iPhone 12 mini vs iPhone SE Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar, and in this video, let us find out where does the single camera on the iPhone SE stand in comparison to the dual cameras on the iPhone 12 mini. I know, many of you prefer to use a smaller iPhone, and since there are 2 small iPhones in the market right now, the 2020 iPhone SE and the more recent iPhone 12 mini, many of you are confused so as to which one you should get. While the iPhone 12 mini is definitely the better one, it also costs almost twice as much as the iPhone SE, in India. So if you can’t afford to spend the extra money on the iPhone 12 mini, or if you are wondering wether the cameras on the 12 mini are twice as good as the one on the iPhone SE, you’ve clicked on the right video. We have over 140 image and video samples from both these phones combined, to look at in this video. But before we get to those, let us first check out the cameras that we are working with.

Some of you guys might already know all the camera specs on both these phones, if you are one of those, you can directly skip ahead to the image and video samples from the chapters in the timeline of this video. The one and only camera at the back of the iPhone SE, gets the same sensor as the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. It is a 12 megapixel sensor with F/1.8 aperture and it gets optical image stabilisation. It can shoot 4K videos at 24/30/60fps, 1080p videos at 30/60/120/240fps, and 720p videos at 30fps. Both the cameras on the iPhone 12 mini have 12 megapixel sensors.

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. Both cameras combined gives us a 2x optical zoom out, and these are the same 2 cameras that the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro comes with. You can shoot 4K videos in 24,30 and 60fps with both the cameras. It also lets you shoot Dolby Vision HDR videos at upto 4K 30fps.

You can also shoot 1080p videos in 30 or 60fps, and just like the iPhone SE, 12 mini can also shoot 1080p slow motion videos at 120 or 240fps. At the front, iPhone SE gets a 7 megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture, and it can only record 1080p videos at 30fps. While the iPhone 12 mini comes with a 12 megapixel True Depth camera with F/2.2 aperture, and it can shoot 4K videos at upto 60fps, and 1080p videos at upto 120fps. With these specs out of the way, let’s get to the image and video samples from both these phones. And as always, we will begin with the images in bright day time.

From the 1st look, other than the slightly different framing on both these phones, you won’t see much difference in the detail level of these images.12 Mini gets a hair wider aperture, which lets in more light on the sensor, so there is slightly more information in its shots. And the A14 processor inside the 12 mini has a much better image signal processor, so it makes the overall image look more detailed and sharper. The only difference that you see in some of these images, is the slight shift in colour. Other than that, both these images might look the same to most people. Looking at all these images, I think the main camera on the 12 mini is a millimetre or two wider than the one on the iPhone SE.

Which mean, you can get slightly more of the scene in the shot on the 12 mini. Since both these phones have different processors, inside, they go through slightly different image processing pipeline, resulting in a different look in both these images. Colours on the 12 Mini are slightly more saturated, compared to the ones from the iPhone SE.12 Mini also captures a warmer colours, while the colours from the iPhone SE are a bit on the cooler side. You might only notice this if you look at these images side by side. And colour is a personal choice, so which one these images you like, will depend on your colour preference.

Some people like natural looking colours, and they might lean towards the images form the iPhone SE. While others like a slight punch in their colours, and they might gravitate towards the newer iPhone 12 Mini, and all of this is completely fine. SE comes with 2nd generation SmartHDR algorithms, while the 12 mini comes with SmartHDR 3, and this shows in their images. When comparing these images side by side, Dynamic range is better in the images from the iPhone 12 mini. It brings up more details in the shadows, without blowing the highlights in the shot.

In this image, you can clearly see that the shadows on the left wall are much darker in the image form the SE, while the 12 mini brought up more details in them. In some of the shots like this one, the flare that 7 element lens on the 12 mini cause just ruin the shot, making the image from the iPhone SE appear better. In the very next shot, 12 mini is back at showing much better dynamic range. Close up shots from both these phones look very good. But in most of these close up shots, the main subject closest to the camera, or the one that you tap on is sharper from the iPhone 12 mini.

While the background gets a nice optical blur in the close up shots from both. It is blurred out a bit more in the close ups from the 12 mini, since it has a slightly bigger sensor and a hair wider aperture. All of this is of course only visible, if we compare these images side by side. On its own, images from the iPhone SE look really good. And Apple rightly called it the ‘best single camera system ever in an iPhone’.

iPhone SE has a single camera on its back, but the 12 mini gets a secondary ultra wide lens, which lets it take images like this. As you can see, this ultra wide lens lets the 12 mini get so much more of the scene in the shot, compared to its primary lens. This lens comes in very handy when you need to show the scale of things, or when you need to capture a different perspective of the scene. You can use add on lenses like this on the iPhone SE, and these will let you take wide shots. But it is a separate thing that you will always have to carry with you, so having this extra lens built in you phone is a lot more convenient.

Let us now move on to the portrait mode, which if you guys don’t know, is my favourite mode to shoot in on any smartphone. Normally Apple needed 2 lenses to sense the depth information for these shots, but with the iPhone SE, Apple managed to sense the depth and detect the edge with just a single camera. All of this is thanks to their amazing computational photography algorithms. Now you need to be close to you subject on the iPhone SE, for it to detect the edges accurately, while the iPhone 12 mini could detect the edges from much further away, like you see in this shot. Edge detection is more accurate and the blur rolloff is much smoother in the portraits from the iPhone 12 mini.

