Wildly impressed with iPhone 7 low light photos

[ahostmadsen]

I just quickly took a picture indoor at night in dim light with my iPhone 7. The result was amazing, on level with my Sony A6000 mirrorless camera with the superfast 35mm f/1.8 lens! When I checked the EXIF I could see why: the iPhone used a shutter speed of 1/5 s, and on my Sony I would never go below 1/30 or 1/60 s. That should compensate for the difference in sensor size.

Of course 1/5 s would never work with any movement in the subject. But my impression based on just a few pictures is that the iPhone seems to sense if there is movement in the pictures, and only goes to those crazy low shutter speeds if it detects no motion. Is this impression correct?

 

[JOEBETA]

I took this with my iPhone 7.

 

[bushbaby]

I don't know, OP, but I am also blown away by the low light level capabilities of this camera.

 

[kjotwani]

Took these. Really impressed

 

[ajones92]

Took these. Really impressed

View attachment 659399
View attachment 659398

Beach club. Nice!


Or perhaps yacht club lol

 

[rijc99]

Don't zoom in on iPhone low light images. It'll break your heart.

Unless you like Monet.

 

[TJ82]

@kjotwani

Those are actually very impressive. Similar to my A7.

Which camera app did you use/any post-processing?

 

[44267547]

Thanks for the pictures. Looks great. Excited to receive my 7 Plus.

 

[iTom17]

Very impressed with low-light capabilities of my iPhone 7 as well. Tested it yesterday at scene which was pretty dark. With my iPhone 6s it would definitely look grainy, but with my iPhone 7 I saw a huge improvement. Apple has done a great job at that part with the new iPhones, really liking this.

Did a quick comparison between the iPhone 6s (top) and 7 (bottom)

I mean, yes it's still grainy at both. But there's a MASSIVE difference here.

 

[TJ82]

That's a really big difference. Wonder what the ISO is on the 6/6s/7

 

[iTom17]

That's a really big difference. Wonder what the ISO is on the 6/6s/7

You're talking about my photos?

I can give you the numbers:
iPhone 6s: ISO 320, shutter speed 1/17 Sec
iPhone 7: ISO 160, shutter speed 1/4 Sec

Pretty major right?


Here's another one, again iPhone 6s at top and iPhone 7 at bottom:

ISO 2000, shutter speed 1/17

ISO 320, shutter speed 1/4


Not so much difference here, but still better color reproduction and simply more to see.

 

[bbates123]

I wish I was seeing the same thing. When I compare my 6S low light images to my 7 the difference is very slight. In general the images from the 7 appear less noisy but it often seems to come with a loss of detail, like a stronger noise reduction is being applied in software. I was expecting more and to me this is disappointing.

 

[kjotwani]

@kjotwani

Those are actually very impressive. Similar to my A7.

Which camera app did you use/any post-processing?

The default camera app. No post processing at all.

 

[iTom17]

I decided to do some more low-light photography, as my previously posted photos were made inside. Wanted to see as well how it compares when outside. Here's the results (including ISO and shutter time).

Example 1

iPhone 6s, ISO 2000, shutter time 1/17 Sec

iPhone 7, ISO 1600, shutter time 1/4 Sec

Example 2

iPhone 6s, ISO 2000, shutter time 1/17 Sec

iPhone 7, ISO 400, shutter time 1/4 Sec


Example 3

iPhone 6s, ISO 1600, shutter time 1/17 Sec

iPhone 7, ISO 250, shutter time 1/4 Sec


Pretty amazing, right? Especially the first one. The playground is basically invisible through the lens of the iPhone 6s. Same thing with the second one, although the street lights help a bit with making the scene more visible. But it's still very dark compared to how the iPhone 7 does. At the last one the differences are smaller. But if you specifically look at the amount of noise produced, the iPhone 7 does a better job.

Just wanted to share this with you guys. I'm not a professional photographer and don't intend to become one. But I just like how great this camera is. Not only in low-light situations, but in general. Definitely gonna use it a lot more than I did with my iPhone 6s.