iPhone 12 mini vs iPhone 12 Pro Max Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar, and in this video, let us find out how the dual cameras on the iPhone 12 mini stack against the triple cameras and the LiDAR scanner on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Now the 12 mini is the most affordable of the 12 series iPhones and the 12 Pro Max is on the other end of that spectrum.12 Pro Max obviously has the best set of cameras on any iPhone yet, but since it costs a lot, not everyone can afford it. Many people just want to get the iPhone 12 mini, because of its price. And they just want to know how good or bad the cameras are compared to the 12 Pro Max. This video is going to help you figure that out. And since the 12 mini and 12 have the exact same cameras, this video also works for someone who is trying to decide between the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro Max, based on their camera performance.

I have had these phones right from their launch day, so in the last 2 and a half months, I was able to take a ton of images with them in various lighting conditions. Out of which, in this video, we are going to look at and compare over 85 image and video samples from each of these phones. So that should give you a fairly good idea of the cameras on each of these phones. I have also uploaded individual camera reviews of both these phones, so if you guys want to check out some more image and video samples from these phones, you guys should check those videos out. Before we get to the image and video samples, let us check out the cameras that we are working with.

If you guys want to skip this information, you can head straight to the image samples, from the chapters in the timeline of this video. Let us start by checking the cameras on the 12 mini. It gets only 2 cameras at the back, both of which get a 12 megapixel sensor. The main camera gets a F/1.6 aperture, 26mm lens and traditional Optical Image Stabilisation. Secondary camera, gets F/2.4 aperture and 13mm ultra wide lens. iPhone 12 Pro Max has 3 12 megapixel cameras on its back.

Primary camera gets a 47% larger sensor compared to the main camera of the iPhone 12, 12 mini and 12 Pro. It also gets F/1.6 aperture, 26mm lens and a new Sensor Shift Optical Image Stabilisation technology. Secondary wide camera is same as on other 12 series iPhones. It gets F/2.4 aperture and 13mm ultra wide lens.3rd camera gets F/2.2 aperture, OIS and 65mm telephoto lens, which gives it a 2.5x optical zoom compared to the primary camera. On the Pro models, you also get the LiDAR Sensor, which helps these phones create the depth map of the scene in front of them.

This helps them take better portrait and low light shots. At the front, both of them get the same 12 megapixel true depth camera system, with F/2.2 aperture and 23mm wide lens. With these specifications out of the way, let us now check out the image and video samples from both these phones. Starting with the bright daytime ones. Now although main camera on the 12 Pro Max has a much bigger sensor compared to the 12 mini, we don’t see any major difference in the detail level of these images.

That tells us how good the camera on the 12 mini is. it is really hard to find any difference in the detail levels, even if I zoom in 2-3 times on these images. In some of the images like this, which pack in a lot of information, 12 Pro Max’s image show a bit more details in the dense trees. But for most daytime shots, you won’t find any noticeable difference between these images. So while on paper, main camera on the 12 Pro Max, definitely looks to be the better one, but this is not being reflected in its images, as we compare them side by side with the ones from the iPhone 12 mini.

Colours in the images from both the phones are exactly identical. This is because, both of them have the same processor, and the image processing pipeline. So once the images are captured by the sensor, that information goes through all the same computations and the resulting images have a very similar look. These images are slightly more saturated than the actual scene. Not so much that they don’t look good.

The phones just add a bit of pop to the colours and warmth to make them look pleasing. Although a bit saturated, I like the way these colours look from both the phone. Coming to the HDR shots. Again, both phones use the same SmartHDR 3 algorithms to get the most dynamic range out of any scene, and the resulting images are also same from both. Better sensor on the 12 Pro Max isn’t helping it get ahead of the 12 mini in any of these situations.

Honestly these images look so similar, that if I hadn’t taken a lot of care in labelling and sorting them out in different folders, even I wouldn’t be able to tell, that which one is from which phone. All of this, is working in favour of the iPhone 12 mini. Moving to the close up shots. This is the part where I noticed a difference between these 2 cameras. And surprisingly the difference is in favour of the 12 mini.

While these shots are looking really good from both the phones, the minimum focusing distance is much better on the 12 mini. Whereas on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, you have to move few cm or sometimes even few inches away from the subject, for it to be in focus. This might not be a big issue for everyone, but as someone who likes to take a lot of close up shots by getting as close to the subject as possible, it does get a bit annoying. Other than that, these close up shots look excellent. Subjects are in perfect sharp focus, and the background gets a very nice optical blur.

