Apple iPhone 12 sample gallery

All this bleating about how terrible cellphone cameras are, meanwhile, video producers are producing feature-length movies with these things.

What most people don't seem to understand is what's required for a given application is not the same as for what's needed for others.

4 weeks ago*permalink

wcan

Like any other cell phone camera at 100% magnification, they are just not very good.

4 weeks agopermalink

plasma800

iPhone cameras pretty much suck. I know people fawn over them, and believe me, I've tried to fall in love with it over multiple generations - but it's impossible. I'm come to the conclusion it's mostly a gimmick. My Nikon Z6ii + my knowledge smokes my iPhone 11 pro like a Corvette to a Camry. I would be doing my family a complete disservice using only my iPhone (poor kids). I can do better than that.

Entire generations of kids are going to be handed crummy cell phone images IF their parents were smart enough to store those photos so that when they drop their phone in the river on that drunk rafting trip they didn't lose them for ever.

Further, most times that I see other peoples regular, average, every day camera phone images, I generally think they suck in all but the most ideal of conditions. They suck so bad it hurts me to look at them.

So this year, I've decided I'm done throwing money at cell phones....

(more in reply)

4 weeks agopermalink

plasma800

My iphone 11 pro is on it's way out and you can hand me a cheapy used phone, and I'm good. I stopped believing apple marketing (which is exactly what it is) with the Iphone 11.

If you need proof scan your regular friends facebook feeds. If you sense that you want to blame them for just not knowing what they are doing, you're still hooked into the marketing bus and wanting to believe.

I'm off the phone upgrade bus for now, and I'll smartly put that money in my kids college fund instead. Am I cynical? Sure I am, and who cares.

All I'm saying is 1) I'm not wasting any more money on phone cameras for now. 2) I aim to achieve killer photos for family and friends and feel the small amount of additional effort is worth it. (to me it's actually easier) 3) You too can finally believe and follow your gut and ignore the crazy marketing hype that compels you to waste even more money on a marginally better product you don't need, IF actually marginally better, which is debatable.

4 weeks agopermalink

if you don't care for your money, waste it on an expensive smartphone and litter social sites with artificial, boring photos of selfies and sunsets...

4 weeks ago*permalink

plasma800

haha It's what all the kool kids do. If the cell phone makers have their way, they will be overjoyed to put camera manufacturers out of business, and not just for the fun of it. The data they mine from you and your photos is extraordinarily valuable... like the first person to mine an asteroid valuable.

4 weeks agopermalink

So much noise and nonsense.

4 weeks agopermalink

cosinaphile

noise from the cellphone images shot in excess of iso 25

nonsense from the deceitful corporate scum who robbed you and your every descendent of the right not to be their commodity controlling everything you know and see and cant see .... a poisoned future

4 weeks agopermalink

Jostian

just a pity about the over-processing of the SOOC jpegs, when other OEMs are dialing back Apple is going over the top, not bad but nowhere near the top. As quoted from GSM Arena iPhone 12 Pro Max review "The images indeed look nice with high contrast, low noise, accurate white balance, and realistic colors. The dynamic range isn't over the top, and Apple has a more natural approach to it.

There is more than enough detail, too, but even with the new large sensor, intricate objects remain difficult and aren't processed properly - they are either smeared or deformed. The grass is smudgy and then over-sharpened to mask that, bushes as well, windows' blinds aren't ideal, and people are hit and miss"

4 weeks agopermalink

It is a real shame we dont get to see unsharpened jpegs from mobile phones, and (FAR WORSE) that those cameras that do raw dont get raw files posted- at least those from mobile phones, when what we need here is a level playing field. IF a mobile phone is intrinsically VASTLY superior because you can leave off or reduce sharpening- like the old nokias did, then samples should be posted with as little sharpening as they allow. IF they do not allow jpegs with no sharpening but do RAW with all adjustments, then for Pete's sake lets see what they can do!!
At the moment DPreview is posting only the usual noise-reduced oversharpened jpegs from phones, like these here, and that's fine, IF that is all they can do, but that disadvantages prospective purchasers as nobody can see, in all fairness to manufacturers who let us use phones properly as cameras (RAW, dng, JPEGS with our OWN settings) why buy one of them rather than a $50 phone from Tesco.

4 weeks ago*permalink

Slouch Hooligan

My 8X10 view camera with ISO 25 film sheets produces images with more detail. But I have to have a really big pocket to carry it around with me everywhere I go😉😂😎

1 month agopermalink

Thank you for the most sensible post yet.

