iPhone 18 Pro Manual Shutter Cuts 48MP Camera Quality, Disabling Night Mode

2 articles · Updated · Notebookcheck.net · Oct 12

DPReview tests found the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max produce darker, noisier photos when users set shutter speed manually, with the drop most visible in low light.
Manual shutter control disables Apple's automatic frame stacking, so the phone stops combining multiple exposures to widen dynamic range and suppress image noise.
Night mode cannot be used at all with manual shutter speed, removing one of the 48-megapixel camera's key tools for cleaner night shots.
Manual aperture changes from f/1.5 to f/4.0 did not materially alter image processing, making shutter speed the setting that carries the image-quality tradeoff.