How exactly does the 12MP iPhone 13 Pro Max take pictures?
The above photo album screenshot is some photos taken in the past two weeks after I got Apple's latest iPhone 13 Pro Max, if the first impression is still "apple flavor", simple, realistic, the algorithm has improved a lot of image details, but it will not change the final imaging color and style too much. But you still have a question? Maintaining the 12-megapixel iPhone 13 series, can we continue to fight in the face of a competitive market?
Every year after the release of the new iPhone, I will be seduced to take pictures with this phone. Although I was able to access more mobile phones because of my work, the days when I got a new iPhone to take pictures every year also stimulated my rare desire to create and record time.
Apple began to add a triple camera system from the iPhone 11 Pro series, which was the best triple camera system for the shooting experience at that time. The reason is simple, seamless switching between lenses, a unified imaging style of three shots, a new composition brought by ultra-frame framing, a stable and excellent video table, a good night mode, and so on.
In the face of competitors' continuous improvement in the image function of mobile phones, the triple camera system of the iPhone 11 Pro series is excellent, but it is gradually insufficient. So, on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I saw Apple's "radical" upgrade on the imaging system for the first time. The main camera sensor of 1.7 microns per pixel brings better imaging effects; the addition of Apple ProRAW gives photographers more space for post-creation; and the blessing of Dolby Vision brings better tolerance and color performance to video.
Schematic of the sensor sensor for the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera
In this year's iPhone 13 Pro series, Apple maintained the design of two sizes of a large and a small fuselage, but in terms of camera specifications, the two are no longer treated differently, and the same camera hardware configuration is used to completely pull the image function of the two to the same running line.
The appearance of the iPhone 13 Pro Max continues last year's design, so the camera arrangement behind it is the same as last year, with ultra-wide angle, wide-angle main camera and telephoto lens. Starting from the iPhone 11 Pro series, Apple's triple camera system has maintained such a design idea, so there is no need to repeat it too much. However, comparing the iPhone 13 Pro Max with last year's iPhone 12 Pro Max, the area of the camera module behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max has become larger.
iPhone 12 Pro Max vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max camera module comparison
The reason why the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera module has become larger is naturally related to hardware upgrades. From the official data, the iPhone 13 Pro Max wide-angle main camera uses a sensor of 1.9 microns per pixel, with a size of 1/1.65 inch (an area of 44 square millimeters), and the model is Sony IMX703. Statistically, the new sensor is obviously much larger than last year's 1.7 micron sensor per pixel, and this is the second time Apple has adopted a larger sensor (the last time was the iPhone 12 Pro Max).
iPhone 13 Pro Max camera parameters
It is precisely because of the larger size sensor that the lens behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max is more convex, which is also the reason for the larger area of the camera module. The iPhone 13 Pro Max's triple camera still maintains 12 million pixels, and the focal length of the ultra-wide and wide-angle lenses is still 13mm and 26mm, but the telephoto lens has been increased from 65mm to 77mm.
Starting at 13mm to 77mm, Apple calls the iPhone 13 Pro Max's camera a 6x zoom. However, when actually shooting, if you do not choose the middle digital zoom segment, the iPhone 13 Pro Max will still switch the actual focal length of the three lenses of 13mm, 26mm and 77mm, and the switching method is the same as before, and the zoom is completed in a very smooth way.
iPhone 12 Pro Max (left) telephoto versus iPhone 13 Pro Max (right) telephoto
From the iPhone 7 Plus to the iPhone XS Max, the iPhone's telephoto lens has been maintained at 2x, with an equivalent focal length of 56mm, making the iPhone a 26mm+52mm dual-lens combination. iPhone 11 series added 13mm ultra-wide angle, so that the iPhone from ultra-wide angle to telephoto, has always had a high practicality (without considering the premise of picture quality), iPhone 12 Pro Max is a special case, telephoto lens is 65mm, to the iPhone 13 Pro series, telephoto lens reached 77mm.
