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I have a 12 Pro, I am definitely going to be upgrading, I've had my phone for 5 years now (since 2020) that's actually longer than I've owned any other cell pho

I have a 12 Pro, I am definitely going to be upgrading, I've had my phone for 5 years now (since 2020) that's actually longer than I've owned any other cell phone without upgrading. I think I could probably squeeze more life out of my phone, but the 17 has a nicer camera, me and my wife are noticing our relatives with newer iPhones have photographs that look slightly (I meant to write NOTICEABLY here) better. As we raise our first child, having a quality camera is definitely important to us. I was really tempted by the iPhone Air, but the Pro has better camera features. I am actually really excited to see what they will do for the iPads. If they release a thin iPac Mini similar to the iPhone Air, I would immediately buy it. I am not usually a fan of thin, but something in me has always wanted a thin iPad Mini, not sure why, but I'm waiting for it still. Great demo, the most impressive demo had to have been the Airpod Pros translation piece. Edit: Needed to annotate that I wrote 'slightly better' but its not just slightly, we both visually noticed a different in quality. One last note, the 12 Pro was my first iPhone ever. I was on Android since 2009, every Android I had lasted about 2 years. My last one probably would have lasted me 5 years but I was tired and wanted a change at my 2 year mark. I have not regretted my decision to date.

kjkjadksj 1y ago
The issue with the camera in newer iphones is that it uses an Ai engine to smooth things and add details that aren’t there. If you want reference tier photos for documenting family history, modern mirrorless is better. DSLR from 10-15 years ago is also still great in all but the most challenging light conditions, where you could simply use a flash.
- Jaxan 1y ago
  Especially on babies, the smoothing or noise reduction is weird. A newborn has a very specific skin with an enormous amount of details/speckles/marks. It’s very hard to capture for some reason. Couldn’t do it with my phone, only with a proper camera and shooting in raw.
  - KAMSPioneer 1y ago
    Hard agree. As a new parent, I bought a modern mirrorless camera before my kid was born, and the difference is noticeable. Especially, as you say, around skin details like milia (white spots on a newborn's skin) which often get wiped out on my Pixel (I'm sure by the AI processing). If you are considering an expensive phone upgrade based off of the camera alone, consider buying a dedicated camera first, I say. I know the best camera is the one you have on you, etc...
    - kjkjadksj 1y ago
      When you think about all the stuff you schlep around with a kid, whats a few more ounces in a camera at that point.
- markhalonen 1y ago
  big discussion was had around this a month ago https://candid9.com/phone-camera/ https://candid9.com/phone-camera/
mattkrick 1y ago
I’m in the exact same boat. Also toying with the idea of going back to android for the pixel 10 pro. I do miss android notifications and keyboard. Are there any features keeping you from going back?
- giancarlostoro 1y ago
  The whole family is on iPhone, we use Mac now the way everything integrates together I just dont see myself going back. I spent way more on Android and Windows than I have on Apple products. My Macbook Pro with an M4 Pro chip costs half of what my Surface Book 2 laptop costs, and I can do more on it especially with AI locally. Something about iOS and macOS just feels right. Any time I boot up my old Android phones they feel like a convoluted mess.
kjsingh 1y ago
I am waiting for someone to clear the iphone air with the jeans back pocket test :)
- giancarlostoro 1y ago
  Fair! I am also curious, I do hope they keep making iPhone Air models, I could see myself buying it in the future.
dingaling 1y ago
> As we raise our first child, having a quality camera is definitely important to us. A phone camera isn't really a camera, it's a digitally-airbrushed impression of reality. There just isn't enough light hitting the tiny sensor through the tiny lens. I have 20 year old 5MP DLSR portrait photos that are still better than what a 120MP phone can produce, because it's the lens that counts.
- runjake 1y ago
  My ancient Canon Rebel camera, I think a T3i, takes stunningly detailed photos against even my iPhone 15 Pro. But, I never have my Canon and it's too bulky to carry around everyday. I do carry my iPhone everywhere I go. And so, the capabilities of my iPhone camera are more important. I imagine this is the same for the overwhelming majority of people.
  - prmoustache 1y ago
    Having said that you also have the midway option with large sensor compact cameras. A ricoh GR III/IV with an APS-C sensor is heavier than a smartphone but not overly so and more compact as it actually fit a pocket. A Canon G9X is even lighter with a 1" sensor.
    - mschaef 1y ago
      Some of it's size, some of it the fact that the camera is a second device, and some of it's workflow. I tried a Sony RX100 (1" sensor) when they first came out, optimistic about the possibility of using it for 'general purpose' photography. After all, it's small enough. The problem was, it's a second device to carry around and keep charged. Then once you capture the image, it's largely stuck on the device until you find a way to offload your images. I briefly experimented with cables that would let me do things like transfer images from the RX100 to my (Android at the time) mobile phone, for archiving and sending to family and friends. That turned the whole thing into the sort of science fair project that I didn't have time for as the parent of a very young child. (Although in fairness, I can't think of a single time in my life when I'd have had the patience, kids or not.) This is why, for all the arguments you can make against them as cameras, I've come to be very thankful for the amount of effort that Apple and others have made to get appealing images out of devices I always carry around anyway. I can take a set of pictures, edit them, have them automatically archived to cloud storage, and send them to whoever I want.. all with a single device I was carrying around anyway. This leaves open the fact that the 'real' camera workflow is still an option when there's the need for higher image quality and the time (or money to hire a photographer) to take advantage of what a DSLR or the like can do. (When I compare what I can do with my iPhone to what my parents had available to them (a 110 format camera and 35mm Nikons), I like the tradeoffs a lot better. the image quality available now is definitely better than the 110. Some of those 35mm exposures are probably better quality than what I can get out of an iPhone, but they're all stuck in albums and slides, and nobody ever looks at them. )
_aavaa_ 1y ago
If you want another big bump in image quality I recommend you use Adobe’s Project Indigo app instead of the default camera app. Difference is especially startling for HDR and portraits, particularly backlight ones where the stock app does some hideous segmentation-based “enhancements”.
- giancarlostoro 1y ago
  Wait WHAT! Thank you so much!
zdc1 1y ago
Yeah. Comparing to my iPhone 14 Pro, improvements are mostly just the camera and the screen. So it's really just about what you want a newer/better camera in your pocket. I'm going to wait one more year, but I do love that we're at the stage where a phone and a laptop can go for 4-5 years without feeling less than "modern". Just be mindful that those extra megapixels will need some extra storage.
- giancarlostoro 1y ago
  Thats fair, I dont see people two generations behind benefiting from it, but for me its a bit of a bump up.

kjkjadksj 1y ago

The issue with the camera in newer iphones is that it uses an Ai engine to smooth things and add details that aren’t there. If you want reference tier photos for documenting family history, modern mirrorless is better. DSLR from 10-15 years ago is also still great in all but the most challenging light conditions, where you could simply use a flash.

Jaxan 1y ago
Especially on babies, the smoothing or noise reduction is weird. A newborn has a very specific skin with an enormous amount of details/speckles/marks. It’s very hard to capture for some reason. Couldn’t do it with my phone, only with a proper camera and shooting in raw.
- KAMSPioneer 1y ago
  Hard agree. As a new parent, I bought a modern mirrorless camera before my kid was born, and the difference is noticeable. Especially, as you say, around skin details like milia (white spots on a newborn's skin) which often get wiped out on my Pixel (I'm sure by the AI processing). If you are considering an expensive phone upgrade based off of the camera alone, consider buying a dedicated camera first, I say. I know the best camera is the one you have on you, etc...
  - kjkjadksj 1y ago
    When you think about all the stuff you schlep around with a kid, whats a few more ounces in a camera at that point.
markhalonen 1y ago
big discussion was had around this a month ago https://candid9.com/phone-camera/ https://candid9.com/phone-camera/

mattkrick 1y ago

I’m in the exact same boat. Also toying with the idea of going back to android for the pixel 10 pro. I do miss android notifications and keyboard. Are there any features keeping you from going back?

giancarlostoro 1y ago
The whole family is on iPhone, we use Mac now the way everything integrates together I just dont see myself going back. I spent way more on Android and Windows than I have on Apple products. My Macbook Pro with an M4 Pro chip costs half of what my Surface Book 2 laptop costs, and I can do more on it especially with AI locally. Something about iOS and macOS just feels right. Any time I boot up my old Android phones they feel like a convoluted mess.

kjsingh 1y ago

I am waiting for someone to clear the iphone air with the jeans back pocket test :)

giancarlostoro 1y ago
Fair! I am also curious, I do hope they keep making iPhone Air models, I could see myself buying it in the future.

dingaling 1y ago

> As we raise our first child, having a quality camera is definitely important to us. A phone camera isn't really a camera, it's a digitally-airbrushed impression of reality. There just isn't enough light hitting the tiny sensor through the tiny lens. I have 20 year old 5MP DLSR portrait photos that are still better than what a 120MP phone can produce, because it's the lens that counts.

runjake 1y ago
My ancient Canon Rebel camera, I think a T3i, takes stunningly detailed photos against even my iPhone 15 Pro. But, I never have my Canon and it's too bulky to carry around everyday. I do carry my iPhone everywhere I go. And so, the capabilities of my iPhone camera are more important. I imagine this is the same for the overwhelming majority of people.
- prmoustache 1y ago
  Having said that you also have the midway option with large sensor compact cameras. A ricoh GR III/IV with an APS-C sensor is heavier than a smartphone but not overly so and more compact as it actually fit a pocket. A Canon G9X is even lighter with a 1" sensor.
  - mschaef 1y ago
    Some of it's size, some of it the fact that the camera is a second device, and some of it's workflow. I tried a Sony RX100 (1" sensor) when they first came out, optimistic about the possibility of using it for 'general purpose' photography. After all, it's small enough. The problem was, it's a second device to carry around and keep charged. Then once you capture the image, it's largely stuck on the device until you find a way to offload your images. I briefly experimented with cables that would let me do things like transfer images from the RX100 to my (Android at the time) mobile phone, for archiving and sending to family and friends. That turned the whole thing into the sort of science fair project that I didn't have time for as the parent of a very young child. (Although in fairness, I can't think of a single time in my life when I'd have had the patience, kids or not.) This is why, for all the arguments you can make against them as cameras, I've come to be very thankful for the amount of effort that Apple and others have made to get appealing images out of devices I always carry around anyway. I can take a set of pictures, edit them, have them automatically archived to cloud storage, and send them to whoever I want.. all with a single device I was carrying around anyway. This leaves open the fact that the 'real' camera workflow is still an option when there's the need for higher image quality and the time (or money to hire a photographer) to take advantage of what a DSLR or the like can do. (When I compare what I can do with my iPhone to what my parents had available to them (a 110 format camera and 35mm Nikons), I like the tradeoffs a lot better. the image quality available now is definitely better than the 110. Some of those 35mm exposures are probably better quality than what I can get out of an iPhone, but they're all stuck in albums and slides, and nobody ever looks at them. )

_aavaa_ 1y ago

If you want another big bump in image quality I recommend you use Adobe’s Project Indigo app instead of the default camera app. Difference is especially startling for HDR and portraits, particularly backlight ones where the stock app does some hideous segmentation-based “enhancements”.

giancarlostoro 1y ago
Wait WHAT! Thank you so much!

zdc1 1y ago

Yeah. Comparing to my iPhone 14 Pro, improvements are mostly just the camera and the screen. So it's really just about what you want a newer/better camera in your pocket. I'm going to wait one more year, but I do love that we're at the stage where a phone and a laptop can go for 4-5 years without feeling less than "modern". Just be mindful that those extra megapixels will need some extra storage.

giancarlostoro 1y ago
Thats fair, I dont see people two generations behind benefiting from it, but for me its a bit of a bump up.