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So... 11 Pro looks better to me, but again, the photos are not exactly the same. Kind of annoying when trying to make a comparison.

But meh, I'm coming from an XS Max, so I'm sure the 12 Pro Max will be a nice upgrade for me. :)
 
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the 12 pro is probably more accurate, like when you calibrate a display it tends to look more dull
It is more accurate. I’ve had the 11 Pro and now have the 12 Pro, and the 11p was always a bit warm.

If you’re choosing between one or the other and upgrading from something like the XS or earlier, IMHO the 12 Pro is the better option assuming you’re ok with the form factor. For $100 more, the 12p...
  • Has double the base storage size
  • Has a slightly larger screen in almost the same body size
  • Has lesser battery life, but is still solid and better than every prior model besides the 11p
  • Has camera improvements, albeit subtle in most scenarios
  • Does *not* have Intel modems... 😛
  • Has 5G - a non-factor now, but if you hold onto the phone for 1-3 years, it could be more of a factor down the road
But if you have the 11p already, keep it.

I also don’t think that’s a bad thing. Apple knows its cycles and knows most people upgrade every two years, so they don’t expect 11p users to upgrade to this line.
 
I like a few of the 11PM shots over the 12PM too - and even when the 12 is better, its very slight. In the case o the gravel along the road, that could just be software sharpening.
 
Almost entirely same in the most of test. Most folks doesn’t peep into each pixels, so I think 11 pro owner no need to upgrades, 12 pro upgrade only make sense from older gen owner like X/XS pro max .
 
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This is all silly. It's the exact same camera. Same sensor size. Same resolution etc. Tiny bit of f number to 1.6 won't change daytime photography. Algorithm changes could have been made for iPhone 11 too.

I am hoping the Max will bring something, anything. But at this point I have my doubts.
 
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I'm still blown away from the 4K videos I took on my 6S Plus five years ago... I was riding a bike and riding past landmarks and such, and couldn't believe how stable and clear the video was. I haven't watched it since I first recorded it, so I can't wait to see what the improvements are on the 12 Pro. I have a 4K HDR set, but its not Dolby Vision capable.

This is probably the best lineup of phones Apple has ever released, and you're really not compromising very much with any model... With the last few generations, you also have fewer reasons to upgrade every year, which is a good thing. You get longer value for your dollar. I guess when you look at it like that, the price increases aren't too bad. I ordered the 12 Pro, but my XR is still a very capable device. Apple also has high resale value, so between the $250 rebate I'll be getting through Xfinity and the $300-$400 from my old device, its essentially halfway paid off.
 
As others are saying, in some of the test shots in this article the color actually looks a bit better in the iPhone 11 images... but I'm unable to read anything into that because the images aren't framed the same, so it's impossible to tell whether there's a genuine difference or it's just a factor of how the AI reacted to the particular framing of the scene.

It might be indicative of better color performance on the 11, or it could be that slightly different framing threw the AI off so the 11 would have looked exactly the same if it had been framed the same.

Does the kid's skin color look "warmer" because the 11 did a better job, does it look that way because the leaf in front of his face caused the AI to think it wasn't taking a picture of a human so adjusted the skin tones differently, or did the bright red leaf cause it to make a different color balance decision that changed the skin tones as a side effect? There's just no way to say from those two photos.

The thing is, when you get all the fancy image processing into the mix, slight differences in the image being shot could result in significantly different decisions from the AI, and that makes it very difficult to tell the difference between the camera, the phone-specific processing, and just general processing that would differ from photo to photo even on the same camera.

You can see a simplified version of this in the auto-exposure features of just about any modern camera--if you're doing spot metering the result can differ wildly depending on which item in the scene the camera locks onto. I can get a completely different picture just by moving the camera target two inches, or tapping a different spot on the screen.

I don't think this applies to an 11 vs. 12 comparison, but it would also certainly be possible if you're comparing photos taken with different bit depths then recompressing them to an 8-bit-per-pixel JPEG for web display, and/or viewing them unadjusted on a non-HDR monitor, that you could get a significantly different impression of an image due to post processing.

More generally: A factor of comparing cameras that take really good images is that they just aren't going to look that different until you get to the edge cases. Even leaving aside resolution entirely, if I compare an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 12, the difference is dramatic, because the old phone took objectively crappy photos. But if I compare an iPhone 12 to a thousand-dollar ILC with a thousand-dollar lens under "easy" conditions--or for that matter a 5-year-old pro camera with a modern pro camera--there's honestly not a huge difference because both pictures look really good.

It's like a lot of perceived quality things--audio, video, etc.--at some point you hit the point of diminishing returns, so if there's any difference at all it's subtle. The only place you have any real room for improvement is on the margins--low light, extreme dynamic range, etc.
 
Looks like a solid camera and low light performance appears excellent. The lack of identical test shots don't let us do a complete apples to apples comparison, as to my understanding the underlying way these photos are processed completely and absolutely depend on the scene being shot and the shapes/colors in the image. I'm not a camera expert though. I am blown away by the photos my iPhone 11 Pro takes, and I can't say I see a massive difference between the images here and those taken by the 12 Pro. Subsequently, I am also blown away by the images of the 12 Pro.
 
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I don't know why you would want to put your kids photos "out there" for the World to see. Am I the only one thinking this?
Yeah, I don’t get this either. I don’t have kids, but I do have nieces, I have plenty of pics of them and we have an old-school mailing list for where family members occasionally post pics, but we would never consider putting them up on Facebook or similar. Putting pics on the Internet is a bell you can’t un-ring.
 
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