iPhone 13 Camera Comparison: If You Have an Older iPhone, It's Time to Upgrade

[cmaier]

BTW, on YouTube, someone posted this: "It’s funny how apple ”cut down” camera quality in the older iphones like 11 and XS with software update. I saw that on my 11 (updated on ios 15 vs iphone 11 with the ios 13) and I even compared photos took when I get the phone (in the year when it was released) and photos took now, with ios 15. That just sucks"

Does anyone know of a real comparison and demo of this issue? I'm staying on 14.5 on my iPhone 11 because of the upcoming jailbreak. I may have been right not to update to 15, LOL

Photos on my iPhone 11 taken with iOS 15 look fine. People scratch up their lenses and blame it on a conspiracy.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Another interesting YouTube comment: "This video is the reason why I don’t trust or take any review on this channel seriously. Extremely biased and so skewed toward favorably reviewing anything apple and especially new versions of anything apple. This is a clear comercial for apple always. I have an iPhone Xs and I can produce much better pictures than the iPhone 11 that is used here. It is clearly a dirty lens being used on this comparison and only confirms what I have identified for a long time, how can anyone take any review here seriously when it’s clearly so biased? I know, without the positive reviews for apple and for new devices, the show would end."

 

[iHorseHead]

To be honest, iPhone 8 looks the best…

 

[citysnaps]

Obvious and disgusting Iphone 13 shill campaign where the reviewers degrade the Iphone 11' lens on purpose to make Iphone 13's quality stand out. At this point I would question everything these guys do and say.

Check Max Tech's (Big Apple shill) iPhone 13 Pro Max vs 12 & 11 Pro Max video to see how Iphone 13 Pro Max is barely edging Iphone 11 & 12 Pro Max, sometimes even performing worse than those two in some situations.

Not worth the upgrade. It's all bull$hit

That's quite an allegation. And way over the top.

 

[AndiG]

The lens on the 11 *is* either scratched or dirty. Since you say the lens was cleaned, it's most likely scratched internally. What you see in the last photo in the comparison is not a 'lens flare', it looks like a diffraction spike (the light lines go through every point light source, while a lens flare, which is caused by internal reflection of the lens, doesn't have to go trough the point light sources, and certainly not through all of them, like in the iPhone 13 photo, which does look like a lens flare) .

Usually, since a phone has a fixed (round) aperture, the diffraction spikes should have no particular shape (diffracting equally in all directions), while in DSLRs with lenses with straight-bladed apertures, the diffraction spikes do take specific patterns. A single diffraction spike in one direction points to oils on the lens (fingerprints, etc, which are usually wiped in a single direction, causing the diffraction spike to be mostly in one direction) or by a scratch on the lens. Since the diffraction spike is slightly curved, I'd bet on a scratch on one of the internal surfaces of the lens (which are curved).

Or maybe I'm totally wrong, idk. It's late.

View attachment 1854417

Never seen this effect. I‘m not a photographer, but when I compare my iPhones lens flare photos (I think it is?) with the ones shown, I don‘t have this effect.

I love the spikes of the sun

Ok, on the last one there is a funny effect and maybe I should clear my lense. No matter what, I do believe the iP13 is better in handling situations with bad light. For my personal use, the iP11pro is „pro“ as it was advertized.

Same or better quality with 24 megapixel sensor would have been great - sometimes, when you want to print a photo. But this would require a huge sensor, I guess.

 

[Marti123]

There is a issue with the Iphone 13 Pro camera. It is not possible to turn off Smart HDR on the 13 Pro.
it is mentioned here:

Smart HDR Missing on iPhone 13 Pro?

Hi all, Just upgraded to a 13 Pro from XS and when I go to camera settings, the Smart HDR toggle is not there? Any ideas, or can it no longer be switched off? Thanks!

forums.macrumors.com

It is not mentioned in the comparison.
This is a big issue for me as it is impossible to compose a picture against the light.
What you see in the camera app looks totally different from the picture you get.
You always get the HDR look which is not desirable in many cases as you can‘t control light and shadow anymore.

 

[Ruggy]

But we all know we can take 6 shots in succession and get 6 very different results. Just moving the phone a little bit will mean it's metering on a different part of the scene and that will also affect the white balance....
I'm not really convinced by comparative shots like this unless they are taken under a pro lighting set up with a custom WB taken in the scene. There's just too much variation.
It would be interesting to see if there's any noise difference for instance, any difference in bokeh?
Is the dynamic range better than the 6 or 11, that would be really interesting to see (probably not)
And in reality, iphone 6 shots just aren't that blurry and 11 shots aren't as terrible as that.
Sure, the computer on the back of the objective is way faster and making way more calculations with every iteration but the results are always going to be subjective.
I don't actually like the night shots of the 13 here with the almost grey sky. Personally if it's night with a rich black sky I want it to look like it's night with a rich black sky.
Yes, I'm sure the 13 is capable of taking better shots- and so it should- but it's going to take a lot more than a few grab shots to really tell much difference. Thanks for trying but it's just not enough.

 

[dumoore]

Come on, this test is clearly done on your old iphones you've used for two years each. That iPhone 11 as everyone else pointed out, has gone through some stuff. The lens is either dirty or damaged. This test is beyond useless.

