I've been doing macro photography with the big gear for over a decade, very actively, in the range of 1:1 to 5:1 and anything in between. I've also been using the macro mode on the iPhone13 Pro on the side, so I'm in the position to judge and compare.
The positive conclusion is that relatively speaking, when reasoning from a smartphone without any macro capabilities, it is a meaningful breakthrough. And this matters as for many people it's their only camera. If you enjoy current smartphone photography, macro is no gimmick, it's perhaps the style of photography that is most creative, fun, and full of untapped potential to get unique shots.
When comparing to the big gear, this should be seen as a start at best. It drastically falls short in many ways.
As a first example, the "Sea glass" photo. Which is wonderfully misleading. The photo is artistically attractive but technically crap. It lacks real sharpness and definition, there's the plastic-like noise reduction, and you'll see "trails" in parts of the image, a result of computational processing of multiple exposures.
Whilst you might not care in this case because the artistic quality distracts you from those glitches, they are a real issue in many photos. Macro photography is defined by a lack of light. The mobile workarounds are extremely aggressive and create tons of glitches all the time.
My second point is on the flowers. They are very large. And that's one of my conclusions, macro mode works pretty decently (for a phone) on decently sized subjects. It's closeup photography, not macro photography. To illustrate the difference in capability, the smallest flower is photographed is 3mm. I'm filling the frame with it and then still have 40-50MP of cropping space. And details are actual details, not some computed blur or guess.
Still, for a lot of people closeup photography is a new capability. I'm just saying to not think it rivals macro photography.
Finally, in macro photography subject isolation is important, clear details with a smooth and soft background. Macro mode does not do that, it fakes the blur and often gets it wrong. In particular it computes some kind of half-state: soft but still with details, which is optically impossible and looks crap.
Don't let my words discourage you though. It a step up in mobile photography, good to have this capability in your pocket. Let it make you fall in love with the endless possibilities of closeup/macro photography, and some of you might take it beyond the phone.
The positive conclusion is that relatively speaking, when reasoning from a smartphone without any macro capabilities, it is a meaningful breakthrough. And this matters as for many people it's their only camera. If you enjoy current smartphone photography, macro is no gimmick, it's perhaps the style of photography that is most creative, fun, and full of untapped potential to get unique shots.
When comparing to the big gear, this should be seen as a start at best. It drastically falls short in many ways.
As a first example, the "Sea glass" photo. Which is wonderfully misleading. The photo is artistically attractive but technically crap. It lacks real sharpness and definition, there's the plastic-like noise reduction, and you'll see "trails" in parts of the image, a result of computational processing of multiple exposures.
Whilst you might not care in this case because the artistic quality distracts you from those glitches, they are a real issue in many photos. Macro photography is defined by a lack of light. The mobile workarounds are extremely aggressive and create tons of glitches all the time.
My second point is on the flowers. They are very large. And that's one of my conclusions, macro mode works pretty decently (for a phone) on decently sized subjects. It's closeup photography, not macro photography. To illustrate the difference in capability, the smallest flower is photographed is 3mm. I'm filling the frame with it and then still have 40-50MP of cropping space. And details are actual details, not some computed blur or guess.
Still, for a lot of people closeup photography is a new capability. I'm just saying to not think it rivals macro photography.
Finally, in macro photography subject isolation is important, clear details with a smooth and soft background. Macro mode does not do that, it fakes the blur and often gets it wrong. In particular it computes some kind of half-state: soft but still with details, which is optically impossible and looks crap.
Don't let my words discourage you though. It a step up in mobile photography, good to have this capability in your pocket. Let it make you fall in love with the endless possibilities of closeup/macro photography, and some of you might take it beyond the phone.