When we set out to design a pro-level camera system, we wanted the three cameras to work together seamlessly as one.

The fundamental challenge: Even though we used the same color system across all three sensors, different camera modules vary in terms of color and sensitivity. To allow for that, our engineers precisely calibrate each camera individually for things like white balance and exposure. Then they push it even further, pairing the three cameras and calibrating them again for module-to-module alignment.

Those calibrations are applied to every image you capture — in real time. It’s like taking raw images from three different cameras and processing them to achieve a consistent look and color. Except it happens in a split second. Getting those details right, on the fly, as you switch from Telephoto to Wide to Ultra Wide, takes the kind of computational power only A13 Bionic provides.

We also wanted each of the cameras to be accessible with a single tap, all the time. No matter whether you’re shooting photos, portraits, videos, time lapse, or slo-mo. And we were determined to have beautifully smooth transitions from one camera to the next.

All this took intense collaboration between the sensor team, the camera software team, and the chip team. The result is a shooting experience unlike any other.