4 weeks agopermalink

And I thought this was a photography site

1 month agopermalink

Slouch Hooligan

DPReview is a gear site that covers a wide range of devices that capture images digitally. There are sites that deal with the art of photography.

1 month agopermalink

entoman

"Photography" is a very broad term covering anything from selfies and snapshots to forensic, documentary, journalistic, landscape, macro, archiving, pictorialism etc.

The only thing photographers have in common is that we all use some kind of imaging device. And that imaging device can be anything - a pinhole camera, plate camera, rangefinder, SLR, MILC, instax or smartphone.

Every imaging device is a compromise. Choose the one that suits you, and let others be happy with their own choices.

1 month ago*permalink

kb2zuz

And yet they regularly review mirrorless cameras and rarely review professional medium format backs like PhaseOnes for people who do REAL photography. /s

Gate keeping is not becoming. More photos are taken on cellphones than are on DSLRs.

4 weeks agopermalink

Tungsten Nordstein

@Slouch Hooligan
I think the OP was being sarcastic.

4 weeks agopermalink

ulises66

Iphone for WhatsApp, Ricoh GR III for to enjoy.

1 month agopermalink

Mariano Pacifico

Rishi is back 📸🍏🍎

1 month agopermalink

BrentSchumer

Overall, this camera does quite well, especially for social-media-size shots. As I've noticed from friends on social media, these cameras can create excellent output with some artistic (sometimes to my chagrin, as I lug around a FF body with a mediocre eye!).

1 month agopermalink

Imager of

One of the best sample galleries I’ve seen beating most cameras out there. Well done Apple.

1 month agopermalink

jkokich

Agreed. I would love to see a blind test comparing this with the cameras the naysayers are better.

4 weeks agopermalink

HellasPeris

Good photos for the majority of people...smarthphones will give more and more artificial reality compare to the big sensor and real lenses but who really cares about organic and artistique photos... not more than 3% of total population.. So there is no really a debade about that. The iphone 12 saw me the upper limits of mobile sensor capabilities and is not for me... That's it...

1 month agopermalink

ShootFilmNotMegaPixels

If you want organic and artistique photos shoot film not mega pixels.

1 month ago*permalink

jkokich

Right on, Shootfilm.

4 weeks agopermalink

Indeed, the best camera is the one you have when you need to make a photo.

4 weeks ago*permalink

col4bin

scanning the comments here is depressing. people are never happy. it is a freaking camera phone with a sensor the size of a fingernail. the quality is great for the majority of users and their intention...capture and share their life moments. lighten up people...."photographers" have turned into a bunch of critical drama queens.

1 month agopermalink

they wouldn't if phone users didn't provoke them

1 month agopermalink

entoman

madeinlisboa - Yes they would. Some people here will use any excuse to hurl abuse at each other just because the other guy chose a different brand, a different format or a different type of imaging device.

1 month agopermalink

Slouch Hooligan

TV sports, TV “wrestling”, Jerry Springer;
Video that exploits addiction to adrenaline. They serve a mindset of A versus B.
That mindset is then brought to every online forum. If you say A then B must be championed so as to have a conflict, often about a False Dichotomy.

Having said that, let me tell you
4:3 is the One True Aspect Ratio!
3:2 is the work of the VERY DEVIL!
FIGHT ME IN THE STREET!!!

1 month ago*permalink

onemoreguy

You don't sound happy. Lol

4 weeks agopermalink

col4bin

@onemoreguy quite the opposite. I feel bad for all the people that have nothing better to do than spew negativity on a camera forum because an iPhone does not have the quality of larger sensors. I am able to take photos with both my phone and my Fuji kit without feeling the need to defend my decisions at the expense of what others may be happy with.

4 weeks agopermalink

entoman

col4bin - It's not just negativity that these people spew, it's also jealousy and malice in many cases.

I really don't understand what level of insecurity and nastiness some people possess, that drives them to try to ridicule people who have made different purchasing decisions.

4 weeks agopermalink

Hasselblad would argue with your choice. Square is where it's at.

4 weeks agopermalink

cosinaphile

more like 1\4 fingernail

4 weeks agopermalink

Clickalot

What Japanese usually say when they answer a phone.

1 month agopermalink

Paige Turner

No thank you. I don't need an extended warranty.

4 weeks ago*permalink

Phillip Forsten

Not impressive. Fine detail is lacking and looks bizarre. Look forward to seeing raw results. Apple's photo processing is lousy as usual. I'll stick to my Sony RX100V. Yeah not as convenient but image quality is night and day difference better.

2 months agopermalink

And a Piper Cub flies better than a battleship. What's your point?

