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iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

austinmann.com

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Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#31

Post by naet »

ahepp wrote: post #5
iLoveOncall wrote: post #2

Quite impressive when they shot at 48MP, but the pictures taken at 12MP just look like your bad, few generations old, non-pro iPhone photo. As a very amateur photograph that doesn't want to carry his DSLR all the time I considered getting it for the 48MP but after reading the review and seeing what would be most of the pictures I would take (the 12MP ones), it's a hard pass.

I'm upgrading my iPhone 13 mini because having switched from a Pixel 4a, the camera performance is just unacceptably bad. It's a testament to how much I like the rest of the iPhone that I didn't just go back to the pixel. I briefly considered carrying the Pixel around just to take pictures.

I loved my Pixel 4a. Price point seemed reasonable, battery and camera were both very decent, and I preferred using Android to iOS.

The one downfall was that when I broke my screen this year, the replacement was so costly that I ended up switching to a friend's unused older model iPhone for now. I may still repair it at the end of the year...

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#32

Post by moneywoes »

n8cpdx wrote: post #9
yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

Coming from a still enthusiastic tech person who loves iPhone, I don’t think it’s a you problem. This is clearly another S revision in all but name, for the second year in a row. I want to be excited but there’s nothing particularly compelling unless you’re coming from pre-2020 (or maybe pre-2019). I’m still loving my 12 mini and will probably use it for at least another year, maybe two. Compelling upgrades would be:…

Using a 11 pro max, is there any legit reason to upgrade?

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#33

Post by gst »

saurik wrote: post #4
iLoveOncall wrote: post #2

Quite impressive when they shot at 48MP, but the pictures taken at 12MP just look like your bad, few generations old, non-pro iPhone photo. As a very amateur photograph that doesn't want to carry his DSLR all the time I considered getting it for the 48MP but after reading the review and seeing what would be most of the pictures I would take (the 12MP ones), it's a hard pass.

Yeah... I love my iPhone XS Max, partly because it has 2x telephoto--not 2.5x, not 3x or 4x of all the ridiculous things: just a good 2x--and I essentially use that 2x telephoto lens every chance I can. They finally have come up with an iPhone that has brought back 2x telephoto... but as a digital simulation from 1x and thereby only at 12MP, and so it isn't fundamentally different than my existing phone :/. (I do app…

> but as a digital simulation from 1x and thereby only at 12MP, and so it isn't fundamentally different than my existing phone

My understanding is that it's even worse than that, as the 48MP sensor isn't a regular sensor but a Quad Bayer sensor. While there are some benefits over a 12MP sensor, based on what I've read it seems that the image quality is more comparable to a 12MP sensor than to a 48MP sensor. So cropping to 2x would match a 3MP sensor.

That's currently the main reason why I'm planing to keep my 12 Pro a little bit longer. A 2x lens seems more useful than 3x to me and if the assumption above is correct the 2x quality on the 12 Pro should be better than on the 14 Pro. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a lot of discussions regarding this topic, but there's a YouTube video that comes to a similar conclusion: https://youtu.be/u9sJb_E6h5E?t=588.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#34

Post by eyelidlessness »

yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

This is generally my attitude towards OS software updates, previously a topic I’d follow closely. I get where you’re coming from!

My interest in hardware revisions has only grown in recent years, particularly in mobile devices. I’m not gonna go rush off and buy a new iPhone, I’m quite pleased with my 13 Pro Max and upgrading now would feel horribly wasteful. But I’m continually awed by advancements in mobile camera technology, and whenever I do upgrade it feels as much like magic as when I got my first newer game console (NES -> SNES) as a kid. But to be clear, my interest here is almost completely in the camera, and I pretty much view my phone as a really nice camera with convenient computing and network affordances included for some almost inexplicable reason.

To a lesser extent, recent advances in chips has also had me pining to upgrade a perfectly good laptop which again would feel wasteful to do now, but I expect when the time comes it’ll feel similarly revelatory even if that’s more incremental just because I’ve been upgrading the same sorts of things for much longer.

