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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 surprising

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.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - shawnz 9y ago
    > Those are things you can never get on an iPhone or Samsung. Why couldn't you have adjustable white balance, rapid autofocus, high response time, high bit depth, external flash, etc on a smartphone camera? These seem like things which should be possible even with today's technology.
    - ch4s3 9y ago
      >adjustable white balance You probably eventually will. >rapid autofocus Probably physical limitations. DSLRs have lots of space and dedicated hardware for making this fast. >high bit depth No clue >external flash sure
    - dognotdog 9y ago
      I think once the smartphone's internal capabilities are exceeded, a "System" (as in put together from multiple parts) DSLR or Mirrorless has more advantages: - if you need more parts, eg. flash, you go from having one thing in your pocket to carrying a bag anyway - dedicated UI and buttons for adjustments while shooting without having to look away from your subject or having to change your grip - much larger sensors means more light to work with during shooting and post-processing - dedicated glass that you can't quite yet replicate with light-field tech The smartphone can do many of the things a dedicated camera can, it's just not as good on almost all fronts, and much worse in some aspects. You can under more and more conditions get images that rival DSLRs, but not ALL condititions: If you can control time, light, and subject all at once, a dedicated camera can be matched. If you can't control of only one, grab a dedicated camera. The tactile UI is one major gripe against smartphone photography for pros and enthusiasts alike, which is why a phone to some extent needs to be smart/automatic, and while today's image sensors straight beat the pants off any predecessing image sensors, physics still poses hard limits on noise and light capture. Today's image sensors are very close to be able to count individual photons, and making the sensor larger means being able to capture more of them at a time. Tricks are being worked on to extend dynamic range and lower noise (like double exposure HDR), so image quality still increases, but the larger image sensors profit from those developments just as much as the small phone ones. The days of small image sensors being good enough to beat a human eye are still far off. TL;DR: dedicated tactile UI, physical interfaces, physics, can't quite be beat by all the high-tech we can pack in a smartphone package.
motdiem 9y ago
The article includes some shot by shot comparison between the iphone 7 and 8 - I found those useful as a comparison point. For more reference, it's worth also checking his previous reviews for the iPhone 7 and iPhone6 - It gives a pretty good idea of the progress made.

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.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- shawnz 9y ago
  > Those are things you can never get on an iPhone or Samsung. Why couldn't you have adjustable white balance, rapid autofocus, high response time, high bit depth, external flash, etc on a smartphone camera? These seem like things which should be possible even with today's technology.
  - ch4s3 9y ago
    >adjustable white balance You probably eventually will. >rapid autofocus Probably physical limitations. DSLRs have lots of space and dedicated hardware for making this fast. >high bit depth No clue >external flash sure
  - dognotdog 9y ago
    I think once the smartphone's internal capabilities are exceeded, a "System" (as in put together from multiple parts) DSLR or Mirrorless has more advantages: - if you need more parts, eg. flash, you go from having one thing in your pocket to carrying a bag anyway - dedicated UI and buttons for adjustments while shooting without having to look away from your subject or having to change your grip - much larger sensors means more light to work with during shooting and post-processing - dedicated glass that you can't quite yet replicate with light-field tech The smartphone can do many of the things a dedicated camera can, it's just not as good on almost all fronts, and much worse in some aspects. You can under more and more conditions get images that rival DSLRs, but not ALL condititions: If you can control time, light, and subject all at once, a dedicated camera can be matched. If you can't control of only one, grab a dedicated camera. The tactile UI is one major gripe against smartphone photography for pros and enthusiasts alike, which is why a phone to some extent needs to be smart/automatic, and while today's image sensors straight beat the pants off any predecessing image sensors, physics still poses hard limits on noise and light capture. Today's image sensors are very close to be able to count individual photons, and making the sensor larger means being able to capture more of them at a time. Tricks are being worked on to extend dynamic range and lower noise (like double exposure HDR), so image quality still increases, but the larger image sensors profit from those developments just as much as the small phone ones. The days of small image sensors being good enough to beat a human eye are still far off. TL;DR: dedicated tactile UI, physical interfaces, physics, can't quite be beat by all the high-tech we can pack in a smartphone package.

motdiem 9y ago

The article includes some shot by shot comparison between the iphone 7 and 8 - I found those useful as a comparison point. For more reference, it's worth also checking his previous reviews for the iPhone 7 and iPhone6 - It gives a pretty good idea of the progress made.