4 weeks agopermalink

Phillip Forsten

I made my point. Your point holds no water since other smartphone makers can produce results with much better and natural looking detail.

3 weeks agopermalink

In good light my 2010 Nokia N8 is BETTER. It is also 12MP, but has a much larger sensor. No sharpening is applied to the jpegs and at base ISO no noise reduction. The lens is as good. It has one of the best FM radios ever put in a phone, but no apps now work, so I was looking at app-rich replacements and the iPhones are an obvious choice. However, with image quality like this- just the very fact that their software wrecks your pictures tells me that Apple really does not care at all, at all, about "creativity" because unless you can record RAW files, it is useless as cameras, IMHO.
There is another caveat, and that is the 4:3 format is limiting and so can you do 3:2 or 16:9 stills like most Android phones? Would they only be 8MP?

2 months agopermalink

Absolute bunk. People who know what they are talking about will say the iPhone 12 Pro Mac is the best cellphone camera on the market currently.

4 weeks agopermalink

cosinaphile

in the sad race to the bottom, what 10yrs have wrought

compare affordable ilcs for the same 10 yr period and see what has happened in every area important to photographers amateur or otherwise

what genuine advancement looks like vs computer algos oversharpening, image manipulation ,and the abandonment of user control , and iso 25 like its 70 yrs ago

4 weeks ago*permalink

Dear "Absolute Bunk" ( sounds like you are great in bed!),If you compare results from a 2015 Microsoft Lumia XL (20MP RAW dng Sony Sensor Zeiss f1.8 28mm lens, 4K video on screen about same size as iPhone Pro 12 Max) you will learn the truth of the matter (in my My Gallery and online see profile), and that the 41MP sensor on the Nokia Lumia 1020 still outclasses with its RAW dngs ANYTHING a current mobile phone can output, including the so-called 64Mp and 108MP sensors, because those figures are to be divided by at least 4 to get a more accurate idea of resolution.
Nokia put these things into play and then after the companies collapse, the Far Eastern bullies piled on to ensure no phone could match again results from APS-C or Micro 4/3rds cameras, and Apple remaining still dependant on them for just about everything, have had to toe the line, hence small sensor 12MP like Samsung et al, and the limitations on the M1 Macs (max 16Gb RAM throttling and overheating in video etc).

4 weeks ago*permalink

AND the Lumia 950 XL is the phone used by the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible team for good reasons, but a secondhand Lumia 950 lacks only the big screen really and has the same camera (yours for $60!)

4 weeks agopermalink

Thenameless

I am a bit shocked how bad the quality of the pictures is. Thought they would look better when zooming in.
My Nokia 8 is not that much worse, especially with the Pixel Apk.
The sharpness and detail of the GR II and GR III I have is still on a different level for this size.

2 months agopermalink

Papa48

Nice looking samples, when viewed on my phone.

2 months ago*permalink

CHALLENGER100

Some kind of watercolor filter on each photo ? Is it normal ? Like in my first digital camera in 2001

2 months ago*permalink

PeterWallace

I see loads of temples...which part of India is this?

2 months agopermalink

Malli

Looking at outside environment of temple, that temple probably located somewhere in United States.But definitely not in India.

1 month agopermalink

aliasfox

Some shots are from Princeton University, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the remainder are local to that area.

4 weeks agopermalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZqUyXRvMMU&t=631s

I thought it looked like Princeton's campus. I was only there once, on a photo shoot across the street from the science building, but it left a significant impression.

4 weeks ago*permalink

beavertown

In good daylight it is no difference to pictures that are taken with the R5.

2 months agopermalink

CHALLENGER100

On 3,5 inch LCD yes.

2 months agopermalink

ashbashbeard

Oversharpened, mushy with all detail destroyed - generally what you expect from smartphones.

2 months agopermalink

Bob 1

Impressive photos from a smart phone! The close up shots were the best... excellent! I didn't think the landscape/architectural shots were very sharp/lens distortion... color looked very good. I have a Samsung Galaxy A10e that I received from my carrier as a free upgrade... takes nice closeups... phone works great... don't see myself in the market for a new $900+ phone. When they can get my 5D4 into a smart phone, I'm all in :) HAGD & Stay Safe!

2 months agopermalink

beavertown

Sony sensors rock.

2 months agopermalink

Michael Berg

I'm not an Apple fan by a long shot but I do recognize the quality of these images and the camera that took them. Pretty amazing stuff from nothing but a phone in your pocket.

Well done.

2 months agopermalink

EasyClick

The best camera is the one you have with you. Period.

2 months agopermalink

Carsten Thomsen

Apple has created a color-matched High-Dynamic range eco-system, thus making this complex area a “no brainer” for the average consumer.

