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iPhone 8 Plus: The best smartphone camera we’ve ever tested
- th0br0 9y agoSome of these images don't compare :( the scenes / perspectives differ quite a bit.
- klodolph 9y agoWhich ones? Are you talking about the fact that the Pixel has a wider angle lens? I mean, you could crop those pictures but that wouldn't exactly be fair to the Pixel.
- tgb 9y agoThe portrait with the tree and the sun in the background is a clear example. Whether the sun is shining through the leaves of the tree or not will overwhelm any inter-phone differences.
- klodolph 9y agoI'm not convinced. You can see a little bit of flare in the 8 and 7 Plus photos, but global contrast doesn't seem to be affected.
- macintux 9y agoI agree, these don't seem like carefully controlled experiments.
- gcp 9y agoI think the actual dxomark tests are, but the pics in the article are prettier custom takes for the audience?
- ballenf 9y agoThe first set with a person (woman in front of leaves, sun from behind) are particularly worthless. They didn't control for whether direct sunlight was hitting the sensor. Even a wannabe photog like me knows how that can wreak havoc on a shot and/or create beautiful effects.
- devmunchies 9y agoApple isn't normally classified as a camera company but they definitely are and that is one area where they are still able to still move the goal post.
- pducks32 9y agoTheir make some of the world’s best consumer cameras, computer chips, and watches. And they truly excel at all of those. Kinda crazy
- Tade0 9y agoAt least up to iPhone 7 the camera sensor wasn't made by Apple: https://itstillworks.com/manufactures-apples-iphone-camera-18562.html https://itstillworks.com/manufactures-apples-iphone-camera-1... Currently, it seems to be made by Himax Technologies: https://www.cultofmac.com/473737/iphone-8-rumors-cause-share-prices-to-soar-for-3d-sensor-maker/ https://www.cultofmac.com/473737/iphone-8-rumors-cause-share...
- _up 9y agoThey use the same sensors as all the other phones. But I think they are perceived better because on default they apply lots of (destructive) contrast, while other Manufacturers use less to keep more Image Information.
- nkristoffersen 9y agoSource? Are other manufactures capturing raw? Or are you saying other manufactures do less DSP?
- dingaling 9y agoHimax provides the front-facing camera. Main rear sensors are still by Sony as far as I know.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bspn 9y agoThis feels like groundhog day. New iPhone [insert model] has the best camera ever! Fast forward two months: new Google [insert model] has the best camera ever! I think we're getting to the point where the incremental gains we're seeing with each new phone cycle are almost unnoticeable to the average user who just wants to take photos of their kids to send to Grandma.
- taeric 9y agoAgreed, the article could probably just be "newest camera on flagship phone best to date (won't be as good as next year's)" Alternatively, "progress on camera technology continues to advance, see specifics here."
- lnsp 9y agoI always expect from new products in a line up to perform better than its brothers and sisters, because there is no reason in buying one if it would be worse than my old one.
- etchalon 9y agoI don't know that the incremental gains are unnoticeable, but we've definitely hit a point where no one camera is so vastly better than any other that the "winner" isn't going to change hands before you get a new phone.
- teovoinea 9y agoMost users don’t get each new phone iteration. If they upgrade every 3 or 4 years, those incremental updates add up to a noticeable difference.
- litzer 9y agoNotice that none of these images are zooming in on pixels to get the comparison. The fight for quality among high end DSLR's is nearing the description of unnoticeable difference, but phone cameras are benefitting immensely from new tech. In fact, it's probably the area where we see the most gain compared to any other improvements in iPhone versions. Perhaps your feeling is from the fact that new phones are released in rapid succession. If that's the case, just compare quality in phones a year or two apart instead of a few months.
- headcanon 9y agoas good as these cameras are, I feel like its a real missed opportunity not to partner with Canon or Nikon to get deep integration with their lens systems and essentially turn this into a DSLR that happens to use the iPhone as a sensor. I realize there are lens attachments in the wild but they're mostly trash, and its nowhere close to what it could be.
- Haul4ss 9y agoSmartphones have already killed off the casual camera market. I don't think Canon or Nikon would be willing to help Apple kill off the high-end camera market, too.
- Fifer82 9y agoIs it possible where cameras simply become so good on devices, that the next hollywood blockbuster is filmed on an iphone? I know that is ridiculous, but I remember a "1mp" camera was advertised everywhere as a thing for a phone to have. It wasn't that long ago really. Let's say your 2040 Iphone captures 4000mp of the entire visible scene. Then you have some special software that unicorns everything into amazing sauce. I know this is all pretty whimsical, but none the less, I feel that the path we are going down is one that Nikon and Canon can't finish.
