iPhone 12 Pro Dissapointed in iPhone 12 Pro (coming from 6S)

[QCassidy352]

I said "feel" any faster. Most won't notice that it has trimmed a few milliseconds off launch times unless you are comparing them side by side.

I still disagree. I can “feel” the difference quite easily between an A10 device and an A12 device. There’s a built-in expectation of a slight delay with the iphone 7 that just disappears with the Xs.

Also, I’ll note that I also have a second iPhone 7 (for work) running iOS 12, and it works wonderfully, with no slight delay. But with both devices running iOS 14, they definitely ”feel” different in average usage.

 

[jonppa]

Sounds like buyer’s remorse to me. Either that, or you are so set in your ways with your old phone, you are creating reasons to return so you can go back to what is comfortable to you.

Might be. But I was actually really puzzled when I looked at the photos taken this evening on a laptop. That might triggered this.. whatever it is.

 

[bodonnell202]

I need to underline; I was testing the most interesting part - night mode. Maybe I was sold by it too early. Of course I understand technically that it is not easy to do but I was sure it would be better.

So tomorrow; daylight and a more testing. If you have a good lightning conditions even a potato cameras make decent images. The difference comes in low light or high dynamic scenes. That's why I put 12 to low-light test straight away..

Night mode was one of the biggest improvements I noticed upgrading to an 11. Are you sure it was turned on? You do need to hold quite still for a few seconds while it takes the shot.

 

[bodonnell202]

I still disagree. I can “feel” the difference quite easily between an A10 device and an A12 device. There’s a built-in expectation of a slight delay with the iphone 7 that just disappears with the Xs.

Also, I’ll note that I also have a second iPhone 7 (for work) running iOS 12, and it works wonderfully, with no slight delay. But with both devices running iOS 14, they definitely ”feel” different in average usage.

I also have an old 1st gen SE that I keep around as backup & home music controller and I honestly can't feel the difference with my 11, but sometimes older devices tend to get bogged down with too much crap & background activity (which wouldn't be the case with the current setup on my SE) so that could be the difference.

 

[jonppa]

Night mode was one of the biggest improvements I noticed upgrading to an 11. Are you sure it was turned on? You do need to hold quite still for a few seconds while it takes the shot.

Yeah it was on. Two second exposures. Maybe my hands were just shaking of some shivering.

 

[robes1]

- Telephoto lens flare. I hope my camera is flawed but I don't think so. In low light it is totally common to get lens flare from bright lights. And those flares aren't beautiful, more like getting reflections from dirty window glass.

I'm worried about this as well. I got quite a bit of this lens flare on a iPhone 11, but not the XR or any other earlier iPhones. I think there's something wonky with the design of the camera module on these. Was hoping it would be fixed for the 12 series, I guess not.

 

[UBS28]

The swipe to open with Face Id is so you can see and read the notifications on your lock screen. Lock screen notifications would be completely useless if every time you looked at your phone it opened to the homepage.

Apple should give us the option to disable it. It makes absolutely no sense that I have swipe up when I unlock my phone with Face ID.

Lock screen notification, I don’t care about it and I happily give that up.

 

[jonppa]

I'm worried about this as well. I got quite a bit of this lens flare on a iPhone 11, but not the XR or any other earlier iPhones. I think there's something wonky with the design of the camera module on these. Was hoping it would be fixed for the 12 series, I guess not.

It is really easy to reproduce. Turn of lights from your room and point the camera to anything bright. I was pointing to my macbook glowing apple and the apple is visible (upside down) on all cameras.

 

[imp3rator]

Why you didn’t using google before buy ?

You knew how faceID works, or you can compare photos between 6s and 11 for example...

Can an iPhone Really Match Full Frame in Low Light?

The announcement of Night Mode promises “low-light shots never before possible on iPhone.” Between the new mode and the addition of a truly wide lens, the iPhone is more competitive than ever. But do the shots actually hold up in the field? I tested against my Nikon Z 7, with surprising results...

fstoppers.com

iPhone 11 Pro camera test concludes 'close to DSLR' results - 9to5Mac

We yesterday reported on an iPhone 11 Pro camera test which pitted Apple's flagship iPhone against a $7,500 Canon 1DX Mark II DSLR. Today another ...

9to5mac.com

iPhone Camera Evolution: how iPhone cameras changed from iPhone 6 to iPhone 11 Pro Max

How has image quality changed from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 11 Pro Max? We look at 6 generations of iPhone to see how the world's most popular camera has evolved...

www.phonearena.com

 

[Lobwedgephil]

You're complaining about nightmode pictures using zoom?