Edit: for comparison, I just checked youtube for camera comparisons - much better done from others. Come on MR.

 

[dumoore]

What's worse is that he took the pictures, comparing them as he took them, added them to the video, edited the video, and then uploaded the video -- all without ever having the thought "Those 11 photos don't look right". Sloppy and lazy, come on.

 

[ksec]

Funny how iPhone 8 actually seems the best in the two last pictures. Time to upgrade (downgrade?) to 8?

Well it actually looks to me as the best in "all" pictures. The colour profile is way better.

I think a lot of these are computational photography problem.

 

[darthbane2k]

I don’t like this regurgitated line reviewers use to avoid comparisons to the iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 is a cheaper option for older iPhones to upgrade to that is still sold by Apple. If I had an iPhone 6, I’d surely want to know if an iPhone 12 would get me nearly all the camera improvements at a lower price. Macrumors isn’t the only site saying this… pretty much everyone is. Apple probably told them to frame their reviews this way.

Spoiler: since reviewers are avoiding comparing the iPhone 12 to the iPhone 13 because it’s “too similar”, the iPhone 12 is probably worth the cost savings over the iPhone 13 for people still on older iPhones

Exactly, leaving out the 12 looks suspect as heck

 

[Haribokart]

How has this article not been removed yet? Embarrassing for MR.

 

[teohyc]

This comparison is rigged

 

[andreagrandi]

Strange... I didn't see all these iPhone 11 camera issue during the official presentation 😏

 

[Kram Sacul]

Who in the hell bought the 8? Looked like a dinosaur compared to the X.

 

[BRMan]

That 11 is clearly broken somehow, its worse than the 6. and as others have pointed out, why skip the 12 anyway?

 

[Burger Thing]

Who in the hell bought the 8? Looked like a dinosaur compared to the X.

Well, that would be me. I even have the Plus. So a Brontosaurus. But looking at the camera comparison my dinosaur is still able to snap reasonable pics compared to the rest. Plus it has TouchID, which is where I live (Hong Kong) almost a necessity, because of the Mask ruling.

So I decided I will not downgrade to a iP13Pro this year and rather wait for the iP14, which will probably see a significant camera upgrade because of the rumored 48 MP sensor.

In the meantime I continue with what I have done in the past: snapping casual pics with my Brontosaurus and if I want to get really good pics, I will take my DSLR.

 

[xXRainKingXx]

It looks like Krillin just used solar flare in the iPhone 8 pictures. Aside from that, it holds up pretty well.

 

[vladi]

You need to learn how to shoot faces with a wide lens. Read some articles on proper framing with wide / ulrawide lenses (hint: shoot from afar and put the subject in the center). Or use the tele lens.

EDIT: chaged "Not true" to "You need to learn how to shoot faces with a wide lens"

Well he is partially right. 99% of camera phone people take portrait shots with wide lens aka main sensor. And about 80% of those 99% use that aweful Portrait faux bukeh masking mode which makes it even worse.

You are right whenever you are shooting portaits you should use telephoto lens, that'w why they made it 77mm. It's not a zoom lens like 99% people think it is, it's portrait lens. Problem lays in sensor being the biggest crap out of the all three and that's not iPhone's fault. That's industry's fault in general. Telephoto sensors due to limitations are sentenced to be run of the mill technology and not cutting edge technology like main sensor. Hopefully variable focal lenght like Xperia 1 III does have will mature in few years so we will be able to at least have 24-50mm equivalent on the main sensor's lens. And hopefully sometime in the future we will be dealing with one sensor only and not 5 cam ridiculous stacks like we have today. Props to Sharp for making new Aquos single sensor only, still not good enough buyt a brave approach.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

This year alone I have gone from a Huawei P20 Pro to a XR, 11 and 12. The 12 comes close but I keep hold of the P20 Pro to use as a camera because the photo quality is incredible.

 

[miq]

Wait wasn’t there a phone between the 6 and 8 ?

What's your point? There was a phone between the 8 and 11, and the 11 and 13 too.....

 

[TVreporter]

The vast majority of people are taking photos to post on social media which compresses photos - oftentimes leaving them flat and washed out - I’ll purposely bump up saturation before posting to try to preserve some colour.

The camera makes little difference when it comes to compression. If photography is your business then that’s a different story - get the best lens for the job.

Still using my 8-plus and I was never a big fan of the camera coming from a 5S - found the photos often appeared soft especially when zoomed in. Too much digitizing?

But that’s the thing, Apple knows the majority of average users are just viewing photos on tiny screens and wouldn’t even zoom in, so why boost MP?

But when I look at my photos on an iMac or Apple TV, you really notice the photos’ imperfections even when I do a lot of post-editing.

Debating if I want to upgrade or hang on for another year.

 

[JosephAW]

The iPhone 8 Plus was and is an amazing product.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Since I pretty much always have a Z7 with me anyway, I never think of a phone as a camera. I figured at some point cellphones would start to catch up in quality to cameras, but last I checked they were a long ways off. It would be interesting to see a current comparison.

 

[fishmongerer]

The 8 is better than the 11, then.