iPhone 12 Detailed Camera Review By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar from Tecworkz, and here is my detailed camera review of the iPhone 12. I got this phone on the launch day, and since then I got a bit carried away and have clicked over 1200 images and videos with it. So this video took a little longer, because it was very hard for me to go through all of them and choose just a few of the best ones for this video. I ended up selecting about 100 image and video samples to share with you guys. Before we get to those image and video samples, let us check out the cameras that we are working with. From the outside, cameras on this iPhone 12 seem unchanged, from the iPhone 11.

We get a familiar looking dual camera setup at the back. Both the cameras again have 12 megapixel sensors. But this time, main camera gets a 26mm lens and a wider F/1.6 aperture. And the ultra wide cameras gets a 13mm lens and F/2.4 aperture. Which is basically same as iPhone 11.

Both these cameras combined gives us a 2x optical zoom out. These are the same 2 cameras that the iPhone 12 Pro comes with, it also gets an extra 3rd camera, which is missing on this regular iPhone 12. You can shoot 4K videos in 24,30 and 60fps with both the cameras, with extended dynamic range for videos upto 60fps. You can also shoot Dolby Vision HDR videos at upto 4K 30fps. You can also shoot 1080p videos in 30 or 60fps, and 1080p slow motion videos at 120 or 240fps.

At the front, iPhone 12 comes with the same 12 megapixel True Depth camera with F/2.2 aperture, as we saw on the iPhone 11. With all these specifications out of the way, let us now check out the image and video samples from the iPhone 12. But before that, please make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it. Because the YouTube analytics tells me, that 95% of the people watching my videos still haven’t subscribed to the channel. I took a lot of images with all 3 cameras, in various lighting conditions.

Let us start by taking a look the ones that I took on day light. Although it is the same 12 megapixel sensor as we saw on the iPhone 11, the wider aperture helps it capture more information, and the new image signal processor on the A14 bionic processor, makes these images look really good. Everything in these images just looks so sharp. These images are holding on to their details, even as we zoom in on them. I will have to compare these images side by side with the ones forth iPhone 11 to check this, but I feel these images are slightly more saturated than the ones form the iPhone 11.

I think Apple might have made some changes to the image processing algorithm. I also feel the overall images are a bit warm, and I like this look. Colours are just looking amazing. They are so good and vibrant. They are a more saturated than the actual scene, but I am really starting to like this slight pop to these images.

Fortunately, it managed to preserve the red colour of these flowers. I have tried capturing these flowers with cameras on many phones, and most of then have a really tough time nailing the accurate colours. In this shot there is so much going around. Look at the beautiful green colour of the leaves, the leaf closest to the camera is in perfect sharp focus, while the ones behind are naturally blurred out. Plus everything in the shot is very well exposed.

This shows the amazing SmartHDR 3 at work. It works even better than before. Now the SmartHDR algorithm recognise even more scenes, and it can intelligently create segments in the image and manage their exposure separately. All this means, when you click the shutter button, there are a ton of calculations being made in the background, to deliver such amazing images in just a fraction of seconds. Now this is one of my favourite shots.

Sun is right behind the cat, and if I zoom in, we can still see so many details in the cat, the sky in the background is not overexposed, and at the same time we can see so many details in the wall, which was in the shadow. Here is another one of my favourite shots. With the sun directly in the shot, there are not many smartphones which can pull off a shot like this. Same with this one, the sun is in the frame, but we can still see so many details in the shadows. In all these high dynamic range shots, iPhone 12 is doing really well to bring up the shadows and keep the highlights in check, and most importantly, it is also not introducing any noise in the images while doing so.

Let us move on to the close up shots. A camera needs to be quick and accurate at focusing, while taking close up shots. I just hate when a phone just keeps on hunting for focus while trying to take close up shots, thankfully, that is not the case with the iPhone 12. with 100% pixels on the primary camera being focus pixels, It is very fast at setting the focus. The subject closest to the camera, of the one that you tap on is in perfect sharp focus, and if you get close enough to the subject, background gets a very nice optical blur.

