So we finally got to see the new iPhones and to be honest, not a lot has changed since the iPhone 12. However, last year the 12 and 12 Pro’s had the same cameras, minus the usual telephoto camera, but this year the Pro’s get some more juicy upgrades, so let’s dive into them and see if it’s worth the extra money.
Now before I get into the differences in the cameras, I will say this blog post is just going over what’s different in the camera systems, not the rest of the phone – we will go over those at a later date.
Wide Camera
Let’s start with the wide camera, the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini have a ƒ/1.6 aperture lens while the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max get a ƒ/1.5 aperture lens, this is not a massive difference and in a day to day scenario I doubt you would notice much difference.
Ultra Wide Camera
Moving onto the Ultra wide lens, this is where things get interesting, the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini have a ƒ/2.4 aperture lens while the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have a ƒ/1.8 aperture lens, this will allow much more light to enter and hit the sensor, meaning that you will have much less noise/grain in photos where there was not much light.
The Ultra wide lens on the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max has another trick up its sleeve – it doubles as a Macro lens. This will allow you to get incredibly close to the subject, as close as 2cm, and capture much more detailed shots.
Telephoto Camera
Finally something that the Pro model has always had is the telephoto lens, now in the past I’ve never been a massive fan of this lens as it was only 2x (2.5x if you had the max) optically zoomed which meant more times than not, you could just walk closer to the subject or just digitally zoom. But this year Apple have put a 3x optical zoom lens on the phone which means it now actually seems a worthwhile addition, this also means that you can digitally zoom up to 15x on the Pro’s but on the 13 and 13 mini it’s only up to 5x in photo mode, and still has nothing on Samsung’s space zoom of 100x.
One of the headline features is the Cinematic mode for recording videos, this creates a blurry background so the focus is on the person, this will then automatically switch when the person turns around. The demos look promising and you can adjust the amount of blur afterwards and where the focus is, however we will hold off judgment on this feature until we’ve had a play around.
Conclusion
So the question on everyone’s mind is, should you upgrade over your current device, and should you go for the iPhone 13 Pro over the iPhone 13?
I think if you are already on the iPhone 12 or 12 Pro then there is little difference between these camera systems and you’ll be better off spending the extra on accessories like these handy tripods; Mini Extendable Tripod, or the Boya Universal Smartphone Vlogging Kit to get better results from your current iPhone’s camera.
If you’re coming from anything before the iPhone 11/ 11 Pro then I would say the step up in camera systems plus all the other added features probably makes this a worthwhile upgrade. If you are tossing up whether to get the iPhone 13 or iPhone 13 Pro then in my opinion the 13 Pro adds enough to justify the extra £170 not to mention the rest of the extra features like Pro Motion, and an even quicker processor.
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Let us know your thoughts on the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
Mark Holmes
Mark is our Product Marketing Specialist with a background of 7 years in marketing. When not researching about the latest tech gadgets to make his life easier he is most likely watching Formula 1.