Skip to main content

Our best iPhone 12 photos show off just how amazing this camera is

Apple took a big step forward in camera quality with the iPhone 12 series, particularly when it comes to low-light performance. We spent several weeks with the 12 and 12 Pro, exploring the limits of the camera system and seeing how they respond to a variety of situations. From the main camera to the ultrawide and telephoto, as well as the selfie shooter.

Here are our favorite photos from the phones, and our takes on how they perform.

Recommended Videos

Andrew Martonik

Coming from a year of using the Google Pixel 4‘s astonishing Night Mode, the biggest surprise to me is how well the iPhone 12 handles low-light scenes. Night Mode engages seamlessly, taking multi-second exposures when necessary, but more often than not just slightly extending the capture time to get extra frames for a brilliant night scene. Apple’s processing can at times go overboard, bumping up the saturation and contrast to make scenes unnatural — but in any case, night photos are sharp and full of life.

And Apple didn’t forget about daytime performance, which is also superb. The 12-megapixel camera takes crisp, colorful, and balanced photos. What’s equally as impressive is the shot-to-shot consistency — you know that every time you press the shutter, you’re going to get a good shot. And if you plan a bit, use tap-to-focus, and frame properly, you can get something stunning. Portrait Mode isn’t necessary to get a great portrait, and you don’t need to mess with the extra lighting effects. Plus, you have the added variety from the ultrawide and zoom (on the 12 Pro) cameras if you want to mix things up.

I do have to say, things go to an entirely new level on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which has a different main camera that’s nearly 50% larger than the 12 Pro. But to get my full analysis of that model, you’ll have to read my iPhone 12 Pro Max review.

Andy Boxall

Before you ask, the answer is yes, each one of my photos has been edited using the iPhone’s own editing suite — and I make no excuses for doing so. If this was a review, then I wouldn’t have touched the images, but this is about why I enjoy taking photos with the iPhone 12 Pro and showing some of the images I’ve taken so far that I like the most. What did I do? A few select tweaks to highlights, shadows, saturation, and sometimes black levels. The selfie is the only one with a filter from the iPhone’s library applied.

Part of the iPhone’s appeal is the camera’s natural color palette, its versatility, and all-around reliability to take a great photo. The excellent software then gives me the chance to tweak the photo a little to get exactly the look I was after. It takes just moments to do, doesn’t require an intimate knowledge of the technical side of photography, and is easily reversed if you mess it up.

To be clear, there was nothing wrong with the photos before editing, and my changes (outside of the selfie) were not extensive. But I want my personal photos to look the way I imagined, and if they didn’t quite meet my expectations immediately, the iPhone’s power and flexibility make it easy to change that. Whether it’s portrait mode on the selfie camera or the rear camera, wide-angle, or 2x zoom, the iPhone 12 Pro (like its predecessor) will almost certainly be the camera I reach for when I want to be sure of the final outcome, whether I have to help it along or not.

Christian de Looper

As someone who has been mostly using the iPhone 11 Pro as a daily driver, I was surprised how similar the overall experience using the standard iPhone 12 is on the day-to-day. That’s a good thing — sure, the Pro models have an extra lens and the Pro Max has slightly better specs this time around, but don’t assume you’re getting an inferior camera in the standard model.

I don’t often take many low-light photos unless I’m rigorously testing a camera, but I do take some mid-light shots every now and then, so the wider aperture is still useful. The result of that is that low-light and mid-light photos are more detailed, and it shows. Particularly if you zoom in and inspect the details.

In well-lit environments, the upgrades are less apparent — but it’s still clear that you’re getting one of the best smartphone cameras in the iPhone 12. Tech like Deep Fusion on the ultrawide camera is also important. I don’t use the ultrawide lens all that much, but when I do, it’s clear that shots were more detailed and close in quality to the main camera. Also, despite the fact that the iPhone 12 doesn’t have a lidar sensor like the 12 Pro, it focuses quickly and accurately the vast majority of the time.

Andrew Martonik
Andrew Martonik is the Editor in Chief at Digital Trends, leading a diverse team of authoritative tech journalists.
It’s the end of the road for these two iPhone models
Apple iPhone 6S Plus

Seeing your favorite handheld gaming device in a retro store has a unique way of making you feel old, but Apple might have topped it. According to the company, the iPhone XS Max and iPhone 6s Plus are now "vintage." They join the ranks of the iPhone 4 and even the iPad Pro 12.9-inch model.

It's not wholly unexpected. Apple declares a device vintage after five years, and that means it becomes more difficult to have that device repaired or to find replacement parts for it. Obsolete is applied to products that are more than seven years old, but sometimes certain variants get that label early.

Read more
Google Gemini arrives on iPhone as a native app
the Google extensions feature on iPhone

Google announced Thursday that it has released a new native Gemini app for iOS that will give iPhone users free, direct access to the chatbot without the need for a mobile web browser.

The Gemini mobile app has been available for Android since February, when the platform transitioned from the older Bard branding. However, iOS users could only access the AI on their phones through either the mobile Google app or via a web browser. This new app provides a more streamlined means of chatting with the bot as well as a host of new (to iOS) features.

Read more
I tried a new Android phone that puts some of the best smartphone cameras to shame
The rear camera setup on the Oppo Find X8 Pro.

It’s been a few years since I was surprised by a smartphone camera’s zoom performance. With Samsung offering 100x zoom on its Galaxy S Ultra lineup, little has shocked me with smartphone cameras — until now.

The Oppo Find X8 series is the successor to the Find X7 series from last year, and alongside several other improvements, there’s also been a significant upgrade in one area: the 30x zoom. Oppo and OnePlus have great cameras at shorter zoom distances, and at a recent briefing, I discovered that we can now add the 30x zoom to the list.

Read more