Camera Comparison: iPhone 11 Pro Max vs iPhone XS Max

[1rottenapple]

As an SE user, I'm way past due for an upgrade. What I'm still not seeing are many people saying just go with the 11 over the 11 pro. I would use the phone for online video production, but still not seeing a compelling reason to pay the difference between the 11 and 11pro over putting that money toward other equipment. What is compelling those going for the Pro to go all the way to the 11 Pro Max over an 11? Is the telephoto lens really worth the price difference for you guys? #decisionsdecisions

Camera wise it’s the same except for the telephoto. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Same thing with the xr and xs. Photos were the same quality. Telephoto is not a killer feature. It’s only 2x! If it’s 5x or 10x that would be awesome. But alas it’s not.
You’re paying for the oled, stainless steel. For me it’s worth the jump but it’s not worth it for most people.
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Wait a minute, aren't long exposure pictures just a software tweak? I mean in order to take long exposure photos the shutter just has to stay open for longer in order to take more light. So Apple basically is giving us the same cameras (excluding the wide one).

I felt exactly the same when they introduced animoji, which is using only the camera, because when I cover the FaceID sensor the animoji continues to work and detect my motion, only "camera is covered" messages appears, but it works. So basically all other phones without the FaceID sensor can have animoji, but they don't.

The same with Apple Watch Series 5, the new one has always on display, which all OLED displays have by default, so watch series 4 can also have always on display, but it doesn't. So watch series 4 and watch series 5 are the same?

No the display controller between 4 and 5 is different. That is the differentiator compared to the series four and allows the 5 to have always on display. Four and 5 are nearly identical except that one big detail.

 

[recoil80]

"The ultra wide-angle lens has an f/2.4 aperture and no optical image stabilization like the other lenses in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, ....." So they will add that as a selling point for next years model. 🙄 I know nothing about cameras, other than point and click. Why couldn't they add that to this years model?

Maybe they're saving some enhancements for 2021. Next year they'll have 5G and maybe a new design, 2021 will likely be an S year so big improvements to the camera again.
OIS is more necessary on a telephoto than on an ultra wide camera, but a faster lens would help in low light and as far as I remember you can't use night mode with the ultra wide as it lacks focus pixels.

I'm not upgrading from my Xs but the main reason to me would be the improved battery life more than the third camera I'd get with the 11 pro. This is one of the best year over year improvement in iPhone, still hard to justify spending > 1000$ every 12 months, but it makes way more sense to go from Xs to 11 Pro than X->Xs or 7->8 or 6s->7

 

[simonmet]

After seeing the XS Max and 11 Pro Max picture comparisons and costs, I decided on a XS Max. It was $550 less than the 11 Pro Max. I just couldn't justify spending the extra money for the low light and wide angle.

Not even close to being worth that kind of price differential for the “Pro” (cringe). One of the weakest iPhone updates ever. I‘m really surprised at Apple’s apparent confidence or arrogance. Time will tell, but they’ll probably bumble along with flat sales while still making a mint from everyone rich enough to not care about money.

 

[recoil80]

The same with Apple Watch Series 5, the new one has always on display, which all OLED displays have by default, so watch series 4 can also have always on display, but it doesn't. So watch series 4 and watch series 5 are the same?

OLED doesn't necessary means always on, we have OLED on iPhones but still no option to have at least some notifications and the time always visible.
Series 5 is capable of always on because they're now able to change the refresh rate of the display going at a low 1Hz while the watch is inactive and I guess it requires some hardware change so it isn't possible to do the same on series 4 and previous models.

It is true anyway that Apple sometimes doesn't bring features to old models even if they're just software. The A12 on the Xs is really powerful, one can wonder why they didn't try to bring night mode on it. Maybe the camera sensor is better, I don't know, but it could be just a marketing choice to entice more people to buy the 11. Same for the new camera app, I love the fact you can now long press on the shutter to make a video, why not bring it to older models?

 

[drzen]

"The ultra wide-angle lens has an f/2.4 aperture and no optical image stabilization like the other lenses in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, ....." So they will add that as a selling point for next years model. 🙄 I know nothing about cameras, other than point and click. Why couldn't they add that to this years model?

Wide angle lenses are in much less need of OIS. But the aperture could definitely be much better for low light performance which is lacking this year in the ultra-wide.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Only a crazy person would upgrade from XS to this unless a filmmaker
Anyway, nice improvements.

I agree. I keep hearing (or reading) in reviews how "amazing" the camera is and how much of an update it it.

I think night mode is a drastic improvement. The rest? They photos look so similar. I wouldn't know which was which without the tag below.

 

[Khedron]

Ultrawide angle lenses, to quote the excellent discussion by Ken Rockwell, are the most difficult lenses to use well, and are not "for getting it all in." Ken has an excellent discussion of the use of this type of lens on his website. His examples of poor ultra wide angle photography are demonstrated in the examples in this article, with big expanses of paving bricks and lawn, filling the bottom half of the screen. Please read Ken's excellent post on this subject.

Link:

How to Use Ultra-Wide Lenses

 

[x34]

happy i canceled my order and stick with the XS max for this year!

 

[MrGuder]

I always cringe when I see side by side photo comparisons between phones. There are so many factors that come into play when taking 2 photos at 2 different times with 2 different camera and then comparing them. Unless your taking photos at the exact same time of the exact same subject at the exact same angle at the exact same lighting conditions then I don’t put a lot of weight into these side by side comparisons.

Of course night mode is something totally different.

