iPhone 12 Pro - Real World Photography Review By Samuel Elkins

Hey everyone, what's going on, welcome back to a YouTube video hope you guys are all doing well. Today we are going to be diving into the brand new iPhone 12 Pro. First and foremost, I just want to say you know, obviously, with every single phone that gets released year after year, especially iPhones, there's, obviously tons and tons of things that are different from previous generations. To be completely honest, I'm just not really interested in most of those things I really care about the camera and specifically for taking photos. That's what I do the most on this phone besides, you know obviously running my business, responding to text messages all that fun stuff. The camera is really what intrigues me the most about um all these new phones coming out, and I really want to just focus on that in this review.

So, if you're looking for you know the end-all, be-all tech review of this phone, I think there's plenty of those reviews out already on the internet, and they're going to do a much better job than me of describing what things are and how they work. You know. But for me, I just really want to know how it is to use on a more daily basis. You know- and I think for me- that's really what I use this phone for the most and what I use. My phones, for you know over the years is really just to capture my daily life.

You know, like my personal archive of images, essentially when I think about a phone, and you know what I really wanted to do at the end of the day. I just want it to be the easiest and most effortless way of taking a photo. That is what this is. It is incredibly easy. You're going to get an amazing image every single time, and that's a huge reason of why these are one of the most popular, if not the most popular camera, on the market, and I did say camera because the fact that you can pull this out of your pocket snap a photo within a matter of seconds, and it's gonna look perfect.

You don't have to do anything to it. I think that's why it's so exciting and that's a reason of why I want to make this video is to dive into what this phone is like to use. You know what it's like to use on a daily basis, and you know a real world use case rather than just pointing it out a wall and showing you guys, specs and features, because I frankly just don't, really think that that is a great way of showing you what these things can do. So with all that being said, I've had about a week with this phone now, and I'm really impressed to say the least, and I want to kind of dive into some different features and really just overall again what it's like to use this thing. So without further ado, let's hop into the video so, first and foremost, let's honestly just dive into this phone's camera specifically, you know, I think, I'm comparing this mostly to the previous phone that I currently use, which is the iPhone 11 Pro max and honestly.

I was extremely happy with that camera. There's not a lot that I really thought could really be improved, especially from a year-to-year basis. And overall, I would say this camera feels very iterative. It's incremental, to say the least, there's a few things that stuck out to me when I started to really dive in and use this phone. So I would say that the ultra-wide definitely on this phone is significantly improved over the 11 pro max, which is the phone that I was using, and I think the most significant improvement is ever going to be the sharpness on the corners of the ultra-wide images.

You know when I would take an ultrawide photo on my previous phone, the edges of the photo just weren't, really that sharp- and I know it's probably the most popular focal length on these brand-new phones, because people love to just be able to take a really wide photo of an interior or a landscape, and it just makes a lot of sense because you don't really have to move around too much. You know, but I honestly didn't really use it very often, and I'm finding more and more that with this phone specifically the ultra-wide is definitely you know something that I'm tending to lean towards a lot more, and I think that's solely because the image is just a lot cleaner. So one of the kind of hallmark features of these new iPhone 12s is definitely going to be that LIDAR sensor, which essentially, is, I think, the building blocks of what could be a very exciting set of features down the road. I think right now. It's honestly not super exciting.

You know the most exciting part. I think for me is going to be able to test the low-light portrait capabilities because, with a LIDAR sensor, you're going to be able to see a lot better in low light scenarios and pairing that with something like night mode as well as portrait mode um. All those three things combined is going to be fascinating. But again, I don't think it's something that is going to be too crazy just yet, but I think it kind of sets the pathway for fascinating and unique features down the road so in terms of low light photography. Obviously this phone is going to be.

You know, improved technically speaking over previous iPhone models. For me, I didn't really see a massive difference. I think it's really hard to quantify exactly how much better these cameras are in low light. I definitely notice better sharpness overall when using night mode, we shot some photos before sunrise in Big Sur of the ocean, and I can clearly see how sharp this camera is, especially in low light. But again I think it's really hard to you know, explain to people how exactly it is improved and for the most part, you're going to see really marginal differences.

I think, however, the one thing that did stand out to me was using night mode with the ultra-wide camera. I think it's much sharper and honestly the fact that you can use that, for you know wide landscapes again or for interiors, when it's really dark. Furthermore, I think it does actually do a pretty incredible job and, honestly, that was something that I was pretty pleasantly surprised with, to say the least. So in terms of HDR, I definitely think this has been improved over previous iPhone generations. If you are a photographer, you know you're someone that notices these incremental details, you're, definitely going to notice the difference with this phone.

I think in terms of the detail and the highlights and the shadows, it's a much cleaner picture overall, but I think for the most part you know for the general population, you can use any iPhone from the last three years and the HDR technology is pretty incredible. I will say that I think the HDR looks a lot more realistic with the iPhone 12. That's something that I am definitely excited about, because I think the one thing about HDR in previous iPhone generations was: it definitely sometimes didn't. Look very real. You know it tended to make the shadows and highlights so well-balanced that oftentimes it didn't really look too real.