 

[bodonnell202]

Yeah it was on. Two second exposures. Maybe my hands were just shaking of some shivering.

The camera can usually handle a little bit of shakiness. Below is an example of a photo I took in a fairly dark parkade when I was selling some wheels. Photo was great with a 3 second exposure. Without night mode it was very dark and grainy and I would’ve had to haul them outside for better lighting.

 

[supergt]

The swipe to open with Face Id is so you can see and read the notifications on your lock screen. Lock screen notifications would be completely useless if every time you looked at your phone it opened to the homepage.

There’s actually a simple solution to this found on jail broken Face ID phones. No notifications, no need to swipe up. Just raise the phone, look and you’re home. If you have notifications, you need to swipe up as usual.

This is so simple and I can tell you it makes a huge difference in day to day operation.

 

[jonppa]

Why you didn’t using google before buy ?
You knew how faceID works, or you can compare photos between 6s and 11 for example...

On release day there was a bit lack of real tests for iPhone 12, don't you think. A bit difficult to google

I seriousl didn't know how faceID works, my rant was about that I was suprised that it requires touch. I was so sure about it that it didn't cross my point to make sure.

But great articles you linked. Brings my faith back. I need to try night mode on a tripod too to exclude user..

You're complaining about nightmode pictures using zoom?

Well.. the night mode is supported on zoom so..

I'm really coming here from Apple-style "it just works" perspective.
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There’s actually a simple solution to this found on jail broken Face ID phones. No notifications, no need to swipe up. Just raise the phone, look and you’re home. If you have notifications, you need to swipe up as usual.

This is so simple and I can tell you it makes a huge difference in day to day operation.

Glad that someone else is thinking the same and I'm not ranting here all alone about this

 

[jonppa]

Guys, thanks for participating. This is much more than I expected (which was zero response). Lot of nice insights to things. I need to get some sleep now, so off for a moment. I can report back tomorrow when I have more experience on daylight usage.

 

[imp3rator]

Jonpa : If you come from 6s - tests between 6s and 11 are enough. There is slight difference between generations... 🙂

 

[Samut]

- Camera performance in low light. The images are colorful and overall nice when looking at 50% zoom level but at 100% the image looks horrible smushy. I sure hope the cameras perform better tomorrow in daylight. The night mode is just a gimmick, the outcome images are not usable for prints or anything serious. Maybe the quality increases if one uses a tripod but then it is really the same to bring a decent DSLR and get sharp images.
- I took some photographs of kids in normal night indoor lightning. Camera selected exposure 1/17 and aperture f2. I cannot find used ISO anywhere but I'm sure under 800. On my DSLR I can use ISO 6400 and the pictures look great. So if someone is saying smart phones are replacing DSLR I will laugh all the way out..

It is freaking 1200 euros phone and currently I think the photos are from some ancient iPhone! Also I cannot see any significant performance boost anywhere. It is unbelievable close to my iPhone 6S. Five generations and this little difference?

I'm seriously considering returning this and maybe getting SE - or even returning back to 6S.

I am genuinely surprised by some of the rather hostile responses to your post and I fully understand how you are disappointed by the performance of the camera. After all Apple set expectations quite high in their presentation.

Compared to other flagship phones iPhone 12 pro is still using very small 1/2.55 and 1/3.4 sensors and Apple tries to compensate the small size with computational photography. While it works great for example for HDR in daylight it has some serious shortcomings at night.

As it relies on multiple exposures basically it means that you either need to have a very steady hands or tripod and still subjects. Any movement especially in night mode will make the images blurry.

Since you have dslr you might be aware of Lightroom mobile. Its free to use and you can shoot raw with it and adjust the shutter speed to your liking which might help to catch your kids in motion. Naturally you have to increase iso speed at the same time but at least you have full control of the settings.

I basically always shoot with Lightroom unless I need HDR which the standard camera app does quite well. Hopefully coming ProRaw will be added to Lightroom as well.

 

[Supermallet]

Am I understanding correctly that you were using the camera in night mode at 10x zoom? 10x digital zoom is not indicative of the general image quality of the phone. Take a low light shot with the 6s without zoom, and the 12 pro without zoom, one with night mode and one without, and compare those for a better understanding of the improvements to the camera. If I misunderstood than nevermind.

 

[edfoo]

OP, can you take low-light photos with both your 12 Pro and 6s side-by-side and post them here in full resolution? Like to see the comparison. My current 8 Plus does show lots of post-processing artefacts in low-light shots.

 

[IsaacM]

Honestly, I would believe this if you were coming from an X, XS or an 11. But from a 6S? Laughable.

