Telephoto camera 8+ vs X. Real differences?

[juanmaasecas]

I love photography. I have a Sony A7RII with some nice manual and AF lenses, but I also like taking pictures with my phone when I'm not carrying it. I love the way Apple process the pictures in the iPhones. I had an iPhone 5s in the past and I enjoyed a lot taking pictures with it: The skin tones, the textures, the colours..., for me the Apple algorithms are the best in industry, especially for portrait pictures... I moved to Android because of the bigger screens, and because I'm very geek and by that time I loved to be changing roms and really personalising my phone... Currently I own a LG G5 which cameras are not bad, but I'd like to go back to the apple simplicity and reliability and for the camera... I fell in love with the iPhone 7 Plus last year (the portrait mode for me is mandatory in my next phone), but when I had the cash to buy it, the phone was already in the market for some months, so I decided to wait for the next one, and now I have the following dilemma: iPhone X or iPhone 8 plus?

What I like of the iPhone X
- New design (maybe it will be more desirable also in a future for a plausible reselling...)
- Better screen-to-body ratio
- brighter and stabilised telephoto camera

What I don't like of the iPhone X
- Face ID (I prefer Touch ID)
- Worse battery life
- stupid 19:9 aspect ratio with less real state screen
- Amoled screen (maybe will turn greenish over time as every galaxy phone, and also the burnings problems...)
- Expensive (and even not available at official retailers here in HK right now)

What I like of the 8 Plus
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- Bigger screen (coming from the G5, I recently tested the X and the screen seems very narrow)
- Better battery life
- Cheaper (I can get one second handed (1 month and a half of use) for around 550 US dollars)

What I don't like of the 8 Plus
- Outdated design (maybe difficult to resell in the future, specially if next year every new iPhone has the new design language)
- Maybe too big for 5.5"
- Slower (f2.8) telephoto lens without OIS
- No front portrait mode

All of us know really well the pros and cons of these two phones, but my question is, regarding the telephoto lens, does it in real life makes a big difference? I'd like to read opinions from people owning both models and who did comparisons. The main camera is the same, right? I could just read (or watch) a couple of comparisons between them, and they weren't very clear, or not with enough resolution, or not made by people who really know about photography at all... But what I could tell is a bit sharper lens in the X, whereas the 8 Plus has a better field of view for me (56mm in the 8 Plus vs 52mm in the X, and the longer focal length in the Plus is better for portraits IMO). Is the lens in the X really sharper, or the photographer was just pressing badly the shutter so the pic was slightly blurred because of that? Also a think I don't like of the X is that the flash is in the middle of the two lens. This is a downside for me, as the light could interfere and create flares (maybe that's why the flash in the X seems to be less powerful and the pictures look darker, to avoid this issues). The flash in the 8 Plus is in a much better position.

I read here a couple of post talking about these two cameras before the X was released, and people were guessing that the X was going to have better sensor, better algorithms, etc. Finally it's not true, right?

Thank you for reading 🙂

 

[teknikal90]

i have the x wife has the 8 plus
the resulting pictures look identical in bright light
in low light the X is a little bit brighter. though in low light BOTH phones aren't at all sharp. both still have the blotchiness characteristic of taking photos in low light though the X is brighter I would say by a stop. so the faster aperture and stabilization do work to an extent, but aren't magical.

a good way to illustrate this would be by taking a picture using the main camera on your 8 plus and then taking the same picture using the telephoto.
the main camera will show you a better picture yes, but other than the increased brightness, its still going to be not significantly more detailed in low light.

EDIT: I meant test using your 7 Plus

 

[alee]

Your hit rate on photos will go up significantly shooting with the new stabilized 56mm lens on the X. You can shoot in lower light and get sharper results without introduce handshake. Video with the 2x lens is also much improved thanks to stabilization. Gimbal it is not, but it's still noticeably smoother. For what it's worth, the noise reduction on the X seems noticeably better as well.

 

[juanmaasecas]

Your hit rate on photos will go up significantly shooting with the new stabilized 56mm lens on the X. You can shoot in lower light and get sharper results without introduce handshake. Video with the 2x lens is also much improved thanks to stabilization. Gimbal it is not, but it's still noticeably smoother. For what it's worth, the noise reduction on the X seems noticeably better as well.

