iPhone 16 Pro refocuses on photography as new "camera control button" announced

When the new iPhone Pro and Pro Max16 land, hopefully next month, photography enthusiasts should be pleased to find a new addition to the outside of the casing in the form of a dedicated camera button.

Apple is not known for adding buttons to their newer models, preferring to take them away, however, this new camera control button will be added on the right side of the Pro models.

It will reportedly operate just like the release button on a DSLR camera, allowing the user to press lightly to trigger the autofocus, and a full press down will take the photograph.

According to reports, the capture button will be a solid-state capacitive button, with haptic feedback provided by an in-built Taptic engine. This means users can swipe along the button to zoom in and out while shooting photographs and videos, working in a similar way to the volume control on Apple AirPod Pros.

Whether this dedicated camera button will also be a feature of the cheaper 16 models remains to be seen.

This new button comes a year after Apple added the Action button to the iPhone 15 Pro.

This will presumably be on the newer iPhone 16 models, which on the 15’s allowed you to assign the button to eight preassigned functions. For example you can use the Action button to turn on: silent mode, translate, flashlight, voice memo, camera, focus, and many more.

This new capture button will be on the side of the iPhone 16 Pro’s, which will almost certainly also have a bigger screen than its predecessor, as will the Pro Max. The regular Pro will increase to a 6.3-inch screen from 6.1 inches, and the Pro Max will be almost 6.9 inches, up from 6.7.

Also, in true Apple style, the colors will be refreshed for the new models, with the blue being substituted, and rose gold making a comeback.

Take a look at our guides to the best iPhones for photography , the best camera phones , and the best lenses for iPhone and Android camera phones .