It’s okay, probably even good, that you don’t feel the same way about the device upgrade treadmill. A slower upgrade cycle would be objectively good for a lot of more important things. I’m not going to try to convince you a new iPhone is something you should want even for “free”. Just offering personal perspective why I find the new one exciting even if I’ll skip it.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#35

Post by unethical_ban »

n8cpdx wrote: post #9
yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

Coming from a still enthusiastic tech person who loves iPhone, I don’t think it’s a you problem. This is clearly another S revision in all but name, for the second year in a row. I want to be excited but there’s nothing particularly compelling unless you’re coming from pre-2020 (or maybe pre-2019). I’m still loving my 12 mini and will probably use it for at least another year, maybe two. Compelling upgrades would be:…

Pro features in a mini device (specifically, 120hz oled AOD). LiDAR with real applications. Non-emergency satellite use/oceanic connectivity. 30+ hour battery life. Extreme ruggedness (I wouldn't mind "portless" if it meant everlasting 50M waterproofing).

I haven't thought about "carplay for bikes" but as e-bikes get more sophisticated, it may make sense.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#36

Post by jamiek88 »

r00fus wrote: post #17
yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

My family is excited for it simply because of the hand-me-down supply chain - someone gets a new phone, someone else a few hops down gets a gently used iPhone X and we donate/sell a still functional iPhone6s.

Same! I’m the top of the pyramid in our family. My dad will get my iPhone 12 Pro Max, sister will get his XR, teen nephew will get the 8.

All still work great.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#37

Post by PapuaNewGuinea »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #11
yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

As a ~normal person who uses their phone at least 4 hours per day, it's the single most important tech device in my life. I enjoy getting the best thing out there every upgrade cycle (2 years). The progress feels incremental, but going back and using an n-1 gen phone reminds me how much slower things were. All of those extra half-second waits between interactions add up, and I enjoy having a quality camera with me wh…

Are you sure those half-second lags were there when it was new, or it’s just software becoming more inefficjent as usual, as newer models set a new performance baseline?

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#38

Post by parkingrift »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #2

Quite impressive when they shot at 48MP, but the pictures taken at 12MP just look like your bad, few generations old, non-pro iPhone photo. As a very amateur photograph that doesn't want to carry his DSLR all the time I considered getting it for the 48MP but after reading the review and seeing what would be most of the pictures I would take (the 12MP ones), it's a hard pass.

That’s an odd takeaway from the article. You can trivially switch between 12MP and 48MP. Why not just… switch to 48MP when you want the extra resolution, and otherwise stick to 12MP. Perhaps switch to 48MP when you would otherwise use your DSLR…?

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#39

Post by eyelidlessness »

r00fus wrote: post #17
yodsanklai wrote: post #7

I wonder if it's because I'm getting old and jaded, but I really fail to get excited by this continuous flow of new devices (and "stuff" in general). I could get a new iPhone from my company, but I don't even see the point.

My family is excited for it simply because of the hand-me-down supply chain - someone gets a new phone, someone else a few hops down gets a gently used iPhone X and we donate/sell a still functional iPhone6s.

Meant to mention this in my comment. Oftentimes when I feel compelled to upgrade sooner than I need to, I know that someone in my family or community will benefit from getting the device I no longer need. Often much more, maybe for much longer, than I’ll benefit from a purely as-needed upgrade formula.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Scotland

#40

Post by PapuaNewGuinea »

orbital-decay wrote: post #19
gpt5 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure you are right here. The sensor size (and the lens speed) has been one of the key things Apple marketing has been leaning towards in the last few generations. Tech reviewers tend to repeat it back to their audience, which eventually lead to general consensus of Apple's camera system being superior.

Sensor size in smartphones is also "highly manipulable", because the smartphones are very flat and have serious angle of incidence issues as the lens is too close to the sensor. If consumers demand larger sensors, sure it can be done - but it will reduce the amount of light that reaches the edges of the sensor, eating the possible increase in image quality. Smartphone cameras are limited by thickness, not by sensor s…

But smartphone cameras use telecentric lens…
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