If you are familiar with photography, what is the most commonly used hang-up lens on camera? Most of the options are lenses with or close to the 24-70mm focal length. The reason is simple, this focal length contains a 24mm wide angle, which can accommodate more scenery, while the 70mm focal length can record the details of life or complete portrait shooting. The iPhone 13 Pro Max directly boosted the telephoto to 77mm, already in focus. Therefore, the telephoto lens of the iPhone 13 Pro Max is easier to record some details of life, such as close-up shooting, architectural detail shooting, and so on.
iPhone 13 Pro Max 3x telephoto shooting
In addition to the changes in camera hardware, Apple brought more new features to the imaging of the iPhone 13 Pro. In addition to ProRAW, which it added last year, Apple has brought "movie mode" to video, professional ProRes format video (currently supported in iOS 15.1 Beta), and a style of photography for still photos. It can be said that whether you are taking still photos or dynamic videos, this time Apple has given more photography playability.
As early as September 15, before apple conference, there were rumors that the new iPhone would add a "portrait video" function to the video, which gave people the feeling that the video portrait background was blurred, and perhaps it would not be more "useful".
However, after seeing the video demonstration of the conference and after getting the iPhone 13 Pro Max experience, I found that this so-called "movie mode" is not simple, and the significance of the appearance is no less than the "portrait mode" on the iPhone 7 Plus.
The implementation of "Movie Mode" is similar to "Portrait Mode", which relies on multi-lens parallax rather than LiDAR lenses, so the iPhone 13 has this function throughout the series. So, after getting the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I shot a few small videos using Movie Mode.
Video GIF presentation shot in movie mode
Judging from the actual shooting video, the "movie mode" can not only be rendered in real time, but also for the change of the distance and proximity of the shooting subject, the background bokeh effect behind it will also change, which is exactly the same as the depth of field effect shot by the real camera.
Movie mode screenshots, you can see the change of the bokeh effect at different distances
Movie Mode also automatically switches focus based on changes in subject. For example, I tried shooting a video of instructional photography on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and when the photographer in the front scene turned around, the focus of the picture automatically switched to the model in the distance, and the whole process was very smooth and without any drag.
Movie mode focus switching demo
Focus switching video screenshot (due to focus change, resulting in a change in the color temperature of the picture)
The "movie mode" was first launched, and naturally there were restrictions and deficiencies. For example, the keying is not precise enough, the edges of the characters will sometimes "wear gangs", can only be shot at a maximum resolution of 1080p 30p, and when switching focus, there will be problems such as different color temperature before and after the picture due to changes in light.
Jobs once liked to say that Apple was at the intersection of technology and art. The "movie mode" does not have that deep meaning for the average user, but the "movie mode" is the product of what Jobs called the exploration of technology and art.
In addition to the "movie mode", this time Apple also added the ProRes format to the iPhone 13 Pro series of video shooting, which also highlights the pro series of professionalism. The ProRes format has the characteristics of high color fidelity and low compression, which provides video workers with a more professional choice, and can seamlessly connect with professional video editing software such as Final Cut Pro when editing videos to meet the needs of professionals.
Turn on ProRes in the camera settings
At present, the ProRes format has been launched with the iOS 15.1 Beta 3 version, supporting recording up to 4K 30fps. At present, recording a minute of 4K video in 10bit HDR ProRes format takes up about 6GB of storage space, which is one of the reasons why the iPhone 13 Pro series will launch a 1TB version. However, the iPhone's Lightning interface uses a USB 2.0 transmission protocol, for several gigabytes of ProRes video, how to transfer the computer more quickly for editing, is indeed a video shooter needs to consider the problem.
After talking about the video function, let's talk about still photo shooting.
Apple has added a "photography style" that can be personalized in the camera of the iPhone 13 series, including four styles of contrast, high saturation, warm tone and cool tone, each "photography style" can be previewed in real time when used, and each style can adjust the options separately for the "hue" and "color temperature" options, and change the new color effect through real-time preview, and the adjusted style will be retained until you reset the selected style.
Photographic style
"Photography Style" looks like a "filter" for adjusting the color style of your photo, as long as you have a little hands-on ability to adjust the settings for different shooting environments, colors and lighting, you can create a unique photography style.
