Apple Lenses
Est. 1976 · Cupertino, California, United States · 2 lenses
Apple was founded in California on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Wozniak's Apple I provided the starting point for the business, while the Apple II, introduced in 1977, established its position in personal computing. The Macintosh followed in 1984 with a graphical interface and mouse. Based in Cupertino, Apple grew around the design of complete computing products, combining hardware, operating systems and application software.
The iPod in 2001 extended that approach to portable music, followed by the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010. Apple subsequently developed its own processors for mobile devices and announced the Mac's transition to Apple silicon in 2020. Its product range expanded to watches, audio devices and digital services alongside computers and mobile devices.
Apple's photographic history began before the iPhone, with the QuickTake 100 digital camera in 1994. The original iPhone included a two-megapixel camera, placing photography alongside communication, music and web browsing in a single device. Successive generations developed the camera as a coordinated system of compact optics, sensors and image processing. The iPhone 4S in 2011 combined an eight-megapixel sensor with a five-element lens, autofocus and a hybrid infrared filter.
Later iPhones expanded both the optical hardware and computational photography. The iPhone 7 in 2016 brought a six-element lens and optical stabilization to its Wide camera, while the 7 Plus paired Wide and Telephoto cameras for different fields of view and depth effects. The iPhone 11 Pro in 2019 added a three-camera system and Night mode. In 2020, the iPhone 12 adopted a seven-element Main-camera lens, and the 12 Pro Max introduced sensor-shift stabilization. The iPhone 15 Pro Max in 2023 extended the Telephoto camera to a 5× view with a folded tetraprism path and a combined autofocus and sensor-shift stabilization module.
Notable designs: QuickTake 100; iPhone 4S five-element camera; iPhone 7 Wide and 7 Plus dual-camera system; iPhone 11 Pro triple-camera system; iPhone 12 seven-element Main camera; iPhone 15 Pro Max tetraprism Telephoto