iPhone 13 Pro Ultra Wide CameraTesting

[Miltz]

One of the main upgrades I was looking forward to was the ultra wide lens upgrade on the Pro model. Over the summer I had a chance to use the Samsung note 10 on a trip to Maine and I strictly used the ultra wide angle lens. Overall I was really happy with using that phone so when I got the 13 Pro in the mail I immediately wanted to compare the note 10 which is I think now a two your old phone to this brand new iPhone 13 Pro and the results were kind of surprising. The iPhone 13 Pro Ultra Wide camera is better than the new 10 but the difference is so small that without pixel peeping it’s really hard to see it and that really surprise me especially since that phone is two years old now. One area I was expecting the iPhone to win was image detail and sharpness and unfortunately they were identical. Also, for whatever reason the note 10 made better use of HDR than the iPhone. It’s not all bad news, the 13 pro main camera was much better than the main camera on the note 10 in every way which is expected. If anyone is looking to get the 13 Pro because of the “amazing” new ultra wide camera, I would temper your expectations as it’s now just as good as other olds phones rather than a leap forward. If you’re wondering so far I love the 13 Pro overall, I just wish the sensor in the ultra wide was as good as the main camera. The main camera sensor is almost twice the size of the ultra wide angle. 1.9 pixel pitch vs 1.0 pixel pitch.

 

[dallegre]

Sensors have matured to the point that for a given sensor size we're probably not going to see massive leaps very often outside of AI and software optimization (where the sky is the limit for now). And there's always trade off...do you go with a 108mp sensor or 12mp sensor? There are advantages to both with current tech.
Idk if the note had AF on the UWA camera, but the addition of AF and a true macro mode are pretty big functional improvements even if the pixel for pixel gain is relatively flat.
HDR is pretty subjective with tone mapping and what is "good" or "bad". It seems the 13 is moving the needle back to the blacks a bit, but there are still halos all over the place, as one would expect I guess.

 

[BrettDS]

Most of the big changes to the ultra wide camera are in it’s light gathering abilities to help with low light situations. If you’re taking pictures outdoors in bright sunlight then I would expect the camera to do really well, of course, but where it will really shine is in low light, outdoors at dusk or indoors in a dimly lit room. I think it would be interesting for you to do a comparison with your note 10 in low light as well.

 

[Miltz]

I think I should give more detail on the picture I took to compare the phones. I took a shot indoors with the lights off and it was bright outside. Basically a very high dynamic range shot. (When I shoot real estate I take 3 images and combine them in post.) The iPhone did much better with chroma noise and the corners were better in terms of sharpness and noise. I felt the note 10 did a better job with HDR because it didn’t blow out the highlights from the window. The iPhone’s were more blown out. Still you’d think two years of tech advancements and things like deep fusion would be able to outperform it in sharpness and detail and it didn’t. (Except for extreme edges of the frame) I gotta hand it to the note 10 for being so good when it came out it really holds up. My girlfriend was pretty happy hear “old phone” is still current… lol