If you're a longtime iPhone user like me (I started in 2008 and have used a LOT of different models) you know the photo quality, particularly (after its introduction with the 4S) the panorama quality did increase with each iteration - at least at the beginning. For example, the pano mode of the iPhone 11 (iP11 for short) was a LOT better than that of the 7+. The latter had significantly worse dynamic range in panorama mode, meaning the sky in the 7+'s panos routinely burned out, unlike in that of the iP11.
Given that the 11 is three years old now (as was the 7+ when the 11 series was released), I expected similar improvements in panorama mode. I've made some highly controlled tests: to avoid any kind of difference between the subjects, I hold the two phones firmly together. That is, my rotation speed, the any shaking in my hands etc. was absolutely the same for the two phones. I even posted a 360-degree video on how all these tests were done:
Sorry guys, there doesn't seem to be any improvement. On the contrary: the 14 Pro (Max)'s 1x panoramas are oversharpened even more than those of the iPhone 11. This is certainly very bad news: While there was a MASSIVE improvement between the 7+ and the 11, there's even a quality decrease in the 14 compared the three-year-old model.
In EVERY SINGLE of my comparative test shots, on the 14PM, the sharpening was significantly higher than in the iP11 ones! You REALLY want to compare these images, one pair at a time, and zoom into, most importantly, building walls and the like. You WILL see much stronger sharpening halos in every single iP14PM shot.
And stitching hasn't become better either. You can't rotate faster with the 14 - the "Slow down" messages seem to appear at the same time as on the iPhone 11. And if you do rotate too quickly, the stitching errors will be as bad as on the 11.
The only improvement I noticed was the significantly lower lens flare. But that's, of course, not a problem if the Sun doesn't shine into the lens. Please do compare the 8....12 images. The first was shot with the 1x camera; the other three with the 0.5x one. Lens flare is definitely less an issue with both cameras on the 14 than was on the 11.
Try zooming into for example register plates. The 14 doesn't at all have better effective, pixel-level resolution. (And yes, I did take the slightly wider 1x camera lens into account when I wrote this!)
All in all, I'll surely keep my iP11 with me for the occassional (good light - again, I haven't compared low-light panos yet; I'll post a separate article on my findings later) pano shot, at least when it comes to 1x / 3x pano shooting.
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What about the 0.5x camera differences, you may ask - after all, the iPhone 11's 0.5x camera (as was still the case with all 12-series models) is significantly softer everywhere but the center. Well, the softness is definitely visible in the 0.5x panos - but to a much lesser degree than in videos or stills, given that the effective resolution of the iPhone panos is far worse than the file's native resolution would tell. That is, the softness isn't as pronounced as elsewhere. Nevertheless, for 0.5x panos, the 14PM may be a better choice if you can put up with the agressive (and hideous) oversharpening.
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The full-res images, exported from HEIC into JPG at a very small compression rate (resulting in files of around 15MBytes in both cases), are as follows. I created two Flickr albumbs for the two phones. You'll want to open the two albumbs in separate browser tabs for easy comparison. Inside, in the image names, there's an index. Make sure you compare files of the same index. And, to be able to zoom to 1:1 (or ven further), you'll want to download these files via the "Download" icon. In there, select the "Original" file. Then, you'll be able to pixel peep on your desktop (or even mobile, if it does allow for zooming into such large images - that's not guaranteed because of the memory limitations!).
14: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302345753
11: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302335234
BTW, I also upload the original HEIC files to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kRvxgB8JNs8u_xJN0RzMjvBWfH0DAjAw/view?usp=sharing . Feel free to grab the ZIP!
Given that the 11 is three years old now (as was the 7+ when the 11 series was released), I expected similar improvements in panorama mode. I've made some highly controlled tests: to avoid any kind of difference between the subjects, I hold the two phones firmly together. That is, my rotation speed, the any shaking in my hands etc. was absolutely the same for the two phones. I even posted a 360-degree video on how all these tests were done:
Sorry guys, there doesn't seem to be any improvement. On the contrary: the 14 Pro (Max)'s 1x panoramas are oversharpened even more than those of the iPhone 11. This is certainly very bad news: While there was a MASSIVE improvement between the 7+ and the 11, there's even a quality decrease in the 14 compared the three-year-old model.
In EVERY SINGLE of my comparative test shots, on the 14PM, the sharpening was significantly higher than in the iP11 ones! You REALLY want to compare these images, one pair at a time, and zoom into, most importantly, building walls and the like. You WILL see much stronger sharpening halos in every single iP14PM shot.
And stitching hasn't become better either. You can't rotate faster with the 14 - the "Slow down" messages seem to appear at the same time as on the iPhone 11. And if you do rotate too quickly, the stitching errors will be as bad as on the 11.
The only improvement I noticed was the significantly lower lens flare. But that's, of course, not a problem if the Sun doesn't shine into the lens. Please do compare the 8....12 images. The first was shot with the 1x camera; the other three with the 0.5x one. Lens flare is definitely less an issue with both cameras on the 14 than was on the 11.
Try zooming into for example register plates. The 14 doesn't at all have better effective, pixel-level resolution. (And yes, I did take the slightly wider 1x camera lens into account when I wrote this!)
All in all, I'll surely keep my iP11 with me for the occassional (good light - again, I haven't compared low-light panos yet; I'll post a separate article on my findings later) pano shot, at least when it comes to 1x / 3x pano shooting.
===
What about the 0.5x camera differences, you may ask - after all, the iPhone 11's 0.5x camera (as was still the case with all 12-series models) is significantly softer everywhere but the center. Well, the softness is definitely visible in the 0.5x panos - but to a much lesser degree than in videos or stills, given that the effective resolution of the iPhone panos is far worse than the file's native resolution would tell. That is, the softness isn't as pronounced as elsewhere. Nevertheless, for 0.5x panos, the 14PM may be a better choice if you can put up with the agressive (and hideous) oversharpening.
===
The full-res images, exported from HEIC into JPG at a very small compression rate (resulting in files of around 15MBytes in both cases), are as follows. I created two Flickr albumbs for the two phones. You'll want to open the two albumbs in separate browser tabs for easy comparison. Inside, in the image names, there's an index. Make sure you compare files of the same index. And, to be able to zoom to 1:1 (or ven further), you'll want to download these files via the "Download" icon. In there, select the "Original" file. Then, you'll be able to pixel peep on your desktop (or even mobile, if it does allow for zooming into such large images - that's not guaranteed because of the memory limitations!).
14: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302345753
11: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302335234
BTW, I also upload the original HEIC files to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kRvxgB8JNs8u_xJN0RzMjvBWfH0DAjAw/view?usp=sharing . Feel free to grab the ZIP!