 

[jaybrown81]

I left my XS Max to get 11 Pro Max for Battery and boy am I NOT disappointed!
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After seeing the XS Max and 11 Pro Max picture comparisons and costs, I decided on a XS Max. It was $550 less than the 11 Pro Max. I just couldn't justify spending the extra money for the low light and wide angle.

Don't forget about the TREMENDOUS battery life in the 11Pro. This thing is a MONSTER

 

[kissmo]

It's incredible how people believe that the camera is going to take the picture...

If you are interested, Google: Jerry Ghionis iphone 4s album.

There is this wedding photographer who submitted an album to WPPI (a world wide renowned wedding competition) and won with that album 4th place. All images were shot on an iphone 4s.
He has obviously won several times 1st place with normal DSLRs... but that's not the point.

The point is that articles on performances of camera are so irelevant for the regular spray and pray photographer, that spending more money on better cameras will not yield better pictures but eventually will make worse images because the user does not understand light.

So if you buy a phone for the camera mainly, make sure you first invest a little time in learning light, posing and composition and then jump on the 1000 plus eur for a darn phone.

Cheers!

 

[lyngo]

Only a crazy person would upgrade from XS to this unless a filmmaker
Anyway, nice improvements.

I guess I’m a crazy person then.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Since these photos were all taken at The Mistake By the Lake, I think the results are null and void.
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I guess I’m a crazy person then.

I intend to as well once funds allow for it.

 

[5105973]

I actually prefer the XS Max in the majority of the comparison shots.

In the shot of the Cleveland sign, the colors do look MUCH better on the XS Max.

As I’ve actually been using the new camera system, I’ve loved most results.

But when I look at side by side reviews I notice the colors aren’t as vibrant and have a dark bluish cast to them compared to photos from last year’s cameras. It’s almost a step back to the color temperatures we got from the iPhone 6s and earlier.

I have not done any comparisons of my own. I like what I see when I snap the picture so why torture myself. I know I can now get nicely focused low light photos I couldn’t get before.

 

[StuBeck]

I actually prefer the XS Max in the majority of the comparison shots.

Yep. The wide angles are fixed by my Moment wide angle lenses. Disappointing that Apple doesn't put the software changes for night shots on the XS Max, but thats to be expected.

 

[TroyBoy30]

camera looks nice but its 5g or bust at this point

 

[rpat701]

Both take great pictures. I can't tell the difference.

 

[cardfan]

Both take great pictures. I can't tell the difference.

Night pics and battery life. If these don’t matter much then keep xs. Thing is I really like night mode. The other minor updates are cool too. So it’s good enough for a one year upgrade. For me.

But those that see a pro as a once every 5 years major purchase this isn’t the one I’d recommend. Wait til 2020. Or just plan on trading up next year.

 

[TonyC28]

Night mode on my iPhone 11 is impressive. Really impressive actually. And I do like portrait mode. But for every other situation I'm not impressed. Skin gets the same "watercolor" effect as my iPhone 8 did and the overall quality looks about the same.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Only a crazy person would upgrade from XS to this unless a filmmaker
Anyway, nice improvements.

I’m not a filmmaker. That makes me crazy I presume.

After seeing the XS Max and 11 Pro Max picture comparisons and costs, I decided on a XS Max. It was $550 less than the 11 Pro Max. I just couldn't justify spending the extra money for the low light and wide angle.

So you buy an expensive phone only based on a couple of shoots on a single website?

 

[zubikov]

If you have a Xs, no need to miss out on night photos. Get NeuralCam for $3. Does an amazing job with a slight delay to what you'd have on the 11 / 11Pro.

 

[R10k]

I always cringe when I see side by side photo comparisons between phones. There are so many factors that come into play when taking 2 photos at 2 different times with 2 different camera and then comparing them. Unless your taking photos at the exact same time of the exact same subject at the exact same angle at the exact same lighting conditions then I don’t put a lot of weight into these side by side comparisons.

Of course night mode is something totally different.

100% this. Also, RIP raw photo examples, so we can see what these cameras are truly capable of.

FYI people, my iPhone 7 raws out of Lightroom murder these photo examples.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I don’t care about the camera. I would upgrade if the phone was thinner and lighter. Not interested in an iCamera, want an iPhone. It would be nice if the volume and power button were not opposite each other so every time you try to turn off the phone it doesn’t take a screen shot.

 

[madfocused]

You can see the green tint in the Ultrawide lens (that I mentioned in a separate post) in the shot of the pyramid. Check out the ground. So disappointing. Was really hoping Apple would nail it with this. The Ultrawide sensor is also almost unusable in low light situations. I think the new ‘regular’ Wide looks super nice though in my tests vs my old X.
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I'm more interested in the detail and noise reduction. Can you, or anyone, post a few shots zoomed in of both cameras?

Check out this test I did. This is a screen grab at 100%.

 

[wigby]

Maybe this is asking for too much, but what I wonder is why can't some of these software only tricks on photos be updated to work on existing or fairly recent iPhones? They wouldn't have the same amazing results, but there could and would be great improvements even on older equipment. I'm sure older iPhone users of the better models would even pay a nominal charge for such a software update.

Software tricks already do this in apps. You simply increase the gain and then remove the resulting digital noise. But no one wants to do that manually and Apple doesn't want to do that for users. Apple wants to control the entire process and of course they want to sell new hardware in the process. In the end, most users just care more about showing off their new camera phones at parties than they care about creating good photos in low light. The ones that actually care about their photo quality spend time and money on making the best photos with or without Apple's help.