According with what I read, the shutter speed in both 8 plus and x in auto using the telephoto lens is the same, right? So I think if your hands are not shaky and you have a good technique when pressing the onscreen button, I would be good... Cab you show the differences in noise reduction?
Thank you for your reply!

 

[alee]

According with what I read, the shutter speed in both 8 plus and x in auto using the telephoto lens is the same, right? So I think if your hands are not shaky and you have a good technique when pressing the onscreen button, I would be good... Cab you show the differences in noise reduction?
Thank you for your reply!

The 8 Plus is in my office right now... I will try and shoot some tests tomorrow when I get back to work in the morning. Noise reduction is documented to be "hardware" noise reduction, which is minimally different from what was done by older iPhones.

My only comment regarding stabilization is that as careful as you think you are, the longer the focal length, the softer the image when shooting handheld. During the day, it's probably fine, but even as the sun sets, you'll find the X consistently shooting sharper. Try shooting at 70mm with your A7r2 with and without the 5-axis stabilization on. It's doing a TON of work to keep the photos sharp. 🙂

 

[juanmaasecas]

The 8 Plus is in my office right now... I will try and shoot some tests tomorrow when I get back to work in the morning. Noise reduction is documented to be "hardware" noise reduction, which is minimally different from what was done by older iPhones.

My only comment regarding stabilization is that as careful as you think you are, the longer the focal length, the softer the image when shooting handheld. During the day, it's probably fine, but even as the sun sets, you'll find the X consistently shooting sharper. Try shooting at 70mm with your A7r2 with and without the 5-axis stabilization on. It's doing a TON of work to keep the photos sharp. 🙂

You're right, but for example at 50mm, I can get sharp results at 1/50s when using a 50mm lens even with IBIS off taking care and with good technique of course. Other thing is that thanks to ibis, I can use 1/10s and even a little less and still get really good results for static objects with the IBIS on... But if the standard camera app defaults to 1/50s for both tele lens in x and 8 plus, I think I'm fine...

I just tested the portrait mode in the apple store at university, and it's sad I couldn't send the pictures (I'll try again later), but at least on screen (the shop is not too well lighted), I prefer the field of view and the colors from the 8 plus (more zoom, warmer colors), and both had the same noise and sharpness...

 

[rijc99]

You can air drop the photo from the demo phone to yours.

 

[juanmaasecas]

I did airdropped the test pictures I took the second time to my friend's phone (iPhone SE) and he sent them to me via email... I tried to take them from the same place, but the frame is slightly different, even if there's also a difference in the zoom of the lens (56 vs 52mm). I took 3 pictures in each phone and chose the best to compare (although they were almost indistinguishable).

iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone 8 Plus by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

iPhone X
iPhone X by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

100% crop
8plus-vs-X by Juanma Herrera, en Flickr

My findings:
1/50s on both, none of them is blurred (not optically blurred I mean). The exposure is pretty similar, but the ISO is 250 for the iPhone X and 500 for the 8Plus, which suggests 1 full stop brighter lens (f2.0 vs f2.8) instead of the real f2.4 vs 2.8 (which is around 1/2 stop).

Without zooming-in, both pictures look pretty similar regarding Colors, noise and details. I prefer the slightly pinkish Colors in the 8 Plus over the yellowish in the X, and also the X lens seems having more distortion, and his face looks enlarged vertically (being more rounded and true to life (but looking fatter) in the 8 plus). This is a normal behaviour when comparing wider lens to more telephoto lens (as I said, I prefer 56 over 52mm for portraits). The picture in the X, even without zooming-in, looks more 3Dish, has more depth, is less flat which I like.

Zooming-in to 100% we can see pretty similar noise level (even if the ISO in the 8 plus is double!), but a bit more detail in the X, even if the lens is wider. Maybe to reduce noise in the 8 Plus, a more aggressive noise reduction is necessary, which is killing part of the detail.

Ok, I think now I'm not sure: for me the stabiliser is not a problem (not blurred at 1/50s which is the minimum Apple is using in both phones), but definitely the pictures from the X are a little bit more punchy, although I don't like the extra distortion for portraits... is it worth the extra money? I think I will continue with my g5 some more time to read more about issues (I'm not sold about the amoled screen at all).

 

[roeiz]

^^^^^ the detail on the X CU is marginally better.