iPhone 4 Camera Vs. iPhone 4S Camera

j-a-x

j-a-x

macrumors 68000
I took the same picture form an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 4S, cropped both to 100% and put them together in one image. Keep in mind this is in perfect afternoon light on a cloudless day. With lower light, the differences would be much more dramatic, but I wanted to post this as an example of the differences in the two cameras on a perfectly clear day.

Does anybody else have any comparison photos you might want to share?

iphone44scomparison.jpg
 
There is a lot more detail in the 4s, but it looks zoomed in a lot - does this mean the 4s camera just isn't as wide at the 4?
 
People that do not understand cropped at 100% will not get the comparison.

The 4s looks better more detail.

Do you have a dslr to post a comparison to?
 
Yes, the 100% crop looks like its zoomed in more on the 4S because of the extra pixels. That is completely normal but both lenses have the same field of view at full size. The 4S clearly has more detail and better white balance than the iPhone 4. Look at the trees in both photos or the detail in the buildings. The iPhone 4 has a weird blue tone to it and the trees look too dark. The 4S is a much better camera.

The differences will be more apparent in a low light shot though because you don't really get to see the advantage of the extra wide aperture in a brightly lit shot like this.

----------

Here are the uncropped iPhone 4 and 4S images in case anybody wants to see them.

iPhone 4


iPhone 4S
 
j-a-x said:
The differences will be more apparent in a low light shot though because you don't really get to see the advantage of the extra wide aperture in a brightly lit shot like this.
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Both phones should be in theory using the same aperture, unsure if you were suggesting that the 4S is using the f2.4 in this photo? Because it definitely isn't.
 
Actually Aperture says that the iPhone 4S was using f/2.4 for that photo and the iPhone 4 was using f/2.8. Is the aperture size fixed or can the iPhone adjust the aperture size like other cameras can? I always thought it was fixed but now I'm not sure.

EDIT: it appears that the Aperture size is fixed to f/2.4 on the iPhone 4S and f/2.8 on the iPhone 4.
 
Nice comparison.

For those confused about what a 100% crop is, I'll try to explain. Using a photo on your computer and viewing it at 100% (original size) then selecting a portion of that photo to view for yourself or share online. What you're seeing is only a portion of the photo j-a-x took, but at full size.

You'll find that if when you view iPhone 4/4S shots at 100% they will look very similar.
 
It is apparent the iPhone 4 is applying a bit more saturation to its photos. The 4s looks to have a much wider dynamic range which is good. As stated before, the 4 has more contrast but unfortunately loses detail and information in the shadows.

For those that like the color on the 4, this can easily be added in a photo editing app or computer suite.
 
Robbug said:
It is apparent the iPhone 4 is applying a bit more saturation to its photos. The 4s looks to have a much wider dynamic range which is good. As stated before, the 4 has more contrast but unfortunately loses detail and information in the shadows.

For those that like the color on the 4, this can easily be added in a photo editing app or computer suite.
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Not just saturation but the white balance is off on the iPhone 4. The 4 looks too blue. It's not hard to correct but the 4S definitely takes a better photo to begin with. I don't see the lack of detail in the shadows of the 4S, in fact I thought it was the opposite. The shadows are too dark in the iPhone 4 (less dynamic range) and therefore if you try to brighten them up you're going to lose details then.

If anybody has any examples like this to post, I'd love to see. I might take some more samples and post them later today, so keep an eye on this thread if you are interested.
 
j-a-x said:
I don't see the lack of detail in the shadows of the 4S, in fact I thought it was the opposite.
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:) You misread what I stated. The iPhone 4 appears to capture less dynamic range therefore creating a higher contrasting image and loosing detail in the shadows.

I think I am gonna start saying 4(old) and 4s. I did the same thing in an earlier thread heheh.
 
Robbug said:
:) You misread what I stated. The iPhone 4 appears to capture less dynamic range therefore creating a higher contrasting image and loosing detail in the shadows.

I think I am gonna start saying 4(old) and 4s. I did the same thing in an earlier thread heheh.
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Oops sorry, I guess I got confused. So we agree! :)
 
It's also hard to test 2 autoexposing, auto white-balancing, autofocusing cameras because you can't be sure of getting the same exposure. In any comparison test you want to minimize the differences (variables) as much as possible and that's hard to do here.
 
The 4s image is better, but nothing revolutionary. No where near the improvement seen from 3GS to 4
 
reason why i didnt switch to the 4S. i feel the camera on my 4 is good enough for being a camera phone.
 
techkidd4400 said:
I agree! In fact, I feel much better about skipping the 4s now.
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Yep, and I really don't know how much better they can make images coming from such a small lens. There's only so much digital enhancements you can do. It's one of the reasons I don't get overly excited about phones getting thinner and thinner because the trade off is a lens with a shorter focal length and a battery thats thinner than what it could have been.
 
Like I said, the biggest difference of the 4S camera is its low light abilities. You aren't going to see a high difference with these daytime photos besides the sharpness/number of pixels/white balance. Besides better pictures in low light, the 4S lens has a faster shutter speed so it's easier to capture moving objects without blur. I'm a photographer so I probably notice these things more than the average user though. I'll try to post some dark photo comparisons this evening.
 
2IS said:
Yep, and I really don't know how much better they can make images coming from such a small lens. There's only so much digital enhancements you can do. It's one of the reasons I don't get overly excited about phones getting thinner and thinner because the trade off is a lens with a shorter focal length and a battery thats thinner than what it could have been.
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You might change your mind if you use Photoshop CS5, Lightroom, Nik Plug in filters, and a good number of other awesome photo-editing software out there!

Even the iPhone Photogene and Snapseed apps can do wonders to lousy images!

These are iPhone 4 shots with some photo-editing http://garcesmaui.blogspot.com/2010/11/banaue-rice-terraces-and-boracay-sunset.html
 
My wife and I took some photos of the kids outside today. My iPhone 4s put a smack down on her 12mp Sony Cybershot.

She couldn't believe it.
 
Why do your 4 pics look so grainy. My 4 rarely takes grainy pics.

Anyways, I like to see some user vids of 4S stabilization vs vids of the 4. :)
 
LIVEFRMNYC said:
Why do your 4 pics look so grainy. My 4 rarely takes grainy pics.

Anyways, I like to see some user vids of 4S image stabilization vs vids of the 4. :)
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Because they're 100% crops. Almost every camera will have a quite a bit of noise at full resolution. Generally speaking (but not always), the noise increases with the pixel density of the sensor
 
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