Camera Comparison: iPhone 13 Pro Max vs. Pixel 6 Pro

[ColdShadow]

These things are certainly subjective!

in front video camera quality also subjective??

 

[ColdShadow]

I think the iPhone looks better for near enough every comparison.

it seems like you see things the way you want,but how can you say this about front video camera quality? or the portrait? I mean it's 100% obvious left one is way sharper,more detailed and higher quality..

.

 

[alongdingdong]

Pixel 6 Pro looks better for sure by a good margin as well.

 

[BuffaloTF]

There's parts of each photo I like better in both. To my eyes, they are so close that they aren't anything that I couldn't adjust with a quick edit and have nearly the exact same photo out of both.

But video quality is still a gulf of difference.

 

[dwsolberg]

I'm surprised. I actually prefer the Pixel by a large margin.

 

[dallegre]

Also, the bokeh looked too Artificially blurred over done imo

You can alter the amount of blur applied when editing.

 

[duck apple]

I don't think so, have a look at the clock on the wall behind him - on the Pixel you can see the minute lines clearly on the iPhone you can barely tell they are there.

Hand shaking will blur everything.

 

[bobenhaus]

Is it only me to pick the iPhone result every time? Pixel looks washed out. iPhone= insta-ready

Its called bias thinking. we all have it but need to know when to turn it off.

 

[duck apple]

No… it’s not a concept photograph. It’s a real photograph that can be printed, matted, and framed. And displayed in a gallery. As an aside, I cut my own mats and make my own frames.

I'm sorry you need to fight with guys unable to appreciate photo so artistic and yet brave enough to give crap on topic about camera quality.

 

[AltecX]

Let's also remember that the Pixel 2-5 were amazing and held top spots but were also the same camera with 4-years of software and firmware updates and tweaks to perfect. P5 photos look MUCH better than P2 photos just due to software updates. The Pixel 6 camera is just going to get better over time even if they keep the same hardware for the P7-8.

Google's proven they care about trying to perfect their photo quality, video still needs work, but they have demonstrated that they will spend time making the Pixel live up to its name.

 

[adrianm2000]

Aspect ratio looks different. In more than one comparison his fave looks chubbier on the pixel and slim on the iPhone. Wonder which is more accurate.

 

[Sabon]

For --> me <-- the difference is which phone do I TRUST more. For --> me <-- that is the iPhone. The key word is "more". I don't fully trust either of these phones. But I trust Google less.

 

[dallegre]

TL/DR - Comparing default processing, Pixel is probably better. Compare raw processing, overall capabilities, it gets a little more complicated.

I've been shooting with the 13Pro for a couple weeks. I'm coming from a Pixel2, so I'm familiar with the Pixel's software and processing. I also shoot with an a7III and some pretty high quality lenses, and have been shooting ILCs for 15 years or so.

My take:

Good
-Macro mode is super useful and fun.
-Night mode/night sky shots are really impressive (for a phone), not exactly pro quality but passable for social media and a really fun tool to have at all times.
-ProRes video takes phone video to another level. It's more useful with an app like Filmic Pro where you can select ProRes 422 or 422 LT. I don't understand why the default camera app seems to only use ProRes 422 HQ. I really like ProRes 422 in 1080P.
-Cinematic video is impressive and fun when background and subject distance is considered.
-Depth tracking speed in cinematic/portrait mode isn't mind blowing, but it's pretty impressive.
-I would still rather have a 12mp raw file from a phone than an AI'd 50mp file (not exactly sure how a raw quad bayer Pixel file works or how large raw or compressed Pixel 6 files are for that matter).
-I would certainly rather have f/1.5 on the main camera vs f/1.85 of the Pixel 6
-It's nice to actually be able to use Filmic Pro. That app would practically set my Pixel 2 on fire and was necessary just to choose something as simple as 24P! The 13Pro handles it with ease.

(Not so) Bad
-The new photo styles really aren't that great, but I do like the general idea
-The processing issues mostly go away when using raw, but raw files are 10x the size of HEIF.
-I wish the 3x camera had a shorter minimum focus distance, and I wish portrait mode had greater range in general.
-The 3x is kinda growing on me, but it's a little disappointing as 2x (~50mm) is one of my favorite and most used focal lengths. I guess I'd rather have 3x than the 4x of the Pixel 6.

Ugly
-Sometimes (not always) the 13Pro default app processing in HEIF is really bad, esp in portrait mode. Skin tones can look really weird or blotchy, blacks are sometimes boosted to light grey for no apparent reason. I would call it garishly bad. The "HDR" implementation in general is not really my taste.

