8 ms·

iPhone 8 Plus Camera Review

136 points by ruang 9y ago

tobyhinloopen 9y ago
In Today's news: A newer model iPhone has a better camera than the previous model. Neat new features though, like that "slow sync". Why don't older models get "slow sync" though? It seems like something that is controlled by software
- pvinis 9y ago
  Like Apple say in every single event they do: "It's the most powerful iPhone ever with the most amazing camera ever". Of course it is.. it was announced today.. :|
  - dx034 9y ago
    It's still amazing that we see visible progress every year. apart from zoom, phone cameras are now in many situations on par with many dedicated cameras. We shouldn't take for granted that Apple can produce such improvements despite the space restrictions.
    - pvinis 9y ago
      I agree, and I am happy for the progress every single year. But this marketing makes me cringe every time. Can't they think of some other adjective to describe the changes for each new thing/update?
    - jordache 9y ago
      Why is space a critical variable? the sensor in question is tiny. The rest are software and the phone's CPU. It doesn't mean if the iphone8 was designed to be 2x thicker, Apple could have done much more with the camera quality.
- sdrothrock 9y ago
  All of these except the "smarter sensor" seem like software features -- I wonder if it's technically impossible to get them on the iPhone 7 or if it's just a matter of differentiation.
  - robmcm 9y ago
    I expect you could but perhaps not with a very good experience. I think a lot of the lighting modes rely heavily on doing that work in real time, rather than in post processing. It could be that it's just too laggy without the new processor. That and Apple make their money from selling this hardware, so having software that only runs on new devices helps sell them.
  - aorth 9y ago
    An honest iPhone 8 launch event would say "we improved the camera hardware but also had some fantastic breakthroughs in the camera software, and we'll be backporting those to all supported models in iOS 11". The pessimist in me says that nobody would buy an iPhone 8 if they did this. Wait a second, now that I've thought it through it's obvious that this is exactly why they didn't backport the software improvements to previous iPhones. :)
    - jamesrcole 9y ago
      > The pessimist in me says that nobody would buy an iPhone 8 if they did this People with an iPhone 4, 5 or 6 have more reason to upgrade to an 8 rather than a 7 than just the camera.
      - imtringued 9y ago
        I think his argument is that they are not backporting other software features including those that are unrelated to the camera.
        jamesrcole 9y ago
        The improvements aren't just to the software. There's non-software reasons for a, say, iPhone 5 user, to upgrade to an 8 over a 7.
- jamesrcole 9y ago
  > In Today's news: A newer model iPhone has a better camera than the previous model. Except that, the point of a review is to go into details - in this case to outline the ways in which it has improved, and how much each of those has improved
AOsborn 9y ago
That is some of the best SEO/content marketing I have seen all year. Nice camera review too. Have already passed the link to a number of friends.
rangibaby 9y ago
This isn't a review. It is a competent photographer showing off. Which is fine, but you should be aware of it while reading. 1. The fake bokeh looks surprisingly good. I don't think any of my non-technical friends would be able to spot it on their own. 2. These pictures are absolute best-cases for the iPhone (or any) camera. For headshots with well-chosen natural light as in these pics a picture taken with an iPhone 4 would look almost as good. "Studio lighting" and other tricks won't fix bad light. Neither will a $6,500 Nikon D5 with a $1,000+ lens. 3. Nikon, Canon et al need to try harder. Cellphones have already replaced several categories of "real" cameras, and they keep improving every year.
- mtgx 9y ago
  Nikon and Canon should have gotten into the licensing game with smartphone manufacturers. And by that I don't mean suing their asses off "because patents". They should've started making camera modules and lenses and sensors for smartphones 4-5 years ago. Now it may already be too late. In 5 years, even amateur photographers won't be using DSLRs, at the rate smartphone computational photography is improving. Just look at these cropped images over a span of 4 years: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/asian_old_guy_apple_comparison.png https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/asian_old... They got disrupted and like most incumbents, they failed to capitalize on the disruption "because it could eat their margins" or whatever their reason for not getting into the smartphone market was.
  - new299 9y ago
    Mostly I'd guess they don't have the fabrication capability to do this. Nikon as far as I can tell doesn't make any of their own sensors. Canon doesn't make the sensors in their cheaper cameras (from what I can tell from googling, and my own teardowns). Sony does, and a number of smartphones use Sony sensors.
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    > In 5 years, even amateur photographers won't be using DSLRs, at the rate smartphone computational photography is improving. I call BS, if by "amateur photographers" you're talking about enthusiasts who care about composing and exposing a great shot, not just taking a nice picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. It's like someone in 2012 saying "at the rate smartphone input apps are progressing, in 5 years no-one will buy physical keyboards for their computers." The reason someone carries a DSLR today is because of the optics, the speed and the control mechanisms. Having shutter speed, aperture, white balance etc. at your fingertips when shooting. Having the ability to switch from a 105mm portrait lens to a 20mm fisheye. Having that rapid autofocus and response time that lets you capture great shots. Having 14 bit RAW files that you can post-process to save that reflex once-in-a-lifetime shot that was underexposed. Having the ability to mount a flash off-camera (or even three strobes). Those are things you can never get on an iPhone or Samsung. Nikon, Canon etc. have already "bled dry" of customers going to smartphones instead of DSLRs, and at this point their business models look fairly stable. The share price of both companies has also been fairly stable for the past 3-4 years; both are up 30% over the past year, although that (and a lot of their volatility) is tied to the JPY:USD exchange rate.