I mean, I think, you'll see this when there's just such a dynamic scene and the iPhone literally makes it look perfect. It doesn't really look too real, and you know that's just something. You know obviously, that you're going to get with the technology inside these phones. It's not going to be perfect, but I will say overall, I think the dynamic range specifically smart HDR is definitely improved with this phone. When I do compare the raw image specifically of this one photo, I took in boxer of this beautiful coastline.

Honestly the photo taken on the iPhone 12 Pro versus my canon, EOS r5. The difference in dynamic range is pretty staggering and obviously that has a lot to do with all the technology. That is, you know shoved into this phone. It's pretty incredible, and you know all of that. HDR technology is you know exactly that technology? It's not optics-based like a traditional, DSLR or mirrorless camera might be.

That's probably the biggest difference that I've seen over the years with you know. Mobile phones compared to DSLR and mirrorless cameras, is how much better the HDR is, and that's solely because of the incredible technology inside these things. So now that I've kind of dove in a little to the specific features that I really like about this phone, I think I want to wrap this video up by just describing to you how it actually is to use, because to me, that's the most important part of any sort of review. Any other review to me. That's more technology based honestly just doesn't really hit home for me, because I want to know how it is to use this phone.

You know how it is to hold it in your hands and take pictures on a regular basis and just the overall experience of you know, of using this device and that's kind of what I want to chat about. So, as I said, this is definitely the best mobile phone out there for taking photos, especially when you factor in ease of use and how easy it is to just take the phone out of your pocket and capture an image. It's extremely effortless, my mom can do it. My sister can do it. I can do it.

You know the best photographers in the world can do it. I think that's the coolest part about this. Is it really levels, the playing field for anyone who's interested in capturing an image you know, and that's the most exciting part is how easy this phone is to use it's effortless. It takes a great photo every single time. The dynamic range is great.

The low light is great, and it has three different camera lenses on the back and that's really exciting. So I think to me when I think about photographing on a phone. Obviously you know the bezels and the new color choices are obviously a really nice touch, but at the end of the day, when I take this phone out of my pocket, I capture an image, and then I'm able to put the phone back in my pocket and just continue living the moment that I'm in your know without interrupting really anybody else around me. I think that's why I take so many photos on my phone because yeah it's just easy, and it doesn't have to make taking a photo a big deal right. It's its nice and easy to use, and I'm going to be able to.

You know just snap a quick photo and continue on with my life, and I think something that we often forget is how often we have these phones with us. You know to capture these moments, it's with us 100 of the time. Almost I don't really go anywhere without my phone anymore. You have such an incredible camera in your pocket. That's nice and easy to use it's exciting.

So, as I mentioned, I really do love the ultra-wide lens on this phone. It's something that I'm using a lot more because it's much sharper and overall just a cleaner picture. I tend to stick towards the normal, just wide camera. I'd say for the most part: it's just really nice and pleasing focal length and easy to use, and it's fewer tabs right. Furthermore, I can unlock my phone tap one button, and I'm taking a picture pretty quickly.

Furthermore, I don't really like to spend a lot of time taking pictures on my phone. Furthermore, I like it to be quick, and I like it to be easy to use. Therefore, the typical wide camera is perfect. For me, I would say when it comes to subject, what I find myself photographing the most with this uh. Definitely a lot of like landscape images, nice patches of light that I find on my walks photos of friends and family, and you know food and just you know overall, just life, and I find that this camera does a great job of obviously capturing all of that in rich detail, and it's easy to use and send off to friends.

It's a huge reason of why this phone is just so nice in terms of portrait images, I'm going to do a whole separate video of this with the iPhone 12 Pro max, which I think is going to be much more focused for portraits. The fact that you can use the LIDAR sensor with portrait mode at night is going to be pretty exciting, and I'm really excited to test that out and make a whole dedicated video about shooting portraits with that phone. So, overall, I think this is a pretty marginal upgrade from anything like the iPhone 11 or 11 pro, but if you're coming from anything before that, I think this is honestly a pretty significant upgrade you're going to see a lot of these new features and honestly just more refined technology in this phone specifically, and that's really exciting, you know the HDR is a lot better. The ultra-wide in low light is really great, and you know those are upgrades that honestly are probably pretty worth it, especially if you consider yourself, someone who loves to take photos on a regular basis. I think, for me, I'm really excited about this phone.

I think the camera technology is really exciting and we kind of get numb to the fact that these things get released every single year, there's so much technology packed into these devices, and we have to appreciate it for what it is. You know, and I think we want these phones to be more and more professional every single year, but the reality of it is it's not a great camera for capturing professional images, and you know I see the difference between those two things. I think this phone is incredible at exactly what it's meant to do, which is to capture my daily life. To sum this all up, I really want to say you know that you don't really need the best phone every single year in order to take great pictures. It goes the same for camera gear.

It goes the same for technology in general. Obviously, these companies make it really difficult to not want to upgrade, but I think at the end of the day, the best camera is the one that you have with you, whether it's this one or an iPhone. That's five years previous, it's still going to take a great photo, no matter what, with all that being said, though, this camera is easily the best camera on a phone on the market, and if you want that, and you're interested in that, and you know kind of getting the best quality image possible, I think this is going to do a fantastic job with all that being said, thank you so much as always for watching guys hope you enjoyed this one. Let me know down in the comments: if you have any questions or any ideas for future videos that you guys might want to see and yeah we'll see in the next one take care peace. You.

Source : Samuel Elkins