Since the image sensor is bigger on the 12 Pro Max, background blur in its shots look a bit more creamy. But you will notice this, only if you are comparing these image side by side. All these were the images from the main cameras of these phones. And now here is how much more of the scene the wide lens on both of them lets you get in the shot. Both these phones have the exact same wide angle cameras, so after being captured with the same sensor, and going through the exact same image processing pipeline, these ultra wide images from both the phones look exactly the same.

At least to my eyes. Other than slightly different framing of the shots, if YOU guys could spot any differences between these images, please let me know in the comments. Now the 12 Pro Max gets the 2.5x telephoto lens, which the 12 mini doesn’t, and like you see in these images, you can get much closer to your subject with that lens. I am not sure, how often you need to zoom in on any subject like this, but when you do, it is nice to know that you have an extra dedicated camera to do so. I use the wide and normal lens much more, because these lenses let me show the scale of things, so I am fine with having just 2 cameras on the 12 mini.

And when you want to, you can digitally zoom in on the images 2.5 times. Here are 2.5 times digitally zoomed shots from the 12 mini, compared with the 2.5x optically zoomed shots from the 12 Pro Max. In these bright lighting conditions, looking at these images without zooming in further, could you really tell the difference? Maybe you can if you pixel peep on these images, but otherwise, i feel the digitally zoomed in shots from the 12 mini are looking just as good as the ones from the 12 Pro Max. If you plan on zooming in beyond this point, 12 Pro Max will produce a much sharper image. With that, let us now move on to the portrait shots.

This where we might see some difference between the images, as the LiDAR sensor on the 12 Pro Max helps it make a depth map of the scene, resulting in better edge detection. The difference is subtle, but the 12 pro max has better edge detection around glasses, ears and hair, compared to the 12 mini. Again this is something that you might only notice if you compare these images side by side, otherwise, this can be easily overlooked. Other than the slight better edge detection from the 12 Pro max, both the portrait shots look excellent. Main subject is in perfect sharp focus, skin tones and overall colours look excellent, dynamic range is amazing and the images look really good overall.

The 12 Pro Max also lets you take zoomed in portrait shots with its telephoto lens, and these are the best looking portrait shots that I have seen come out of any smartphone yet. This 65mm focal length compressed the background really nicely, and gives these images a complete DSLR like feel. I love taking portrait shots, and these zoomed in portrait shots is one of the reason, that I am still holding on to the 12 Pro Max. If it wasn’t for these zoomed in portrait shots, I would have already shifted to the iPhone 12 Mini as my main phone. Coming to lower light, Portraits from the 12 Pro max seem to be more detailed, as the larger sensor on its main camera is able to capture more light and information, resulting in sharper and detailed portrait shots with less noise.

We can see a bit sharper subject with more details and bit less noise in all of these low light portrait shots from the 12 Pro max. In even lower light, sometimes the 12 Mini struggled to lock in the portrait mode. But thanks to the LiDAR sensor, 12 Pro Max was just as quick and accurate as it is in bright daylight. So if you plan on taking low of portrait shots indoors, or in lower light, consider getting the 12 Pro Max. The LiDAR sensor also helps the 12 Pro Max better detect the edges of objects.

If I zoom in on these shots, you can see that the 12 pro max did a better job of edge detection, in places where the 12 mini missed a bit. Again you might notice this only if you compare the images side by side, or if you zoom in a lot on these shots. But the edge detection on the 12 pro max is definitely better, and if that is important to you, go with the 12 Pro max. It also allows you to take zoomed in portraits of objects as well, which again compresses the background a bit more, giving these images a very different and pleasing look. I am really surprised with the results of this camera comparison, because bigger sensor was the main reason I spent the extra money and got the 12 Pro Max.

And to see that this is not making a big difference in the images we saw so far (other than the low light portrait shots), is kind of disappointing. Hopefully it does noticeably better as the light goes down. As we move to indoor low light, or even indoor daytime situations, both the phones switch to the deep fusion mode. What this mode does, is it takes a few long and short exposure shots, and combines the best parts of those images to form a much detailed and sharper image. Now as sharp and detailed as both these images are, we should be seeing sharper images from the 12 Pro Max, because it has the bigger sensor and that should help it capture more information in the first place compared to the smaller sensor on the 12 mini.

But that is not the case, we barely see any difference in this images, even as we zoom in 2-3 times. As we start getting into lower light, I see a few differences in these images. Ones from the 12 Pro Max are a bit sharper and have lower noise. You can clearly see this, as I zoom in on this image. I think lower light is where the 12 mini starts falling a bit behind the pro max.