rem1313 9y ago
The marshmallow comparison was spot-on at the end :)
cphaynes 9y ago
I got the 8 Plus (upgrade from the 6S Plus), mainly for the camera. Lugging my Nikon D610 has become a pain in the ass. I wish iOS would allow native DNG (RAW) captures with their camera app. They added HEIC but not DNG? It'd be so much faster to snap a pic and capture DNG with the native app, rather than firing up LR Mobile / VSCO, etc.
- MBCook 9y ago
  The native Camera app doesn’t have it but iOS 10 included the ability for apps to get the raw sensor data. I imagine there are third-party apps that provide it.
- ashman5 9y ago
  While I agree, I speculate that Apple doesn't allow this simply for iCloud Photo Library backup aspects. The HEIC/HEVC save backup space. Backing up RAW/DNG would be data costly. I realize there are ways around this, but it's not Apple's style.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    There are apps like ProCam that take RAW images and save them to the camera roll, they sync over iCloud Photo Library without issue. I think the normal user is just fine with JPEG or HEIF and the space savings are more important, so Apple has kept it out of Camera.app.
    - spike021 9y ago
      I'm not sure why they couldn't, though. They provide several different format options for recording video, like 1080p vs 4K.
      - snuxoll 9y ago
        Yeah, but at the end of the day the different video settings still use "standard" formats that a normal consumer can open on their desktop or laptop. HEIF being the real outlier, changing any of the settings buried in Settings.app for the built-in Camera.app doesn't effect the ability of a normal user to view their content on a current operating system (Windows 10 or macOS High Sierra). RAW images change all of that - Windows 10 has really basic support for some RAW formats, and there are some workarounds like RAW+JPEG in ProCam but it results in two separate files combined as one "image" in your iCloud Photo library, syncing this to a Windows PC results in two files and just confuses users (macOS works around this by hiding everything in the Photo Library, invisible to most users).
gnicholas 9y ago
There are lots of reviews popping up about iPhone 8 vs iPhone 7. What I'd like to see is a side-by-side of Portrait Mode on: iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 10, iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 11, and iPhone 8 Plus.
bogomipz 9y ago
TL;DR: This is little more than an advertisement for luxury tour operator Ker and Downey and the luxury hotel brand The Taj Group masquerading as an Apple hardware review.
JustAnotherPat 9y ago
These photos all have a very "Shot on the Iphone" feel. Can't tell if it's because Iphones excel at one type of picture or because Apple/this reviewer feels the need to go all the way to India to test out a phone camera.
grandalf 9y ago
A top performing smart phone "camera" is really just the algorithm that creates a psychologically appealing composition. Note that AI is not being used to (simply) mimic a better sensor and lens, there is all sorts of stuff going on in the algorithms that a photographer would do in photoshop or in the dark room. The problem is, there is a specific aesthetic being targeted, and this removes some of the artistry from photography. I think there is a fundamental difference between a) the camera capturing multiple depths of field, focal points, etc., and then allowing the user to make the final decision in post production and b) the camera computationally simulating lens effects and lighting effects in the way that snapchat filters widen eyes and add animal ears. Cameras are supposed to capture reality, not create a postcard-like view of whatever was in range or generate a flattering selfie. These reviews should not be called camera reviews, they should be called "image algorithm reviews". What's next, phones whose "microphones" make our voices sound more masculine or flirtatious?
- notheguyouthink 9y ago
  To a degree I do sort of like it though. Personally, I don't try to take artistic photos with my phone. To me, my phone offers an in-the-moment photo, not something I want to flex my artistic muscle with. For that, I would.. well, flex my artistic muscle. I would use my artistic knowledge and or tools (what little of both I have lol) like lenses, DSLRs, etc - to capture/create what I'm aiming for. I understand that's not the same for everyone - but I enjoy the idea of my phone making the "pop music" of digital photography. Hell, I can't even zoom in without compromising quality. I just use it to document.
- jbob2000 9y ago
  I am really afraid of the direction "camera algorithms" are going. My partner, bless her to death, prefers to take pictures on Snapchat now instead of any other app. Mainly because the filters there make your nose smaller, eyes bigger, and alter some of the other facial dimensions to make you look prettier. We are going to end up in some weird future where everyone looks beautiful digitally, but, uhh, "normal" in reality.
  - 9y ago
denisehilton 9y ago
never been a fan of iphone camera but this is next level. For iphone standards at least.
coverband 9y ago
Isn't it possible to offer the "Slow Sync" feature on older models like 6/6s? I would assume this would be software controlled... Maybe another camera app has this already?

