iPhone 7 vs DSLR

[Mike Farley]

From a photographic aspect, the iPhone 7 is an interesting bit of gear. It is the first mass consumer product which uses a form of computational photography to produce images, when it combines the output from its two cameras to zoom and uses software to create out of focus blur. Yes, the Lytro Field Camera was also a computational device, but that never became mainstream and Lytro has left that particular market. The iPhone 7 is a harbinger and over the next few years photography is going to evolve beyond the traditional use of a single lens to focus light onto a light sensitive medium.

In the meantime, I am already amazed at what camera phones can achieve. On Xmas day I wanted to take family photos with my "proper" camera using available light and struggled with the dull conditions. Other people simply used their iPhones and got acceptable results more easily than I could. It was not even the latest iPhone, either. The phone of choice in my family is currently the 5s, technology which has been around for a while.

So how good are the latest camera phones? Ars Technica compared the iPhone 7 with the Sony A7s and A99 cameras in a variety of lighting conditions. The iPhone 7 costs around a third of either of the Sonys and they cannot make phone calls, connect to the Internet or do numerous other functions. For image making, the cameras still come out ahead, but the Ars Tecchnical tagline says it all:

"It’s still not a match at the extremes, but it’s definitely 'good enough.' ”

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/ ... real-dslr/

[davidb]

A few years ago (5th November 2014) the club had a competition purely for camera phones. It was a members evening and, If I remember right, a winner was declared (again if memory serves it was Paul Heester but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps we should consider another one

Iggy, over to you.

[Rose]

In the first competition at my new club, the winning image had been taken on an iphone ! Processed in Lightroom, Photoshop and then printed, you couldn't tell its provenance and it deservedly won.

[Nina]

I am really impressed with what my phone can do. It is not an iPhone but Samsung Galaxy Note. I am compiling pictures taken with it for a talk at the club later in the season.

[Mike Farley]

To reinforce Nina's comment, there is a story on PetaPixel about a photographer using his iPhone 7 Plus for professional work. He comments that not being weighed down with camera gear gives him greater freedom and people relax around him, which makes getting informal shoys easier.

https://petapixel.com/2017/01/12/earned ... one-dslrs/

[davidc]

Yeah that felt like a very gimmicky way of getting free advertising. I bet he doesn't ONLY use his iphone

Or he's pro in the loosest sense of the word maybe

[Mike Farley]

Yeah that felt like a very gimmicky way of getting free advertising. I bet he doesn't ONLY use his iphone

Sure, shooting with an iPhone probably is partly a publicity ploy. Not just for the photographer but the event organiser as well. That said, it does facilitate easier access to social media, which is what a lot of PR is about these days. The traditional camera makers are rather stuck in the past when it comes to that aspect, but that is probably reflects how a lot of serious photographers like it. Samsung did experiment with an Android powered camera a few years back, but it gathered little interest.

According to the article, Brad Mangin's agreement stipulated that he would only bring his iPhone to the events he was covering and leave his Canon at home. Personally, I am amazed at what he has managed to achieve, although I could do without some of the distracting effects which appear to have been added post capture. YMMV.