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I fear this may be the case considering they removed it from the 12 pro and android manufacturers are following the trend.
which in turn lends credence to the 8gb RAM rumor.
Fundamentally when Apple uses the word “Pro” in regards to the iPhone, it probably means the best possible current version of an iPhone for professionals.
Best screen with ProMotion, best and most versatile camera system on an iPhone, most amount of ram on an iPhone, best A15 SOC with an extra GPU core, best format on the iPhone like ProRaw and ProRes.
Ultimately it’s still an iPhone first.
Philosophically I think this concept is completely different from Sony’s “Pro”, which is engendered by the Xperia Pro-i.
It almost feels like the primary thrust of that product, is to squeeze as much camera as possible into the form factor of a phone.
Personally I much prefer Apple’s approach of making the native app as simple, intuitively and as responsive as it can be with the aim of production excellent photos with minimal effort but you might find Sony’s more up your alley, although at that asking price, you probably could buy all the 3rd party iOS camera apps and have some change to spare.
Still variable aperture, a shutter button, a dedicated native video app, physical buttons to pop into camera modes and lots of manual control, probably a dream phone for camera enthusiasts.
I really enjoyed this video that kind of explains the difference it approach, hope it might be helpful for you too.
https://youtu.be/9ayaQOBgbbo
I have seen Tony’s video a couple of times. When he compares the iPhone to the Sony, he’s testing jpeg. If he used ProRAW, he would have had much better results. But Tony didn’t go over that. ProRAW dramatically improves the iPhone’s image quality. Also there are fantastic apps that take the iPhone camera even further. I’ve printed a 16X20 so far with my 12 pro max, the 13 pro max will produce slightly better results, so give that a try. I’ve used a lot of photography apps and can tell you which of those are best / better. I’m like Tony, I take my time and go the extra mile to get the very best out of my iPhone camera instead of just shooting jpeg. I like Tony’s reviews, he is really good.
In order to post my reply, the page said I had to upload an image… weird. So here is the moon and a cloud..
Totally agree with you. He does seem somewhat ignorant on the finer details of the iPhone photography.
For example
1. Astrophotography on iPhone can be achieved with a tripod and pushing night mode to the max, apparently that should induced a 30 seconds shutter. He was only able to achieve a maximum of 10 secs.
2. On the waterfall shot, he was only able to get 1/30 of a second exposure, obviously he is unaware of long exposure using live photos mode.
3. As you rightly pointed out, He did not use ProRaw and for that matter, ProRes in his testing.
Having said that, what I got out of his video, and what I am highlighting, is the philosophical difference between Apple’s and Sony’s approach. Not so much in terms of just pure hardware but rather each company vision of how best to utilise said hardware.
For that we need to really focus in on their native camera/video app, and this is my take away.
With the iPhone 13 Pro anyone can take reasonable good photos and videos without really even trying.
With the Xperia Pro-i, you really need to know how to handle a camera and all the different manual settings, carry a tripod, a gimbal or a mounting rack around and really know how to work it, to get good photos and videos.
This is not to say that the iPhone 13 Pro is technically inferior to the Xperia Pro-i, I do believe that it is indeed possible to achieve really amazing shots on the iPhone especially when you put in the effort.
This is readily proven by the photos you have provided and also the many amazing shots that can be found on this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...photos-up-thread-worldwide-2021-2022.2312792/.
Using a tripod/gimbal/mounting rack, shooting with 3rd party apps and engaging in manual photography, using the best possible format, adding attachment lens, bringing your own light source, using a fabric diffuser, there are so many ways and possibilities to improve shooting on the iPhone and if you put in the effort you will be rewarded with some stunning shots.
Even in this area of pushing the boundaries of smartphone photography the iPhone is way ahead with more 3rd party apps and more choices of accessories compared to the Xperia.
Still for the casual photographer that I am, the iPhone 13 Pro works effectively to product beautiful photos and videos quite effortlessly something I doubt would be true if Apple had adopted Sony’s philosophy.
P.S. This is not a dig at Tony, I really don’t expect him to know the ins and outs of iPhone photography or do I have that expectation of anyone, especially when I know absolutely nothing about photography. Again his video was extremely helpful for me.
Well said.
Maybe I should do a YouTube review of the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max showing what ProRAW can do and what you can achieve from the iPhone 13 Pro series when you take your time and focus on the type of photo you want to capture. Every single camera review that you see on YouTube or online is only focused on JPEG files, default camera options, and if night mode is used it’s left at default instead of being maxed out. I am not sure if Tony was asked by Sony to give the Sony phone a little more praise during his review, if that’s the case then that’s unfair. I haven’t ever done a video review of the iPhone or anything before, so I would have to write it down and provide examples and make sure I do it correctly lol so I won’t look stupid.