136 points by ruang 9y ago

In Today's news: A newer model iPhone has a better camera than the previous model. Neat new features though, like that "slow sync". Why don't older models get "slow sync" though? It seems like something that is controlled by software

pvinis 9y ago
Like Apple say in every single event they do: "It's the most powerful iPhone ever with the most amazing camera ever". Of course it is.. it was announced today.. :|
- dx034 9y ago
  It's still amazing that we see visible progress every year. apart from zoom, phone cameras are now in many situations on par with many dedicated cameras. We shouldn't take for granted that Apple can produce such improvements despite the space restrictions.
  - pvinis 9y ago
    I agree, and I am happy for the progress every single year. But this marketing makes me cringe every time. Can't they think of some other adjective to describe the changes for each new thing/update?
  - jordache 9y ago
    Why is space a critical variable? the sensor in question is tiny. The rest are software and the phone's CPU. It doesn't mean if the iphone8 was designed to be 2x thicker, Apple could have done much more with the camera quality.
sdrothrock 9y ago
All of these except the "smarter sensor" seem like software features -- I wonder if it's technically impossible to get them on the iPhone 7 or if it's just a matter of differentiation.
- robmcm 9y ago
  I expect you could but perhaps not with a very good experience. I think a lot of the lighting modes rely heavily on doing that work in real time, rather than in post processing. It could be that it's just too laggy without the new processor. That and Apple make their money from selling this hardware, so having software that only runs on new devices helps sell them.
- aorth 9y ago
  An honest iPhone 8 launch event would say "we improved the camera hardware but also had some fantastic breakthroughs in the camera software, and we'll be backporting those to all supported models in iOS 11". The pessimist in me says that nobody would buy an iPhone 8 if they did this. Wait a second, now that I've thought it through it's obvious that this is exactly why they didn't backport the software improvements to previous iPhones. :)
  - jamesrcole 9y ago
    > The pessimist in me says that nobody would buy an iPhone 8 if they did this People with an iPhone 4, 5 or 6 have more reason to upgrade to an 8 rather than a 7 than just the camera.
    - imtringued 9y ago
      I think his argument is that they are not backporting other software features including those that are unrelated to the camera.
      - jamesrcole 9y ago
        The improvements aren't just to the software. There's non-software reasons for a, say, iPhone 5 user, to upgrade to an 8 over a 7.
jamesrcole 9y ago
> In Today's news: A newer model iPhone has a better camera than the previous model. Except that, the point of a review is to go into details - in this case to outline the ways in which it has improved, and how much each of those has improved