That being said, ones form the iPhone SE are also not too far behind. In some of the portrait shots, I actually prefer the overall colours and skin tones from the iPhone SE. If you try taking portrait slots indoors or in artificial light, SE takes a bit longer to detect the edges, and there is some noise in its portrait shots. Whereas 12 mini has no issues detecting the edges, and it also manages to keep the noise levels to a minimum. Now the iPhone SE can’t take portraits of objects, it needs to detect a face in order to take a portrait shot.

While the iPhone 12 Mini can take very good portraits of objects. Unlike previous generation iPhones, it doesn’t struggle at detecting the edges even if the object has complex edges. So if you love taking portrait shots with your smartphone, 12 Mini should be your 1st choice, but if you don’t want to spend that much money, iPhone SE is also manages to get some very good shots. Let us now move on to the images that I took in indoor, artificial and lower lighting situations. This is where we might start seeing a bigger difference between the images from these phones.

The iPhone 12 Mini gets deep fusion mode, which helps it take sharper images with less noise in indoor or in artificial lighting conditions. iPhone SE does not get DeepFusion mode, so its images are less detailed, and more and more noise is introduced in them as the light goes down. As I zoom in, you can see everything in the image from the 12 mini is much sharper. Its images are also brighter than the ones from the iPhone SE in these lighting conditions. When the light gets even lower, 12 Mini switches to the Night mode, and again this mode isn’t available on the iPhone SE.

Night mode make 12 mini’s images look so much better. It doesn’t only add in more light to the shot, but also makes everything in the shot appear sharper and reduce the overall noise from the shot. iPhone SE does none of this. It’s not that 12 mini is taking better images just because of the night mode. Here are few images from the 12 mini without the night mode, and they still look much better and cleaner then the ones from the iPhone SE.

It is the new image sensor, OIS and image processing working together and delivering good looking images, even in these very low lighting situations. In some of these cases, it was so dark, that the SE even had hard time setting the focus. But the 12 Mini did well even without the Night mode, and with the Night mode turned on, it takes these images to a whole new level. Now the Night mode is available even on the wide lens of the 12 Mini. These wide night mode images are better than the ones from he main camera of the iPhone SE, but I don’t use this wide lens too often in very low light.

The reason being, since this camera doesn’t have the best sensor and lens optics, these images are considerable softer and less detailed than the ones shot with the main camera on the 12 mini. That beings us to the front facing cameras on these phones. Selfies from the 12 megapixel camera on the 12 mini are noticeably better than the 7 megapixel camera on the SE. Skin tones, overall colours, details, dynamic range, everything is better in the selfies form the 12 mini. It also gets a wider lens, so if you want to get more of your friends in one shot, whereas the SE has a very narrow field of view for the selfie camera.

Selfies form the SE gets much worse if you try to click them indoors or in lower light. So if you plan on getting the iPhone SE, you should stick to taking selfies outdoors, when there are bright lights around. Even without the true depth camera system, SE can take portrait selfies, and the edge detection is surprisingly accurate.12 mini is slightly better at detecting the edges, and since it anyways captured sharper subjects in its selfies, these portrait ones from it look even more detailed. So if you like taking a lot of selfies, both portrait and normal, then you should go with the iPhone 12 mini. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone SE.

You can see how both these phones handle the colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking around with them. Both of them can record 4K videos at upto 60fps.12 mini can capture extended dynamic range videos at upto 60fps, while the iPhone SE can do that at upto 30fps. And the iPhone 12 mini also gets 10 bit Dylby Vision HDR video recording capability at upto 30fps. For shooting slow motion videos, both of them can record 1080p videos at upto 240fps. I really hoped to see 4k 120fps or 1080p 480fps slow motion modes on the 12 series iPhones.

But even if the processor is powerful enough to handle this frame rates, we are still stuck with the older slow motion frame rates. So after looking at all these image and video samples, it is clear that the iPhone 12 mini has a better and more versatile set of cameras, both at the front and the back. But the better images also come at a higher price, so you have to be the judge that wether the difference in the image quality is worth the extra price to you or not. If you can somehow stretch your budget, I would say the 12 Mini is a much better overall phone, with bigger display, newer design, better overall performance, slightly better battery and obviously better cameras. But if you can’t spend the extra amount, and you don’t plan on taking a lot of images in lower light I think you can make do with the iPhone SE, as it also does really well when you take images in day time.

And for videos, other than the new 10 bit Dolby Vision HDR video support, I think both of them are capable of taking amazing videos. The stabilisation is a bit better on the 12 mini, but unless you compare them side by side, you won’t really notice the difference. So there you have it. My thoughts about the camera on both these phones. After looking at all these image and video samples , what do you think? Would you go for the more expensive iPhone 12 Mini, or would you rather save up some money and get the iPhone SE instead? Let me know in the comments.

Which ever one you decide to pick up, I would really appreciate if you get it form 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. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed the video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this. You can also check out some of the other videos from this channel.

This has been Sagar and I’ll catch you guys in the next video. Take Care.

Source : TecworkZ