Like it or not, photos will look best if viewed in that environment. Due to Apple’s market size this will help push the rest of the industry in that direction.

With my shaky hands, I can now shoot tack sharp handheld 3 second exposures with my 11 pro max,. With the latest OS versions I seem to be able to get usable shots up to 10 seconds handheld.

Yes, there is nothing like my good old D850, but it requires a lot more work to get similar dynamic range and exposure etc. And yes, I also shoot raw with the 850 and am thrilled every time I work with its fantastic files.

But at the end of the day, I must confess that often when I look at what comes straight out of the camera on the iPhone, I often marvel.

2 months agopermalink

MUSTDOS

Would take a GF1 with a pancake F2.8/F2.5 instead.

Even my GX1 still holds

2 months agopermalink

Fotoni

Is it me or these look actually worse than many older phone cameras can do? There is barely 2 MP worth of details and indoor shots are way below 2 MP. Why have even 12 MP, if it is impossible to deliver?

2 months agopermalink

MUSTDOS

One thing I would say is that iPhones still have the best colors for phones; even better than Samsung's.

But still, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZqUyXRvMMU&t=631s

Would take a GF1 with a pancake F2.8/F2.5 instead.

Even my GX1 still holds

2 months agopermalink

It's you.

4 weeks agopermalink

AdamT

Still watercoloury and loaded with NR & crude large radius sharpening even outside in good light - IMO they could do with paying DJI to license the JPG engine from the Mavic Mini , they appear to be getting far more fine detail from these tiny sensors ..

2 months ago*permalink

Gavril Margittai

I am speaking for myself here, others may have different opinion. Taking a photo with a phone is not the same fun or pleasure as when using a real camera. It makes the process trivial, photos accumulate by the thousands in the memory, get uploaded automatically to the cloud where they die without anybody looking at them ever again.
The whole picture taking is trivialized, pictures are viewed on the phone, never for longer than a second or two. Friends came back from a trip to Africa with many thousands of photos they never watch because they are poorly taken and immensely boring. If this is the future, (maybe the present) I believe the photography will die as an art form. Never mind all the editing capabilities and the digital gymnastics the phone manufacturers put in to imitate a real camera.

2 months agopermalink

Nely

Sometimes you just want to take great fotos without trying too hard, and share them quickly and easily with friends and family.

2 months agopermalink

AustinTexan

Snapping a photo thoughtlessly is trivial, whether with a phone or a conventional camera. Making a photo thoughtfully, with attention to viewpoint, composition, light and whatever camera settings are available, is not trivial, whether with a phone or a conventional camera.

Suggesting that new technology is inherently unworthy betrays an ignorance of the history of photography as a medium, not just the history of the technologies, but of the myriad and changing way that the medium is used.

2 months agopermalink

crsantin

I like these samples. Not much difference or improvement from my 11 Pro. I regularly use my iPhone for photography now and I'm really happy with it. It does terrific video too.

2 months agopermalink

Jen Bruntnant

Iphone cameras are getting really good

2 months agopermalink

justsayyes

I almost never used my phone camera for anything other than a quick MMS until I got an S7 Edge. I took that on a National Parks tour along with my X100 and finally realized that there is a place for phone cameras for even luddites like myself. I love the flexibility my (now S9+) affords me even when I'm carrying my X100T. Panoramas, shooting into the light source/sun using HDR, super high contract lighting, etc. make having a good modern camera phone an essential part of one's walking about kit. Also, my X100T is not waterproof, so there's that too.

PSA - Do not submerge your X100 in an alpine stream for 30 seconds.

It seems that I'll always prefer a real camera, but I do value and appreciate my phone's camera very much so.

2 months ago*permalink

whitelens

I started photography with a Rolleiflex. I developed my own negatives and had a small darkroom with enlarger in my bathroom. Photography took a lot of different skills and watching your pictures slowly come to live in the developer bath bordered on mystery.
I was hooked for life!
The picture Quality coming out of new smart phones is probably better than what I used back then. But to be honest, it is too easy and very boring. I like a bit more of a challenge than a smartphone!

2 months agopermalink

Clickalot

"I like a bit more of a challenge than a smartphone!"

Just holding the damn thing for a photo is more challenge that it's worth if you already own real cameras.

2 months agopermalink

Stujomo

@Clickalot yes the ergonomics of the smartphone used as a camera must make for one of the worse photography experiences.
@whitelens I would take that Rolleiflex over an iPhone any day of the week. B&W medium format negs print beautifully if everything was OK with the exposure and developing. I would take the Rolleiflex over a lot of DSLRs or mirrorless bodies too.

