iPhone 12 - How Awesome Are the Cameras?
The iPhone 12 is now out and as always it supposedly has this amazing camera system. But does it?
The iPhone 12 was announced this week, and as always the camera system on the phone is touted to be absolutely amazing, but is it? I have not had one in my hand as of yet, but from my experience I wanted to go through the specifications of the new camera system and provide my thoughts. While the specifications that I list here are straight from Apple’s website, the views expressed here are my opinion. Also, let me start off by saying that I use Apple, and have for years. I am in no way paid for this post.
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Okay, with that out of the way, let’s look at the stats as laid out on Apple’s page at https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/specs/
Camera
Dual 12MP camera system: Ultra Wide and Wide cameras
Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
2x optical zoom out
Digital zoom up to 5x
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Optical image stabilization (Wide)
Five‑element lens (Ultra Wide); seven‑element lens (Wide)
Brighter True Tone flash with Slow Sync
Panorama (up to 63MP)
Sapphire crystal lens cover
100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
Night mode (Ultra Wide, Wide)
Deep Fusion (Ultra Wide, Wide)
Smart HDR 3 with Scene Detection
Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
Advanced red‑eye correction
Auto image stabilization
Burst mode
Photo geotagging
Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG
Video Recording
HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 30 fps
4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
1080p HD video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps
720p HD video recording at 30 fps
Optical image stabilization for video (Wide)
2x optical zoom out
Digital zoom up to 3x
Audio zoom
Brighter True Tone flash
QuickTake video
Slo‑mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps or 240 fps
Time‑lapse video with stabilization
Night mode Time‑lapse
Extended dynamic range for video up to 60 fps
Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
Continuous autofocus video
Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video
Playback zoom
Video formats recorded: HEVC and H.264
Stereo recording
TrueDepth Camera
12MP camera
ƒ/2.2 aperture
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Animoji and Memoji
Night mode
Deep Fusion
Smart HDR 3 with Scene Detection
HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 30 fps
4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
1080p HD video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps
Slo‑mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps
Time‑lapse video with stabilization
Night mode Time‑lapse
Extended dynamic range for video up to 30 fps
Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
QuickTake video
Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction
Retina Flash
Auto image stabilization
Burst mode
Great, we have three cameras that has all kinds of cool numbers, but what do they all mean?
First we will start with the Dual 12MP camera systems. They have two cameras here, an Ultra Wide and a Wide camera. The Ultra Wide is a f2.4 aperture (the size of the hole that allows light in) and a 120 degree field of view. The Wide is a f1.6 aperture. In aperture land, the lower the number means the wider or larger the whole that allows the light to come in. In wide angle lenses, which are used more for landscapes, I hardly ever have the need to go as wide as I can. I am assuming they did this because they need to get more light into the cameras so they do not need to increase the ISO (which is how fast the light is absorbed into the camera sensor, higher number means GRAINY photos). We have seen iPhones supposedly getting better and better in low light situations, this is why.
What do you lose with small apertures? Probably not much unless you are trying to take a photo of some up closer to you and still have the background in focus. Most people are all about the bokeh, or blurred background, in photos. It’s great for portraits and help draw focus to your subject. You do not want this in landscapes however. So this is where these small apertures break down.
Now let’s talk about the Wide versus Ultra Wide. Here is actually where I think they throw an extra camera in here just to say they did. If you have small apertures, made for portraits, why do we need to wide angle cameras? Fact is you probably don’t.
How about the zoom? Okay, here is the first reason why your iPhone will never compete with a true DSLR camera. Digital zoom! Anything that says digital zoom is horrible, don’t do it. In my cell phone classes I teach people to zoom with your feet. Never ever pinch and zoom in. Why? You are stretch the pixels, and you don’t have a lot of them, so now you are creating distorted and blurry photos..
Yes, Apple says there is a 2x optical zoom, isn’t that better? Sure, but its a zoom out, not in. So if you want to get an even wider shot then no problem, go for it. :)
These two cameras have all of the modes for portraits, advanced bokeh (have no idea why it would be advanced because either it is blurry or it is not). Optical stabilization is in the Wide camera, and other features that are very standard these days.
