Case for iPhone 13 Pro

pjglad said:

Photo & link would be great. Thanks.

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Charlene Ahrens
charahrens.smugmug.com

Is the raised ring around cameras taller than the sides of case? Looks like it is in photos, but not sure if it is or not. I didn't like the first case I had that was that way as phone did not lay flat on table or ??.

Bob A L said:

Is the raised ring around cameras taller than the sides of case? Looks like it is in photos, but not sure if it is or not. I didn't like the first case I had that was that way as phone did not lay flat on table or ??.

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Really no way around that. The cameras stick out too far.

tkbslc said:

Bob A L said:

Is the raised ring around cameras taller than the sides of case? Looks like it is in photos, but not sure if it is or not. I didn't like the first case I had that was that way as phone did not lay flat on table or ??.

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Really no way around that. The cameras stick out too far.

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The case I have now works for this. The extended rib around the case parameter stands out from the back side of the phone far enough that when phone is laid on its back on table it rests entirely on the case and the lenses do not touch anything. But this does make the depth of the case feel deeper than my previous phone cases. Maybe offering even better protection, but slightly thicker in hand. which I'm not completely happy about although have thus far had no problem from it outside of just feeling thicker than I am used to. Still fits in pants pocket ok, just something I suppose I'll get used to. But open to looking at better solutions as cost won't break me if I pitch this one and go to another. But do prefer it lay flat when laid down.

Yes it is raised slightly - same as the sides of the case. The phone lies flat on a table or other flat surface - no wobbling.

Bob A L said:

How does this case handle the deeper camera section? I tried one thin case which i prefer, but it didn't make the camera lay flat on a surface and it ended up setting on the camera section and rocky. The case I have now (see above) has deeper sides which support the phone on a flat surface - the lenses never touch which I really like, but still interested in a smaller overall size if somebody finds one.

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It's tall enough to protect it from laying it down on a table.

Looks like it would rock when laid on its back - like the camera section is thicker than the rest. Is that the case or just the way it looks in photo?

lleider said:

Any favorites ?

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I'm rather fond of this one which I sourced on Amazon last month. Note that I'm located in Australia so these prices are in Australian Dollars.
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The yellow trim reminds me of the scifi artist Chris Foss' color schemes that he was fond of in the 1970s. It's a slightly flexible (presumably) silicone body cover with a hard yellow plastic trim. It's quite protective for impacts and protects the camera lenses from contact with hard surfaces. They come in about 10 different color variations. The case holds up well to vibration, impacts and food. I'm thinking of getting another one although the yellow sometimes reflects off certain surfaces (glass, gemstones etc) when taking photographs so it may be worth considering a different color scheme if this impacts your photography.
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Note that these prices are in Australian dollars, not US.

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Regards,
Marco Nero.

Marco - I have a question. I figure your monitors are well calibrated and know that mine are not, so I see an opportunity to compare. Your comments indicate the case has yellow trim and in the two photos of the case on two of my laptops the trim is what ai would call orange. In the amazon ad below the photos the trim looks yellow on my monitors. Distinctly different than in the photos. Just wondering if you can share your observation from what you see on your monitors which are most certainly more accurate than mine.

Bob A L said:

Marco - I have a question. I figure your monitors are well calibrated and know that mine are not, so I see an opportunity to compare. Your comments indicate the case has yellow trim and in the two photos of the case on two of my laptops the trim is what ai would call orange. In the amazon ad below the photos the trim looks yellow on my monitors. Distinctly different than in the photos. Just wondering if you can share your observation from what you see on your monitors which are most certainly more accurate than mine.

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Monitor Calibration.
Hi Bob... It's hard to calibrate a monitor without access the various image-tools and knowing what needs to be addressed. So don't be horrified when I mention that I'm just using the current standard "iMac" calibration color setting at the moment. Your own monitor sounds like it's perfectly accurate. When I worked in film production for Hollywood, our monitors were calibrated manually every few days by a specialist to ensure the footage and digital assets we produced was all of the same standard before it was sent to the compositors. Since i often prefer to shoot lowlight images without a flash, my images sometimes come out warmer under incandescent light. And my monitors are calibrated to allow me to tweak astrophotography images but to enable me to notice if there's any corrections and clone-repairs visible after processing, especially where composite images are involved.
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I manually calibrated my Thunderbolt 27" monitor years ago... and it's been fantastic for my use, but it's limited to the type of LEDs used. Dragging images from one screen to the other results in some eye-opening incompatibilities due to the yellowing of the LCD screen on my older Thunderbolt monitor. The newer iMac 27" (2020-2021) has whiter whites and a cooler screen display so it's been tricky using two very different monitors side by side when I can't perfectly match the images. Using the Thunderbolt 27" monitor as a second screen rather than throwing it out made sense. The nearest i can come to with this same setting on my main monitor (a new iMac 27" 2020-2021 model) is with the regular "iMac" color profile monitor setting. There's a list to choose from but this one is the best performer for my image editing needs. It's actually very well tweaked by the folks at Apple. The option of using my old Thunderbolt monitor calibration on both monitors is also available to me on the new iMac since I ported my old settings across during the Migration process. Yet it's not as refined as the new iMac color profile... so that's what I'm using for the main monitor. To cut a long story short: You are correct, the color of the iPhone case trim is a mixture of 'Mid Grey' silicone and a 'Butter Yellow' hard plastic trim.
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Yellow or Orange
These images were shot indoors under changing artificial lighting resulting in a more warmer, orange color under incandescent lighting for those shot with the EOS R6 and I used a Canon 600EX RT flash fired remotely with a Canon ST-E3-RT remote trigger on the smaller EOS M6 camera. As you can see below, the yellow tones change from one image to another, depending on the camera and especially the Flash being used. The actual color of the iPhone case trim is distinctly butter-yellow. And it's perhaps slightly less saturated than the pictures from both of these cameras...
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EXRTShot with an EOS M6 (APS-C) camera - CANON 6000EX RT Flash used.