Even without a massive camera sensor on most recent android phones, this 12 megapixel camera can create good optical blur in the background of these close up shots. We have seen many images from the main camera, now it is time to check out a few from the wide camera. Here is how much more of the scene, wide lens lets you capture, by standing at the same spot. This come in handy when you want to capture a wider scene but don’t have enough room to move back, like while shooting architecture or while taking images in a small room. This time there is a bit of distortion correction, so faces or things toward the edge of the frame won’t be distorted.

The wide lens also gets all the same capabilities as the primary camera, so it can activate SmartHDR mode, when in very bright light, deep fusion mode, when in indoor conditions and night mode when in very low light. We have seen this last year as well, that Apple has been the best when it comes to matching the colour temperature and white balance between these lenses. As good as these wide shots are, the lens and the sensor behind this camera is not as good as the primary one, so these images are a bit soft and not as detailed sometimes. But the deep fusion mode and other computations that are running in the background, makes these wide images look much sharper than wide images from other cameras. Last year, I said that if my phone is going to have just 2 cameras, I would prefer the secondary lens to be a telephoto one.

But since then I have used both the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro max extensively, and found out that I take lot more images with the wide lens. And for taking telephoto shots, I never go beyond 2x, and that I can do with the main camera on the iPhone 12 as well. It won’t be as sharp as a optical zoom, but it gets the job done. Coming to the portrait mode, which if you guys don’t know, is my favourite mode to shoot in on any smartphone. If I have people in my shot, I switch to this mode.

Last year the iPhone 11 did very well with portrait shots, but with software updates, it got even better over the year. And if the iPhone 12 can take this good portrait shots to begin with, I can’t wait to see how much better it gets with software updates over time. Just look at these portrait shots, everything looks so good. The subject is in focus, Edge detection is near perfect, and the background is blurred out so nicely. Now this phone doesn’t have the LIDAR sensor which makes the portraits on the 12 Pro’s better, but even without it, I am loving the portraits from the iPhone 12.

With all the computational photography features working together, look at how good these portraits in artificial lights turned out. There is some noise creating in the images, but the image processor is doing its best to keep that to minimum. And even with complex backgrounds, edge detection seems to be much better. Since it gets 2 lenses, it lets you take portraits of pets and objects as well. I really missed this feature on the iPhone SE.

Look at how sharp this portrait shot is. Just like with portraits of people, I love taking portraits of objects as well. If you haven’t tried it before, go ahead and try taking portrait shot of any object with your phone. This mode makes the image look a lot more professional. iPhone 12 is doing an excellent job with these portraits as well.

It is also not taking a long time to detect the edges. I just point the camera at something and the portrait mode is ready. Just make sure the subject is not too close to the camera, because then you will get a message on the screen asking you to move further away. With that, let us move on to the images that I took in indoors, artificial and lower lighting conditions. In situations when there is plenty of ambient light, like in these shots, DeepFusion mode gets triggered.

This mode reduces the noise in the image and makes them look much sharper. As I zoom in on this image, we see it is holding on to lot of details, with very little noise. Now you can take good images in indoor lower lighting situations as well. This was available on the iPhone 11 as well, but it works much better on the iPhone 12. Unlike like on the iPhone 11, this works in many outdoor situations, like in these shots.

Deep Fusion mode is now available on the wide lens as well. So now you can take sharp and noise free wide images in indoor and artificial lighting conditions as well. If you tried taking these wide images with the iPhone 11, there would be a lot less light and lot more noise in these images. So the addition of DeepFusion to the wide lens is a very welcome move. When the light gets even lower, and DeepFusion mode isn’t going to do the job, camera app turns on the night mode.

If there is some light around, Night Mode doesn’t make the image appear too bright, instead, it works on reducing the noise in the darker part, and making the other elements look sharper. It does add some light to the darker parts and reduces the noise, like we see in this shot. Like on any other phone, night mode images takes more time to capture, and you have to hold your phone steady the whole time. Any movement will result in blurry image, so be aware. This time like the deep fusion mode, Night mode is also available on the wide lens, and just look at what a difference it makes to the wide shots.