4 weeks agopermalink

qaz111111

PS to comment: I shot a late afternoon light shot of a guy at Chichen Itza (dressed in full authentic Mayan dress) with an Iphone 8 and it was placed into Lightroom with Canon 5DS-R 50 Mp no low pass filter sharp photos. It stood up perfectly in comparison. I was shocked!!! And my eyes (and mind) opened to the possibilities. You shouldn't dismiss an Iphone camera until you have seen the pixels. And the pixels are impressive! That was with an 8; the 10 is much better and the 12?... I can't wait to use it.

2 months agopermalink

HowaboutRAW

qaz:

"it was placed into Lightroom with Canon 5DS-R 50 Mp no low pass filter sharp photos. It stood up perfectly in comparison. I was shocked!!! "

What were the terms of comparison? Were both raws? Were both jpegs? What lens were you using on the Canon? Was the framing the same?

Did you print both at 24 by 36 inches? (36 inches is 9/10 of a meter if you're used to metric.)

Assuming you don't want to print big, or crop zoom [to centre of course] a lot, no one dismisses current smartphone cameras, including that in the iPhone 8, for work in good light, but even today in late 2020, the Canon 5D SR is a vastly better higher ISO body than any smartphone camera, save one discontinued model, ever released.

And of course, the Canon 5D SR natively mounts lenses of dozens of different focal lengths.

Then bit depth....

Lastly, sharpness is not the only measurement of IQ.

2 months agopermalink

qaz111111

I'm sorry but the tilt of the camera, in the sample photos, is amateur to the max. The photos are badly distorted and they should have been shot straight and level and then cropped. They are poor samples for the lighting and composition. This takes away too much from their presentation to allow for a decent evaluation. I am a huge fan of iphone photos as they are immediately useful and the ability is always at hand. remember the best camera is the one you have with you? I have top end Canon Sony and Phase One. I use the iphone the most. Looking forward to getting a new one for more fun and better everything iphone. ...really,,, what's not to like?!

2 months ago*permalink

attomole

so testing should be conducted to show how they work in an ideal environment?

2 months agopermalink

Clickalot

This thing does simply exquisite portraits. Nothing else matters to its customer base.

2 months agopermalink

24F14GM

Pleeeeease, DPR, you are the reference journal for photographers (at least for amateurs like me). Pleeeeease stop relaying big GAFApple advertisement that there latest cellphone is in fact a top-notch camera, as well as a waching machine and an AI personnal assistant and a screw driver. Please, please, please. This gives not your journal a good image (litteraly)

2 months agopermalink

JackM

all your base are belong to us!

2 months agopermalink

24F14GM

Is that even english ? Even google cannot parse your message

1 month agopermalink

PhotoPoet

We are photographers, with greatly varying degrees of skills. We’re here to learn, obsess, argue, elucidate. The iPhone or (insert many other phones here) is an excellent daily camera companion. It's your "eye" stupid not the camera. Give a fantastic "real" full-frame, loaded with great glass camera to a photographer with a bad eye for composition, you get a sharp, zoomed to 300mm images that, sucks. Give an iPhone 12Pro to a good to the great photographer you get fantastic shots. I carry an RX 100 M6 in my bag and when I need to longer zoom, boom, there it is. However, for daily walkabouts, indoors at a gathering (remember those) street grabs, it’s my iPhone. How much time do you spend shooting in manual? It’s a breath mint and a candy. Long before camera manufacturers add in the amazing software, the optical zooms and fine controls on phones will surpass all but the longest zooms and the overwrought eyes of pixel-peepers will, at last, come to rest.

2 months agopermalink

Lightright

I regard them as tools for getting the shots I want at the right place and at the right time. The image quality of these phones have come a very long way that I bought it instead as my wide angle primes shooter instead of getting one. As a bonus it's also a prime lens you can carry with you all the time. Only the zooms are mounted on the camera for better portraits and reach to get a better composition.

2 months agopermalink

ozuidema

Poor HDR colors, poor background blur, flat and artificial images which all scream "phone camera"! Computational photography is a long way from competing with real camera's with large sensors and "real" lenses. And thank God for that, too :).

2 months agopermalink

LiSkynden

Why are they almost always shot in a day light? Any phone can do that. I want low light samples.

2 months agopermalink

HowaboutRAW

LiSkynden:

Because 2 things: There's really only been one good low light smartphone camera, the discontinued years ago Panasonic CM1, and the current best, likely the Huawei P40 Pro, is not available in the USA by diktat.

2 months agopermalink