The iPhone, and really all modern smartphones, are cameras. Apple made the purpose of its smartphone clear with the introduction of theiPhone 16andiPhone 16 Pro. Not only did the phone line become even better at capturing photos and videos, but it received a dedicated, multipurpose button calledCamera Controlto make it second nature to use it that way.
Revamped sensors and a more capable version ofPhotographic Stylesfor adjusting how your iPhone processes your images aresome of the most exciting new elements of the iPhone 16, and Apple’s been evolving the camera app for even longer before that. Over the years, it’s managed to layer in what many would call “pro” features, without making taking a picture all that complicated.
Even if the Camera app is straightforward, what happens to photos and videos after you shoot them isn’t. Unless you’re specifically working with what you captured on the device you shot it on or inside an Apple app, you’ll be immediately greeted with an increasingly complicated series of file formats, compression standards, and custom Apple solutions for both, with their own uses and histories before the iPhone even existed. It’s a tangled knot to untangle, but here’s Pocket-lint’s simplest explanation for how they all work.
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What are the file formats your iPhone uses by default?
Apple’s two main file types
When you move a photo or video from iOS' largely file-agnostic Eden to the wild west of a desktop computer or Android phone, they’ll usually arrive in two different forms: HEIC or MP4. Apple stores the iPhone’s photos in HEIC or High Efficiency Image Codec, rather than JPEG or Joint Photographic Experts Group, because it lets the company fit higher-quality images (which iPhones only get better and better at creating) in a smaller amount of space than the average JPEG takes up.
When you move a photo or video from iOS' largely file-agnostic Eden to the wild west of a desktop computer or Android phone, they’ll usually arrive in two different forms: HEIC or MP4.
JPEGs are older and more widely accepted in other software than HEIC, but they’re also inherently more “lossy.” Which is to say, storing an image as a JPEG naturally destroys some of the data created when it was captured. MP4, in contrast to HEIC, is an audio and video format that is much more widely used and easier to work with. Apple’s iPhone Pros are able to create to capture footage in several other formats, but in general, iPhone video files are easier to work with by default than image files.
Balancing quality, file size, and compatibility
Apple is always trying to balance quality, file size, and compatibility while keeping its unique flavor of image and video processing on the table. The new types of encoding and compression options the company has created are all in service of letting the iPhone create better images and videos.
Before I dive into the definition and use of each file, here’s what the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro capture without the use of third-party apps:
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What is each iPhone file format and compression type actually for?
Acronyms, use-cases, and more
All the file types Apple uses broadly fall into either photo or video files, while the compression and encoding standards either apply to both, or only video. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and specific uses they were designed for. The highest level setting Apple starts with in camera settings is a decision between two options: High Efficiency or Most Compatible.
Most of the finer details of these file formats and compression standards only matter if you have an iPhone Pro.
High Efficiency (the default) uses HEIF file format (as an HEIC file) and HEVC compression to reduce file size. Most Compatible uses JPEG and H.264 to make what you capture work with as wide a variety of software and platforms as possible. If most of what you capture is staying on your phone or in Apple’s apps (if you mostly share photos and videos to an app like Instagram, for example), or you don’t find yourselfneeding to convert HEIC files, you can leave High Efficiency on. Here are all the file formats and compression types you should be aware of:
HEIFor High Efficiency Image File Format was created as an efficient container for images or videos stored inside, specifically supporting different types of encoding, like SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) or HDR (High Dynamic Range). High-end cameras often use HEIF for their image files and the HEIC files iPhones use are technically HEIF files.
HEVCor High Efficiency Video Coding is a video compression standard created to fit high quality video and images in a small amount of space. It’s the video compression method iPhones use by default and supports up to 8K UHD clips.
HEIC or High Efficiency Image Codec is an HEIF file with HEVC applied to the contents. HEIC files take up half the space of an equivalent JPEG and are the main image file used by iPhones. Apple’s the main user of HEIC, and frequently HEIC files need to be converted to be used by non-professional or non-Apple software.
JPEG or Joint Photographic Experts Group is an image file format that is largely responsible for popularizing sharing images on the internet. It can use varying degrees of compression, but isn’t lossless. The more times you edit and save an image as a JPEG, the more detail you’ll lose. All iPhones can be set to capture photos as JPEGs rather than HEICs in the Settings app.
MP4 or MPEG-4 Part 14 (MPEG is sort of like the audio and video version of JPEG) is a file format for video and audio that iPhones will spit out when you record a video or voice memo. MP4s can be streamed over the internet, and are technically also capable of storing things like subtitles and object and scene descriptions, too. Apple’s MP4s are encoded with HEVC, something that’s increasingly common on mobile devices.
Like HEVC, ProRes is a video compression format originally created by Apple for itsFinal Cut Proediting software, and now one of several options iPhone Pro videos can be encoded in. It supports up to 8K resolution and introduces and technically introduces an imperceptible amount of compression, while storing higher quality videos in less space. If you plan on editing what you shoot on your iPhone Pro in software more powerful than iMovie, ProRes is a good option.
A RAW image file is data directly from the sensor of a camera or smartphone, without processing or with a minimal amount of processing applied. RAW images look flat and washed out in comparison to an HEIC your iPhone would take, but that makes them a perfect canvas for an editor. A RAW file gives you the maximum amount of data from an image to work with.
ProRAWis Apple’s take on a RAW file, or basically a RAW file with Apple’s iPhone image processing applied. The company claims it gives you more flexibility for editing after the fact, while still preserving more of the data when you’re working with an image in professional software. ProRAW is available on Pro iPhones starting with theiPhone 12 Proand up, and doesn’t supportPortrait mode.
ProRes RAW
ProRes RAWapplies the compression and image-preservation of Apple’s ProRes to the raw data directly from the iPhone’s camera sensor. ProRes RAW is specifically designed for the HDR footage the iPhone excels at shooting and can be chosen as one of the file types an iPhone creates, starting with theiPhone 15 Pro.
The iPhone is a camera you always have with you
How much you do with it is up to you
Even if you don’t use your iPhone as a serious creative tool, its ability to be a camera is undeniably impressive. Dealing with the files themselves is the problem, and knowing what they should be used for is at least half of the solution. Hopefully, these definitions are useful, but if you’re looking for more ways to use your iPhone camera,the app Halideis a great way to explore smartphone photography more seriously, and Pocket-lint hasa whole list of other camera appsworth trying, too.
This year’s iPhone 16 line blurs the line between the “Pro” and the base-level iPhone by offering a new camera button and the Action Button, alongside the A18 chip.
