14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has always praised the iPhone camera, and every new generation brought further improvements in this regard, with all culminating with the iPhone X, which the company claimed was capable of taking “studio-quality portraits.”
British advertising regulator Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) looked into these claims after receiving two different complaints, and eventually found that Apple does not violate any rules and can safely advertise the iPhone X as capable of taking studio quality portraits without a studio.
Specifically, the watchdog says during its analysis it looked into a series of factors that could contribute to the actual camera performance of the iPhone and used a statement from Apple as a starting point.
“Apple stated that there was no industry standard definition of ‘Studio-quality’ portraits. They said that there were wide variances between techniques, equipment, lighting and talent, among many others, and believed the term to be a subjective one,” the group says in a statement.
No rules violation
ASA eventually acknowledged that it’s indeed possible to take studio-quality photos using the iPhone X without actually having a studio, all thanks to the focal lens offered by the device and the software lighting effects that compensate for the lack of genuine studio conditions and equipment.
The regulator explained that Apple made no false claims in its iPhone X ads, emphasizing that the company actually highlighted that photographs in the ads were taken with the phone using clear messages displayed throughout the videos.
“We recognised the emphasis was placed on the significance of the lighting effects on achieving the quality of image the ad demonstrated, and we understood that those images shown were a true reflection of the capabilities of the iPhone X’s camera. For those reasons, we concluded that the ad was not misleading,” the watchdog explained.
iPhone X is Apple’s flagship model right now, coming with a dual-camera system featuring a 12-megapixel lens with f/1.8 mixed with another 12-megapixel unit with f/2.4, 2x optical zoom, and quad-LED dual-tone flash.
