Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is the camera on an iPhone 7+ or 8 good enough for taking pictures of the moon or future eclipse?

Starfyre

Starfyre

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 7, 2010
2,905
1,136
I have a 6 and I can say for certainty, photos of the sun or moon are extremely blurry, and the moon looks like a white flashlight dot. Does anyone have any experience with taking photos of the sun or moon using an iPhone 7, 7+ to any success? Or is the 8's camera going to be able to handle this sort of thing?

I would prefer to not have to resort to an SLR if possible to get these kinds of images.
 
WinterWolf90 said:
Jesus you're making a thread for everything.
Click to expand...
You should take a look at some of the other posters' threads :)

I am interested in knowing if camera quality is better given optical image stabilization and everything on the newer devices.
 
There are two main things that prevent the iPhone from getting good photos of the sun and/or moon:

1) Focal length. Even with the 2x zoom, the focal length on the iPhone (and other Smartphone cameras) is just not long enough for a good photo of the sun or moon. You need something in the range of 500mm+ for this type of photography.

2) Auto Exposure. The iPhone stock camera app just doesn't exposure properly for shots of the sun and moon. You really need a 3rd party camera app so you can control everything from ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. Plenty of options available on the iPhone, but these still don't solve #1.

There's nothing on the new phones that will make shots of the sun and moon noticeably better. One could argue having OIS on the tele lens will help if you're taking photos handheld, but a tripod is your best bet anyway for the moon and eclipses.
 
Travisimo said:
There are two main things that prevent the iPhone from getting good photos of the sun and/or moon:

1) Focal length. Even with the 2x zoom, the focal length on the iPhone (and other Smartphone cameras) is just not long enough for a good photo of the sun or moon. You need something in the range of 500mm+ for this type of photography.

2) Auto Exposure. The iPhone stock camera app just doesn't exposure properly for shots of the sun and moon. You really need a 3rd party camera app so you can control everything from ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. Plenty of options available on the iPhone, but these still don't solve #1.

There's nothing on the new phones that will make shots of the sun and moon noticeably better. One could argue having OIS on the tele lens will help if you're taking photos handheld, but a tripod is your best bet anyway for the moon and eclipses.
Click to expand...

This is why I'm rarely impressed by camera specs on a smartphone and abhor paying the "improved camera" tax when getting a new one.
 
You're unlikely to get good pictures with just an iPhone. If you use an additional lens of some sort and a third-party app, you might be able to get some decent pictures. You'll also likely need a solar filter if you use a lens. Without a filter, not only will you likely damage your phone, but you won't get any detail anyway because the Sun is so bright. I went down to South Carolina for the total eclipse and here are two pictures I took with my 6s through my 6" SCT telescope. Obviously a telescope is a bit more than simple lens attachment accessory, but there you go. I also used an app called Night Cap that's good for stuff like this.

Eclipse1.jpg Eclipse2.jpg
 
The next total eclipse will be in 2024, I think we can wait and see what the iPhone XX brings at that point.
 
You need to know what you're doing to get a good pic of the moon with a DSLR from what I've read. I doubt the iPhone could get any pic of the moon worth having.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back