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iPhone X vs. Galaxy S9+: Which Smartphone Has a Better Camera?
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Canon, hassalblad, Nikon useless for everything except taking great pictures from a technical point of view, which smartphone cameras want to emulate but can’t.. Which is exactly what some photographers want.
Depends on what I'm shooting. I definitely like the option. It doesn't have to be one or the other. It's extrememley usefulfor those that need super slo mo.
I think that to take the subjectivity out of the equation, the pictures should should be numbered 1 or 2. Also as a filmmaker, I am looking for the best video quality especially in low light situations. The problem right now is that the phones tend to overheat and you have to have a second phone as a backup.
If you haven’t seen Tangerine, check it out. It was made on 2 iPhone 5s’s and Director Steven Sodeburgh (not sure as to the spelling and I’m too lazy to look it up) is committed to making several features on the iPhone.
If you haven’t seen Tangerine, check it out. It was made on 2 iPhone 5s’s and Director Steven Sodeburgh (not sure as to the spelling and I’m too lazy to look it up) is committed to making several features on the iPhone.
I am very happy with mine. I use it along side my Canon DSLR and as long as you aren't using the iPhone in situations where any phone would be poor (e.g. very low light), the quality of the footage doesn't look vastly different (in fact the iPhone actually produces sharper video in good light). Although I use Filmic PRO to record video and not the camera APP.
First, driving ISO up reduces quality.
Reducing the exposure of a bright scene or one with varied lighting can only do so much to retain detail. HDR does a better job overall at bringing out wide dynamic range.
[doublepost=1521305308][/doublepost]IPhone X portrait mode (especially Portrait Lighting) and 4K video still need a lot of improvement.
No doubt about it The Galaxy images are superior. The iPhone shots have a little more sparkle to them and initially look better but they also blow the highlights. That data is lost. On the Galaxy shots the lows and mids can be brightened and still have the highlight detail retained.
My love my love my love my love
You love their lensy lumps
They got us spending
Oh, spending all your money on these
And spending time on these
Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?
Over the course of this week, we've been taking a look at Samsung's new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+, as these two devices are the iPhone X's biggest competition.
In our latest video, available on the MacRumors YouTube channel, we compared the Samsung Galaxy S9+'s dual-lens camera with variable aperture to the vertical dual-lens camera in the iPhone X.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Samsung decided to focus heavily on image quality in its latest devices, and the S9+ has a 12-megapixel f/1.5 to f/2.4 variable aperture lens as its main camera, which is paired with a 12-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens, similar to what's available in the iPhone X.
A variable aperture is unique to Samsung's new devices, and it offers some benefits that are going to improve image quality. With a variable aperture, it's easier to find a balance between light and image quality.
At the wider f/1.5 aperture, the Galaxy S9+ camera can let in more light in low light situations, but a wider aperture tends to compromise image sharpness at the edges of the photo. In conditions where the lighting is better, the narrower f/2.4 aperture will provide a crisper higher-quality image. The Galaxy S9+ can automatically select the proper aperture for the best image.
Click to enlarge
The iPhone X has two lenses like the Galaxy S9+, but no adjustable aperture, and that gives the S9+ a bit of an edge. As you'll see in the images below, though, both the iPhone X and the Galaxy S9+ have fantastic cameras that are capable of taking some amazing images.
In these photos, we used an automatic mode to capture the images, and no editing was done. This image of a sunset demonstrates some key differences between the two cameras. The S9+ offers a crisper image with more definition, but the colors in the iPhone X image are warmer and more true to life.
The Galaxy S9+ has a "Live Focus" mode that's similar to Portrait Mode on the iPhone X, and the photo below compares Live Focus with Portrait Mode. Both of these modes have some issues, but making adjustments to blur is easier on the Galaxy S9+, which gives it the win over the iPhone X. In general, the Galaxy S9 also has more built-in image editing tools with its Pro Mode for taking manual photos.
Click to enlarge
In addition to images, we also took a look at video modes. Samsung's Galaxy S9 can record in slow motion at 960 FPS, a unique feature because the iPhone X's slo-mo maxes out at 240 FPS. Both devices can also record in 4K video with optical image stabilization, but the Galaxy S9+'s video was less jittery. The iPhone X did win out when it came to suppressing outdoor wind sound, though.
