One of the main draws of the new iPhone 13s, especially the Pro models, is their cameras’ evolutionary leap from the previous generation.
The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro have a similar basic setup: a 12MP telephoto lens, 12MP ultra wide angle, and 12MP main sensor. However, the iPhone 13s ultra-wide-angle camera aperture has been improved from f / 2.4 to f / 1.8. This means that we would find huge improvements in low light situations. In addition, the iPhone 13 Pro has 3x optical zoom (the 12 Pro remains at 12x).
At least on paper, the iPhone 12 Pro’s camera is losing the battle with the new iPhone 13 Pro, both in terms of aperture and sensor and pixel size or optical zoom. That said, we’re going to take a look at a few images taken with the two devices in the same environments to compare them. Judge for yourself.
Automatic mode and good light
The following samples were taken in automatic mode on a perfectly sunny day. As you can see, the level of sharpness is similar, but the iPhone 13 Pro has a much more balanced dynamic range (where this shows best is in the skies, which are much more realistic and less burnt. than on the iPhone 12 Pro).
Personally, I also think the color reproduction is much more realistic and less saturated on the 13 Pro than on the 12 Pro, and something similar happens with the brightness.
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro
Portraits
In the case of images taken in portrait mode, both with the front camera and the main camera, we have also noticed improvements in the aspects mentioned above. That is, similar sharpness, similar quality blur mode, but much higher brightness and much more realistic color reproduction.
Front camera in portrait mode (iPhone 12 Pro)
Front camera in portrait mode (iPhone 13 Pro)
Indoor portrait with artificial light (iPhone 12 Pro)
Indoor portrait with artificial light (iPhone 13 Pro)
It is at night that we notice the differences with the portrait mode the most. As you can see in the following images, the iPhone 13 Pro gives us more brightness and better quality, as well as a much higher level of sharpness and cropping.
Night portrait mode (iPhone 12 Pro)
Night portrait mode (iPhone 13 Pro)
Automatic indoor mode
When we pit these two phones against each other indoors, where light is low and man-made sources predominate, the iPhone 13 Pro wins hands down. In these first two images, we see how the device performs bokeh much better than its predecessor, resulting in more lifelike colors and a much more natural blur.
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
.
Another improvement made by the iPhone 13 Pro is the ability to take much sharper close-up (macro) photos. As you can see in these photos, the phone allowed me to get much closer to the corn kernels and reproduce them much more accurately than the iPhone 12 Pro.
Macro sur iPhone 12 Pro
Macro sur iPhone 13 Pro
In the following images we see again how much more polished indoor portrait mode is with the iPhone 13 Pro. The subject is much sharper compared to the background, and the color reproduction is much more vivid.
IPhone 12 Pro portrait mode
IPhone 13 Pro portrait mode
Low light photos
If we expose both phones to a low light situation (in this case twilight), we find that once again these larger aperture points on the iPhone 13 Pro make photos not only brighter. , but also much more realistic.
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13 Pro
–
