Have you ever wondered just how well the iPhone‘s camera has progressed over newer models? Or perhaps you‘re weighing up which iPhone offers the camera capabilities best matching your budget and photography needs. As an avid iPhoneographer myself, I‘ll guide you through exactly that in this in-depth look at iPhone camera performance across different models!
Overview
We‘ll explore the camera hardware and image quality offered on current iPhone 14 models versus prior iPhone 12 and 13 series phones. You‘ll see real life photo examples, imaging sensor measurements and price comparisons for various versions.
My aim is to arm you with enough details to determine the best iPhone camera meeting your personal wants at a price you can afford. Let‘s uncover which iPhone camera specs and features matter most for your typical shooting. I‘ll also provide general guidance to help you leverage your iPhone‘s capabilities for great looking, shareworthy photos!
Here‘s a quick summary of models we‘ll focus most on:
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iPhone 14 Pro Max – The current cream of the crop for iPhone photography with huge 48MP resolution, telephoto zoom and brilliant computational processing. Expect it to cost accordingly too!
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iPhone 14 Pro – Nearly matches the Pro Max‘s camera but in a smaller more pocketable frame for ~$100 less.
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iPhone 13 Pro – Still a photography powerhouse and much cheaper now! You‘ll give up some niceties vs 14 Pro models but core quality remains.
Let‘s dive deeper across these and other iPhones to reveal exactly which camera system fits your needs and budget…
Megapixels Explained
The megapixel count, often shortened to MP, indicates the maximum image resolution a camera sensor can capture. It‘s calculated by multiplying the number of horizontal pixels by vertical pixels.
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A 12 MP camera shoots images 4000 pixels wide and 3000 pixels in height.
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A 48 MP sensor quadruple the resolution at 8000 by 6000 pixels!
It‘s common to assume higher resolution always equals better. But keep in mind:
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Photos from higher megapixel cameras produce much bigger file sizes. A 48MP iPhone photo can easily exceed 75MB! Make sure you buy enough onboard storage.
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Social media sites like Instagram and Facebook downsize images anyway. Even a 12 MP photo gets reduced down for web viewing.
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Printing larger than poster sizes (over 18 inches wide) typically needs ~30MP minimum. Standard prints look nearly as sharp from 12MP cameras.
Now let‘s see how iPhone camera resolutions and sensor sizes progressed across models…