Apple has officially announced the latest line of iPhone 12, covering both mid-tier and high-tier models. And one of the more significant highlights among the improvements will be the camera's system. Apple has included new modes for the front camera, an improved f/1.6 aperture wide lens, 27% more light for shots in a low-light setting, faster auto-focus with LiDAR, better stabilization, and a new computational photography technique. Before we dive into details, here's a glance at iPhone 12 line camera specs.
Front Camera
Across the iPhone 12 models sits a 12MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture, similar to its predecessor iPhone 11. On top of that, it has more added features, such as the night mode selfies, deep fusion, and smart HDR3, covering great photo-taking results from day to night.
Rear Camera
iPhone 12 & Mini
Both the iPhone 12 and mini houses the same dual-camera system of 12MP ultra-wide and wide camera lenses, with 2x optical zoom out and up to 5x digital zoom, similar to the previous iPhone 11. It also has a 27% increase of light with the improved f/1.6 aperture instead of an f/1.8 aperture for the wide lens.
iPhone 12 Pro & Pro Max
On the other hand, both the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max houses a triple-camera system of 12MP wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide camera lenses, similar to the previous iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. On top of what the last iPhone 11 Pro Max offers, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has an improved telephoto lens of 2.5x optical zoom in and out, and digital zoom of up to 12x. It also has a 47% larger sensor and larger pixels that increase light gathered on the wide lens, and a new OIS that stabilizes the sensor for steadiness.
Improved Features (Front & Rear Camera)
Smart HDR3
Smart HDR3 helps to refine highlights, shadows, and contours in photography, especially during midday. It adjusts parts of the photo to make it look as real as possible through advanced machine learning, intelligent rendering decisions, and a neural engine that is 80% faster.
Deep Fusion
Deep fusion caters to environment photography that is mid- to low-light, such as morning landscapes or candlelit dinners. It renders detail to create great shot through multiple bracketed exposures per image, millions of pixels analyzed in real-time, and a neural engine that is 80% faster.
Night mode
Night mode brings in all that low-light detail and natural color, enhancing selfie-taking results during the night.
Improved Features (Rear Camera - 12 Pro & Pro Max)
LiDAR Scanner - Improve autofocus
The LiDAR Scanner, which measures the duration taken for light to reflect from objects, creates a depth map of space. However, this feature seems to be more useful for apps that support AR features. Nevertheless, with the LiDAR Scanner, the camera system also improves with up to six times faster autofocus in low light.
Night mode portraits - Improve low light photography
With LiDAR Scanner, both the wide and ultra-wide camera lens now has the night mode portrait function, with 27% more light for the wide lens, which means better photography exposure during low-light settings.
New sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) - Improve stabilization
The new OIS detects motion and adjusts the sensor instead of the lens, giving stabilization for steadier video, which is five times faster than the previous iPhone 11 Pro. However, this feature is only applicable for iPhone 12 Pro Max model.
ProRAWS - (Coming Soon)
With this new computational photography technique, Apple ProRAWS allows the user to take raw shoots for more comprehensive editing options such as noise reduction, color and white balance, and multi-frame exposure. However, according to Apple's official site, this feature is still in a coming soon status.