Wide cameras also get the deep fusion mode, and since these images are from the same cameras from both the phones, these look exactly similar. Apart form the slightly more noise and bit softer edges, I think images from the 12 mini look just as good as the ones from the 12 Pro max. And most average users won’t even notice the extra noise in the 12 mini’s images. At least not in this lighting conditions. As the light gets even lower, 12 mini switched to the night mode for these shots, while the 12 pro max did not, and it still managed to take such good looking images.

If we zoom in, we see a bit more details in the 12 pro max’s image, and keep in mind, it did not switch to the night mode for this shot, while the 12 mini did. Same with this one. According to Apple, the bigger sensor and the newer sensor shift optical image stabilisation, helps 12 pro max’s main camera capture 87% more light. And maybe that is the reason, it doesn’t switch to the night mode, unless the light is really very low. All that being said, I keep on coming back to the fact, that if you don’t zoom in a lot, images form the iPhone 12 mini are looking just as good as the ones form the 12 Pro Max, even in these lighting conditions.

Even when both the cameras end up using the Night mode, you can barely see any difference between images form these 2 phones. And this is a huge compliment for the 12 mini, because it costs almost half as much as the 12 Pro Max. Something that the 12 pro max has and the 12 mini doesn’t, is the ability to shoot Apple Pro RAW images. ProRAW is Apple’s RAW format, and the images while being RAW, still have some amount of noise reduction, and multi frame adjustments already applied to them, which makes it easier for us to edit them in post. Look at how much information can be brought back into these images, with just a few minutes of basic editing in Snapseed app on the iPhone itself.

Now I am not very good at editing images, so I am sure, someone who knows what they are doing, will be able to extract even more information out of these ProRAW images. If you get the 12 mini, Even without shooting in RAW, you could push iPhone images a lot in editing, while jpgs from other phones start falling apart very soon. But with the Pro RAW format on the 12 Pro’s, you can take these images to a whole new level. That brings us to the front facing cameras. As I mentioned before, both the phones have the same 12 megapixel front facing cameras, so all of these images look exactly the same.

Honestly, these images look so similar, that they seem to be taken with the same camera a few moments apart. Both of them are equally good at taking portrait selfies. And since there is no added assistance from the LiDAR sensor to the front of the 12 Pro Max, edge detection is similar on both the phones. Edge detection on both these phones is much better than the front facing cameras on any of the previous iPhones. This thanks to the better image processing pipeline on the A14 Processor.

So selfie camera wise, both the phones are on the same level. Here are videos from the front facing cameras of the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro max. You can see how both these phones handle the overall colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking around with them. Both these phones can shoot 4k videos with extended dynamic range at upto 60fps. And 10 bit Dolby Vision HDR videos.12 mini can shoot HDR videos at upto 30fps and the 12 pro Max can shoot them at upto 60fps. Pro Max gets the new Sensor Shift Optical Image Stabilisation, and the 12 mini gets the more traditional OIS for its lenses.

Honestly, you could barely see the difference in normal day to day life. And I am not even sure, for when or in which situations, the newer sensor shift OIS performs better then the traditional OIS. Both can record 1080p slow motion videos at upto 240fps. It was interesting to see that the 12 mini struggled a bit to set the right focus while taking slow motion videos in very low light. While the 12 Pro Max had no issues locking on to the focus.

In the end, iPhone 12 Pro Max has a slightly better main and telephoto camera, but the difference is not much. There might be a few 3rd party apps that take better advantage of the bigger sensor on the 12 pro max, but while using the native camera app on both these phones, I don’t really think the difference between images justify the difference between the price of these 2 phones. So if camera is your main concern, you can go with the iPhone 12 mini and save yourself a bunch of cash. No matter how good the 12 Pro Max is in terms of the cameras, the difference between its and 12 mini’s images is very subtle, so I really don’t think, anyone out there should choose the Pro max for its camera performance. If you feel the 12 mini is too small, go with the regular iPhone 12, it has a bigger screen and battery than the 12 mini, and has the same amazing set of camera.

You can go with the 12 Pro max if you absolutely need the bigger display, telephoto lens and the premium build quality. And even then, I really don’t think the price premium Apple is asking, is worth it. That being said, I am going to keep on using the 12 Pro Max for the next few weeks, because I am going to need its bigger battery in the coming weeks. But after that, I am going to be selling it off, and start using the iPhone 12 mini as my main phone. After looking at all these images, I am curious to hear your thoughts about both these phones.

And if you had the money to go for either one of these, which one would you pick and why. Let me know in the comments. If you decide on getting either one of these phones, I will really appreciate if you get them from the affiliate links in the description section. It helps the channel a lot, at no extra cost to you. That is it for this video guys.

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Source : TecworkZ