Click to enlarge
Both of these cameras, as mentioned before, are great and can capture images that are on par with DSLRs in some situations, but there are definitely some features that make the Galaxy S9+ ever so slightly better than iPhone X when it comes to image and video quality.
Of course, Apple is going to be introducing the successor to the iPhone X in about six months, and with the camera improvements that come with every new upgrade, it's likely iPhones coming in 2018 will outshine the Galaxy S9+.
Click to enlarge
Which images do you prefer? iPhone X or Galaxy S9+? Let us know in the comments.
Make sure to check out our other videos, which have compared the Galaxy S9 to the iPhone X and pitted Animoji against Samsung's new AR Emoji.
Article Link: iPhone X vs. Galaxy S9+: Which Smartphone Has a Better Camera?
What happens when you're the CEO of the BIGGEST company in the world, with "perceived" Leadership in the mobile industry, AND the world suddenly finds-out you screwed-up BIG TIME ?
We'll, that's precisely what's just-about to happen to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple ... you see, Apple completely Missed the Boat in the mobile industry's most-important transtion, to 10-bit color "capture" & "display" !
The End Result isn't going to end well for Tim & the rest of his Mgmt Team, nor the company's Shareholders ... nor for that matter, the same @ Samsung & @ Google.
For Consumers, the End Result is simply going to be lots of INEXPENSIVE Chinese smartphones with 10-bit color capture & display Flooding the Market, & Consumers buying them in Droves !
Most current Apple Users will very-likely hang onto their current devices, AND very-likely won't be Upgrading anymore ... they'll be buying an INEXPENSIVE Chinese smartphone as a 2nd smartphone, or rather, Verizon, AT&T, Spring, & T-Mobile will be gifting them a 2nd smartphone for FREE, and with NO cost for the 2nd line.
Apple's days of counting on Upgrades could be (long) over.
It is our very strong opinion that Apple screwed-up BIG TIME when the company decided to transition away from a Hardware Home Button ! ... NOT only did Consumers loose a key feature, but Apple got SIDE-TRACKED with Face ID & Animoji, when they should have been 100% focused, company-wide, on 10-bit Display P3 capture for photos, AND Rec. 2100-compliant 1080p HD HDR for videos !
It's NOT just Apple's Upper Mgmt team that doesn't get it .. Samsung, Google, GoPro, Efficient, Snap, ALL who have put emphasis on their "camera," yet ALL Clueless as to what they should be working on !
It's best described by the phrase "Oblivious to the Obvious" ... from Apple's perspective, it simply means offering "BGR10A2Unorm" for capture (i.e., 10-bit Display P3 via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput), supporting 10-bit color with their Hardware HEVC Encoder, AND transitioning to 10-bit color displays in their mobile devices.
Two years ago this month (i.e., March 2016), Apple offered their first WIDE color (i.e., Display P3 color space) mobile device, an iPad Pro model ... UNFORTUNATELY, Apple decided to go WIDE without also going DEEP (i.e., 10-bit color) ... and hasn't made any progress since ! ... we'll, even though Apple, Samsung, Google, GoPro, Efficient, Snap, & others, may be Asleep at the Wheel, others in Asia are NOT !
And BTW, for those of you who don't know, 50% of the Reason for supporting HEVC with photos & videos is because it supports 10-bit color ! ... NOT Rocket Science, but MOST in the industry are Oblivious to the Obvious !
We'll, that's precisely what's just-about to happen to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple ... you see, Apple completely Missed the Boat in the mobile industry's most-important transtion, to 10-bit color "capture" & "display" !
The End Result isn't going to end well for Tim & the rest of his Mgmt Team, nor the company's Shareholders ... nor for that matter, the same @ Samsung & @ Google.
For Consumers, the End Result is simply going to be lots of INEXPENSIVE Chinese smartphones with 10-bit color capture & display Flooding the Market, & Consumers buying them in Droves !
Most current Apple Users will very-likely hang onto their current devices, AND very-likely won't be Upgrading anymore ... they'll be buying an INEXPENSIVE Chinese smartphone as a 2nd smartphone, or rather, Verizon, AT&T, Spring, & T-Mobile will be gifting them a 2nd smartphone for FREE, and with NO cost for the 2nd line.
Apple's days of counting on Upgrades could be (long) over.
