In addition to the type of operating system, the biggest difference between smartphones / iPhones is performance camera / video. Practically here is the fight between all smartphone manufacturers and Apple.
With the launch iPhone 12 Pro si iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple they introduced the format ProRAW for photos. Available only on these two iPhone 12 Pro models and with iOS 14.3 or newer operating system.
Photography enthusiasts know that RAW photo format offers a much larger and more dynamic range of image editing than a regular JPG or HEIC format. As a brief summary, a RAW photo contains gross form of an image as it was captured by camera sensor, thus offering the possibility of advanced editing on shades of red, blue green, white intensity and color tones. Another great advantage compared to JPG is that the original image is never lost, in RAW format. You can always return to it for editing, without losing quality.
As a brief comparison, an image JPG has 8-bit and it contains 265 shades of green, red and blue, that is 16 million colors derived from them, while an image in format RAW is 12-bit and a capture capacity of 4096 shades green, red and blue. That is, the equivalent of 68 billion colors.
Apple ProRAW is a combination between standard RAW format data and image processing performed by iPhone 12 Pro, thus offering more flexibility in controlling exposure, colors and white balance in photos. iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max with iOS 14.3 (or later), offers the possibility to capture ProRAW with either camera, even when the functions are used HDR, Deep Fusion or Night Mode. ProRAW mode cannot be activated for Live Photos, Portrait si Video Recording.
We can safely say that Apple ProRAW and the new camera types turn the iPhone 12 Pro into a DSLR camera, capable of professional performance.
How to activate Apple ProRAW on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Before you enable the ProRAW format and take photos with this feature, make sure you have a generous storage space on the device or the possibility to upload immediately in iCloud Photos. Compared to HEIC and JPG, the RAW format (.DNG extension on Apple) occupies a much larger volume. It can also be 10 to 20 times larger than a JPG file. As an example, I took a picture of myself with RAW enabled. format JPG has no more than 2.1 MB, While raw photography, DNG, arrive at 24.1 MB. Both formats exported from the application Photos a macOS Big Sur.
Activating ProRAW is very simple, going to "Settings”→“Camera”→“Formats”→“Apple ProRAW".
Once activated from the settings, open the native "Camera" application, then at the top left of the settings bar, enable RAW.
The RAW mode will remain active until you close the native Camera application completely. Once you reopen the application, you will notice that RAW is disabled.
Apple ProRAW is not recommended for all photos. If you are on vacation or on a trip, you can use ProRAW when you have to capture a photo that you know you are going to edit in programs such as Photoshop or Lightroom. The possibility of editing RAW also offers the native application Photos from iOS and macOS.
