iPhone 12 Pro vs Z7: Unfortunately for this photo, iPhone Smart HDR wins

Phil A Martin wrote:

Kalimarus wrote:

sebulban wrote:

Kalimarus wrote:

1llusive wrote:

Kalimarus wrote:

The IPhone 12 Pro Max I picked up after trading my IPhone 8 this December has been a threshold for smartphones for me. I now use it quite often where I barely used the Camera on the 8. I still shoot with my Z camera but I’ll now mix in a lot of iphone images or bring a prime and not worry about a wide angle for example because I know the Iphone can do a good job.

The ProRaw DNG’s have been impressive for me as well.

It was a shock using night mode for the first time in really dark conditions. The 12 pro max takes handheld low light images that stand with the full frame or beat it depending on the lighting.

The exposure is decent, but if you look at any of the details the Z blows it away. Even my Pixel 4a's Night Sight, which is even better than the iPhone's night mode, can't compete with my Z for image quality. In a smartphone-sized image though they do look quite good and I agree it's tempting to use the smartphone more. This is why I argue that camera makers like Nikon need to get more software engineers onboard who can implement these features.

Well it is a 12 vs 24+ megapixel image so details will always be no contest. The only situation my iPhone 12 has “beat” my Full Frame hands down was in low light where I need to crank the ISO to high levels to handhold. There the iphone just captures more detail that gets lost at higher ISO’s normally. That’s the only situation. If you have a tripod it’s better than the iphone. For example if your garage is lit with a 40 watt bulb and you get in the car without the overhead light and take an image of the speedometer/tach with the DSLR at say 1/30th second at ISO 6400, the night mode on the iphone will capture more detail and be far more noise free under that same situation. During any sort of normal lighting the large sensor camera will be capable of a better image.

ProRaw does enable similar levels of post processing capability for the Iphone albeit your limited to 12 megapixel and the limitations of that tiny lens. But it’s impressive that it’s coming from a smartphone. It would be interesting to see someone doe stills comparison with a D700 or newer A7Siii and ProRaw.

All the same limitations for depth of field are still there with the iphone and portrait mode can’t create a true to life depth of field as it won’t create bokeh effect in front of the subject like a very large aperture lens can. Think bokeh on the tip of the nose in a portrait at F1.4, Iphone can’t do that. So it’s easy to spot if you look.

All of this said the latest smartphones are so good that if you do your part with composition the average person won’t care for the small differences from the iphone or the full frame unless you printed it huge or displayed it on something like an 8k monitor where the 12 megapixels limit would be very obvious. At normal viewing distances or on the typical tablet/computer 1080p monitor etc 95% of people won’t care so long as the photographer captured something interesting. It is harder to do many things due to the limits of the controls on the smartphone but the actual output is good enough for a lot of uses.

I wouldn’t have believed the night mode claims either until I took my D750 out under super dark light and snapped some pictures of my pool and then used the iphone handheld. The iphone flat out can take a decent image in lighting where it’s required to have a tripod and do the same with the D750. Given a tripod the D750 will look better. I now have a Z5 with better stabilization with the primes thanks to IBIS so I’m sure the Z5 would compete a bit better as it can drop the ISO some under the same conditions. That computational stuff that can gather and average data for 1 second vs the DSLR/Mirrorless being forced to use one image at high ISO has leveled the playing field in that one niche situation for now.

I 100% agree camera makers need to harness these techniques with the large sensors! A full frame using these techniques would be amazing.

The night mode of the best smartphone cameras are simply amazing. Just point and shoot. No need for tripods or setting anything manually.Of course the files from any FF will be better but if you need to use tripod or photoshop it has already lost the battle.

Lots of discussions about bracketing or exposing to highlights and pushing back in post...and at the same time complaining that the color of the sun or snow is slightly in the wrong tone..

and nobody has not even mentioned that smartphones can do this for the video as well...

I love my Z6 but my iPhone wins the ‘more practical’ trophy any given day.

Exactly. That’s why phones are just killing cameras for sales. And it will continue eating into the larger sensor camera market as it’s a hassle to do all the editing when the phone can get 90% as good of an image with a single click, regardless of the lighting conditions now.

Once they put telephoto’s on these things and action tracking algorithms there won’t be many safe havens for large sensor cameras to hide.

ProRaw and the night mode capability really was a game changer for my viewing the phone as something for more than just snapshots.

I doubt it. There will always be people with taste who appreciate fine photography, just as there'll alway be people who favour fine food over tv dinners.

There will but on what price? If the ILC market shrinks at the same rate for the next 10 years. How much will it cost to have the latest gear at 2030?

I’m a bit worried at least. If it’s only the sensor size and lens mount that’s differentiating iPhone to any FF or MF ILC, then all traditional manufacturers should be worried.