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Comprehensive Comparison Shows Camera Improvements From Original iPhone to iPhone 6s

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With each iteration of the iPhone, Apple improves camera quality, which has led to the iPhone being one of the most popular camera choices in the world. The iPhone 6s introduces the company's first 12-megapixel camera, an improvement over the 8-megapixel cameras Apple has used since the iPhone 4s and the most advanced iPhone camera yet.

Camera+ co-founder Lisa Bettany has taken a series of comparison shots that demonstrate how the iPhone has improved over the years, with photographs taken with every model of iPhone beginning with the original iPhone and ending with the iPhone 6s.

macrocomparison-800x600.jpg

Her photographs provide a fascinating look not only at how the iPhone 6s has improved over the iPhone 6, but also at how smartphone camera technology has progressed over the last eight years.

iphone6sporttraitcomparison-800x600.jpg

Bettany compares images taken with each iPhone and the Camera+ app across eight categories, including Macro, Backlit, Backlit Macro, Daylight, Portrait, Sunset, Low-Light, and Low-Light Sunrise. There are, of course, striking differences between the original iPhone and the iPhone 6s, but even between the iPhone 6 and Apple's newest device, there are noticeable improvements, especially when it comes to detail.

iphone6slowlightcomparison-800x600.jpg

Along with a jump in megapixels, Apple's iPhone 6s also includes several other improvements. "Deep Trench Isolation" prevents the color bleeding and artifacts that often come with an increase in megapixels, plus Apple's also introduced faster autofocusing speeds and a new image signal processor for better noise reduction and improved tone mapping.

In Bettany's opinion, the camera improvements combined with software updates and the A9 processor on the iPhone 6s make it the best iPhone camera yet. "There is an apparent increase in the speed of auto focus and improvements to colour accuracy, details and sharpness, especially in low light," she writes.

Bettany's full selection of image comparisons are well worth checking out and can be found on her website.

Article Link: Comprehensive Comparison Shows Camera Improvements From Original iPhone to iPhone 6s
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/28/iphone-camera-improvement-comparison/
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Reactions: Shanghaichica
Not very defined on either when it comes to strands of hair, skin definition, etc. I have the 6s+ and it does not take the quality of photos my S6e did.
 
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The only problem with these is that you cannot physically see the source material yourself. That is one of the useful metrics surely?
The pic of the girl seems brighter in the 6. Maybe in real life it actually appears that way?
 
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Very nice work she did. Loving my S. And at first did not like Live Photos but its growing on me. Just need to use it in the right situations.
 
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H2SO4 said:
The only problem with these is that you cannot physically see the source material yourself. That is one of the useful metrics surely?
The pic of the girl seems brighter in the 6. Maybe in real life it actually appears that way?
Click to expand...

It is not a very good metric, because it's not easily measured. These things are interpreted at every stage in some way. Image comes up on the display built into your phone. You view it on some other device. They will look somewhat different. If you move to a brighter room and view it again, it looks a little different. If you print it out, viewing conditions impact the look of the image. There are published standards relating to color handling, but most of them depict things like expected cone response from a standardized viewer under specific conditions.

Regarding this specific example, it's almost certain that she doesn't look the way she appears with the 6. The highlights are typical of red channel blooming. That it's better controlled indicates that there may be hardware improvements. There might also be situations where the 6 outperforms the 6s, but that's because these things don't perform identically under all conditions.
 
I see virtually no difference between 6 and 6s, another person trying to gush about how much "superior" the iPhone 6s is over the last phone and the reality is it just doesn't seem to hold up to the patronizing again. Comparing against older iPhones is moot, nobody is updating from an iPhone 1 to the 6s these days, and everybody knows that the first few generations of iPhone cameras were horrible.
 
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ChrisCW11 said:
I see virtually no difference between 6 and 6s, another person trying to gush about how much "superior" the iPhone 6s is over the last phone and the reality is it just doesn't seem to hold up to the patronizing again. Comparing against older iPhones is moot, nobody is updating from an iPhone 1 to the 6s these days, and everybody knows that the first few generations of iPhone cameras were horrible.
Click to expand...

You must be looking at a different picture. I see a whole lot of differences between the two.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
You're trying to tell me the newest model is better than the previous models?!

Next you're gonna try to tell me that the 2016 BMWs have improvements over the 2015 model year.
Click to expand...

So are you saying this comparison is useless? It's cool to see how far the cameras have come. This is a very well done comparison, and I'm sure it took quite a bit of time to put together.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
You're trying to tell me the newest model is better than the previous models?!

Next you're gonna try to tell me that the 2016 BMWs have improvements over the 2015 model year.
Click to expand...
As an old school Mac user (Like myself), you should know that a model being newer doesn't always mean it is better, especially when it wears an Apple tag.

I love the company, however they do make mistakes in the eyes of their fans, as well as the general public at times. There have been examples of past Macintosh computers that weren't as good as older models, as well as some iPods.

Going deeper into the article, she points out some situations that the 6 was inferior to the 5s, which is something worth noting for those who were considering upgrading their 5S to a 6S, or even a lower priced 6.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
You're trying to tell me the newest model is better than the previous models?!

Next you're gonna try to tell me that the 2016 BMWs have improvements over the 2015 model year.
Click to expand...
Showing the difference between all the cameras and how they've improved over time is not telling you the latest iPhone model is better than the last. Cause... duh. MacRumors articles leave a lot to be desired sometimes, but this isn't the case here. Nice try though.
 
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