iPhone 12 iPhone12 non-Pro cameras as good as iPhone11 Pro cameras? For casual camera use

[MaDKinD]

I currently have the iPhone11-Pro (non-Max). I'm someone who wants a high quality picture as possible with only a point-and-click effort, and mostly uses the iPhone11-Pro to take pictures of family/friends to post/share on Google-Photos in Google's high-quality/non-original format. I even usually take selfies with the back-camera to help ensure I get the best pic possible. I rarely/never use the 2x zoom, which I believe is the telephoto lens, and pretty much always use the 1x/wide lens. I never do post-editing of my photos to try to improve them, and I'm quite happy with the quality of my iPhone11-Pro pictures.

With the iPhone-12... I'm very much wanting to get the 12-mini as I want that phone size. If I understand correctly, the iphone12-regular and iphone12-mini are the same, camera-wise.

What I'm trying to understand is, and I believe this is the correct understanding... For my use-case... The iphone-12-mini camera will be as good as the iPhone-11-Pro camera I currently use. Thoughts? I'd love it to be the case, so I get have the size iPhone I want, with the picture quality I want.

 

[Lwii2boo]

12 mini and 12 are both superior to 11 Pro for every photo (wide, ultra wide, selfie) except those using telephoto (X2 zoom in in good light conditions).
The hardware of the wide camera is improved on the 12 and A14 has a better ISP and Smart HDR 3 vs 2 will also improve the photo thanks to the SoC.

 

[Supermallet]

The 11 Pro takes fantastic photos, but the 12 line has a lower f stop to let in more light, and a new lens on the 1x camera to help reduce distortions. I’m going from an 11 Pro to a 12 as I also rarely use the telephoto lens and all of my photos are for casual use.

 

[tomtattoo]

@MaDKinD: Thank you so much for your thread! Your post is exactly the situation I´m in now. Word for word.
I now know what telephoto lens is and I also didn´t use it very often. I think I now can upgrade to the normal 12 without a bad feeling - and saving a lot of money. Thanks!