The improved shutter speed and anti-shake technologies in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max should help here, but you can also take steps to ensure you get a great shot each time.
The usual rules for shooting while zoomed in apply - keep the camera as steady as you possibly can, using a tripod or some other support if possible.
If you’re using the 2.5x zoom in low light, the native Apple Camera app will switch to cropping a photo that’s shot with the main lens to keep noise levels low while maintaining the zoom effect - if you want to keep on using the 2.5x telephoto zoom lens for whatever reason, you’ll need a third-party app that gives you full control (like Halide, whose developers have explained the camera switch). It’s worth noting that the longer telephoto lens on the Pro Max means that it collects less light. The built-in image stabilisation on the iPhone 12 Pro Max should prove useful at higher zoom levels too.
The benefits of the extra optical zoom are obvious: Even if you can’t physically get closer to whatever it is you’re shooting, whether it’s the stage at a music gig or a bird in your backyard, the iPhone camera can help. Instead of just a 0.5x and 1x option you’ll see a 2x option for the iPhone 12 Pro and a 2.5x option for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. You’ll notice an extra zoom option when you load up the Camera app on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max models, compared to the other iPhone 12 variations. Zoom on the Pro Max goes all the way up to 2.5x. However, it’s still worth knowing what the key advantages are, and the situations where you’ll see the biggest improvements. Most of the time, the benefits that you get from the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max cameras are applied automatically in the background: there are no settings buttons to toggle or features to enable.
Essentially, it’s an upgrade for your iPhone’s depth-sensing skills, so augmented reality apps are more precise and camera autofocus can pick out a point in space and fix on it faster (especially in low light). There’s also a LiDAR scanner on board, a technology we’ve gone into more detail about here. It’s worth noting that the Pro Max has a slightly better setup than the Pro, aside from the greater optical zoom range: Its main 12MP sensor is larger, so more light can be captured and low light photography is improved, and the sensor itself adjusts its position to counteract camera shake, rather than having this fixed via software afterward. The extra lens is a telephoto one, which means you get 2x optical zoom on the Pro and 2.5x on the Pro Max (for a 4x and 5x total optical range, respectively). The iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max have three rear cameras compared to the two on the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Mini.