Okay, first two cameras are out of the way, now let’s move to the third camera, the TrueDepth camera. This is another 12MP camera with a f2.2 aperture (see a trend?) along with all of the same other modes for portraits and bokeh control. This is your working lens.
It seems from the specs that this lens is used for the majority of everything on the camera. Animoji, Memoji, Time Lapse, burst mode, auto image stabilization and more. Not much that stands out from the norm these days.
So, let’s get down to my thoughts.
Every new release Apple talks about how fantastic the cameras are on their phones. I watch the events and every year I am extremely disappointed. The phones take great photos, I use my phone to take photos all of the time. But when is happen going to give us more pixels to work with?
For years the cameras on the iPhones have been capped at 12MP. That means 12 million pixels per square inch. This is great for social media photos and sharing on the web, but if you try to print this photo you cannot go much larger than an 8x10, or 10x20 since I shoot panos, without seeing serious distortion. My Sony A7Riii has 42MP, and my 5 year old backup camera, my Sony a6300 has 24.2MP. So why is Apple constantly trying to throw smoke and mirrors, and cameras but not paying attention to the real issue. More MP!!!
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2020 Open Photography Competition Winners
Due to technical issues during the live we had to break this up into two videos
New Online Print Store Open to the Public with 15% off
Hello everyone, thanks for following me.
We're happy to announce a brand new online store for my fine art prints. We'd love for everyone to check it out and to celebrate the grand opening we are offering 15% off any of my fine art prints. Simply enter the promo code may15 at checkout.
Here are a few screen shots, but please click the button below to check it out.
New Photos Added to the Shenandoah National Park Collection
Hello everyone, thanks for following me.
We're happy to announce that 4 new prints are now available in the Shenandoah National Park Collection in my print store, which can be found here.
These 4 photos were taken during a beautiful sunrise in the Shenandoah National Park on a cool spring morning in April, 2018. This location is one of my favorite spots for sunrises this time of the year, because as you can see, the sun will come up right behind this very cool tree. Luckily, on this morning, we saw low level clouds in the east as it came up. This equals great colors and a brilliant sun for photography.
These prints are available in many formats and print sizes.
How I Got The Shot - Blue Moon
In this post I go through how I got the shot below of the Blue Moon Easter weekend in Virginia.
To get a really detailed shot of the full moon, quite a few things are needed. You have to have a camera with manual setting capabilities and a really long lens at a minimum. Most people use a 100-400mm lens, but that still doesn’t have the reach needed to get good detail. You will have to crop in too much and lose a lot of quality in doing so.
“Can’t I use an extender and basically double my lens length?” You say. Yes, you certainly can, and you will effectively go from 400mm to 800mm, but you have drawbacks in doing so. The first is quality. The 800mm that you are getting with you 2x extender is nowhere near the quality that you’d get by having a dedicated 800mm lens. You lose sharpness when you extend, which is fine for a lot of situations, but the moon has a great deal of detail. The second issue is aperture. When you use an extender not only are you doubling the length of lens, but cutting in half the amount of light coming into the lens. You 400mm f5.6 is now a 800mm f11.2. Ouch. Depending on the camera you now have to boost your ISO to compensate and that will give you noise.
So so how did I get this shot? With a gigantic lens of 1100mm, which is my Meade ETX telescope.
I have a handy dandy eyepiece projection adapter allowing me to set my Sony A6300 up to use my telescope as a lens. I do still have a small aperture, but it is fine for this task.
‘So do I just go out, plop my telescope on its tripod and shoot away? Not really. The earth spins about 25,000 mph (if I remember correctly). That is fast and you see it when you are using a lens that big on a tripod. To stop the action, I needed to increase shutter speed.
‘My settings here with the telescope as the lens as 500 as my shutter speed and ISO2600. But I had 1 more problem, the lens was too large as the moon would not fit in frame. 😊 Okay, then how did I get this shot? I took 2 shots and merged them into 1 in Photoshop.
