I came from a 14 Pro Max not expecting much of a difference at all. But I was really surprised when I took some test shots. The processing even on the 12 megapixel cameras is significantly improved. Faces have more detail, night mode has less noise and more detail, it’s all quite nice. And the Automatic always taking a portrait shot if you want is really nice especially in 24 megapixels.
These default are much nicer than the original 12 megapixels just a lot of detail and you don’t have to think a lot about it.
I will say the 48 megapixel shots look almost the same as the 14 pro max because of the lack of processing, but anything below that is significantly improved.
They definitely have upped the processing engine. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes and a lot more detail and the shots with a lot less noise in some cases.
The video also looks a lot nicer too, not amazingly slow, but if you attach a cheap SSD and shoot prores log you’re getting some really nice footage.