How the iPhone 16 Camera Control Button Changes How You Take iPhone Photos

The new Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro promises to make your iPhone photography more intuitive. More than just a physical button, it's also a touch-sensitive capacitive control surface. You can launch the Camera app (or another camera app of your choice), shuttle through many shooting options and snap a picture -- all without you moving your finger from the control.

Using a physical button to trigger the camera shutter isn't a new concept. You can snap a photo by pressing the volume control button in the Camera app. So if the new Camera Control were simply another button -- even if better positioned when holding the phone in its wide orientation -- it would have felt like a letdown. Instead, it's a feature exclusive to the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The iPhone's Camera Control is a physical button that depresses when you push it, but it's also accentuated with haptic feedback like the MacBook trackpads (which feel indistinguishable from a physical mechanism even though the trackpad is just a solid piece of glass).

The surface of the button is a smooth capacitive surface that responds to the motion of your fingertip. (The MacBook Pro Touch Bar technology lives on!)

When you lightly press the button -- exerting some pressure on the surface but not enough to depress the switch -- an onscreen overlay appears. Did you notice how iOS 18 introduced a subtle user interface animation that shows a black indent where a physical button press occurs? The Camera Control button extends that area to an overlay where the Camera Control options reside.

Open the Camera app with the Camera Control button

One of the new standout iOS 18 features is the ability to remove the default Camera icon from the lock screen and replace it with something else. I've personally never used this shortcut, preferring to swipe from the right edge to open the app.

Now, pressing the Camera Control button quickly launches the built-in Camera app, which is arguably faster because it's positioned near where your thumb or finger rests while holding the iPhone.

If you find yourself accidentally launching the app when you don't mean to, you can require a double-press: Go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and under Launch Camera select Double Click.

Capture a photo or video the 'traditional' way

Camera ergonomics are often overlooked, but they can mean the difference between composing a shot comfortably and twisting your fingers into pretzels to tap the shutter button onscreen.

To take a picture, press down on the Camera Control button. To start recording video, press and hold the button. (Hopefully, a future update will add a setting that lets you change the hold behavior, allowing it to capture bursts of images instead of video. You can already do that by pressing the Volume Up button, but only after enabling the option under Settings > Camera > Use Volume Up for Burst.)

A light press also temporarily hides most of the interface items for a clutter-free look at your subject. If you don't mind the information, go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and turn off Clean Preview.

Arriving in a software update later -- Apple hasn't specified when -- you will be able to lock focus with a light press and hold of the button, the way you can with a half-press of the shutter button on most cameras. But in the meantime, you can touch and hold on the screen where you want to focus and the app will lock focus and exposure at that point, even if you recompose the shot.

Zoom and switch between the cameras

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the Camera Control is having so many functions available without having to move your fingers all over the screen.

To zoom in and out, you lightly press to bring up a slider and drag to adjust the focal length.

A light double-press of the Camera Control button brings up a sliding overlay of other camera options.

The Cameras option -- represented by an icon that looks like a shutter -- allows you to switch between cameras and their focal lengths, such as selecting the Ultra Wide camera (0.5x zoom) or the Telephoto camera (5x zoom).

Quickly adjust exposure and depth

Also included in the overlay that appears when you lightly double-press the Camera Control button are options for Exposure Compensation and Depth. The latter is the iPhone's way of changing the aperture (it even uses a ƒ icon to indicate f-stops), but because all iPhone cameras include fixed physical apertures (the opening through which light passes through the lens to the image sensor), the control adjusts the simulated depth in Portrait mode; if the camera detects a subject in the scene, it automatically saves depth information.

Choose Photographic Styles

Apple has revamped its Photographic Styles feature on the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models, replacing the stock filters and making the styles more editable. They're also selectable via the Camera Control. (The iPhone 13, 14 and 15 models still use the Photographic Styles feature introduced in 2021, which operates differently.)

Double-press lightly on the control to view the capture overlay and drag to select the Photographic Styles option. Then slide your finger to preview the styles in real time and choose one.

Camera Control works for capturing video too

These Camera Control options also apply when shooting video. In Apple's event video, a demo suggested that switching between resolutions and frame rates, such as 4K 120 FPS, is possible using the control, but that feature doesn't yet appear. You can zoom, choose cameras and adjust exposure.

Apple also demonstrated how it can be applied in third-party photo and video apps by highlighting the Grid Composer feature in Lux Software's Kino video app, which cycles among types of visible guides.

What about non-photo features of the Camera Control?

The button is reserved for photographic uses, including features that third-party developers include in their photo and video capture apps. If you don't want to take pictures using the control, you can also use it to scan QR codes or launch the Magnifier Control Center tool. Go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and choose Code Scanner or Magnifier in the list of apps.

But Apple is also sneaking in an Apple Intelligence feature called visual intelligence that uses the camera. It's not available yet, but here's how it will work:

With the iPhone locked, press and hold the Camera Control button to bring up the camera. When you snap a picture in this mode, Apple Intelligence looks up what you're pointing at. In Apple's examples, a person snapped a shot of a restaurant to get more information and check its operating hours and then looked up the breed of a passing dog. 

Camera Control is exclusive to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, which are now shipping. For more on what's new in the iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, see our full coverage of Apple's September event.

Watch this: Review: Apple's iPhone 16 Pro Is an Impressive Upgrade

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