- zimpenfish 9y ago> Is it possible [...] that the next hollywood blockbuster is filmed on an iphone? Yes. "How one of the best films at Sundance was shot using an iPhone 5S" https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/28/7925023/sundance-film-festival-2015-tangerine-iphone-5s https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/28/7925023/sundance-film-fes... Or if you want something a bit more Hollywood, Gondry is experimenting with it. "Michel Gondry debuts film shot entirely on Apple's iPhone 7" http://mashable.com/2017/07/01/michel-gondry-iphone-7-film/#9bgz2lJPokqu http://mashable.com/2017/07/01/michel-gondry-iphone-7-film/#...
- headcanon 9y agoThat's the thing though, they wouldn't be killing off anything except the $500 sensor shell. A DSLR is literally a lens platform. Let apple sell the razor, they can continue selling razorblades. Sell a "case" that holds and attaches lenses for a hundred bucks or so, bundle it with an app, and allow people to continue using the same lenses, which they make more money on anyway. Commercially, this would be a huge win for whichever of the camera giants decides to do this first. Additionally, under this model, the cost of the phone + case ($800 + $100) is higher than the cost of the DSLR sensor by itself (which runs about $600 new), so it doesn't necessarily make it obsolete, but it gives iPhone owners a lower barrier to entry for DSLR lenses, which I would imagine would drive lens sales quite a bit. I really don't see a downside here, if it's possible on a technical basis
- avaer 9y agoWith all of the processing wizardry that goes into phone cameras these days, gets me thinking: will we reach a point where cameras are digital paintbrushes that construct a human-pleasing image out of hints from the real world, rather than tools that capture the real world? There are probably plenty of people that will pay for a phone camera that makes them look less like themselves if it makes them look more attractive in subtle ways.
- dEnigma 9y agoEvery time a friend of mine bought a phone in a country like China or Korea, the camera app had built-in filters to smooth the face and prettify the eyes. Often times these were also the default setting. So I think we are already at that stage in some parts of the world
- LiquidFlux 9y agoSamsung did this with the Note 3, and I suspect other flagships around this time. The rear-facing camera would default to their 'Auto' mode, switch to the front-facing and you have to switch out of something like 'Beauty' mode with tons of post-processing for selfies.
- roywiggins 9y agoSelfies are inherently at a disadvantage, because shots are very close range with a wide angle lens exaggerate depth. Portrait photography is usually done with longer lenses, which you can't fake computationally so easily. So I think some of the selfie postprocessing is trying to make up for that.
- ballenf 9y agoAlso most people are "ugly" up close. As in, we see micro features that distract from the macro.
- jakebasile 9y agoHere's a conspiracy theory: what if some/most phones do this to some level noticeable only to the subconscious without any user knowledge of it happening? Maybe as some sort of marketing ploy to increase positive word of mouth. "Hey $FRIEND, this new phone is great! I can't believe how good it makes me look. You can really see my eyes. Check it out!"
- jmkni 9y agoAre they saying it's better than the X, or have they just not tested the X yet?
- slashink 9y agoThe article say that they haven’t tested X yet but they are looking forward to it as it adds OIS on both cameras.
- lucozade 9y agoNot tested yet. In the Conclusion, they say they're looking forward to testing the X.
- jk563 9y ago> We look forward to testing the iPhone X and comparing it against the iPhone 8 Plus Not yet tested.
- jrs95 9y agoAlthough it hasn't been tested yet, it's expected to be even better.
- r00fus 9y agoThe X isn't released, only announced. Hard to test without the gear...
- jmkni 9y agoFair enough!
- X86BSD 9y agoThis article here is the reason why Apple is killing others it competes with. No one else goes to these lengths to perfect some feature. They just don't care. It's the reason the iPhone 8 is also years ahead of android phones in speed. https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/22/how-apple-perfected-portrait-lighting/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/22/how-apple-perfected-por...
- cromwellian 9y agoIt's not perfect though, there are examples in some reviews of the feature screwing up and clipping fairs or giving odd shading.
- X86BSD 9y agoOf course not. I was not making the claim it was perfect. Merely that only Apple goes to the lengths they do to try to make perfect things. You think samsung and google are running around studying paintings to try and understand the nuances of various styles and lighting? Hell no. They just through a common image processor in their phone and write some software to use it and call it a day. That's all I was saying. Apple goes really deep into things to understand how to make something better. I don't know any corporation other than Apple that dives that deep into details.
