The iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) celebrate Apple's camera phone potential, highlighting some incredible snaps taken by iPhone and iPad owners for over fifteen years, with the inaugural competition taking place in 2007 — the same year the original iPhone was launched.
Seventeen years later, the IPPA is still going strong, with each passing year seeing Apple's camera advancements providing more and more potential for amateur and professional photographers alike to capture the perfect shot.
This year's winners were announced yesterday, featuring some incredible images from around the globe snared by smartphone shutterbugs using everything from Apple's latest iPhone 15 Pro Max to 2015's iPhone 6s.
As powerful and stunning as these photographs are, we can't help but wonder how rumored improvements to the iPhone 16's cameras will allow for even more dazzling digital images to be caught next year as we inch ever closer to Apple's special iPhone event next month.
IPPA 2024: The best of "Shot on iPhone"
The iPhone Photography Awards offer real-life examples of what Apple claims possible in its long-running "Shot on iPhone" ad campaign, showing the impressive potential of its smartphone's cameras at capturing the moment in a way that seems almost too good to be true in the right circumstances.
This year's Grand Prize winner is titled "Boy Meets Shark," by Erin Brooks of the United States. The black and white photo showcases a young boy at an aquarium and was taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, but to look at it you'd swear it was an incredibly detailed painting.
You can check out this year's winner below, along with several past Grand Prize winners, though you should visit the IPPA website to see the incredible selection of winners in full, which are spread across various categories including people, animals, architecture, landscapes, nature, and more.
While the iPhone can't claim to have the best on-paper smartphone camera, it does produce some incredibly undeniable results that give the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro a run for their money.
In fact, the results of the iPhone's impressive cameras have even inspired creators like The Vertical Movie to imagine what modern and cult classic movies would look like if they were shot on iPhone with dazzling results.
Frankly, when you see the incredible possibilities of what can be achieved on Apple handsets, it's hard not to feel swayed towards the iPhone. It's user-submitted, everyday folk who appear to make the best ads for the iPhone, and the IPPA features some of the best ones you'll see.
Looking through this year's winners list is only making those rumored improvements to the iPhone 16's cameras seem all the more tempting, and we can't help but wonder how its improved array of lenses will serve smartphone snappers in the near future.
iPhone 16: The best is yet to come
Looking ahead, the iPhone 16 lineup is set to be unveiled by Apple in a matter of weeks and could bring with it some quality improvements for the lenses found on Pro and Pro Max models.
Rumored changes to the iPhone 16 Pro cameras include a new 48MP ultrawide lens that offers more detail than ever, along with a glass-plastic hybrid lens for the iPhone's wide camera option that allows up to 20% more light to reach its iris. This should offer a great improvement for low-light photography and better provide well-illuminated images.
It's also reported that Apple will begin using Atomic Layer Deposition coating on its lenses, which counteracts previous lens flare issues and preserves image quality to better standards.
Add to this the likelihood that both iPhone 16 Pro models could receive the iPhone 15 Pro Max's 5x telephoto lens and you have all the tools you need to make next year's iPhone Photography Awards one to remember or to simply capture life's most important moments the most stunning way yet.
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