How close is close enough?
Thats neat for trick photos, but its even neater for helping people to read.
If only it wasnt exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro.
Apple
Halide is probably the best iPhone camera app that isnt built into the iPhone.
This year,the app adds a macro mode to all iPhonesthat have a Neural Engine.
That is, any iPhone from 2017 onwards.
Apple
Its not as good as having a dedicated macro lens on a camera, but its pretty great.
And for purposes of reading small text, its just as effective.
“It also came in handy for finding coins buried in my garden.
iPhone 13 Pro magnifier (left) vs Halide camera zoom (middle and right).Lifewire / Charlie Sorrel
Macro
First, a brief, close-up look at macro photography.
There are two ways to fill your frame with a tiny object.
One is to use a powerful telephoto lens to essentially magnify the object from afar.
The other is to get up really close to the object, and fill the frame that way.
The problem with the second method is that most camera lenses wont focus that close.
you might try it with your phone right now.
give a shot to take a photo closer than a hands breadth, and youll only see blur.
This enables some nice gimmicky closeup photography of flower petals and so on, but it has other uses.
Triple-press the iPhones sleep/wake button to switch it on.
On all iPhones other than the 13 Pro, this app uses a digital zoom, i.e.
it just crops the center of the camera view, and enlarges it.
Halide’s macro camera mode works great when paired with VoiceOver… And eagles cannot read.
So nobody on the planet.
Unless they have a magnifier.
Halide Macro
Halides Macro mode works like this magnifier app, only much better.
You use it like this: First, engage manual focus mode.
Then, tap the Macro button.
Then, when you snap the picture, Halide takes a moment to process the result.
The effect is startling.
Ive included a couple of screenshots, one using the magnifier, and one using Halide.
See if you might work out which is which.
But even here, the difference is quite literally clear.
