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iPhone 15 Pro Max Star Test: 15 PM Night mode is better than 14 pro max!!

ToddH

ToddH

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 5, 2010
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I just came inside from taking two comparison shots of the same area of the sky using the 14 pro max and 15 pro max. The 15 pro max captured double the amount of stars and detail over the 14 pro max. Here are two screenshots from each iPhone that are from a ProRAW 30” exposure. The 15 pro max exposed at ISO 640 where the iPhone 14 pro max exposed at ISO 800. The area of interest is M31, the andromeda galaxy. Many of the brighter stars don’t show up as well in the 14 PM vs the 15 PM. The 15 pro max image capture is definitely much improved. Now I need to get to a really dark location to get the Milky Way before it’s gone for the year.

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15 pro max

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Rafterman said:
Must be nice to live in an area with little light pollution...
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I wish it was darker. There is plenty of light pollution here. I’m in the “yellow” area of a light pollution map. I have to drive 45 minutes to get to decently darker skies.
 
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tenordrum said:
You may want to try the Unistellar Nocturne app (which is free) for some night shots. Unistellar makes some robotic scopes but also developed this app for straightforward iPhone shots.
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I’ll look into it… thanks. I will usually put my iPhone on my Skywatcher star adventurer to track the sky to avoid trailing.
 
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Just used the iPhone 15 pro max telephoto through the ProCamera app to shoot the moon handheld at about 10x, 15x, 20x and 25x. I’m sure if the moon was lower in the sky and I had a Tripod it would be even sharper, I was impressed, this is all digital zoom at this point. 24mp HEIF file, iso 32, 1/1613s, f2.8
 

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FrankySavvy said:
Just used the iPhone 15 pro max telephoto through the ProCamera app to shoot the moon handheld at about 10x, 15x, 20x and 25x. I’m sure if the moon was lower in the sky and I had a Tripod it would be even sharper, I was impressed, this is all digital zoom at this point. 24mp HEIF file, iso 32, 1/1613s, f2.8
Click to expand...
Nice…. I haven’t taken a photo of the moon in zoom mode yet.
 
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Definitely an improvement, good to see!

Also good to know my older Fuji can still outdo current iPhones being only APSC, guess it’s worth keeping around a while longer. It’s definitely gotten progressively less use though as iPhone cameras have gotten better
 
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ToddH said:
Just to post an examples of what I’ve done with a DSLR, take a look at these:
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these are incredible! what’s your setup besides the tracker?

i’d love to get more into astro but i don’t know where to start, do you have any recs? i should really invest in a tracker i guess?

here’s a couple i’ve taken with my XPro2:

1696313453170.jpeg
1696313378189.jpeg
 
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cableguy84 said:
How do you get those results with night mode on the 13 pro max?
Disappointed with my 13PM night mode to be honest
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These shots I just pressed the phone against the bedroom window (to eliminate blur), used the iPhone camera app & clicked the moon / horizontal line icon. Then moved the slider to the right which went from Auto to 1 sec.

The hardest / annoying thing about it was getting it to focus / lock on stars. Sometimes it would lock on but then exposure would be short so I really had to lock & move exposure box to get it to behave. More luck at times. Pics haven’t been through any editing apps or left phone
 
ToddH said:
I just came inside from taking two comparison shots of the same area of the sky using the 14 pro max and 15 pro max. The 15 pro max captured double the amount of stars and detail over the 14 pro max. Here are two screenshots from each iPhone that are from a ProRAW 30” exposure. The 15 pro max exposed at ISO 640 where the iPhone 14 pro max exposed at ISO 800. The area of interest is M31, the andromeda galaxy. Many of the brighter stars don’t show up as well in the 14 PM vs the 15 PM. The 15 pro max image capture is definitely much improved. Now I need to get to a really dark location to get the Milky Way before it’s gone for the year.

Full image edit

View attachment 2287246

14 pro max

View attachment 2287232

15 pro max

View attachment 2287231 iPhone 15 pro max
Click to expand...

ToddH said:
I just came inside from taking two comparison shots of the same area of the sky using the 14 pro max and 15 pro max. The 15 pro max captured double the amount of stars and detail over the 14 pro max. Here are two screenshots from each iPhone that are from a ProRAW 30” exposure. The 15 pro max exposed at ISO 640 where the iPhone 14 pro max exposed at ISO 800. The area of interest is M31, the andromeda galaxy. Many of the brighter stars don’t show up as well in the 14 PM vs the 15 PM. The 15 pro max image capture is definitely much improved. Now I need to get to a really dark location to get the Milky Way before it’s gone for the year.

Full image edit

View attachment 2287246

14 pro max

View attachment 2287232

15 pro max

View attachment 2287231
Click to expand...
Yup, iPhone 15 pro max camera is better than iPhone 14 pro max night and day also per my experience. Thank you for sharing the comparison. 😊The iPhone 15 pro max pictures are amazing.
 
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