- cromwellian 9y agoActually, the camera teams at Google does camera studies. Apple is just much better at hyping and marketing what they do. I mean, Google runs the Google Cultural Institute and has photographed more artwork and paintings and sculptures than Apple has, and has constructed special cameras just for photographing such work, and special software focused on art preservation. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOrJesw5ET8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOrJesw5ET8) If Google just ships common stuff, then why did the Pixel score industry leading numbers on camera, beating the iPhone 7? And doesn't Apple ship Sony image censors, Qualcomm modems, and Samsung OLED displays? Or their "GPU" which is in fact, a licensed PowerVR IP. You're buying into marketing hype. Apple's last keynote marketed 4K HDR as if they had invented it, they're marketing HEVC motion compensation as if they did something no one else had done, they sell "True Tone" displays, which aren't a feature of the display at all, but just adjusting color temperature based on ambient light sensor, which is something Samsung phones have been shipping for years. Google and Android vendors do a piss poor job of calling attention to details they've obsessed over, while Apple deploys Johnny Ive to talk about chamfered edges. All this creates a mythos that Apple is the only company that cares about details.
- askdufuga 9y agoThe Pixel photos are the best of the lot. I don't understand why the author thinks the iPhone 8+ is better, except that it's newer and from Apple. Pixel: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pixels-IMG_20170921_113146.jpg https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pixels-IM... iPhone 8: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ip8Plus-IMG_0660a.jpg https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ip8Plus-I... That's not even close. Wider angle. Better range of contrast. Better sharpness of details. Hard to say which is truer to the colors without being there, but the colors look better on the Pixel. ---------- Edit: By their own ratings, the Pixel phone beats the iPhone on every metric scored: Pixel v. iPhone 8+ 90 - 89 :Exposure & Contrast 85 - 78 :Color 93 - 74 :Autofocus 93 - 64 :Texture 89 - 68 :Noise 84 - 73 :Artifacts 88 - 84 :Flash -------- 89 - 96 :Final Score How does the iPhone receive an overall rating substantially higher than its highest individual rating?
- usaphp 9y agoDon’t you see that the face colors on the pixel are not realistic, she looks dead white. Also try zoom into her face, you will see how much worse the quality is as well
- askdufuga 9y agoFirst, we're comparing a 2048 x 1536 photo to a 4032x3024... so of course the iPhone will have better detail when zoomed in. As for color, that is somewhat up for debate. I would say that the color of her lipstick in the iPhone looks unrealistic and she's probably not nearly as tan as the iPhone makes her look.
- usaphp 9y agoWell it’s a better second camera in iPhone that allows optical zoom, I don’t see why we should disregard that fact in comparison?
- alexeldeib 9y agoI think that particular photo could go either way. Personally, I went from an iPhone 6 to a Pixel and then to the 7 plus, and I find the camera lacking in comparison to the pixel now. The front camera is fine, but the back camera on the Pixel was faster, sharper, and produced more vivid colors. Can't speak to the 8, but I personally found the test images not representative of the Pixel's quality in comparison to the other models listed.
- SurrealSoul 9y agohttps://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-camera-review-retested-new-dxomark-mobile-protocols/ https://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-camera-review-retested-... should we really be praising a 4 point increase from a camera that has been out for two years and cost $150 less on launch? Don't get me wrong, the iPhone 8 has a good camera, and it is marginally better than the pixel's, but is this really enough to celebrate?
- jk563 9y agoContext: - 8+: 94 - 8: 92 - Pixel / HTC U11: 90
- dsr_ 9y agoDid Apple actually put different hardware and/or software in the 8+ vs the 8, or are we seeing the inevitable result of random hardware variation accounting for a 2 point swing? Has anyone run an objective test on, say, ten iPhone 8 units vs 10 iPhone 8+ units? Other than Apple?
- SurrealSoul 9y agoYes, the 8+ for whatever reason has a more premium camera
- thinkythought 9y agothe 8+ has 2x optical zoom via the second sensor, that's the only real difference
- terda12 9y agoAs someone who owns a $1300 Fuji x100F, color me impressed. The only thing really separating my Fuji from the iPhone 8 is the level of detail when zoomed in, otherwise the images just look great. The performance of these smartphone cameras is getting closer and closer to DSLR's nowadays. However the level of zoomed in detail still can't compete, but most consumers don't care anyway because most just want to take pics of their food and post on instagram.
- slig 9y agoI have the x100T and I'm considering selling it before it's too late. I love that camera, but now it's close enough to something that is in my pocket all the time.
