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Hi Pete and welcome aboard!
It would be fair to say bigger scopes give you more light grasp, which in turn reveals hidden or faint detail more.
I'm on my fourth scope now - a C9.25 + 80mm refractor, both of which I normally use at very low magnification to get a wider field of view. I commonly use a 25mm Vixen UWA eyepieces on both - so say around 120x magnification on my main scope.
I'd doubt a 4 metre scope would show colour in even Orion to the naked eye. Only a CCD can well distinguish colour with these low light levels.
So consider you choices which tool for grabing light - not magnification most of the time (excluding planets) and that means the 12" would give much more satisfaction.
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