It doesn’t only add in more light and reduce the overall noise, but it also makes the colours look much better. On my iPhone 11, I never switched to the wide lens past evening, but for the last week or so, I found myself using this lens more often on this iPhone 12. These low light wide shot are still not as detailed or good as the ones from primary camera, but they are so much better than the wide shots without the night mode turned on. In some of the low light images when the light source is a bit away, you can see a lot of flares in the shot. You don’t see them in all the images, but they are really annoying in some of the shots.

If you see these flares, try taking the shot from a slightly different angle, that might help in some situations. That brings us to the front facing camera. This is the exact same selfie camera that we got on the iPhone 11 series phones, but the image processing of the new A14 processor makes these selfies look sharper. Look at how sharp these outdoor selfies are. If you get indoors or in artificial lighting conditions, DeepFusion helps even the front camera capture sharp and detailed selfies.

Skin tones look good and natural for the most part, but I just feel that these selfies are a bit over exposed. They look better if you tap on your face or pull the brightness slider down a bit. Like both the rear facing camera, the selfie camera also gets night mode now, so even if you are in dark, you can now take very good selfies. Remember, this again takes longer to capture, and since you are holding your phon with 1 hand and away from you, these selfies will be blurred if there is a lot of movement in the shot. I still prefer not taking selfies in very dark.

You can take portrait selfies, and these also benefit form all these new features. Since the background is blurred, these look even more sharp and detailed than the normal selfies. Edge detection, while not perfect, still does a good enough job, and I am sure it will just get better with software updates. I also found that the iPhone 12 is better at keeping multiple faces in focus when clicking portrait shots, while the previous iPhones really struggled with this. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the iPhone 12.

You can see how it handles the exposure of the scene, colours and stabilisation when I am walking around with it. All 3 cameras can shoot 4K videos at 60fps. And these cameras can also shoot Dolby Vision HDR videos in upto 4K 30fps. Look at how stable and good these videos look. iPhones have always had the best video cameras, and the iPhone 12 is here to take and carry this baton ahead from the iPhone 11 series phones.

Here is a short montage of videos that I took with this phone. This is a 1080p 240fps slow motion video from the main camera on the iPhone 12. Again, this is some of the best looking slow motion footage that you will see come out of any smartphone. Since the A14 processor is very powerful, I was hoping to see 4K 120fps or at least 1080p 480fps slow motion option in the iPhone 12, but like last year slow motion frame rates are limited to 120 and 240fps at 1080p. With that, we have seen over 100 image and video samples from all the cameras on this iPhone 12.

While the daytime performance might not be miles better than the iPhone 11, the low light and indoor performance from all cameras is much better than than before. I think it is the phone that most people should get if you are serious about smartphone photography. iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max do have an extra lens which offer more versatility to your shots, but the price premium they ask above the regular iPhone 12 is definitely not worth it. I said this last year too, that if you know what you are doing, it is difficult to take a bad image with the cameras on the iPhone 12. And even without the 3rd lens, I would rate its cameras to be just as impressive as the ones on the iPhone 12 Pro.

Performance wise, cameras on the iPhone 12 are definitely an upgrade over the iPhone 11, so if you are confused between the 2, and your decision comes down to the cameras, go with the iPhone 12. But if you already have the iPhone 11, and are wondering if you should upgrade, then I would suggest you to wait for my comparison between the 2, and then make your decision. If you are using an iPhone XS or any phone from before that, and you are looking to upgrade, iPhone 12 will give you a much needed bump in the camera performance. So after looking at over 100 image and video samples, what do you guys think about the cameras on this new iPhone 12. Let me know in the comments.

And if you are planning to get this phone, I will really appreciate if you get it from the affiliate links in the description. It helps the channel a lot, at no extra cost to you. That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this. You can also check out some of the other videos from the channel.

This has been Sagar, and i’ll catch you guys in the next video. Take care.

Source : TecworkZ