- tel 9y agoThat seems wrong... Your x100F has an APS-C sensor and is going to benefit from better dynamic range and low light performance for it. The iPhone can use its auto HDR magic to recover dynamic range but that's gotta have an impact with moving subjects. The noise is accounted for by noise reduction and that will cause mushiness and loss of detail. I haven't seen an analysis, but I'd also imagine that the x100F is going to have a vastly more performant lens in terms of things like overall sharpness, microcontrast, and focal plane performance. The iPhone 8 is doing some post processor magic to do lighting and bokeh in a way that is difficult to replicate either physically or in post. This is really nice! That said, real bokeh will be hard to beat even with AI as it depends a lot on the three-dimensional information available at the time of capture. AI will have to re-create that stuff and will always be an approximation. Of course, your x100F isn't going to be a bokeh monster, but other cameras at that level compare here. You're right in that for IG food shots it's never going to matter and that's great because the iPhone created a golden age of photography, tbh. But it's silly to say that this hardware can compare to pro hardware. If you're shooting with pro hardware it's because you're going to push performance in some way or another and those are the times that an iPhone can't keep up. That said, these AI improvements can help push performance as they improve and I'd love to see Apple work with a camera company to incorporate them.
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- jasonmaydie 9y agoI'm skeptical. They've been saying this about iphones for years and my immediate family members who use iphones thing it has a crappy camera
- vwcx 9y agoMore revolutionary than the camera itself is the new image compression Apple is introducing. Can take all the photos in the world but we've still need to store them for all eternity. The effect of the image compression will be felt decades from now, whereas the marginal optical gain from the 7 Plus to the 8 Plus won't even be noticeable.
- cooper12 9y agoThe problem get exacerbated by the fact that nearly every so-called picture friendly sharing service (Facebook, Instagram, etc) recompresses the shit out of uploads, destroying detail and mushing colors. It was so bad that I told my friend one of his shots was out of focus, except it was perfectly sharp in the original. I get that bandwidth and storage cost money, but there should be certain limits to how far you compress, or these services should use better formats (the state of the art is really promising).
- majormajor 9y ago> More revolutionary than the camera itself is the new image compression Apple is introducing. Can take all the photos in the world but we've still need to store them for all eternity. The effect of the image compression will be felt decades from now, whereas the marginal optical gain from the 7 Plus to the 8 Plus won't even be noticeable. I think you've got this exactly backwards. In forty years a slightly better image will still be slightly better, but a 5MB vs a 10MB file will be as meaningless as comparing a 50KB vs a 100KB text file is today.
- mtw 9y agoNote : take the review with a pinch of salt. DXOmark do not review phones or cameras from companies that are not "collaborating" with them. They also have paid partnerships with a few manufacturers (see Oneplus 5 launch). In this case, DXOMark magically added a metric (bokeh and zoom) just one week after the iPhone 8 review. Of course this is a good plus for Apple. Before iPhones were behind Google Pixel, behind HTC U11, Samsung S8+. They were not in the top 10. Now magically, they get to be on top. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a discussion or collaboration between doxmark and apple to review their metrics to have iPhone 8 and X under the best light possible
- Zelizz 9y agoWhat were the 10 phones above the iPhone before?
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- guelo 9y agoComparing their subscores it's obvious that without the new zoom and bokeh categories the Pixel would have stayed on top. Pixel v iPhone 8+ 90 - 89 : Exposure and Contrast 80 - 78 : Color 98 - 74 : Autofocus 70 - 64 : Texture 65 - 68 : Noise 50 - 73 : Artifacts 81 - 84 : Flash 24 - 51 : Zoom 30 - 55 : Bokeh 91 - 89 : Video I guess picking the "best" comes down to how important those features are to each customer. Though Google isn't standing still, the Pixel 2 is announced in two weeks.
- bitexploder 9y agoAs a Pixel owner I must say it's camera is very good. I used iPhones for a long time due to security features. Pixel's camera and reasonable hardware security lured me away. Pixel has no pure equivalent to Secure Enclave, but it is good enough. The HDR+ on it is great.
- danjoc 9y agoSmartphone cameras are so good now, the differences in photo quality are pretty negligible between flagships. IMO, DxOMark basically makes mountains out of mole hills. Given the option, I'd rather have killer new features like 3D scanning [1] than a bokeh effect which is slightly better to a trained eye. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/31/16232720/sony-xperia-xz1-3d-creator-ifa-2017 https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/31/16232720/sony-xperia-xz1-...
- 0xbear 9y agoIt’s also apparently well over twice as fast as the latest Android phones. Essentially the latest Android phones are about as fast as iPhone 6s on realistic workloads. iPhone 6s is two years old. That’s what happens when you derive revenue from selling hardware and not ads.
- brudgers 9y agoThe interior low light photo of the kitchen is quite impressive. But I'm not sure it was taken with just an iPhone. + The sink faucet has a shadow that comes from a low light source to the right. + The rest of the appliances on the counter cast shadows upward and toward the windows.
- arrty88 9y agoThe X is better yet right? Will it best the pixel 2?