Shot with an EOS R6 (Full Frame) camera under varying light conditions.


Shot with an EOS M6 (APS-C) camera CANON 6000EX RT Flash used.

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Reflections from the yellow frame...
I've only had an issue with the yellow highlights (trim) around the lens cluster of the iPhone 13 Pro Max showing up in reflections on two occasions. In one instance it was showing up reflecting off a perspex cover on a gem case and the other time it was the same yellow surface reflecting off the chrome dials on a wristwatch.
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I recently had to photograph an Australian Opal and a half carat diamond that I needed to send to a gem-setter to work with. I thought I'd get as many shots as I could before they were set into a pendant together and I couldn't really handhold the diamond without the lid on the gem pod without a risk of dropping it (the opal slid off the felt several times when I was shooting these images). It seemed like a great time to test the iPhone cameras but I needed to use the closeup lens and that required that I use the wide angle lens (which is the default for closeups)... which in turn brought the iPhone closer to the display pod where reflections became a minor issue.
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I intend to photograph them again when they're set into jewellery but I had hoped to get a few interesting images with the iPhone and I honestly couldn't be bothered peeling off the case first. I did get the shots I needed and there's only so many images I can post here but you can see the issues with reflections below. I'm not too concerned with white balance for these images since they're for my use and not for publication. Hence my skin tones vary from device to device. All the shots from the iPhone are simply tests to see if it can fill in when I don't have a regular camera on hand.
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An uncorrected image from the iPhone 13 - note the reflection of the yellow frame from the case on the gem pod. The same yellow also shows up in the refracted light coming from the diamond.


Same subject shot with the EOS M6 using a remotely triggered bounce-flash.


Same opal, under glass - shot with the EOS M6 but with NO flash, just natural lighting in a low-light environment with a nearby LED light.


You can see the yellow frame showing up in this Ultra Wide closeup shot here...


Removing unwanted reflections by holding a sheet of white copy paper above the iPhone and taking the shot from further away using the 3x (77mm) lens.


Avoiding reflections by using the regular Wide Angle lens and shooting from further away.


Shooting from further away (3x lens) and using a sheet of white paper to reflect light off the chromed surface (polished stainless steel). If I got closer via a different iPhone lens, the yellow trim would show up in the reflections. One of the large hands on the watch showed a yellow reflection from the iPhone case along one side but this was removed/corrected digitally.

Thanks for all the time spent on this and very interesting. Just for quick short version, I see the three photos in this post concentrating on stripe on end of case as - first photo bright yellow, second photo without flash, orange, and third with flash again as yellow, but not as bright as first - slightly dirty yellow? How does this compare with what you see on your monitor? I can see the problem with the yellow cast from the reflection being a problem on occasion though. Glad my case does not have that - no color and no ring around camera lenses.

Bob A L said:

Looks like it would rock when laid on its back - like the camera section is thicker than the rest. Is that the case or just the way it looks in photo?

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Only on the top left side. That's how the phone is anyways. It doesn't rock on the bottom either side and the top right doesn't rock either.

I am planning to have my phone case for my new iPhone 13 at Caseco. I found plenty of awesome customized designs check it out here www.casecoinc.com

The option of a wrist strap also seems a convenient addition - but very expensive!

everyone thinks of the phone but nobody thinks of the most important part of the phone: the lens. you make it dirty then the pics are the same as an old nokia - in orders of mangnitude more pixels, of course.