AOsborn 9y ago

That is some of the best SEO/content marketing I have seen all year. Nice camera review too. Have already passed the link to a number of friends.

rangibaby 9y ago

This isn't a review. It is a competent photographer showing off. Which is fine, but you should be aware of it while reading. 1. The fake bokeh looks surprisingly good. I don't think any of my non-technical friends would be able to spot it on their own. 2. These pictures are absolute best-cases for the iPhone (or any) camera. For headshots with well-chosen natural light as in these pics a picture taken with an iPhone 4 would look almost as good. "Studio lighting" and other tricks won't fix bad light. Neither will a $6,500 Nikon D5 with a $1,000+ lens. 3. Nikon, Canon et al need to try harder. Cellphones have already replaced several categories of "real" cameras, and they keep improving every year.

mtgx 9y ago
Nikon and Canon should have gotten into the licensing game with smartphone manufacturers. And by that I don't mean suing their asses off "because patents". They should've started making camera modules and lenses and sensors for smartphones 4-5 years ago. Now it may already be too late. In 5 years, even amateur photographers won't be using DSLRs, at the rate smartphone computational photography is improving. Just look at these cropped images over a span of 4 years: https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/asian_old_guy_apple_comparison.png https://cdn.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/asian_old... They got disrupted and like most incumbents, they failed to capitalize on the disruption "because it could eat their margins" or whatever their reason for not getting into the smartphone market was.
- new299 9y ago
  Mostly I'd guess they don't have the fabrication capability to do this. Nikon as far as I can tell doesn't make any of their own sensors. Canon doesn't make the sensors in their cheaper cameras (from what I can tell from googling, and my own teardowns). Sony does, and a number of smartphones use Sony sensors.
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  > In 5 years, even amateur photographers won't be using DSLRs, at the rate smartphone computational photography is improving. I call BS, if by "amateur photographers" you're talking about enthusiasts who care about composing and exposing a great shot, not just taking a nice picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. It's like someone in 2012 saying "at the rate smartphone input apps are progressing, in 5 years no-one will buy physical keyboards for their computers." The reason someone carries a DSLR today is because of the optics, the speed and the control mechanisms. Having shutter speed, aperture, white balance etc. at your fingertips when shooting. Having the ability to switch from a 105mm portrait lens to a 20mm fisheye. Having that rapid autofocus and response time that lets you capture great shots. Having 14 bit RAW files that you can post-process to save that reflex once-in-a-lifetime shot that was underexposed. Having the ability to mount a flash off-camera (or even three strobes). Those are things you can never get on an iPhone or Samsung. Nikon, Canon etc. have already "bled dry" of customers going to smartphones instead of DSLRs, and at this point their business models look fairly stable. The share price of both companies has also been fairly stable for the past 3-4 years; both are up 30% over the past year, although that (and a lot of their volatility) is tied to the JPY:USD exchange rate.

rem1313 9y ago

The marshmallow comparison was spot-on at the end :)

cphaynes 9y ago

I got the 8 Plus (upgrade from the 6S Plus), mainly for the camera. Lugging my Nikon D610 has become a pain in the ass. I wish iOS would allow native DNG (RAW) captures with their camera app. They added HEIC but not DNG? It'd be so much faster to snap a pic and capture DNG with the native app, rather than firing up LR Mobile / VSCO, etc.

