Soooo I picked up an iPhone 7 over the weekend.  I’ve named it Regina, and she’s great.

Anyway, quickly moving past why the heck someone would name an iPhone, my immediate priority was to test out the new camera!  Like I mentioned in my reaction post about the iPhone 7, it features a 12 megapixel camera and for the first time can shoot in RAW format!

(for those of you who don’t know what RAW format is, basically it’s a flat readout of everything the sensor sees, so although the images tend to look worse right out of the camera, when you edit them in software you can really bring them to life in ways a JPG cannot.  I shoot literally every picture I take in RAW format)

Since the iPhone now shoots in RAW, it bears the question: is it in any way comparable to my Sony a7rII?  Should I throw away my Sony or give it to a random reader in my next giveaway?

The Challengers

This is my Sony a7rII.  It’s a beast of a camera with a massive 42.4 megapixel sensor.

a black camera with a round lens

Sony a7rII

Affixed to the beast is one of the best lenses Sony makes, the 24-70 f2.8 G Master.

close up of a camera lens

G Master lens on my a7rII

And this is the press image of my iPhone 7.  It’s jet black and very sleek.  It has a 12 megapixel camera and no interchangeable lens.

a close up of a cell phone

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

The Challenge

I took my favorite Dr. Mario Amiibo figurine and put it on my balcony.  I took a picture with the a7rII and then with the iPhone 7.  I then edited the images in Lightroom Mobile using the exact same settings and cropped the images so they would look as similar as possible.  I then exported them to 2048 pixels on each end, which is pretty high resolution for viewing on a website.   What I’m now going to do is post them in a gallery with the order randomized.

Can you tell which is which?

 

Well…did you get it right?

You may have gotten it right, but you’re missing the point.  My new smartphone’s camera quality isn’t that much different than a camera and lens combo that cost over $5000!  I’m very pleased at the camera quality on the iPhone 7!  While yeah you’re right I couldn’t blow up the image from the iPhone as big as I could the image from the a7rII, for sharing images on social media the difference is honestly much more narrow than I thought it would be.

So no more excuses, whether you choose to use your smartphone or your massive awesome beastly camera, get out there and get some photos!

 

What did you think?  Isn’t the camera quality impressive?!

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