I'm happy with a chinese one from ali express that covers lens - because the primary use of my phone is "camera in the pocket point and shoot replacement of compact camera" and with exterior surface of the lens going bigger with each new phone it is much easier to get dirty and greasy of fingerprints.

ordered three kinds, throw away 2 of them being unusable by design (despite nice looking presentation videos) but this one is almost usable: https://a.aliexpress.com/_msaxNGE

I say almost because it does not slide to uncover ideally but manages to protect my lenses and firmly stay closed while in the pocket - iphone 13 mini.

same idea is not even completed and still going a funding campaign at more than 10x the price of the chinese one: https://spy-fy.co.uk/product/iphone-13-pro-privacy-case/ - covers back camera also.

looks like this:

The lenses on the iPhone are already behind protective glass “filters”. In my experience they don’t need much in the way of protection. I’ve never broken or scratched the cover glass. Wipe clean with a sleeve if they get dusty or dirty. Polish with a lens cloth and a drop of iso occasionally. No need for special care.

jaberg said:

The lenses on the iPhone are already behind protective glass “filters”. In my experience they don’t need much in the way of protection. I’ve never broken or scratched the cover glass. Wipe clean with a sleeve if they get dusty or dirty. Polish with a lens cloth and a drop of iso occasionally. No need for special care.

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I carry a microfiber cleaning cloth designed for cleaning optics and sunglasses (not the coarse type for cleaning cars) in by back pocket and since buying the iPhone 13 Pro Max I bought a new one which I keep in a resealable plastic bag in my top pocket. On the few occasions when I've accidentally touched the iPhone camera lenses, or when I've handed the phone to someone to look at pictures and they've touched the lenses with their fingers... I've had to clean the lenses with it. Since the sapphire glass is hard to scratch, they clean easily with the microfiber cloth. Note that only the outermost element of each lens has a Sapphire Crystal element - which Apples calls a "Sapphire Crystal Lens Cover". If ever you have to clean a lens and you don't have a microfiber cloth on hand, consider using a CLEAN piece of cotton (which includes an unworn t-shirt or even cotton underpants). Tissues and toilet paper are made from wood pulp and may remove optical nano coatings on lenses. Sunscreen is particularly harmful since it contains highly abrasive zinc and titanium oxides mixed in penetrative oils ... so always be wary of that.
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Originally, the entire touch screen was meant to be made from Sapphire crystal grown in Arizona by a company called GT Advanced Technologies. The lenses themselves have a protective outer lens element grown from Sapphire. To keep production volume high and costs and production times low, these crystals are thin and are really for protection only. The decision to make them this thin was due to an early Apple contract with a company in the US that was supposed to create and engineer the lab-grown sapphire crystals for the iPhone 5/6 but their repeated power failures resulted in ruined batched of sapphire crystals... which need to be maintained under heat and pressure for long periods of time to grow the sapphires. It took a minimum of 17 days to make each crystal for Apple devices, a process that used to take months. Impurities ended up ruining several batches and the entire operation was moved offshore after the contract was dissolved due to repeated production failures. Apple ended up investing all their sapphire crystal money in their Apple Watch instead of touchscreens... and the thumbprint reader button is also comprised of Sapphire crystal.
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The case I use at present

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The iPhone case I'm using protects the lenses quite well whenever the phone is lens-down on a table. Note that scratch testing showed the sapphire glass on the new iPhone lenses did indeed scratch with a sharp Stanley knife and were perhaps just slightly below sapphire (which is below a diamond (10) at 9.0 on the Moh's hardness test). But they are still extremely scratch resistant, certainly more resistant from scratches than actual glass. Silica and quartz in sand is highly abrasive but I'd guess the iPhone sapphire lens covers would withstand most damage from ordinary grit if you blew away any surface debris first before cleaning with a microfiber cloth.
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Apple responded to questions when the older iPhone 7 was released and confirmed that they use actual sapphire for the lenses (lab grown, of course) rather than a fusion of sapphire coatings on glass. They also confirmed that scratch testing being performed by reviewers were being conducted under the wrong testing conditions (grinding a knife tip into the sapphire lens is not considered typical usage and testing compared to abrasion). The proper way to test with the Moh's Scale Of Hardness requires the subject material to be rubbed against various specific materials of increased hardness rather than impacting the lens directly with a conical shaped sharp tip.
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For those of you in countries with Sunglasses Hut stores or similar, I'd recommend buying a microfiber cloth from them to use when wiping camera and phone lenses. They can be washed and reused for years though they will absorb oils and even washing detergent... but it's often better to keep older microfiber cloths for basic applications and buy a new cloth for cleaning quality lenses. When carrying my iPhone in my shirt pocket while jogging, I wear a thick-weave cotton shirt and the iPhone case I'm using seems to pull tight and keeps the lenses from touching the cotton, not that this would be a problem considering how soft cotton is. From what I can see, there's an oleophobic coating on the touchscreen and the lenses which reduced the chance of oils and dust from sticking to the iPhone lenses. This will eventually wear off after 6 months of regular use but can also be reapplied.



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Regards,
Marco Nero.

I have used Magpul cases in the past on my iPhones and they have done a great job and they are extremely grippy like a PMAG magazine. They didnt make cases for the iPhone 13 so I had to look elsewhere.

Most cases are far too slippery for my liking. I want texture and bumps so there is no sliding. I ended up buying this case by Smartish called Gripzilla. Supports MagSafe charging. It armors up the iPhone pretty well.



If I remember it was $20 on Amazon.

I have lifeproof, speck and UAG cases. They all make quality products with great protection.

I like the cheap $5 clear ones.