iPhone 4S vs Canon 5DII

[Haydn1971]

Interesting but no scientific comparison of the iPhone 4S against a Canon 5DII

Guardian Online

Demonstrate that the iPhone 4S still has a long way to go in terms of picture quality, but in my opinion can't be beaten on convenience.

 

[CowGummy]

Hmm... that's both fascinating and slightly depressing at the same time, I've been getting all my ducks in a row (financially) in order to purchase a 5dii come January. The main issue for me is to justify spending £2000+ on a body and lens kit - this doesn't exactly help!

Still, very interesting to see - the compact camera market looks to be dead within 18months looking at those iphone snaps! Well, at least smartphone's are bound to take a huge chunk of sales away from camera manufacturers.

 

[tt]

Last photo - are the updated filters for the new sensor giving better UV filtering? She mentioned that the iPhone is picking up the sky well.
One test they didn't do, that Apple put a lot of time into - time to shot from your pocket on standby. Is a good camera most iPhone users will now have on them a lot of the time - it isn't there to beat a dSLR, but it provides the chance to at least get a shot when youre out without a DSLR or Point and shoot

 

[ecka]

So, for 500pix images the iPhone is kind of alright, I guess
while the 5D2 is an overkill for pictures of that size.
For now, 5D2 stays

 

[PeterJ]

To me some of the comparisons look a little silly, worst example IMO is shot 6. The caption says the iPhone is 'very clever' in those conditions but is the 5D set to fully auto? I imagine most 5D's don't spend much of life in that mode, plus all shots are tiny as ecka said.

 

[sammy]

Call me a sceptic, but sounds like some astroturfing to me

 

[Loswr]

One test they didn't do, that Apple put a lot of time into - time to shot from your pocket on standby. Is a good camera most iPhone users will now have on them a lot of the time - it isn't there to beat a dSLR, but it provides the chance to at least get a shot when youre out without a DSLR or Point and shoot

The iPhone beats the 5DII there - I have a helluva time getting the 5DII out of my pocket.

Seriously, I did test iPhone 4S (on standby) vs. PowerShot S100 (powered off) for time from laying on a table to capturing a focused shot, and the iPhone 4S was about a second slower (5.6 s vs. 4.6 s).

 

[Sunnystate]

This is truly amazing that more and more people (thanks Neuro) are even wasting (?) time to defend Canon 5D versus iPhone... times have already changed! It will be very exciting to see what's in the near future.
Maybe Rodenstock developing super wide angle lenses for iPhone is overkill for now, but there is a brand new market emerging, (suddenly cocky and greedy companies like Canon are about to create perfect niche) and there are some serious players with incredible expertise waiting for the turn.
Bravo!!!

 

[alipaulphotography]

As Chase Jarvis puts it "The best camera is the one you have with you".

 

[darleks]

One test they didn't do, that Apple put a lot of time into - time to shot from your pocket on standby. Is a good camera most iPhone users will now have on them a lot of the time - it isn't there to beat a dSLR, but it provides the chance to at least get a shot when youre out without a DSLR or Point and shoot

The iPhone beats the 5DII there - I have a helluva time getting the 5DII out of my pocket.
vs. 4.6 s).

You must have deep pockets!

 

[Ryusui]

The iPhone beats the 5DII there - I have a helluva time getting the 5DII out of my pocket.

You must have deep pockets!

He would have to, to be able to afford an "EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D, and a whole bunch of lenses." ;D

 

[distant.star]

Thanks, Haydn. Interesting, for a bit of transparent marketing puffery.

If someone will give me a 5D2, I'll run a more realistic (and documented) test. Oh, I'll need an iPhone too. I'll throw my android phone into the mix for added appeal.

From what I can tell, the serious bulk of image sensor development is going on in the phone world -- in contrast to the camera world. Phones are not only a huge market now, but the future is a consolidation of discrete devices now nascent in the threat phones are giving the point & shoot camera business. Given technological development, I'd guess in 10 years there will be one device (who knows what the marketers will end up calling it -- hand me my platypus, please) that does everything well just about everywhere. The combination of sensor and software development may well eliminate the need for all the "glass" we currently covet -- and are limited by with today's DSLRs. (Who needs $10,000 tied up in various lenses when a sensor and software outperform all that expensive glass?) Today people are hauling around iPods, iPads, GPS units, mp3 players, P&S cameras, video cameras, binoculars, medical alerts, voice recorders, radios, paper & pens, and who knows what else. The marketers want technology to replace all that stuff with one device. Sensors, processors and programming (software) are the keys to this advancement.

Anyway, if someone has an iPhone and 5D2 to donate for the test, let me know.

Beam me outta here, Scotty!!

 

[friedmud]

These kind of stories are worthless. I have an iPhone 4S and an XSi (and just ordered a 7D) and when my XSi broke down on a photography trip last month I had no choice but to shoot the rest of the trip with the 4S.

I can tell you that compared to a normal point and shoot the 4S does perfectly well... but compared to my XSi it's not even close. I spent a lot of time trying to get the shot I had in my head into the iPhone, when I could have perfectly dialed it up on my XSi.

I can't stand it when people make comparisons of other cameras to DSLRs and LEAVE THE DSLR ON AUTO THE WHOLE TIME! I am constantly telling people that if they are just going to leave a DSLR on auto they should really just buy a good point and shoot instead. A good quality P&S will generate nicer looking jpegs straight out of the camera. A DSLR is for people who wan to take full creative control over their photography and that includes both the capture and post processing of their photos.

Buying a 1D does not automatically make you produce gallery worthy prints...

 

[Edwin Herdman]

DSLR still can't be beaten on the convenience of correct(er) ergonomics for many types of photograph. Maybe the camera phones are doing alright for wide angle, but even there DSLRs handily beat them. Macro, telephoto, zoom framing - all that still goes to the DSLR.

The article commentary isn't bad but some of the pictures would suggest to novices that the iPhone is better in some cases, i.e. the bush berries close-up photo (the text doesn't usually give enough of a clue why the other case should be true). Also agree that shooting the 5D Mark II on full auto and keeping a blown-out sky as a representative example is ludicrous - we're trying to compare a new phone camera tailored to autoexpose, with a three year old DSLR tailored to be shot at least partially manually, and the author didn't even set exposure compensation. And again with the bush berries - why frame the scene nicely for the iPhone but frame it poorly for the Canon? Writing about the better colors doesn't convince when the subject isn't even as large in the shot!

It was also a mistake to credit the iPhone 4s for its colors while neglecting to mention that the 5D can easily be set to render colors differently by Picture Styles (which were new at the time of the 5D, according to DP Review). This is something that even a novice should pick up quickly after reading the manual.