Apple's iPhone 12 has incredible new camera technology in addition to the fastest 5G available, and a blazing quick processor that outperforms the nearest competitor by 50-percent. Somehow Apple managed to do all of this without raising the prices on the latest generation iPhone series. Here's a closer look at some of what the iPhone 12 has to offer in the camera department.

Apple always included good cameras in its iPhone, but with the increased attention on photography in the last several years, competitors began to pull ahead. Even after adding Deep Fusion and Night Mode computational photography, the previous iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are not even in the top 10, in the opinion of most photography experts. Apple was clearly lagging behind Huawei, Samsung and Google, who kicked off the image processing revolution that virtually makes point and shoot cameras obsolete.

Related: Apple Unveils iPhone 12: The First iPhone With 5G

There are four models of Apple's newest smartphone. The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 have identical cameras. The other two models, the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, each add more capabilities and snap better photos and record better videos. Starting with the two standard models, there are two rear cameras with the iPhone 12 and the TrueDepth selfie camera on the front. All three now support Night Mode and Portrait Mode, though not at the same time. Deep Fusion is enabled for all three cameras also. Apple indicates all special camera modes that use computational photography and machine learning have seen big improvements and the demonstration photos certainly looked impressive.

The ultra-wide uses the same lens and sensor as the previous generation, but the A14 allows 80-percent faster processing on the iPhone to enable more detail, better color and brighter photos, even when lighting is not ideal. The wide-angle camera now uses a seven-element lens for better edge to edge sharpness and features a larger f/1.6 aperture, allowing 27-percent more light to reach the sensor. Those two hardware-based improvements will absolutely make a difference, adding credence to Apple's claims. Apple's video recording quality also saw a leap, boasting the first smartphone to have 4K resolution Dolby Vision HDR recording at 60 frames per second. This allows the camera to capture 60 times more colors. Apple notes that Dolby Vision is used by the film industry for color grading in post production, but the new iPhone 12 series does it in real time. Apple trained its Smart HDR 3 to recognize scenes and optimize intelligently. This sounds quite similar to the system Google uses for the Pixel phones. If Apple can attain that degree of sophistication, one or more iPhone 12 models may make it back into the top smartphone camera lists once again.

iPhone 12 Pro & Pro Max Camera Exclusives

Apple iPhone 12 Pro OIS

The iPhone 12 Pro adds a two times telephoto camera to the wide and ultra-wide of the standard models. The 52 mm focal length is nice, but its f/2.0 aperture means less light is available for all of the special processing to work with. When possible, it will still be better to move closer to the subject instead of zooming. If that was all that was added, the identical sized iPhone 12 would clearly be the better choice, saving $200. However, the Pro model includes LiDAR. This is the same technology introduced with the 2020 iPad Pro. It was described as being a nice feature for augmented reality (AR) developers and enabled even better AR experiences by making the pre-scan of the environment that's necessary almost instantaneous.

There had been speculation that LiDAR could aid low-light photography and Apple has made that a reality now, with Night Mode Portraits. This is exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max. Apple notes that even with a small single light source, LiDAR allows capturing depth and combined with the A14's processing speed, realistic colors and details can be achieved. Background lights are not a problem and bokeh should be nicely rendered and beautiful. Low-light focusing is six times faster with LiDAR. The iPhone 12 Pro also has better optical image stabilization.

Finally, the iPhone 12 Pro Max includes everything above and more, while adding just $100 to the cost of the iPhone 12 Pro. The telephoto lens is longer at 65 mm, allowing up to a two and a half times optical zoom, the most of any iPhone to date. Even more impressive, the wide-angle camera has a 47-percent larger sensor and larger 1.7 micrometer pixels. This model captures 87-percent better low‑light photos. The examples given by Apple look amazing, but this will require some third-party testing to really grasp what it means. On the surface, it appears that Apple may be ready to compete with the leading low-light smartphones. Apple comments about subtle textures, great detail and true-to-life colors throughout a photo, even in challenging conditions. Time-lapse is available in Night mode with the iPhone.

When it comes to video, Apple has added sensor-shift optical image stabilization. The demonstration video showed videographers holding iPhone 12 Pro Max devices in hand on the back of a Jeep that jostled over rough terrain and another iPhone 12 Pro Max was mounted to the trailer hitch. It's not simply difficult to stabilize video, but nearly impossible. The implication is that the newest and largest iPhone is sufficient for this herculean task. Apple adds that sensor‑shift technology was previously only found on DSLR cameras.

Apple is still working on more features. Coming soon, a new storage format will become available called Apple ProRAW. This format will include all the standard RAW photo information, but adds Apple image pipeline data. We may see some custom photo editing software with this or perhaps Apple will simply open the format up to the developer community to be integrated with the RAW image editors that are already available for the iPhone. The extra information will include access to noise reduction and multiframe exposure adjustments, as well as the more usual single frame color, exposure and white balance controls.

Every iPhone 12 announced made big leaps in technology and each offers good value. For those that are shopping for an iPhone, there's no need to wait past the pre-order date. The new iPhone 12, mini, Pro, and Pro Max camera technology looks great on paper and was presented expertly by Apple with bold claims and amazing demonstrations making it clear that several significant improvements have been made.

Next: MagSafe: iPhone 12 Case & Wireless Charging Accessories Explained

Source: Apple