If you're looking for the best iPhone for photography, you're in good company. Smartphone cameras have transformed over the past few years to the point where they are quite simply stunning pieces of image-making technology – with Apple's iPhones leading the charge. With such a legacy of great phones, you also don't necessarily need to pick up the latest and greatest; an older-generation iPhone at a lower price might be the better buy. It's all about balancing your needs and your budget.
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Indeed, if you're only looking at the camera, sometimes an older model can be the smarter choice. This is because Apple tends to focus on upgrading different things with each generation of iPhone. So, sometimes the camera on one generation is much like the camera on the previous model, but the screen is much larger or higher-quality. So if you can live with a smaller, lower-resolution screen, you can get the same great camera for a cheaper price. Easy!
Given that iPhones are more than capable of producing professional-quality images and videos, some of you will absolutely be looking for the best of the best, and there's no point pretending that this is anything other than the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, the latest flagships. With 4x optical zoom lenses and incredible night photography capabilities, these phones truly are redefining the limits of what smartphones can do. And the vanilla iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini are no slouches either – our iPhone 13 vs iPhone 13 Pro guide is handy reference point if you'd like to know more about the differences between them.
Of course, until these phones came alone, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max were the best smartphones on the block for photography. And you know what? They're still great! With rear triple-camera arrays, they're capable of capturing dazzling images, and the launch of the iPhone 13 series has meant that they can be picked up for cheaper than launch.
This increased affordability continues as you go back through the range – though you'll also start to compromise on camera functionality. For instance, the iPhone 11 only has two rear-facing cameras. As we said earlier, it's about balancing your needs and your budget.
Below, we've listed the best iPhones for photography, and the best prices you can get them for right now.
The best iPhone for photography in 2022
Okay, its camera wasn't a huge jump from the iPhone 12 Pro, but the fact remains that the iPhone 12 Pro is pound for pound the best iPhone for photographers right now. Its triple-lens setup boasts a standard, ultra-wide and telephoto configuration, with 26mm, 13mm and 78mm equivalent focal lengths respectively.
In terms of improvements, there's a new Cinematic video mode for movie shooters, as well as a new macro mode and improvements to the camera's low-light capabilities. The telephoto module is also a jump over that of the iPhone 12 Pro, with a 3x range rather than 2x.
While the iPhone 13 Pro Max is technically the best that Apple offers right now, there's no real difference in camera tech between it and the 13 Pro, with the main advantage of the Max being its better battery life. This means, for us, the iPhone 13 Pro is the best iPhone for photographers as it doesn't cost quite the astronomical price tag of the Pro Max (though is still not exactly cheap). If you've already got a 12 Pro then it's probably not enough of a jump to be worth an instant upgrade, but it is better.
• iPhone 13 review • iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro
However you slice it, the iPhone 12 Pro is still a photography phone to be reckoned with. It's not the newest any more, and has faced stiff competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, and its108MP sensor. Though when you're dealing with small smartphone sensors, having loads of pixels is not necessarily an advantage, and the iPhone 12 Pro accounts for itself in other ways.
The triple-camera unit on this phone consist of an ultra wide f/2.4 camera, a wide f/1.6 camera and a telephoto f/2 camera, with similar focal lengths to those of the iPhone 13 Pro above (save for a shorter telephoto). This gives you a good array of shooting options that will cover the majority of situations you'll find yourself in.
So why is the 12 Pro worth getting over the vanilla iPhone 12? It has a few tricks up its sleeve to justify its price tag; for one, it has a LiDAR scanner, which allows it to focus faster in low-light shooting situations. It can also use the new Apple ProRAW file format, giving you much more latitude and editing control over your images.