Since I do shoot in ProRAW and edit my photos in Lightroom mobile, I do something a little different instead of just editing the photo on the phone itself. I’ll take random ProRAW shots from each camera and upload them to my desktop Lightroom application and edit the photos using my large monitor, it’s a Apple iMac 5K monitor. I will process the image until it looks great on a bigger screen and copy those settings manually and apply them to the photo on my phone in Lightroom mobile and create a preset. That way each photo will have the right settings for the right camera which will give me the confidence knowing that the image is going to look clean on a larger screen. You ProRAW shooters out there should try it…
That would be awesome!
P.S. I could be wrong seeing as this is the first video of Tony’s I ever watch but judging from his general lack of awareness regarding the iOS side of things, I think it was purely ignorance rather than something nefarious.
Maybe he is more of an android user?
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Everything with camera is "OK", the problems are just in our heads 
www.macrumors.com
Camera Comparison: Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra vs. Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max
Samsung in February introduced its latest high-end flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra. We picked up one of the new Samsung devices, and...
www.macrumors.com
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Sorry but I disagree with your opinion. Look at night shot and you might understand what I mean, iPhone have a much less detail on shadow. 🤔Everything with camera is OK, the problems are just in our heads
Camera Comparison: Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra vs. Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max
Samsung in February introduced its latest high-end flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra. We picked up one of the new Samsung devices, and...
Additionally you can watch other video for comparison
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That's a well-composed, pleasing-to-look-at image. Thanks for sharing!!!
You mean sarcastic, right?My post was totally ironic
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I bought two iphone 13 pro max's and both took very different photos. I believe that I posted a question about it here with examples (not sure though). After reading this whole thread I'm of the opinion it's both hardware ( f/1.5) and software related. I just stumbled upon this video and thought it would be a good share on this topic. It's very enlightening. ytube
Yeah, my 13 pro can take good pics sometimes, but awful pics other times. I don't know what is going on. I do have a Ricoh GR3 I can use so I can manage, but it is still disappointing.
Agreed. I bought these two phones primarily for the cameras. I returned both and will wait for the 14. I also have a fall back camera, although it's not what I wanted to use for my daughters graduation. Side note....both....manufactured in Jan of 2022 pink screened crashed while switching camera modes.
I have had a lot better luck using the Lightroom app and using the HDR function (with the option to save unprocessed original on) and it has been working a lot better. There's definitely some processing that ProRaw is doing that is screwing up my photos. You can dial down the noise reduction from the ProRaw after the fact but I've found it doesn't seem to get rid of the oil painting effect for me. It's a shame that I have to use a different app though, but 🤷♂️
Also give it a couple of months and we will see additional improvements for the Samsung camera. For the iPhone, we likely have to await iOS16 for any additional improvements. Even that is a maybe.
Without reading 52 pages now, I’ve got the iPhone 13 Pro Max just before my vacation to Barcelona.
Thought I could take some great pictures but Apple had some surprise ready for me.
Not to mention, that the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 512GB of storage cost almost $2,000 in Europe
Come on! That you can’t turn off this post processing is a joke and they call it a “Pro” device.
When I noticed it, I tried to play around with the settings but there is no option to turn it off…
Yesterday I’ve turned on ProRAW yes, it improves the quality but EVEN when using so called RAW the picture is being processed!!!! A few seconds after you took the photo you can see, it’s applied to the photo.
There is no way to get out the actual picture recorded by the sensor.
I’m totally disappointed! 😞
As there is no fix apparently and Apple isn’t doing anything about it with updates, is there an alternative camera app that gives me pure RAW pictures on my “Pro” iPhone.
I really wonder how this phone could be ranked so high by the press in terms of image quality. I mean the phone might take nice ones but I’m not able to get them out…
What I’m getting are over sharpened, too bright and blurry pictures! 👏
Thought I could take some great pictures but Apple had some surprise ready for me.
Not to mention, that the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 512GB of storage cost almost $2,000 in Europe
Come on! That you can’t turn off this post processing is a joke and they call it a “Pro” device.
When I noticed it, I tried to play around with the settings but there is no option to turn it off…
Yesterday I’ve turned on ProRAW yes, it improves the quality but EVEN when using so called RAW the picture is being processed!!!! A few seconds after you took the photo you can see, it’s applied to the photo.
There is no way to get out the actual picture recorded by the sensor.
I’m totally disappointed! 😞
As there is no fix apparently and Apple isn’t doing anything about it with updates, is there an alternative camera app that gives me pure RAW pictures on my “Pro” iPhone.
I really wonder how this phone could be ranked so high by the press in terms of image quality. I mean the phone might take nice ones but I’m not able to get them out…
What I’m getting are over sharpened, too bright and blurry pictures! 👏
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I’m totally disappointed! 😞
As there is no fix apparently and Apple isn’t doing anything about it with updates, is there an alternative camera app that gives me pure RAW pictures on my “Pro” iPhone.
The camera apps own RAW is applying some processing, but i think that is after taking a photo, and viewing the picture in Apple Photos. If you edit the photo, or open it in Lightroom for example, the photo gets "cleared" from Apples processing.
Regarding camera apps with more control and less processing, there are many alternatives; Halide, Moment, Proshot, Reeflex, Lightroom among others.