It is our very strong opinion that Apple screwed-up BIG TIME when the company decided to transition away from a Hardware Home Button ! ... NOT only did Consumers loose a key feature, but Apple got SIDE-TRACKED with Face ID & Animoji, when they should have been 100% focused, company-wide, on 10-bit Display P3 capture for photos, AND Rec. 2100-compliant 1080p HD HDR for videos !
It's NOT just Apple's Upper Mgmt team that doesn't get it .. Samsung, Google, GoPro, Efficient, Snap, ALL who have put emphasis on their "camera," yet ALL Clueless as to what they should be working on !
It's best described by the phrase "Oblivious to the Obvious" ... from Apple's perspective, it simply means offering "BGR10A2Unorm" for capture (i.e., 10-bit Display P3 via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput), supporting 10-bit color with their Hardware HEVC Encoder, AND transitioning to 10-bit color displays in their mobile devices.
Two years ago this month (i.e., March 2016), Apple offered their first WIDE color (i.e., Display P3 color space) mobile device, an iPad Pro model ... UNFORTUNATELY, Apple decided to go WIDE without also going DEEP (i.e., 10-bit color) ... and hasn't made any progress since ! ... we'll, even though Apple, Samsung, Google, GoPro, Efficient, Snap, & others, may be Asleep at the Wheel, others in Asia are NOT !
And BTW, for those of you who don't know, 50% of the Reason for supporting HEVC with photos & videos is because it supports 10-bit color ! ... NOT Rocket Science, but MOST in the industry are Oblivious to the Obvious !
From these photos the Samsung seems to have much more dynamic range. No blown out details in the sky, while those highlights are blown out on the iPhone. This isn't even the result of a different exposure, since the darks seem to be more detailed too. So unless they didn't turn off HDR, the Samsung photos show a higher dynamic range, which is pretty important, and a huge limitation of current digital cameras, especially phones.
This is all nonsense and looks to be copy and pasted. I’ll simply respond that it’s always been the software and iOS users are not going to shift away to Chinese cheap phones running Android. Lol
None of these cameras beat actually sitting back and enjoying the moment and viewing with your own eyes rather than the pale comparison of viewing on a screen and fiddling with camera settings to capture a moment that you’re not even fully immersed in at the time of the photo.
In every instance I preferred the photos taken by the iPhone X.
Photos from the iPhone X seem to display more contrast, which I personally prefer. In example, the first series of photos in a snow covered park, the broken clouds in the iPhone X photo are almost blown out. Almost. The sun peaking through seems obtrusive. Yet in real life it would be much this way, with one perhaps shielding the glare with a hand, without a thought.
Snow can be very difficult to reproduce accurately in photographs. While both cameras did a respectable job, the snow from the iPhone X has about the right amount of brightness without losing detail. Whereas the photo from the Samsung Galaxy S9+ appears as it might if one was wearing slightly tinted sunglasses.
It's a tiny sensor. I think iPhones are incredible as pocket cameras (and have basically killed that compact camera market), but when I want nice photos I use an actual camera with a larger sensor and a whole lot more light-gathering glass. Don't get me wrong, iPhones are wringing incredible performance out of what they have, but there are just physical limits to what you can do with such a miniaturized setup compared to a bigger device that's purpose-built for capturing images.
Also, the Samsung is blowing it really badly here, unless this image has been recompressed...
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What about now? Which one do you like more?
Just added a touch of exposure and saturation in LR. I could have warmed the color tone as well.
The S9+ photos look more like RAW files, with the JPEG engine leaving lots of detail and not going nuts on the post processing. The iPhone X JPEG engine applies a lot of stuff, which makes it look more appetizing right away, but the photo quality is far lower (especially that noise reduction... lordy!)
I imagine with the S9+ you can simply choose how you want your JPEGs to be with a single tap from a selection, kind of like the filters on iOS. Set it and forget it.
The S9+ has far more detail and is the better camera. An iPhone X isn't better than an A7Riii because the RAW files look dull.
It's a tossup because the S9+'s dynamic range is far superior than iPhone X's, but the S9+'s artificial sharpening looks AWFUL.
Doubt it. It looks like the pixels are saturated, which might have to do with how the auto-exposure was determined on the actual sensor used. Indeed, on the iPhone one can highlight the area of main interest, which sets the region of the picture that auto-exposure is based on. If the same thing is true in the Samsung phone, then we need to know what area in the photo's the testers highlighted as the main focus of each picture.