• Read more iPhone 12 Pro review
• iPhone 12 Pro vs Max
The iPhone 13 Mini does exactly what it says on the tin: gives you the same functions and firepower as the iPhone 13, in a more svelte form factor and with a smaller price tag to match. Unlike the iPhone SE, which achieves a lower price point by sacrificing specs (including, most notably, battery life), the iPhone 13 Mini squeezes the raw power of the standard 6.1-inch iPhone 13 into a 5.4-inch handset. if a small phone is important to you, this is the one to go for – it takes superb photos, 4K 60p video, up to 240fps slow-mo (in 1080p), and its portrait functions now power the brilliant Cinematic mode for shallow depth of field in video. If you own the 12 Mini, there's not much reason to upgrade – but if you've skipped a generation, you'll fall in love with it!
You can't judge camera phones purely on specs. The iPhone 11 Pro's triple-camera array is hardly cutting edge by today's camera phone standards, but it works brilliantly. The colors, tones and exposures are consistent across all three cameras, and the image processing is perfectly judged to produce natural looking detail and not the usual over-sharpened, over-smoothed smartphone 'look'. The ultrawide camera is just brilliant for travel photography, landmarks and spectacular interiors, and while it can't quite match the edge to edge image quality of the other lenses, it still produces sharp, distortion-free ultra-wide images that widen your horizons in every possible way. We like the regular iPhone 11 Pro best – the iPhone 11 Pro Max has the same cameras but it's just a bit big, while the regular plain-vanilla iPhone 11 is cheaper but doesn't have the 52mm telephoto lens.
Read more: Apple iPhone 11 Pro review
Also consider: Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max review
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is the biggest and best of Apple’s new-generation iPhones, with the same cameras and tech as the iPhone 13 Pro, but with a bigger screen (6.7 inches versus 6.1 inches). The Pro Max also boasts a slightly longer battery life of up to 28hrs video playback versus up to 22 hours on the smaller '13 Pro. It might be tempting to pick the Pro Max over the regular Pro model just to get ‘the best of everything’. The regular Pro costs enough, so why not take that last step and get the bigger screen? Well, some may simply find it too big to be comfortable to use every day. There's no doubt the iPhone 13 Pro Max is a truly stunning camera phone, whether you shoot stills or video. However, the regular iPhone 13 Pro boasts the same photographic performance in a more ergonomic (and cheaper!) package, hence why it's higher up this list.
See also Best iPhone 13 Pro Max cases
The iPhone 12 Mini of a pleasing trend of Apple filling out the smaller end of its mobile offering, as well as putting out big flagship phones with more features, cameras and pixels than ever. This means it's much more affordable than its contemporaries like the iPhone 12 Pro, as well as being a good deal easier to hold and carry around.
Despite the reduction in size, Apple hasn't skimped on tech for the iPhone 12 Mini. it boasts a beefy dual camera array, with a 12MP 26mm f/1.6 and a 12MP 13mm f/2.4. There's no telephoto like you get on the Pro, but it's still very impressive, and with the capacity to shoot 4K video as well, any content creator is going to have a whale of a time with it.
The only real disappointment is the battery life. Granted, things had to give somewhere, but still, having a 2227mAh battery to work with is really going to curtail your ability to get a full day's use out of the thing, at least without carting around a separate power bank.
If you're looking for the best bang for your buck when it comes to a new iPhone, then we'd argue that the iPhone 11 might just be it. While we love newer iPhone models, the price difference can be hard to justify when the older iPhone 11 still delivers such respectable image quality. The iPhone 11 does have a few downsides though, namely its lack of a telephoto lens and OLED screen, but you can pick it up for such a great price now, that you have to ask yourself how important these features are to you? If you're looking for the very best iPhone for photography, then we'd recommend going with a Pro Max model. However, if you want a great iPhone for taking pictures that won't break the bank, then the iPhone 11 is a natural choice.