 

[DeftwillP]

B- troll effort.

The difference is noticeable for 5 or 6 year difference regardless of phone brand.

 

[canyonblue737]

So I got my iPhone 12 Pro to replace my iPhone 6S. There was no particular problem with 6S, just thinking that after 5 generations of iPhones maybe it is time to upgrade and see the new world. Mostly I have been interested in the cameras & computational photography.

I've been now using the phone for under six hours and I feel dissapointed. Here are some of my rants:

- Unlocking with Face ID. I thought it works so that you look at the phone and it unlocks AND goes to home screen. But no! You need to wipe up to access home screen. WTF, seriously? Touch ID is much easier, just place your thumb and off you go. No need to hit in the border with finger and then swipe. I was sure I was doing something wrong since I didn't believe it works this way. Outside I need to take my glove out. If my finger is wet or dirty I still need to touch the glass.

- Camera performance in low light. The images are colorful and overall nice when looking at 50% zoom level but at 100% the image looks horrible smushy. I sure hope the cameras perform better tomorrow in daylight. The night mode is just a gimmick, the outcome images are not usable for prints or anything serious. Maybe the quality increases if one uses a tripod but then it is really the same to bring a decent DSLR and get sharp images.

- Telephoto lens flare. I hope my camera is flawed but I don't think so. In low light it is totally common to get lens flare from bright lights. And those flares aren't beautiful, more like getting reflections from dirty window glass.

- Home screen display usage; why there isn't an extra row of icons on such tall screen? The space is wasted with those dots and there is some space below top bar and first row of app icons. I need to grab my 6S and compare, I'm pretty sure the screen space is just totally wasted.

- I took some photographs of kids in normal night indoor lightning. Camera selected exposure 1/17 and aperture f2. I cannot find used ISO anywhere but I'm sure under 800. On my DSLR I can use ISO 6400 and the pictures look great. So if someone is saying smart phones are replacing DSLR I will laugh all the way out..

It is freaking 1200 euros phone and currently I think the photos are from some ancient iPhone! Also I cannot see any significant performance boost anywhere. It is unbelievable close to my iPhone 6S. Five generations and this little difference?

I'm seriously considering returning this and maybe getting SE - or even returning back to 6S.

Sorry for the rant, I needed to steam somewhere.

1. you'll get used to the swipe. you don't need to hit the power button just pickup the phone and swipe... it will feel you touching it, turn on and open nearly instantly. it's designed this way otherwise you might be picking it up or moving it and accidently skip past the lock screen which has notifications and easy access to flashlight and camera unintentionally. it makes sense when you use it but you have to give it more than a hour to get used to changing years of habit.

2. night mode isn't a miracle but it gives you very, very usable images that IMHO look great if you aren't trying to zoom in or crop... just look at the entire image as taken and stop trying to pixel peep or think it is for fine art prints. Go into a closed bathroom, pitch black, and shiny a flash light at the floor to give just a hint of light and take a picture in the mirror. you'll barely see yourself but the image will come out and be very clear. that's night mode... clearly it won't be like bright daylight but you'll get images even the human eye has trouble seeing.

3. the hype of dslr's being replaced by smartphones IS laughable. physics is physics, you can't take a tiny, tiny sensor and crank the ISO without wild noise so of course it is going to try and shoot with slower shutter. to take decent pictures of kids moving at night indoor you need a FULL FRAME DSLR to get decent results and even then you'll have to denoise the final product.

i'm sorry your disappointed but the 6S isn't in the same universe to the 12 pro. the whole world of computational photography absolutely crushes what the 6S can do, period. but apple's hype got you and they sure are good at it... this isn't a dslr and you've just discovered that.

 

[Nextup12]

The jump in image quality from my 6S to XS a couple of years ago was quite remarkable. Either you have a dud unit or it’s user error in how you’re taking the photos, plain and simple.

 

[NathanDrake]

I’m also upgrading from the 6S and the difference is night and day...

3x the RAM means I’m switching between apps without ever having to reload them which is a bigger difference than the “speed”, although everything else is considerably snappier

 

[DotCom2]

Sounds like buyer’s remorse to me. Either that, or you are so set in your ways with your old phone, you are creating reasons to return so you can go back to what is comfortable to you.

Somebody moved his Cheese!

 

[gtg465x]

The extra screen real estate of the new, taller iPhones is indeed wasted on the home screen, but almost every app will make use of it and show you more content.

As for the cameras... it's still a phone. What were you expecting? Post some direct comparison photos between your 6S and the 12. I guarantee photos from the 12 will look a lot better.