Up next in 10
Which iPhone Case Works Best With Camera Control?
Mar 11, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/news/camera-control-iphone-case More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:42 Cut-out cases 4:40 Capacitive cases 6:30 Conclusions Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/ X: https://x.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
the top feature of the new iPhone 16 is
0:02
the camera control a button you can use
0:04
to open the camera and take pictures
0:06
this button is also touch sensitive and
0:08
pressure sensitive so you can zoom in or
0:11
out and change camera settings all from
0:13
this one button but then what kind of
0:15
case should you get well there are
0:17
really two varieties there are cases
0:19
with a cutout over the camera control
0:21
both in the thin lightweight style and
0:24
in the thicker more protective style and
0:26
there are also cases with a touch
0:28
sensitive covering over the button I
0:31
have both Apple's official clear case
0:33
and this thirdparty Otterbox case we're
0:36
going to put all four kinds of cases to
0:38
the
0:41
test so let's start with cases with a
0:43
camera cutout representing the
0:45
lightweight thin case category uh this
0:48
one is made out of cactus leather
0:51
interesting this one is a rubbery sort
0:53
of soft touch and this one is a more
0:56
traditional plastic hard shell case I'm
0:59
going to try out this one here you can
1:02
see it has support for mag safe here and
1:04
I'm going to put in the desert titanium
1:07
iPhone 16 Pro very comfortable in the
1:09
hand and the purple complements the
1:11
desert titanium quite nicely
1:14
representing the thicker bulkier cases
1:16
we have the defender Pro in dark green
1:18
Defender Pro XT in this blue and orange
1:22
marble color and the commuter in this uh
1:25
sort of teal I'm going to go with this
1:28
one here this is really what you think
1:30
of when you think of an Otter Box attach
1:32
this to the side snap it
1:35
in and then put it in its outer shell so
1:40
the advantage of this style of case is
1:41
that you have truly unimpeded access to
1:44
the camera control I can just click it
1:47
and use it exactly as it's supposed to I
1:50
can half click to zoom in and click it
1:53
to take a picture I can do the double
1:56
click to switch between different
1:57
functions turn up the exposure and there
2:00
we go you can see the picture I've taken
2:02
the downside being that this Edge isn't
2:05
protected at all it's kind of unlikely
2:08
that your phone would fall out of your
2:09
hands and land exactly here you know
2:12
usually phones hit on a corner after a
2:15
tumble but you know that is that is
2:17
exposed and I have to say it looks
2:19
especially ridiculous on this one you
2:21
know you have the giant thick plastic
2:23
and rubber shell you even have the
2:26
enclosed charging cable but then you
2:29
have this giant pit on the side now the
2:32
nice thing about this is that it
2:33
actually makes the case easier to hold
2:35
normally when you have a case this large
2:36
I can't wrap my hand around the case
2:38
entirely you know my fingers are really
2:40
stretched if I try to hold it up here
2:42
but where I naturally sit the opening
2:44
for the camera control makes a sort of
2:46
pocket kind of gets me extra grip
2:49
honestly everywhere else is protected I
2:51
mean that's the Achilles heel right
2:53
there so what's it like using the cam
2:54
control in this style of case
2:57
honestly not that great because
3:00
naturally what I want to do is brace my
3:04
palm against here and wrap my finger
3:07
around the top then I can zoom in like
3:11
this click it to take a picture what
3:13
have you but this is a terrible way to
3:17
hold the camera if you're trying to
3:18
record a video because your palm is
3:22
completely blocking one of the primary
3:25
microphones if you try recording a video
3:27
like this it's going to sound terrible
3:31
instead what you want to do is sort of
3:34
pinch it between your you know middle
3:36
finger up here your thumb down here
3:39
you're partially blocking the screen
3:41
this way but you have much better
3:45
control I can zoom in full access to the
3:48
controls you have a little bit of a
3:50
worse grip this way because you're just
3:52
sort of pinching it here you have to
3:54
brace it in this lower corner as well so
3:56
that's what it's like using the camera
3:57
control through a capacitive cutout you
3:59
do have complete access to all of the
4:01
features and everything but you do have
4:04
to give up a little bit of protection
4:06
along the way now I feel like OtterBox
4:08
played it safier because you could have
4:11
a bit of the case extend just over this
4:14
corner here and I feel like you would
4:16
still be able to touch it just as easily
4:20
but honestly if your preferred style of
4:22
case is the super thick maximum
4:26
protection you're going to have a
4:28
slightly diminished camera camera
4:29
control experience because I don't know
4:32
if you can have a capacitive touch
4:35
sensitive pass through covering that
4:38
goes this thick so let's move on to our
4:40
next style of case I have two cases with
4:43
a touch sensitive capacitive pass
4:46
through that goes on top of the camera
4:49
control we're going to try each and see
4:51
if thirdparty cases perform any
4:53
differently than Apple's own Apple's
4:55
official clear case here completely
4:58
covers the camera control so you have
5:00
that smooth right side of the phone but
5:03
you can still click it to open the
5:05
camera control and it's touch sensitive
5:07
so it'll translate all of the finger
5:10
swiping you do on the side but Apple's
5:12
case is exposed on the bottom so while
5:15
this area is more prone to damage from
5:18
falling it is easier to swipe up from
5:20
the bottom and do that new tap to Sir
5:23
gesture the Autobox Lumen also covers
5:27
the camera control so you have that full
5:28
protected right Edge of the phone with a
5:31
pass through button that's touch
5:33
sensitive and Otter Boxes also covers
5:36
the entire bottom edge of the phone but
5:38
without further Ado let's compare how
5:40
the camera control works on both of
5:42
these starting with
5:45
Apple's we'll do a half click yep you
5:49
get a little bit less of the haptic
5:50
feedback through the case you know I can
5:52
slide my finger works pretty well quick
5:55
swipe to switch between Zoom levels snap
5:58
to take a picture
6:00
zoom out snap to take a picture there we
6:03
go seems to work pretty well as we would
6:05
expect we'll switch to the Autobox case
6:08
test it out as well half
6:11
click yep we can adjust the exposure
6:14
here still translate well click yeah I'm
6:17
not noticing any sort of difference here
6:19
we'll do a quick take video
6:22
here pretty
6:23
easy try that as well click and
6:27
hold easy to record a video
6:30
if you want a thirdparty case you don't
6:32
have to worry about losing access to the
6:34
camera control the Autobox Lumen offers
6:37
just as much access to the camera
6:38
control as Apple's official clear case
6:41
it's really a matter of which tradeoff
6:43
you want you know the OtterBox case
6:45
offers the full protective bottom but
6:47
neither of these cases offer quite the
6:49
same degree of protection over the whole
6:51
rear of the phone as your more
6:54
traditional rubber over hard shell super
6:57
protective Otter boox case the inside
6:59
being that this style of case has the
7:01
camera control exposed if you want to
7:03
touch the camera control directly and
7:05
you want a sort of lightweight more fun
7:07
case mostly for style over protection
7:10
you still have a lot of choices here as
7:12
well so thank you for watching I hope
7:13
this helped you make your decision over
7:15
what kind of case to get all of the
7:16
cases shown in this video will be linked
7:18
in the video description remember to
7:20
like And subscribe I'm deerin Jones with
7:23
Cult of Mac
#Camera & Photo Equipment
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics