iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Test: A Day At the Georgia Aquarium

This Year Apple boasts significant improvements to their cameras on their iPhone 12 lineup especially their 12 pro max. Apple claims their larger sensors on the 12 pro max will perform much better in low light situations. 

The camera sensor on the iPhone 12 pro max is about 40% larger than on the 12 pro, which means the sensor can absorb more light, improving low light photos. Also, instead of stabilizing the lens, this time on the Pro Max, the actual sensor is stabilized and should reduce shakiness in videos and improve overall image quality.

Suppose you have even been to the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest Aquarium in the United States, or just an aquarium in general. In that case, you know lighting situations can be precarious if not challenging. Below you can see photos that were shot on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and have not been retouched by me in any way. Also the flash was disabled for all photos taken.

Corner of the Aquarium. . Telephoto x2 zoom .Outdoors great lighting

Cannon Ball Jelly. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Low Light

Coral or Sea Anemone. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Low Light

Orchid. Telephoto X2 Zoom. Moderate Light

Japanese Spider Crab telephoto X2 Zoom . Low Light

South African Penguin. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Moderate Light

Great Hammer Head Shark. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Very Low light + Motion

Weedy Sea Dragon. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Moderate Light

Southern Sea Otter. Standard Wide Angle Lens. Moderate Light

Top of Habitat. Ultra Wide Lens. Great light

Top of Habitat/Workspace. Wide Angle Lens. Moderate Light

Alligator Snapping Turtle. Telephoto Lens X2. Moderate Light

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Custom Silicon Macs will Usher in the Next Generation of Creative Professionals.

On November 10th, Apple officially unveiled it’s custom silicon Mac computers. For nearly a decade, Apple has been dependent on the slow progression of Intel chipsets. Like other PC makers, Apple has designed their laptops and workstations around Intel’s specifications. Apple’s dependence on Intel timelines bottlenecked its ability to innovate and fully customize the macOS experience. Apple has designed it’s custom chips for it’s iOS devices for years now, and now that the technology is mature, it was finally time to bring this technology to the Mac.

The chipset that will be making its way to Macs this year is the M1. The M1 uses a 5mn process and utilizes eight cores. Four of those eight cores are high-performance cores, and the other four and efficiency cores. The chips will intelligently swap between the high performance and efficiency cores on the fly for specific tasks to maximize these new machines’ battery life and performance.

The performance and efficiency of these chips are the main stories here. Apple is introducing these chips into a new MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini. Apple claims their MacBooks will receive drastically improved battery life and unparalleled performance, especially for optimized apps to work with the M1 chip.

The power of Apple’s chips isn’t a mystery. Devices like the iPad Pro and iPhone have continually blown away the competition in performance and streamlining workflows. Some creative professionals use the iPad Pro exclusively to edit high-resolution videos in record time.

Though I believe Apple’s claims regarding performance and battery life, I would hesitate for a creative professional to rush out and purchase Apple’s latest offering. I would recommend letting reviewers test these machines, run them through their paces, and see how quickly compatibility and optimization come for apps they may depend on.

Apple is continuing to be competitive with their pricing for their new devices. The MacBook Air still starts at a reasonable $999 with 256GB of storage to start. The Mac Mini starts at a very competitive $699, meaning the bar for entry for capable Mac desktops is the lowest its ever been.

These new Macs are going to usher in the latest generation of creative professionals. The substantial performance gains, unified coding experience across macOS and iOS, and reasonable price points will encourage first-time Mac buyers and seasoned professions to invest in Apple’s new hardware within the next few years. Apple silicon is going to be huge, and custom silicon will be the future of computing. Luckily, Apple has a massive head start.

Apple Has Set the Stage to Eliminate the Charging Port

This week Apple held its virtual October event highlighting its latest iPhone models. For the first time, Apple has revealed 4 iPhone models for its annual line up. Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “the iPhone 12 begins a new era for the smartphone. Many might assume Cook was referring to 5G connectivity with that statement, and while I agree 5G is part of the equation, I believe Cook’s vision for the future of the iPhone is much more ambitious. 

The iPhone 12 series has numerous new features and improvements over last year’s iPhone 11 series of phones. For one, all of the iPhones in Apple’s lineup are equipped with OLED displays. Significant camera improvements make their way across all of the new iPhones. However, only the 12 pro series of iPhones will receive the new Lidar camera sensor, which will be used for 3D Mapping for improved AR and even faster autofocus. 

One new feature that Apple did introduce this week that I feel will have significantly more impact in the coming years, and that feature is MagSafe on the iPhone. All of the new iPhones are equipped with an array of magnets on the phone’s rear to assist with perfect alignment for apples fresh MagSafe accessories. You can even charge your new iPhone through this rear magnetic mount with a new MagSafe charger. 

The introduction of this new charging method is a subtle warning for a future many in the tech community has seen coming for some time now. Apple is getting ready to kill the charging port on the iPhone. For those hoping that the iPhone would ever adopt a USB-C port like the MacBook and iPad Pro, I’m sorry to report that Apple plans to eliminate this port altogether. In the past, Apple has said its vision of the iPhone was to be a port less and buttonless slab of glass, and this new MagSafe standard is apple setting the stage to eliminate one of the essential ports on an iPhone or any device for that matter.

You may be asking yourself why would apple eliminate the charging port on their devices. Apple has a record of pushing the technology community forward, even when they understand these transitions will be uncomfortable. Eliminating this port will work wonders for the device’s security, blacking nearly all brute force attempts to access data stored on the device. Having no port would also increase the device’s resistance to dust and water elements, damaging the device or causing the device to deteriorate faster. 

I believe Apple is pragmatic about this new standard and easing its customers into this change slower than usual. The iPhone 12 series will still have the option to charge via the lightning port on the phone’s bottom. Apple is hoping its users will adopt this charging method now, so they will have the proper hardware already on hand when apple is ready to make the switch to a port less iPhone. I believe that change is coming sooner than we think, perhaps as early as the iPhone 13.

Without a doubt, this change will stress those who aren’t prepared to make the switch, no matter Apple’s efforts to soften the blow.