I have been using iPhone XS with telephoto lens before 12 mini. It was better for quick switching lens for catching objects which needed zoom. When you don’t have a telephoto on mini, you can take that good closer photos because you are using digital zoom. I’m not a professional, but I more likely would be using zoomed photos (even despite my past Instagram account teached me to not use it for quality photos) rather than ultrawide ones. I just don’t have a much usage for that lens.
I can tell you why telephoto is important for me and why I rarely use the ultra wide. Not sure if it would help you though.
So ultra wide - useful when you can't zoom out with your legs and you want to capture a wide scene. This for me rarely happens. Usually I take photos outside and there I almost can always zoom out with my legs. Plus with ultra wide there is always some lens distortion that I highly dislike. I can take it only with architecture shots and even then I don't always like it.
Telephoto is supposed to be for zooming in when you can't with legs. I rarely use it for this as this lens is rather slow. This means that not enough light enters the sensor when taking photos. As a result the photos are rather grainy - at least when it comes to long distance landscape. Where telephoto is helpful for me is for close up shots of objects (especially flowers) at not long distance. It also helps with portrait photos with less obvious background blur (sometimes the portrait mode is way too much).
In terms of usage I can say for me it is:
1. Wide lens (for like 80 % of the cases)
2. Telephoto lens (19 % of the cases)
3. Ultra wide (1 % of the cases)
Thanks guys. I think with the secondary explanation above I may understand a bit. Much appreciated.
Traditionally I’ve only used 1 camera iPhones or any phones prior to the 12 mini I know own. To me wide shots was never something I was concerned about nor even knew I wanted. Zooming in for Flowers etc is something I’d use - thus Telephoto would be ideal.
Oddly enough any close range subjects I’d take photos of - the single lens iPhones seemed to do just fine - even when zoomed in. (I have to search for a caterpillar pic I took with my old iPhone 8, 2 summers ago). Wider shots in the sky would always show up grainy - even now with the iPhone 12 mini, if it’s using UltraWide lens (I cannot tell), seems grainy unless it’s for inanimate objects like buildings/cars, etc … but birds in flight meh.
typically I try to take pictures of the sky or scenery within the city, usually that capture a season.
Christmas Tree lights:
Downtown Toronto Adelaide & Bay area
iPhone SE (’16)
Financial buildings in Fog:
Downtown Toronto, King & Bay area
iPhone 8 - correction iPhone SE (according to metadata - WOW).
New Moon in Sky:
iPhone 12 mini (5.23.2021)
Some 50/60’s old car:
neighbours restoration (no traditional seatbelts)
iPhone 12 mini (just by the driveway while walking by)
Building and sky:
iPhone 12 mini
Groundhog: bigger than it looks in pics
Centennial College, standing roughly 15ft away
iPhone 12 mini
Bank god in marble:
Scotiabank head office, Bay & King Toronto
iPhone 12 mini, taken across 4 lane street.
2 pics:
Lamp and tree with fence hiding rail tracks - taken at same time in twillight early spring
iPhone 12 mini (this was hard as my eyes were really blurry due to the wind)
Clouds hiding the sun:
tried to capture god-rays but missed
(I cannot recall if it was with iPhone 12 mini or with iPhone SE ‘16 as I just purchased my 12 mini the night before but cannot recall if I migrated to it before heading out that day.
Picture if East Downtown Toronto showing fog/clouds just above Lake Ontario
this was through huge double-paned 8ft office building glass.
These are typical pictures I’d take so I’m not certain if UltraWide or Telephoto would suit me better.