The Apple iPhone 12 Pro (2020) was the first iPhone to support Apple ProRAW and the first to feature a LiDAR scanner. It has no mechanical shutter — the image counter stored in each ProRAW DNG file records total electronic captures. Drop a ProRAW file to read it instantly.
Check Image Counter →The iPhone 12 Pro is powered by Apple’s A14 Bionic chip (5 nm, first 5 nm chip in a smartphone, 16-core Neural Engine) and introduced a redesigned flat-sided stainless steel form factor. The triple-camera system consists of a 12 MP wide main (f/1.6, sensor-shift OIS, Dual Pixel PDAF), a 12 MP ultrawide (f/2.4, 120°, fixed focus), and a 12 MP 2× telephoto (f/2.0, 52 mm equiv, OIS). The iPhone 12 Pro also added a LiDAR scanner — a depth-sensing module enabling faster low-light autofocus and Night mode portraits.
Apple ProRAW support arrived with iOS 14.3 (December 2020), making the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max the first iPhones capable of shooting ProRAW DNG files. Every ProRAW capture increments the persistent image counter stored in the DNG MakerNote, regardless of which lens was used.
| Model | Release | Main Sensor | Shutter Type | RAW Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 12 Pro | 2020 | 12 MP CMOS (f/1.6) | Electronic only | ProRAW (DNG) |
| iPhone 12 Pro Max | 2020 | 12 MP CMOS (f/1.6) | Electronic only | ProRAW (DNG) |
| iPhone 13 Pro | 2021 | 12 MP CMOS (f/1.5) | Electronic only | ProRAW (DNG) |
| Canon EOS R5 | 2020 | 45 MP FF CMOS | Mechanical + Electronic | CR3 |
.dng extension.exiftool -ImageNumber yourfile.DNG to read the counter directly from the metadata.The iPhone 12 Pro is now a mature model, making it a popular choice on the second-hand market. The image counter gives useful context about intensity of use, but these are the meaningful hardware metrics:
| What to Check | How |
|---|---|
| Battery health | Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging. Apple recommends replacement below 80% maximum capacity |
| Display condition | Inspect the 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED for burn-in, dead pixels, or edge delamination. Check under white and grey backgrounds |
| Camera lenses & sensors | Check all three lenses (wide, ultrawide, telephoto) and the LiDAR window for scratches or fogging; test autofocus in low light |
| LiDAR scanner | Verify Night mode portrait photos have natural background blur — degraded LiDAR affects portrait mode depth mapping |
| Stainless steel frame | Inspect edges for dents or bends; stainless steel is durable but heavier than aluminium and prone to showing scratches |
| Face ID & TrueDepth | Verify Face ID works in low-light conditions; TrueDepth array damage is costly to repair |
| Image counter | High count (>40,000) indicates intensive use — useful context, not a hardware failure indicator |
Apple ProRAW on the iPhone 12 Pro merges the output of Apple’s computational photography pipeline (Smart HDR 3, Deep Fusion, Night mode) with raw sensor data into a single DNG file. Unlike a traditional RAW, ProRAW captures have already been processed by multi-frame algorithms — the result is a partially-computational DNG that retains significant editing flexibility while embedding Apple’s noise reduction and HDR results.
The image counter is stored in the DNG EXIF metadata under the ImageNumber field within Apple’s MakerNote IFD. This is a persistent hardware counter incremented by every capture across all camera modes — Photo, Portrait, Night mode, Panorama — and cannot be reset by a factory restore or iOS reinstall.
The iPhone 12 Pro shoots ProRAW at the native 12 MP sensor resolution (approximately 4032×3024 pixels). This differs from later Pro models (iPhone 14 Pro onwards) that introduced 48 MP ProRAW support. For reading the image counter, the file structure is identical across all ProRAW generations.
No. All iPhones use CMOS electronic readout. There is no focal-plane shutter mechanism and no rated mechanical lifespan. The LiDAR scanner is a depth-sensing device and is not part of the photographic image capture path.
Yes. Apple ProRAW was introduced in iOS 14.3 (released December 14, 2020). The iPhone 12 Pro shipped with iOS 14.1; if you purchased the device shortly after launch, you needed to update before ProRAW became available. All current iOS versions support ProRAW.
No. The image counter is stored in persistent hardware memory and cannot be reset by a factory reset, iOS update, or any user action. This makes it a reliable indicator of total device usage history.
Casual users accumulate roughly 5,000–15,000 captures per year; active photographers may exceed 30,000 annually. Given the iPhone 12 Pro’s 2020 release, a well-used device could easily show 25,000–80,000 total captures. There is no mechanical wear threshold — battery health and physical condition are the primary quality indicators.
The 12 Pro Max uses the same A14 Bionic chip but has a larger 6.7-inch display (vs 6.1 inches on 12 Pro), a larger 12 MP 2.5× telephoto (vs 2×), a larger 3687 mAh battery, and a redesigned main sensor with sensor-shift OIS (the 12 Pro lacked this specific implementation). ProRAW and the image counter work identically on both.