iPhone X Cleared to Tout Studio Quality Portraits in Its Advertising

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Apple is known for their marketing genius, but do they occasionally make an overreach in their sales pitch?

According to some, at least as far as the iPhone X’s camera capabilities are concerned, they do.

Image via 3Motional Studio from Pexels.com.

An advertising board has ruled that Apple may use the phrase “studio-quality” in its marketing describing the photography capabilities of its flagship smartphone the iPhone X, paving the way for an onslaught of ads touting the phone’s capabilities as a professional-grade product according to FStoppers.

The Advertising Standards Authority reviewed Apple’s use of the phrase in conjunction with iPhone X marketing and found it to be appropriately applied, to the chagrin of some professional photographers and optics manufacturers alike.

Based in the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled “that there was no industry standard definition of ‘studio-quality’ portraits” and given the discrepancy between skill levels found in photographers in various studios, the term was not appropriate for use as an objective standard anyway.

Apple, for its part, argued that the 50mm lens equivalent in use in the flagship iPhone X was on par with that often used in studio photography. Further the company detailed how lighting could further augment the iPhone X’s capabilities to make photos captured with it equivalent to those taken with “studio photography” camera equipment.

While the iPhone X is certainly an impressive piece of kit, few photographers would put it on par with even the mid-tier equipment on offer from some of the biggest nameplates in the business right now. That isn’t to say that smartphones in the future won’t have some kind of technology that blows everything out of the water, but for now we can see why some people may be bothered by Apple’s claim. Then again, given that there is no real standard for what constitutes “studio-quality,” we’re at a loss as to a good counter argument to make other than that the iPhone X isn’t quite the equipment you’re looking for when taking studio pictures.

About Author

Kehl is our staff photography news writer since 2017 and has over a decade of experience in online media and publishing and you can get to know him better here and follow him on Insta.

I worked at a top rated digital portrait studio from 2003 to 2005. We used Canon 10D DSLR cameras, which were 6.3 megapixels. We routinely sold 30×40 inch prints that people framed and hung in their homes. The iPhone X is a 12 megapixel camera. I imagine creating professional level work, that a client would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for (which they did for work produced with a 10D) boils down to how good the photographer is. The Canon 10D produced professional results, as long as the photographer had good light, knew post-processing, and was competent to capture a sharp image.

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