I love using a ‘proper’ camera for portrait shoots, special events, and even for taking on a day out. But they are so heavy.

I did the unthinkable when we took a trip to Disneyland I left the camera at home and relied completely on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Battery Life

Aside from being a million times lighter than my old camera, the battery lasted all day. For anyone who’s used a DSLR camera, you need to bring one battery for every hour of shooting.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max’s battery lasted all day and only got plugged in when I went to bed. I was using it pretty much solidly for photos, videos, using the Disneyland app, and uploading to Instagram all day and I still had about 20% left by 10pm.

The Camera

• Pro 12MP camera system: Telephoto, Wide and Ultra Wide cameras
• Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture
• Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture
• Ultra-Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120° field of view
• 3x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 6x optical zoom range
• Digital zoom up to 15x
• Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner
• Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
• Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
• Wide colour capture for photos and Live Photos
• Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
• Advanced red‑eye correction

Video Recording

• Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field (in 1080p at 30 fps)
• HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps
• 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps
• 1080p HD video recording at 25 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps
• 720p HD video recording at 30 fps
• ProRes video recording up to 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage)
• 3x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 6x optical zoom range
• Digital zoom up to 9x
• Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video
• Playback zoom
• Video formats recorded: HEVC, H.264 and ProRes
• Stereo recording

TrueDepth Camera

• 12MP camera
• ƒ/2.2 aperture
• Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
• Night mode
• Deep Fusion
• Smart HDR 4
• Photographic Styles
• Apple ProRAW
• Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field (in 1080p at 30 fps)

Strong Screen and Water Resistant

On some of the rides, you get soaked and on some, you get roughed up! Knowing that the phone in my pocket was safe, no matter how wet the Rapids at Grizzly River got with the Ceramic Shield front, textured matte glass back and stainless steel design.

If there was a more epic challenge for parents, kids, and a camera, I can’t think of anything more gruelling but super fun than a few days at Disneyland!

Since owning an iPhone 13 Pro Max, I haven’t used another camera.