that covers the flight from Sydney to LA (and pretty much back again). I do get the limitation too - my iPhone is now physically smaller than a mini-headphone jack.