First Look, Review and Photos: iPhone 12 Pro Max

Finally, my new camera arrived! In this iPhone 12 Pro Max review, I'll outline why I bought it and why the iPhone 12 Pro Max is an excellent choice for iPhone Photographers.

So far, I spend one night taking photos in Vienna, and I've uploaded the sample photos below. As always, I'll update this blog post regularly to share my experience with the iPhone 12 Pro Max over the next months.

Sample Photos taken with the iPhone 12 Pro Max

Here's the first set of sample photos that I took during a nightly walk here in Vienna. I took them using the stock photo camera app and edited two of them on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and one on my iPad Pro.

Hotel Sacher shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Cupreous Horseman shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Nature takes back shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Why I bought the iPhone 12 Pro Max

1. Bigger Screen of the iPhone 12 Pro Max

I already used the bigger screen versions of the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 7 and then tried the smaller screen versions of the iPhone X, XS, and 11 Pro. But for the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I decided to use the bigger screen version.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max screen is 6.7 inches (17 cm) vs. just 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) for the iPhone 12 Pro. Though the difference seems small, the bigger screen real estate makes editing photos on the iPhone a bit more convenient.

Especially if you want to use a stylus like the Fisher Space Pen with Stylus that I use - and yes, I know what Mr. Jobs said. But using a Stylus helps when retouching photos on iPhone 12, especially with my favorite iPhone retouching app TouchRetouch. To give you an impression of the bigger screen size, here's a side by side shot of the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

iPhone 12 Pro Max (left) vs. iPhone 11 Pro (right)

2. Longer Telephoto Lens of the iPhone 12 Pro Max

The iPhone 12 Pro Max comes with a slightly longer telephoto lens compared to the iPhone 12 Pro. While the iPhone 12 Pro still has the 2x telephoto lens with an aperture of ƒ/2.0 you know from the iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro Max ships with 2.5x telephoto lens with an aperture of ƒ/2.2.

This means, on one hand, you'll be able to zoom in a little bit more on your main subject. And, because of the larger ƒ number (and thus, smaller aperture), you should see increased sharpness when using the telephoto lens.

Please note, that iPhone night mode is only available for the wide and ultra-wide lens with the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, but not yet for the telephoto lens.

So, to take photos at night using night mode, either use a Moment telephoto lens or use ProCamera App Night Mode, that supports all three lenses on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

3. Sensor-Shift optical image stabilization

The sensor-shift optical image stabilization of the iPhone 12 Pro Max's wide lens will help you take even better photos in low light conditions without a tripod and to record smooth video without using a gimbal.

With the standard optical image stabilization, only the lens can move and compensate for slight camera shake. With sensor-shift optical image stabilization, that you'll only get on the iPhone 12 Pro Max wide lens, the sensor and the lens move together.

In theory, with the iPhone 12 Pro Max you should see less or any cropping at all when taking Live Photos that you convert to a long exposure. I still have to test it and will update this blog post accordingly.

4. Bigger battery of the iPhone 12 Pro Max

The iPhone 12 Pro battery has a capacity of 3,687mAh, while the capacity of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is 3,969mAh. Apple translates this to 80 hours of Audio Playback on the iPhone 12 Pro Max compared to 65 hours of the iPhone 12 Pro.

Though a bigger battery is a good thing, let's not forget that the iPhone 12 Pro Max Screen is also a bit larger and may consume more power. So, I still have to see if the larger battery has any effect in a real-world scenario

Other photography-related features of the iPhone 12

Apple ProRAW

Shooting RAW with iPhone has been possible for a while if you use a third-party camera app. During the keynote, Apple announced that the stock camera app would support a particular RAW format, called Apple ProRAW. This will be available with iOS 14.3, which is currently in beta. I have already updated the blog post about how to shoot raw with iPhone.

Magsafe

Probably one of the highlights of the iPhone 12 Keynote was the introduction of MagSafe; originally intended to align your iPhone perfectly with wireless chargers, accessory makers are starting to announce and ship additional MagSafe accessories like:

• A MagSafe Car mount from Belkin
• A MagSafe tripod mount from Moment (available for Preorder)

I'll get one of the MagSafe Tripod mounts and will keep you updated in the blog.

Conclusion

The iPhone 12 comes with a nice set of new features for photographers - especially the iPhone 12 Pro Max. With an optical 2.5x telephoto lens and sensor-shift optical image stabilization.