I'm a realist I don't really care how they do it, I don't care that the sensor is small or they're doing fake bokeh, as long as it makes good photos I'll be happy.
That being said, I have rarely used my iPhone 12 Pro Max to shoot for the past year I've owned it, I still carry my camera whenever convenient, because I have found the iPhone photos to be extremely poor in terms tonality, or more precisely, there's just way way too much dynamic range, which can only be described as ultra-extreme.
It used to be that phone cameras due to the small sensor, have very poor dynamic range, I remember seeing quantitative tests putting them at about 5 stops which is pitiful compared to real cameras at over 12 stops. However today with these always-enabled multi-frame compositing HDR, we have the opposite problem, there's just way too much dynamic range which makes everything look flat, you cannot tell what's supposed to be in shadow or highlight because everything is mid tone with some awkward specular highlights sprinkled on (that take advantage of the HDR HEIF format).
Here's an example, most cameras have some kind of setting in the menus that effectively adjusts dynamic range of the JPEG files it generates, and as you can see, even with maximum in-camera dynamic range, the shadows are extremely dark. I'd like this effect to have some even stronger settings but I'd have to say this looks relatively natural and in many situations even this is too strong, producing flat looking photos.
However, the iPhone just takes this to another dimension with how stupid extreme it pushes the dynamic range, there are basically no shadows except areas that are pitch black in the camera photos. It just looks flat and terrible, the outside looks fake because everything is like the same brightness. The inside looks weirdly bright as if there's artificial lighting inside, which there were none.
So more often than not, when I have to shoot with my iPhone, I always have to go adjust each photo, often to get rid of the excessive DR, which just defeats point, which is supposed to be convenience. Instead I rather just shoot with my camera because although I might have to transfer the image to my phone, at least I don't have to go adjust each one.
These last two are just to show what a real camera can do if you have the RAW file, and also illustrate what is meant by "dynamic range", if you're unclear. DR isn't something where more is better, not in the final image. It's always better to have more DR recorded, but when you convert that into a photo, you have to translate the relationship of light and shadow into something sensible.
Hope this problem is actually addressed in the new iPhone.
Other than that, maybe tone down the super aggressive sharpening, not a huge problem because it's hard to see unless zoomed in, but still, it's way too aggressive and over done.
That being said, I have rarely used my iPhone 12 Pro Max to shoot for the past year I've owned it, I still carry my camera whenever convenient, because I have found the iPhone photos to be extremely poor in terms tonality, or more precisely, there's just way way too much dynamic range, which can only be described as ultra-extreme.
It used to be that phone cameras due to the small sensor, have very poor dynamic range, I remember seeing quantitative tests putting them at about 5 stops which is pitiful compared to real cameras at over 12 stops. However today with these always-enabled multi-frame compositing HDR, we have the opposite problem, there's just way too much dynamic range which makes everything look flat, you cannot tell what's supposed to be in shadow or highlight because everything is mid tone with some awkward specular highlights sprinkled on (that take advantage of the HDR HEIF format).
Here's an example, most cameras have some kind of setting in the menus that effectively adjusts dynamic range of the JPEG files it generates, and as you can see, even with maximum in-camera dynamic range, the shadows are extremely dark. I'd like this effect to have some even stronger settings but I'd have to say this looks relatively natural and in many situations even this is too strong, producing flat looking photos.
However, the iPhone just takes this to another dimension with how stupid extreme it pushes the dynamic range, there are basically no shadows except areas that are pitch black in the camera photos. It just looks flat and terrible, the outside looks fake because everything is like the same brightness. The inside looks weirdly bright as if there's artificial lighting inside, which there were none.
So more often than not, when I have to shoot with my iPhone, I always have to go adjust each photo, often to get rid of the excessive DR, which just defeats point, which is supposed to be convenience. Instead I rather just shoot with my camera because although I might have to transfer the image to my phone, at least I don't have to go adjust each one.
These last two are just to show what a real camera can do if you have the RAW file, and also illustrate what is meant by "dynamic range", if you're unclear. DR isn't something where more is better, not in the final image. It's always better to have more DR recorded, but when you convert that into a photo, you have to translate the relationship of light and shadow into something sensible.
Hope this problem is actually addressed in the new iPhone.
Other than that, maybe tone down the super aggressive sharpening, not a huge problem because it's hard to see unless zoomed in, but still, it's way too aggressive and over done.
