In recent years, Apple has not stopped repeating that the iPhone is “the most popular camera in the world.” With each new generation, they try to improve it and make one wonder if we really need to continue loading with a traditional camera. So as amateur photographer I am, I decided to check it for myself.
I left my cameras at home, I kept the goals and left for a week to photograph exclusively with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The result? Lights and shadows. More shadows than I expected.
Is the iPhone better photos than a camera?
The first thing to say is that, indeed, the iPhone 15 pro max, and by extension the 16 pro max, which is almost identical in this sense, offers a photographic experience that, in many cases, is more than very good. Can Shoot in Rawsomething vital for a photographer, you have access to simulated focal distances, the portrait mode has improved and the HDR miracles in scenes with a lot of contrast. At the software level, the iPhone camera is a beast.
But when we talk about photography seriously, and I do not mean taking a photo to upload a story to Instagram, the limitations begin to appear. The most obvious is the Sensor size. However advanced the iphone process, physics rules. In good light conditions, the results are very good, even surprising. But when the light falls, the digital noise appears, the sharpness suffers and that supposed “magic” of the night mode does not always endure a serious edition in Lightroom.
And then there is the theme of the zoom. Apple has done a great job by introducing the tetraprisma lens to reach the equivalent of a 120 mm, but it is still digital from a certain point. There is no possible comparison with a real teleobjective. In scenes where you need to trim or make a good frame at a distance, the iPhone falls short.
Another factor that I missed was the possibility of Change goal. It sounds obvious, but when you have been accustomed to the freedom of 35 mm, an 85 mm or a real great angle, working with fixed simulations can be very limiting. Not everything is resolved with “approach or get away.” The blur, the real field depth, the compression of a teleobjective … all that cannot be simulated at least, at least not yet.
And let's talk about expansion. Many of the photos I took with the iPhone seemed great on screen. But when I passed them to the computer and tried to edit them as I would do with a file of a Full Frame camera, it was like taking some glasses. The fine details did not endure, the contours were lost when expanding and the dynamic range, although decent, did not give so much margin of recovery in shadows and high lights.
Does this mean that the iPhone does not work as the main camera? Depends. For social networks, trips with the family, take pictures of your children or even short videos, it is an impressive tool. You take it out of pocket and shoot, without thinking about anything else, and on many occasions, that is appreciated. But when you are looking for that “something else”, when you not only take photos but you think about them as something lasting, the iPhone stays one step behind.
Using the iPhone as the only camera for a week has taught me yes, you can capture great images with it. But he also reminded me why I'm still using a real camera. The mobile is immediate, practical and increasingly powerful, but photography, at least as I understand it, You need time, intention and control. And there, the iPhone still has a way to go.