The iPhone 12 might not have quite the same wow-factor as the iPhone 12 Pro, but it's certainly no slouch when it comes to its photographic capabilities. The iPhone 12 has a dual camera system featuring an ultra wide f/2.4 camera and a wide f/1.6 camera. While the iPhone 12 doesn't have a dedicated telephoto camera, users can achieve a digital zoom of up to 5x. All of the iPhone 12 models are now capable of HDR video recording with Dolby Vision, although on the iPhone 12 this is only up to 30fps as compared to the iPhone 12 Pro's 60fps. The iPhone 12's front-facing camera is capable of both Night mode and Deep Fusion, which weren't available on the base iPhone 11's selfie camera. The iPhone 12 is also now capable of Night mode Time-lapse. One of the most exciting upgrades for the iPhone 12 family is the new Ceramic Shield display, which features a 4x better drop performance. The iPhone 12 is also compatible with new MagSafe accessories and wireless chargers.
The regular iPhone XS has the same cameras as the Max version. The rears offer two 12-megapixel cameras, one for standard wideangle shots, the other for 2x zoom images. Apple offers a very natural and faithful image preview, which shows a good estimate of the benefits of image processing before that processing has even taken place. The color balance and the character of Apple’s processing are also very pleasant. Other highlights include 240fps slo-mo at 1080p and X-series-only additional modes in the background blur portrait mode, such as Stage Lighting. This blacks out the background, for an image that looks a little like an actor’s headshot. The 2x zoom is also useful, particularly as it has optical image stabilisation just like the main camera. Many people might find this more useful than the new ultra-wide lens on the iPhone 11, so the iPhone XS is still a good option, even though it's now last year's model.
The iPhone XS Max has the same camera setup as the iPhone Xs. So what benefit is there here? It’s pretty obvious, really. The Max has a larger screen, which helps when composing images. This is a particularly bright OLED display with max power of around 650 nits. It copes remarkably well outdoors, and goes into a ‘turbo’ mode when required, to make sure you can see the image preview even when it’s sunny. Both X-series phones also have dual front-facing cameras. The imaging sensor is a 7-megapixel chip just like the recent older iPhones, and the second is a “time of flight” camera. This is used solely for depth mapping. Its primary function is to make the Face ID unlock feature work well, but it also improves “bokeh” images. You can alter the blur effect level, effectively changing the virtual aperture, after shooting the image.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is technically superior to a lot of iPhones higher up this list. However, there is a reason this handset is so far down. While the iPhone 12 Pro Max features a more powerful battery life than the other iPhone 12 handsets – and even a slightly better rear camera than the iPhone 12 Pro – it has two major cons. The first is that the 6.7" screen is so large that users with smaller hands might struggle to use it effectively. Secondly, despite it no loner being the latest iPhone flagship, prices are still quite high. However, if you don't mind big handsets and you're happy to splash the cash, then there's still plenty of exciting features to write home about with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. With its blazing-fast chipset, quality camera set-up, battery and screen, it's no surprise that the 12 Pro Max is a great iPhone for photography.
The iPhone XR is one of the most interesting phones in the 2019 line-up from an Apple fan’s perspective. It’s now an older, cheaper iPhone so bargains are out there, although the lack of a zoom camera is its biggest loss. The iPhone XR has only the one rear camera, the same 12-megapixel stabilised get-up as the iPhone XS. You get great images, sure, but a zoom is handy for gigs and other situations when you can’t simply move closer. Here you have to use a compromised digital zoom. Other differences? While the iPhone XR has the same processor as the pricier iPhone X models, it uses an LCD screen rather than an OLED. This screen is larger than the iPhone Xs’s, though, and battery life is far better than that of the smaller, fancier iPhone Xs too.
The iPhone SE (2020) is a brilliant proposition: a cut-price iPhone that takes the form factor and camera of the iPhone 8, and pairs it with the processor and software magic of the iPhone 11 Pro. The result is a pocket-friendly handset in terms of both size and price, with fusion technology that delivers highly respectable photographs and 4K video. Its smaller 4.7-inch 720p screen isn't as bright and doesn't refresh as fast as the flagship models, but that also means that its battery doesn't get gobbled up as fast either. It sticks with Touch ID instead of Face ID, and boasts Qi wireless charging. It's IP67 water and dust resistant, and features image stabilization for rock-solid 4K 60fps video. Between the A13 Bionic chip and Apple-standard software updates, the iPhone SE is the best value handset out there.
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