Well that’s how I got the shot. Hope that answered a question or two. I’m setting up some moon workshops right now, so come out and shoot with me. As always, feel free to ask questions on Twitter or Facebook, and please follow me on each.
Have fun!
5 Reason Why Your Photos Suck
We’ve all been in there. You like a photo that you took, but it’s not getting the reaction on social media that you thought it would. Why? Is it that they don’t know a good photo when they see one? I mean this thing belongs in a gallery!!!
Well....cupcake...perhaps your photo sucks.
I am the first person to stand on a soapbox and say that social media has become the worst enemy for photography simply because even the worst photos get likes and loves. Really? Trust me, if you have friends you could put up a photo with someone’s head half cut off and the photo off weight and you’ll still get likes. So how does a photo not get likes if that is the case? Well here are 5 things that you can look at to determine if your photo sucks. Feel free to use this as a guide for looking at other photos as well 😊
Reason 1 - Bad Lighting
Lighting is one of two critical components to a photo, so it goes without saying that it could easily be a contributing factor to suckage. Is the subject dark? Is the subject too bright? Are there weird and distracting shadows? All great things to think about when shooting.
Reason 2 - Shooting at the wrong time of day
This ties in to Reason 1 above, but when are you shooting your outdoor photos? If you say in the middle of the day then you are shooting in bad light (unless it is cloudy). A clear blue sky during mid day will give you the worst light of the day. Over exposed highlights and far too dark shadows because the sun’s light is so intense. The contrast kills you. How many portrait sessions have you had where the photographer chooses 1pm on Saturday? Hmmm. Why not go have a picnic or a walk and come back a few hours later when the sun is going down and the light is much much better.
Reason 3 - Too much Photoshop
Photoshop is a tool, just like your camera and lens. It can be used too much however. A good photo, unless you are doing compositions, will have very minimal, and hardly noticeable edits to it. Slight sharpness tweak, slight vignette, maybe a tiny white balance correction. They don’t take away from the photo you took, but enhance it a bit.
Addition-faking a blurred background by using the blur tool in Photoshop looks horrible and is very easy to notice. If you don’t know how to do it in the camera then learn it (see Reason 4 below)
Reason 4 - You’re trying to impress others
You feel great because you got 25 likes and a comment that you are an amazing photographer on your first photo posting on Facebook. Now it’s go time. So instead of staying within your skill level you decide to go for the gusto and hit the high and hard stuff. You are a great photographer, remember, you can do anything. Let’s charge money, let’s offer every type of service, etc. etc.
This choice will more than likely kill your photos. Everyone is learning at photography, no matter what skill level you are at. I always recommend getting good where you are at before moving up a notch in the difficulty scale. A good rule of thumb is if you don’t know how hard a type of shot is then you are not ready for it. Research research research. Do your homework. Definitely challenge yourself but arm yourself with everything that you can beforehand.
Reason 5 - blur or out of focus
With the extremely advanced cameras that we have today, it is extremely painful to see a photo posted of something blurry (if it wasn’t intended to be). A sharp photo brings in people’s attention. Maybe you were out of focus, maybe it’s motion blur, either way don’t post it because it sucks!
These are just a handful of a thousand reasons why your photos might suck. Take a closer look, not just your photos, but those posted by others as well. Can you see some of the things that I point out? I bet so.
If if you have any questions about your photos, need a critique, whatever, shoot me a message. I am happy to help.
You may want to look into attending one of my Photo101 classes as well. I teach lighting and composition to help you take far better photos, with any type of camera. I have classes registering right now! Just check out my Classes section.
Take care, have fun, enjoy photos.
Scott
Sunset in the Sonoran Desert
Our trip began yesterday with a day trip ATVing through the Sonoran Desert. Most photos were taken during the midday sun so we'll see what we get from those, but here are a couple.
Sonoran Sunset
We were ending our ATV adventure as the sun began to set. Pulled off for a second and literally shot this through the front of the ATV.
More to come one as we hit Sedona next.