A major photography upgrade for Apple's iPhone 16 Pro could be a telephoto camera, the Economic Daily News reports, which will feature a new type of lens.

The new lenses for the top iPhone 16 models will likely be provided by Largan, Apple's current lens provider, and a new partner, Hoya, which will use an improved method of molding glass lenses. Lenses made with this method are believed to be thinner, lighter, smaller, and offer more powerful magnification.

The report goes on to say that this new lens manufacturing method will only be used for telephoto lenses.

The report goes on to say that this new manufacturing method will only be used for telephoto lenses because it is more expensive and requires higher precision than normal camera lenses, thus fewer lenses will be available than with the conventional method.

The time required to produce these lenses is also apparently the reason why Apple made this decision very early in the iPhone 16 production process. This is why EDN's industry sources continue to tell us.

From an iPhone user's perspective, however, the price increase is more concerning. The cost of manufacturing these lenses is clearly 10-20% higher, and the risk of an across-the-board price increase for next year's professional iPhones seems higher. We have already seen the base price of the iPhone 15 Pro Max increase this year, albeit in return for higher base storage capacity and a new 5x tetraprism lens.

While the improved lens sounds like a good upgrade for the iPhone 16 Pro, it may not be the biggest thing to happen to even the telephoto camera next year.

We have previously heard that the iPhone 16 Pro should get the same 5x zoom that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has and the iPhone 15 Pro missed it. Perhaps this new lens is part of Apple's plan to expand the zoom on the smaller Pro phones, or perhaps they managed to shrink other parts of the tetra prism lens that made the camera too large to use on the iPhone 15 Pro.

Other rumors about the 2024 iPhones include a larger body and display for the Pro model and the addition of a Capture button on all models. More information is sure to come in between now and the launch next September, including information about this new lens.