GEAR · IN USE

iPhone 17 Pro Max

The phone. Three lenses, ten seconds at most, and only the widest two are any use on the night sky.

Brendan, Goolwa SA

Ultra-wide: 2.22 mm f/2.2, 14 mm equivalent
Main: 6.765 mm f/1.78, 24 mm equivalent (28 mm as a crop)
Telephoto: 16.89 mm f/2.8, 100 mm equivalent
Longest exposure seen: 10 s
ISO seen: 1000 – 8000

Figures are from the photos' own EXIF on 8 and 9 November 2026, not a spec sheet.

The 2x, 8x and 200 mm settings are crops: 2x and 8x of the main lens, 200 mm of the telephoto. At night they add nothing but noise.

On the night sky the telephoto would only give half a second at ISO 8000. The main lens gave ten seconds, and every keeper of The phone, on a moonless morning came from it or the ultra-wide.

Used on these nights

SESSION 26 · 11/26 · WORKED

The phone, on a moonless morning

After Saturn, the phone. A few frames at eleven, nothing worth keeping but one wide field. Then out again before four with the Moon new and down, and the southern sky high: the Large Magellanic…