High contrast (left) and high saturation (right)
Warm (left) and cool (right)
The "photographic style" looks simple, but unlike filters, the iPhone 13 Series image pipeline will be based on the user's customized style and the constant change of shooting environment, and render, rather than simply uniform application. On the surface, a filter was set and the color was adjusted. In fact, during the shooting process, the system background performed some calculations including real-time rendering, machine learning, object recognition, etc. through calculations, all of which were realized based on the computing power of the A15 bionic chip.
However, the "Photographic Style" does not support the ProRAW format, and if the ProRAW format is turned on, the "Photographic Style" feature cannot be used.
The Apple ProRAW is still an exclusive feature of the iPhone 13 Pro series, and it's one of my favorite features of iPhone photography.
If you're not happy with the sharpening, smudging, and hdR flattening of your photos in iPhone imaging, ProRAW is definitely a good choice. Apple ProRAW is a 12-bit RAW file that supports 14-stop adjustment, while also retaining a part of the AI data when shooting, and simple post-production can get rich photos with rich layers, providing more post-processing space.
iOS 15 system photo album and photo information browsing
ProRAW photos taken with the iPhone will be displayed as a preview in the iOS system album, so raw format files look the same as ordinary HEIC or JPEG. When viewing a photo using an album, the word "RAW" in the upper left corner of the interface proves that the photo is stored in RAW format. With iOS 15's new and upgraded album feature, you can directly view the detailed shooting parameters of your photos, as well as the size of your photo capacity.
For the editing of RAW files, you can use the editing tools included in iOS Album for post-processing, and you can also use other software such as Snapseed, Lightroom CC Mobile, RAW Power, Darkroom, etc. In the processing of ProRAW, whether it is in the album photo editing function or import the third photo editing software, RAW files will be underexposed, low color saturation, through the post-adjustment can restore the original appearance of the photo, users can also be more flexible according to their own ideas.
Lightroom CC Mobile handles ProRAW
For example, I like to use Lightroom CC Mobile to process ProRAW files taken by iPhone 13 Pro Max, when using Lightroom processing, the RAW file taken by iPhone will load a configuration file named "Apple ProRAW", which can directly restore the original color of the ProRAW photo, and then use other adjustment functions to make post-adjustments to the exposure, saturation, color temperature, etc. of the photo.
Next up are some of the photos I took during this time with the iPhone 13 Pro Max, partly using ProRAW plus Lightroom CC Mobile post-processing.
Since last year, Apple has been stacking hardware on cameras, and this year it is one step closer, but it still maintains 12 million pixels. Perhaps before there is no revolutionary breakthrough in photography-related mobile phone hardware, Apple may not upgrade the iPhone's camera hardware significantly, continue to maintain 12 million pixels, and through the ability of A series chips, to improve the performance of camera functions and experience.
This is how I felt most intuitively after watching the iPhone 13 series launch and two weeks after getting started with the phone.
Therefore, you may perceive that the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not a big upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, although the Android camp mobile phone imaging capabilities from both hardware and software continue to improve, Apple on the iPhone 13 Pro or update a larger size of sensors, improve the image algorithm, but these changes are not seen at a glance, but need to be constantly perceived in use.
At the functional level, almost all the upgrades of the iPhone 13 series come from computational photography, and the addition of movie effect mode and photo style lies in this, which also allows the iPhone to have capabilities that other mobile phones do not currently have. While these features don't look perfect right now, or there aren't many opportunities for everyday use, it gives mobile photography new possibilities for the future.
However, the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera still has shortcomings, such as the "ghost" caused by the diffraction phenomenon of the lens when shooting at night against the light; for example, the automatic switching of the current macro function, although very smooth, will have some impact on some close-range shooting that does not require macro; and the 3x telephoto is longer, but this may not be enough.
What will happen to the iPhone in the future, and perhaps as rumors have come to light, Apple will add periscope telephoto lenses to the next generation of products. But these are not important, mobile phone photography has long passed the era of "pinning pixels", computing power and AI technology have changed the rules of imaging, when the computing power of the chip can make up for the lack of sensor size, mobile phone photography will eventually return to its essence - mobile computing photography.