If I were to judge the 13Pro cameras based on default processing, I wouldn't be too happy with it. That said, with a little care, with RAW, with ProRes capability, with 3rd party apps (Filmic Pro, Halide, LR Mobile), the 13Pro puts a lot of capability in one's pocket. The Pixel approach wins in terms of AI implementation and true point and shoot capability. I do think the Pixel 6 may be more capable device when it comes to producing a pleasing result out of the default app with minimal processing required...better camera for the average user? The Pixel 6 also has some cool panning and long exposure modes that the 13Pro doesn't have. In my mind the 13Pro fits somewhere between a point and shoot device and a more serious dedicated camera. It takes a little work to get the best results out of it. In the end, the video capability of the 13Pro has won me over, and I'm pretty happy with it in general.

I recently took a family trip back home, and although I hauled my a7III, lenses, and MBP, they never came out of the bag. Sometimes it's more valuable to have a pocketable camera and be in the moment rather than worry about the best image quality.

 

[joshwithachance]

Condering the Pixel's sensor is MASSIVE compared to the iPhone's I expected it to have a better camera than this. The iPhone is better in nearly every regard, ESPECIALLY video...

 

[joshwithachance]

Really no one cares at this point but camera enthusiasts. They both have good cameras now a days. All the detail is lost anyway once people post it to social media.

Camera quality is almost always the #1 feature most people are looking at when upgrading their phone so I disagree. People buy Pixels BECAUSE they've been known to have the best/most reliable camera on Android.

 

[The Game 161]

Pixel needs an update for certain areas but generally they seem to take the best stills. iPhone still king for video

 

[Zaft]

Camera quality is almost always the #1 feature most people are looking at when upgrading their phone so I disagree. People buy Pixels BECAUSE they've been known to have the best/most reliable camera on Android.

And how many pixels have you seen in the wild?

 

[JSteele]

I think the Pixel won that one, seemed to capture more details. The lens flare might be a bit hard to deal with, but id rather have more detail to work with in SnapSeed than less.

 

[mngdew]

Yep. The problem every other phone manufacturer put there has is that they don’t have the massive loyal hardware user base. They come out with these many times one trick pony phones or phones that push the limits of tech and design, again many times with compromises, to try to earn their own customer base. The trick in my opinion with the iPhone is it is really good at everything it does. It’s not just an exceptional camera.

Being good at everyone is better than being good only at one thing while sucking at everything else.

 

[mazz0]

Just shoot in raw, then color correct with Photoshop.

My point is I want to choose a setting once and have it apply automatically without me having to do anything.

 

[mazz0]

You can set “styles” yes, and there’s a lot of flexibility. It essentially takes those few settings you ALWAYS do when taking pictures anyway an makes them for every photo you take. Always prefer warmer photos? You set that.

You can? Where’s that setting?!

 

[citysnaps]

I'm sorry you need to fight with guys unable to appreciate photo so artistic and yet brave enough to give crap on topic about camera quality.

Thanks - appreciate it. For me...talking about cameras and gear is numbing. At this point in time phone cams are pretty amazing. Same with dSLRs, mirrorless etc. Even a long time ago they were pretty decent for certain types of photography. The photo below of a stranger on the street I hit up for a portrait was probably from an iPhone 4, IIRC.

I'd much rather talk about projects, photographs, and inspiring well-known photographers (for me Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Daido Moriyama, Graciela Iturbide, etc).

I've said this before, but one more time won't hurt:

If another photographer engages me in conversation somewhere, at some point I'll ask, "So...what do you shoot?"

If the reply is something like, "I shoot a Canon 6D MKII, with a 24-70 zoom," that tells me something. I'd try to politely move on.

If instead, the reply is something like, "I'm working on a project engaging people on the street in under-served neighborhoods in Los Angeles, listening to their stories and making portraits" that tells me something very different. I'd want to have a beer and conversation with that photographer.

 

[foliovision]

At this point in time phone cams are pretty amazing. Same with dSLRs, mirrorless etc. Even a long time ago they were pretty decent for certain types of photography.

Whatever. The picture you showed with great pride of the exhibition from above was about the worst possible example of how phone cameras are great photographic tools. It's exactly the conditions where a phone camera will take a grungy shot with no definition, lousy colour. It's a poor photocopy of what might be visually arresting.

You seem to be on some ego trip trying to prove that it's the photographer, not the camera, and that you are that photographer. If you have the respect for the medium you profess, you'd realise that most of the names on your list cared a great deal for the technical perfection of their work and would not shoot poor quality pictures where they could shoot high quality pictures. That their gear was sometimes inferior to modern cameras was a source of great frustration to them.