MBCook 9y ago
The native Camera app doesn’t have it but iOS 10 included the ability for apps to get the raw sensor data. I imagine there are third-party apps that provide it.
ashman5 9y ago
While I agree, I speculate that Apple doesn't allow this simply for iCloud Photo Library backup aspects. The HEIC/HEVC save backup space. Backing up RAW/DNG would be data costly. I realize there are ways around this, but it's not Apple's style.
- snuxoll 9y ago
  There are apps like ProCam that take RAW images and save them to the camera roll, they sync over iCloud Photo Library without issue. I think the normal user is just fine with JPEG or HEIF and the space savings are more important, so Apple has kept it out of Camera.app.
  - spike021 9y ago
    I'm not sure why they couldn't, though. They provide several different format options for recording video, like 1080p vs 4K.
    - snuxoll 9y ago
      Yeah, but at the end of the day the different video settings still use "standard" formats that a normal consumer can open on their desktop or laptop. HEIF being the real outlier, changing any of the settings buried in Settings.app for the built-in Camera.app doesn't effect the ability of a normal user to view their content on a current operating system (Windows 10 or macOS High Sierra). RAW images change all of that - Windows 10 has really basic support for some RAW formats, and there are some workarounds like RAW+JPEG in ProCam but it results in two separate files combined as one "image" in your iCloud Photo library, syncing this to a Windows PC results in two files and just confuses users (macOS works around this by hiding everything in the Photo Library, invisible to most users).

gnicholas 9y ago

There are lots of reviews popping up about iPhone 8 vs iPhone 7. What I'd like to see is a side-by-side of Portrait Mode on: iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 10, iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 11, and iPhone 8 Plus.

bogomipz 9y ago

TL;DR: This is little more than an advertisement for luxury tour operator Ker and Downey and the luxury hotel brand The Taj Group masquerading as an Apple hardware review.

JustAnotherPat 9y ago

These photos all have a very "Shot on the Iphone" feel. Can't tell if it's because Iphones excel at one type of picture or because Apple/this reviewer feels the need to go all the way to India to test out a phone camera.

grandalf 9y ago

A top performing smart phone "camera" is really just the algorithm that creates a psychologically appealing composition. Note that AI is not being used to (simply) mimic a better sensor and lens, there is all sorts of stuff going on in the algorithms that a photographer would do in photoshop or in the dark room. The problem is, there is a specific aesthetic being targeted, and this removes some of the artistry from photography. I think there is a fundamental difference between a) the camera capturing multiple depths of field, focal points, etc., and then allowing the user to make the final decision in post production and b) the camera computationally simulating lens effects and lighting effects in the way that snapchat filters widen eyes and add animal ears. Cameras are supposed to capture reality, not create a postcard-like view of whatever was in range or generate a flattering selfie. These reviews should not be called camera reviews, they should be called "image algorithm reviews". What's next, phones whose "microphones" make our voices sound more masculine or flirtatious?

notheguyouthink 9y ago
To a degree I do sort of like it though. Personally, I don't try to take artistic photos with my phone. To me, my phone offers an in-the-moment photo, not something I want to flex my artistic muscle with. For that, I would.. well, flex my artistic muscle. I would use my artistic knowledge and or tools (what little of both I have lol) like lenses, DSLRs, etc - to capture/create what I'm aiming for. I understand that's not the same for everyone - but I enjoy the idea of my phone making the "pop music" of digital photography. Hell, I can't even zoom in without compromising quality. I just use it to document.
jbob2000 9y ago
I am really afraid of the direction "camera algorithms" are going. My partner, bless her to death, prefers to take pictures on Snapchat now instead of any other app. Mainly because the filters there make your nose smaller, eyes bigger, and alter some of the other facial dimensions to make you look prettier. We are going to end up in some weird future where everyone looks beautiful digitally, but, uhh, "normal" in reality.
- 9y ago

denisehilton 9y ago

never been a fan of iphone camera but this is next level. For iphone standards at least.

coverband 9y ago

Isn't it possible to offer the "Slow Sync" feature on older models like 6/6s? I would assume this would be software controlled... Maybe another camera app has this already?