iPhone 12 - How Awesome Are the Cameras?
The iPhone 12 was announced this week, and as always the camera system on the phone is touted to be absolutely amazing, but is it? I have not had one in my hand as of yet, but from my experience I wanted to go through the specifications of the new camera system and provide my thoughts. While the specifications that I list here are straight from Apple’s website, the views expressed here are my opinion. Also, let me start off by saying that I use Apple, and have for years. I am in no way paid for this post.
Only a couple spots left!!!!! First weekend in November. Click for more info.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s look at the stats as laid out on Apple’s page at https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/specs/
Camera
Dual 12MP camera system: Ultra Wide and Wide cameras
Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
2x optical zoom out
Digital zoom up to 5x
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Optical image stabilization (Wide)
Five‑element lens (Ultra Wide); seven‑element lens (Wide)
Brighter True Tone flash with Slow Sync
Panorama (up to 63MP)
Sapphire crystal lens cover
100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
Night mode (Ultra Wide, Wide)
Deep Fusion (Ultra Wide, Wide)
Smart HDR 3 with Scene Detection
Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
Advanced red‑eye correction
Auto image stabilization
Burst mode
Photo geotagging
Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG
Video Recording
HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 30 fps
4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
1080p HD video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps
720p HD video recording at 30 fps
Optical image stabilization for video (Wide)
2x optical zoom out
Digital zoom up to 3x
Audio zoom
Brighter True Tone flash
QuickTake video
Slo‑mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps or 240 fps
Time‑lapse video with stabilization
Night mode Time‑lapse
Extended dynamic range for video up to 60 fps
Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
Continuous autofocus video
Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video
Playback zoom
Video formats recorded: HEVC and H.264
Stereo recording
TrueDepth Camera
12MP camera
ƒ/2.2 aperture
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Animoji and Memoji
Night mode
Deep Fusion
Smart HDR 3 with Scene Detection
HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 30 fps
4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
1080p HD video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps
Slo‑mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps
Time‑lapse video with stabilization
Night mode Time‑lapse
Extended dynamic range for video up to 30 fps
Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
QuickTake video
Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction
Retina Flash
Auto image stabilization
Burst mode
Great, we have three cameras that has all kinds of cool numbers, but what do they all mean?
First we will start with the Dual 12MP camera systems. They have two cameras here, an Ultra Wide and a Wide camera. The Ultra Wide is a f2.4 aperture (the size of the hole that allows light in) and a 120 degree field of view. The Wide is a f1.6 aperture. In aperture land, the lower the number means the wider or larger the whole that allows the light to come in. In wide angle lenses, which are used more for landscapes, I hardly ever have the need to go as wide as I can. I am assuming they did this because they need to get more light into the cameras so they do not need to increase the ISO (which is how fast the light is absorbed into the camera sensor, higher number means GRAINY photos). We have seen iPhones supposedly getting better and better in low light situations, this is why.
What do you lose with small apertures? Probably not much unless you are trying to take a photo of some up closer to you and still have the background in focus. Most people are all about the bokeh, or blurred background, in photos. It’s great for portraits and help draw focus to your subject. You do not want this in landscapes however. So this is where these small apertures break down.
Now let’s talk about the Wide versus Ultra Wide. Here is actually where I think they throw an extra camera in here just to say they did. If you have small apertures, made for portraits, why do we need to wide angle cameras? Fact is you probably don’t.
How about the zoom? Okay, here is the first reason why your iPhone will never compete with a true DSLR camera. Digital zoom! Anything that says digital zoom is horrible, don’t do it. In my cell phone classes I teach people to zoom with your feet. Never ever pinch and zoom in. Why? You are stretch the pixels, and you don’t have a lot of them, so now you are creating distorted and blurry photos..
Yes, Apple says there is a 2x optical zoom, isn’t that better? Sure, but its a zoom out, not in. So if you want to get an even wider shot then no problem, go for it. :)
These two cameras have all of the modes for portraits, advanced bokeh (have no idea why it would be advanced because either it is blurry or it is not). Optical stabilization is in the Wide camera, and other features that are very standard these days.
Okay, first two cameras are out of the way, now let’s move to the third camera, the TrueDepth camera. This is another 12MP camera with a f2.2 aperture (see a trend?) along with all of the same other modes for portraits and bokeh control. This is your working lens.
It seems from the specs that this lens is used for the majority of everything on the camera. Animoji, Memoji, Time Lapse, burst mode, auto image stabilization and more. Not much that stands out from the norm these days.
So, let’s get down to my thoughts.
Every new release Apple talks about how fantastic the cameras are on their phones. I watch the events and every year I am extremely disappointed. The phones take great photos, I use my phone to take photos all of the time. But when is happen going to give us more pixels to work with?
For years the cameras on the iPhones have been capped at 12MP. That means 12 million pixels per square inch. This is great for social media photos and sharing on the web, but if you try to print this photo you cannot go much larger than an 8x10, or 10x20 since I shoot panos, without seeing serious distortion. My Sony A7Riii has 42MP, and my 5 year old backup camera, my Sony a6300 has 24.2MP. So why is Apple constantly trying to throw smoke and mirrors, and cameras but not paying attention to the real issue. More MP!!!
Follow me for more posts, tips, etc.