As the gallery from above photo is not an image which requires shooting it right away with whatever happened to be in your lazy hands (someone who really care images would carry a more capable camera), it's just a terrible example of the use of an iPhone for photography. You'll probably say, "oh but the girl was just there then in the moment". Even if that's true, it wouldn't be difficult to go back there with a female friend and recreate those circumstances but with a camera capable of capturing the colours better along with some definition.

iPhone pictures are great as small screen thumbnails. Depending on conditions and subject, they are mostly horrible for print. Since you seem to think the worse the camera, the better the picture, there's a whole new world of pinhole cameras and iPhone 3GS cameras open to you.

***

The black and white portrait above is a better use of a phone camera as it's shot in better light and the subject is ephemeral. By heavily post-processing the image and converting it to BW, you've effectively masked the poor colours, unpleasant texture and noise of a phone camera. That's a more suitable use of an iPhone camera, for grunge outdoor street portraits than when you try to pretend phone cameras are the right tool for structured art compositions shot in dim interiors where colour plays a central role.

Why are you hijacking this thread to promote yourself? The thread is not about whether it's possible to shoot publishable images on a phone camera. but about the relative merits of camera on an iPhone 13 Pro camera vs a Google Pixel 6. If you have something to say on the subject say your piece.

Showing off that you don't know when to shoot with a small sensor camera and when to shoot with a large sensor camera only shows you for a silly fellow, not an artist.

 

[citysnaps]

Whatever. The picture you showed with great pride of the exhibition from above was about the worst possible example of how phone cameras are great photographic tools. It's exactly the conditions where a phone camera will take a grungy shot with no definition, lousy colour. It's a poor photocopy of what might be visually arresting.

You seem to be on some ego trip trying to prove that it's the photographer, not the camera, and that you are that photographer. If you have the respect for the medium you profess, you'd realise that most of the names on your list cared a great deal for the technical perfection of their work and would not shoot poor quality pictures where they could shoot high quality pictures. That their gear was sometimes inferior to modern cameras was a source of great frustration to them.

As the gallery from above photo is not an image which requires shooting it right away with whatever happened to be in your lazy hands (someone who really care images would carry a more capable camera), it's just a terrible example of the use of an iPhone for photography. You'll probably say, "oh but the girl was just there then in the moment". Even if that's true, it wouldn't be difficult to go back there with a female friend and recreate those circumstances but with a camera capable of capturing the colours better along with some definition.

iPhone pictures are great as small screen thumbnails. Depending on conditions and subject, they are mostly horrible for print. Since you seem to think the worse the camera, the better the picture, there's a whole new world of pinhole cameras and iPhone 3GS cameras open to you.

***

The black and white portrait above is a better use of a phone camera as it's shot in better light and the subject is ephemeral. By heavily post-processing the image and converting it to BW, you've effectively masked the poor colours, unpleasant texture and noise of a phone camera. That's a more suitable use of an iPhone camera, for grunge outdoor street portraits than when you try to pretend phone cameras are the right tool for structured art compositions shot in dim interiors where colour plays a central role.

Why are you hijacking this thread to promote yourself? The thread is not about whether it's possible to shoot publishable images on a phone camera. but about the relative merits of camera on an iPhone 13 Pro camera vs a Google Pixel 6. If you have something to say on the subject say your piece.

Showing off that you don't know when to shoot with a small sensor camera and when to shoot with a large sensor camera only shows you for a silly fellow, not an artist.

"If you have something to say on the subject say your piece."

I have. Multiple times in multiple ways. Along with photographs.

All you offer is a lot of knee-slapping jibber-jabber in your above posts. Keep telling yourself it's gear that makes a compelling photograph!


And... "Showing off that you don't know when to shoot with a small sensor camera and when to shoot with a large sensor camera only shows you for a silly fellow, not an artist."

Nice try. As I said above, I have dSLRs, mirrorless cams, and iPhones. And use them for different purposes.

 

[foliovision]

And... "Showing off that you don't know when to shoot with a small sensor camera and when to shoot with a large sensor camera only shows you for a silly fellow, not an artist."

Nice try. As I said above, I have dSLRs, mirrorless cams, and iPhones. And use them for different purposes.

Based on the first image you showed to show off the iPhone, you clearly don't know which camera to use when. As I said before, this thread is not about egomaniacal, self-centred photographers. It's about the difference between the iPhone 13 and the Pixel 6. You don't have either, so I'm not quite sure why you are posting images and wasting people's time. If you would like to talk about photography generally there are whole forums devoted to the subject or you could start your own thread. Stop hijacking this one.