Get a closer look at the iPhone 18 Pro’s mechanical camera

While effectively unrepairable, iFixit says Apple’s variable aperture lens is ‘a feat of precision engineering.’

While effectively unrepairable, iFixit says Apple’s variable aperture lens is ‘a feat of precision engineering.’

by

Jess Weatherbed

Sep 21, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC

Each of those teeny lens blades is around the same thickness as a human hair.

Image: iFixit

Jess Weatherbed

is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

iFixit’slatest device teardownshows us the inner workings of the newvariable aperture lensinsideApple’s iPhone 18 Proand 18 Pro Max, alongside some repair concerns to be mindful of. The adjustable mechanical iris opens and closes magnetically, controlling how much light should pass through to the sensor, featuring six leaf-like overlapping blades that are each about as thin as a human hair.

You can see that scale comparison yourself below in a side-by-side image that iFixit took using a Evident DSX2000 microscope. Cramming that mechanism into the same main camera footprint as theiPhone 17 Proseries models is impressive, with iFixit describing Apple’s variable aperture lens as “a feat of precision engineering.” That said, in our owniPhone 18 Pro reviewwe found it made a “generally marginal” improvement on overall photography, so novice snappers may not even notice any difference.

Here you can see the lens blade up top, compared against the thickness of a human hair below it.

Image: iFixit

iFixit demonstrated how the blades open and close by passing a magnet over the unpowered iPhone 18 Pro rear camera module.

GIF: iFixit

The downside is, that mechanism itself probably can’t be fixed if something breaks. Doing so would require specialist tools, techniques, and knowledge that few people possess, making this as close to “impossible” to repair as it gets, according to iFixit. That means users will likely have to replace the entire camera assembly, which is thankfully easy to access. Apple hasn’t released components for its latest iPhone models yet, but theiPhone 17 Pro camera assemblyis $249, so we can probably expect the fancy variable aperture lens to increase the repair price for the 18 Pro and Pro Max versions.

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