The iPhone 17 Pro as a Photography Tool

(This blog post is a longer-form edit of this series of posts I've made on Bluesky in this thread: )

The iPhone 17 Pro is the best smartphone I’ve ever owned. More importantly, it’s the first phone I’ve owned that has genuinely replaced my need to carry a dedicated camera for casual photography. Between the hardware, ProRAW, and having Lightroom available directly on iOS, the entire shooting-to-editing workflow is simple, fast, and frictionless in a way that no previous phone ever managed.

This isn’t about claiming the iPhone has magically surpassed dedicated cameras in every scenario. It hasn’t. But it has crossed a threshold where, for the type of photography I most often do while traveling or living day-to-day, carrying a separate camera is no longer the default choice.

Always Having a Camera That Matters

The most important advantage of the iPhone 17 Pro is also the least technical: it’s always with me. The cliché still holds true: the best camera is the one you have with you. But, for the first time, that camera is also one I actually want to use.

I’ve captured a large number of photos with this phone that simply wouldn’t exist otherwise. If I were relying on a dedicated camera, those moments would have been lost to inconvenience: the camera left at home, buried in a bag, or dismissed as “not worth unpacking everything for.” The image editing with my dedicated camera is even more of a hassle: requiring a computer, off-loading images from the memory cards, importing images into Capture One, and then finally getting to the editing and processing steps. Then, the exported images are on my computer, but all the apps I use for photo-sharing are on my phone. Therefore, that requires another export/import process device-to-device. The iPhone eliminates all that complexity entirely. If something catches my eye, I shoot it, I edit it, I share it. Done.

There’s also the obvious benefit of packing lighter. Fewer decisions. Less bulk. Less weight. This matters more than most people like to admit, especially when traveling.

Leaving the Nikon at Home

Over New Year, I took a five-day trip to Nanchang, Shangrao, and Wuyuan. On trips like this, my normal routine would be to bring my Nikon body and a couple of lenses. That setup isn’t outrageous, but it does add noticeable weight and takes up valuable space when trying to travel light.

This was the first trip of this kind where I consciously left the Nikon system at home and relied entirely on the iPhone 17 Pro.

That decision would have felt irresponsible a few years ago. Now, it felt obvious. The phone handled landscapes, street scenes, architecture, and casual low-light situations well enough that I never once felt like I was missing critical shots. That alone says a lot about how far smartphone cameras have come and how usable Apple’s current implementation is.

The Real Problems

That said, the iPhone 17 Pro is not without flaws as a photography tool. I have four main complaints, and they’re worth calling out plainly.

1. Autofocus Confusion

The LiDAR-assisted autofocus system is constantly getting confused. It has a bad habit of locking onto the wrong subject matter. For example, dirt or reflections on a window instead of the landscape beyond it.

This isn’t an edge case. It happens often enough that I’ve learned to anticipate it, which is not something you should have to do with a supposedly intelligent AF system. When it works, it’s fast. When it doesn’t, it’s actively working against you. I've gotten to the point of even anticipating when the LiDAR-assisted AF is going to fail me and preemptively cover the LiDAR sensor with my finger while taking a shot in order to force the camera to drop LiDAR utilization entirely.

2. Shutter Lag

Shutter lag is a serious issue, especially in lower-light conditions. At times, it’s bad enough to cause missed shots entirely.

You tap the shutter, and the phone just…"thinks about it". One full second. Sometimes two (or, it feels like). By the time the image is actually captured, the moment you intended to photograph is already gone.

3. The Camera Control Button

I also dislike Apple’s new “camera control” button outside of using it purely to launch the camera. It’s an interesting idea, but in practice it’s finicky, awkward, and frustrating.

It manages to be both overly sensitive and imprecise at the same time. I only ever use it for exposure compensation, and even then it feels inferior to on-screen controls. It’s a solution that feels like it's in search of a problem.

4. Night Mode Automation

Finally, night mode. Apple’s handling of night mode is, frankly, irritating.

It’s entirely automated. There’s no way to manually force night mode on or off beyond a binary “off” or “auto”, and there’s no control over exposure duration. You either accept what the phone decides or you don’t get the shot you want.

Worse, often, in low-light conditions with night mode in "automatic", the camera will often rapidly toggle night mode on and off while framing a shot, like it can’t make up its mind. This is especially frustrating when I want a night mode exposure but can’t reliably trigger it.

Manual control here would solve almost all of these issues, and its absence feels like an unnecessary limitation rather than a technical constraint.

The Core Strength: Sensor, ProRAW, and Workflow

Despite those complaints, the core imaging pipeline on the iPhone 17 Pro is excellent. The Sony-produced 1/1.28-inch, 48 MP main sensor is genuinely good. It produces files with enough dynamic range and flexibility that ProRAW actually feels worthwhile, not like a marketing checkbox.

Paired with Apple’s ProRAW format and Lightroom on iOS, the overall experience is phenomenal. I can shoot, review, edit, and export images entirely on the phone without feeling like I’m compromising my standards or fighting the software.

That matters more than raw specs. A good camera is only as good as the workflow that surrounds it, and Apple, I feel like, has finally nailed that balance.

Final Thoughts

The iPhone 17 Pro hasn’t replaced dedicated cameras in absolute terms, but it doesn’t need to. What it has done is eliminate the need for one in many real-world scenarios where convenience, speed, and portability matter more than technical perfection.

For the first time, I can say that my phone is not just a camera I tolerate, but one I actively rely on. That’s a meaningful shift, and it’s the strongest endorsement I can give.