{"id":265696,"date":"2026-06-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/i-put-my-iphone-17-pro-vs-1900-olympus-mirrorless-camera-through-a-zoom-test-and-the-results-surprised-me\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:15:10","slug":"i-put-my-iphone-17-pro-vs-1900-olympus-mirrorless-camera-through-a-zoom-test-and-the-results-surprised-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/i-put-my-iphone-17-pro-vs-1900-olympus-mirrorless-camera-through-a-zoom-test-and-the-results-surprised-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I put my iPhone 17 Pro vs. $1,900 Olympus mirrorless camera through a zoom test \u2014 and the results surprised me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I put my iPhone 17 Pro vs. $1,900 Olympus mirrorless camera through a zoom test \u2014 and the results surprised me<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/phones\/iphones\/i-put-my-iphone-17-pro-vs-olympus-mirrorless-camera-through-a-zoom-test-and-the-results-surprised-me<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-06 07:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.tomsguide.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years, I\u2019ve seen phone makers dial down the optical zoom range of their telephoto cameras. The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are no exception to this radical change, as they ditch the 5x optical zoom of their predecessors for a 4x lens.<\/p>\n

The average person will automatically think it\u2019s a downgrade, but there\u2019s more to it than just hardware zoom. That\u2019s because the iPhone 17 Pro pairs that 4x optical zoom with a much larger 48MP sensor \u2014 up from the 12MP sensor on the previous iPhone 16 Pro. On top of that, the latest iPhones benefit heavily from new advancements in computational photography.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I wanted to see how the iPhone 17 Pro\u2019s zoom performs against a modern mirrorless camera to see exactly which one delivers the best results. For this test, I\u2019m specifically going to look at how the iPhone 17 Pro compares at 16x because it better illustrates the enhancements that Apple\u2019s making. Here\u2019s what I found.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What you need to know<\/span><\/h2>\n

\n

\"iPhone\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: John Velasco \/ Tom’s Guide)<\/span><\/p>\n

First, let’s talk about the $1,099 cost of the iPhone 17 Pro. That\u2019s up $100 over its predecessor, but it\u2019s one of the best camera phones around with good reason. Its triple-camera setup consists of a 48MP main sensor, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 48MP telephoto with 4x optical zoom.<\/p>\n

Today’s best Apple iPhone 17 Pro deals<\/p>\n

By contrast, the Olympus E-M10 Mark IV I\u2019m using packs a 20.3MP Four-Thirds sensor \u2014 but the ridiculous telephoto lens I\u2019m pairing it with is what makes the setup just as versatile. I’m using the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-200mm lens, which covers practically every focal length. While the E-M10 Mark IV is largely considered a budget model with a starting price of $799, the lens tacks on a whopping $1,099 to the bottom line. When you add them up, the Olympus kit comes out to $1,898 before any discounts \u2014 giving the iPhone 17 Pro a clear initial price advantage.<\/p>\n


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I put my iPhone 17 Pro vs. $1,900 Olympus mirrorless camera through a zoom test…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ctCNiPVLvhvXsLEtaZtnzJ-2000-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[124,80],"class_list":["post-265696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-iphone-16","tag-iphone-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265698,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265696\/revisions\/265698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}