M50 Vs iPhone 12

[Rocky]

I was in Mounument Valley couple weeks ago. both iPhone 12 and M50 were used. disregard the resolution and no pixel peeping and no post processing. The following is what I have found:
1. Panaromic : iPhone wins hands down
2. Extreme contrast, like taking Silhouette picture of the rock formation aginst sky, at sun rise. M50 wins. the edge of the rock formation has a ghostly edge from iPhone 12. M50 has sharp edges.
3. General lightling condition, both are equal
4,Tricky lightling condition, back light, half shade and half bright , face partially in shade,etc. iPhone 12 wins. It seems iPhone 12 has an intellegent Photo Shop built in.
5. iphone 11mm ( equilvalent) vs the 11-22mm lnes on M50. iPhone wins. it is wider and sharper at the corner.
6. Zoom, iPhone is digital zoom. Not good. M50 is real optical zoom. good. so M50 wins

 

[neuroanatomist]

For snapshots taken in daylight, I think there's very little difference between FF, APS-C and an iPhone. Subject isolation used to be a big differentiator, but computational photography ('portrait mode') has leveled that playing field to a large extent. However, when shooting fast action or in low light, there's really no comparison.

Last night was my older daughter's high school spring concert. Below are paired shots, one from my R3 with RF 70-200/2.8 (200mm, 1/250 s, f/2.8, ISO 8000), cropped to the framing of a shot taken with my iPhone 14 Pro (telephoto '77mm' lens digitally zoomed to 403mm, 1/36 s, f/2.8, ISO 1250), along with crops of the same shots (1:1 for the R3, the iPhone shot is zoomed out a bit to match framing).

 

[Rocky]

Your pictures illustrate my #6. Digtal zoom for iPhone is not good. Thanks. ALso Lowlight+action iPhone definitely will fall flat on its face.

 

[davidespinosa]

Digital zoom = Crop

You gotta compare apples to apples.

In more detail, whenever you make a comparison, you should answer two questions:

* What is the same between A and B ?
* What is different between A and B ?

If nothing is the same, then it's like comparing the color orange to a toothbrush. There's no point to it.
If nothing is different, then it's comparing something to itself. Again, there's no point.

You're capturing the same scene -- that's good.
Same focal length ?
Same number of pixels ?

 

[neuroanatomist]

Digital zoom = Crop

You gotta compare apples to apples.

In more detail, whenever you make a comparison, you should answer two questions:

* What is the same between A and B ?
* What is different between A and B ?

If nothing is the same, then it's like comparing the color orange to a toothbrush. There's no point to it.
If nothing is different, then it's comparing something to itself. Again, there's no point.

You're capturing the same scene -- that's good.
Same focal length ?
Same number of pixels ?

I've done plenty of formal comparisons of various parameters in carefully controlled situations. But that's not the only way to make a comparison. I was sitting where I was sitting, and I had two image capture devices with me. The idea here is a 'real world use' comparison, not a carefully controlled testing situation.

The conclusion that the iPhone would not fare well in the comparison was foregone. As for same focal length, the iPhone's 14 Pro's telephoto lens is 9mm, so...no.

 

[ReflexVE]

This is the thing, trying to control the scenario to level the playing field between the equipment options misses the point, in reality if you are going to attend an event with a camera you can bring an appropriate lens, gimbal, etc to do the job. If you are bringing a phone you can bring...the phone. If a person tends to only want photos in situations where a phone is suitable hey, a camera is a waste of money. But for those who shoot in other situations, being able to adapt the equipment to the scenario is invaluable.

Trying to create a perfectly ideal situation for a phone and then doing a comparison is a bit silly.

 

[neuroanatomist]

This is the thing, trying to control the scenario to level the playing field between the equipment options misses the point, in reality if you are going to attend an event with a camera you can bring an appropriate lens, gimbal, etc to do the job. If you are bringing a phone you can bring...the phone. If a person tends to only want photos in situations where a phone is suitable hey, a camera is a waste of money. But for those who shoot in other situations, being able to adapt the equipment to the scenario is invaluable.

Trying to create a perfectly ideal situation for a phone and then doing a comparison is a bit silly.

For me, where it gets 'tricky' is travel. If I'm going somewhere local, I can generally bring whatever I want, e.g. for birds the R3, EF 600/4L II, RRS series-3 tripod and gimbal head. But when traveling, I need to balance the ability to pack/carry what I want, what else I'll be doing on the trip (e.g. with family), etc.

The phone is a no-brainer, it's with me. Previously, my iPhone was pretty limited (one camera), but the iPhone 14 Pro has three and really does a very good job as a walk around camera. That's especially true as a 'tourist' – I shoot a lot of architecture, and generally it's hard to compose and shoot while walking around during the daytime because most places are crowded, and on a family trip it's hard to take the time to set up with a tripod and a 10-stop ND (and even then, there will be people in the shot). I've traveled on family trips with an M kit and a FF kit, using the M as a daytime walk around camera and the FF for golden/blue hour solo outings. For my trip this summer, I think my iPhone will replace the M kit, and I'll just bring the FF. My compromise there was to buy the R8 (it's on a FedEx truck right now), and I'll carry that walking around with the 24-105/4, 14-35/4 and 24/1.8, and bring the tripod and TS-E 17 on solo early/late outings.

 

[ReflexVE]

I totally agree with you about this. In no way am I saying phones aren't capable cameras, they absolutely are. Only that comparing them to a SLR is a bit silly, the latter is a purpose built tool so it's going to have superior image quality with the right lenses and accessories in almost every situation. The question is if it makes sense at all for the situation. As you mention, it often does not.

Having moved on to Fuji I've noticed my kit is growing in terms of the size I accept (X-H2S with the new Viltrox 75mm is....big), and it's creating a gap between phone and my camera. The friend I sold my M50 to is sending it to me and I think that will become my lightweight walkaround cam again as it never felt too large/heavy.

 

[SwissFrank]

1. ... 6.

were their pictures here?

 

[Rocky]

were their pictures here?

The picture attached illustrate points 1,2 &4. Excuse the lack of sharpness. IT was very dark. Point 5 and 6 is self explaining

 

[SwissFrank]

The picture attached illustrate points 1,2 &4. Excuse the lack of sharpness. IT was very dark.

Nice shot Rocky! I was there on my honeymoon and didn't get as nice a shot.

 

[Rocky]

Thanks, It is due to the iPhone

 

[Doormat]

Great topic

I’m having such a hard time now justifying all my photo gear. £1000’s of pounds worth of black, bulky, heavy photo equipment. Carted about in the hope of “seeing” something to justify the effort and crazy expense of it all.

Sport shots of my son..the dslr suddenly reigns king.

Virtually everything else 80-90% could be captured with my phone.

Oh and BTW, I absolutely adore the iPhone silvertone look, I cannot replicate that in my proper cameras.

I think by the time iphone 20 comes round most of us will have twigged it’s not worth the effort and expense anymore.

 

[Doormat]

Great topic

I’m having such a hard time now justifying all my photo gear. £1000’s of pounds worth of black, bulky, heavy photo equipment. Carted about in the hope of “seeing” something to justify the effort and crazy expense of it all.

Sport shots of my son..the dslr suddenly reigns king.

Virtually everything else 80-90% could be captured with my phone.

Oh and BTW, I absolutely adore the iPhone silvertone look, I cannot replicate that in my proper cameras.

I think by the time iphone 20 comes round most

 

[ReflexVE]

Great topic

I’m having such a hard time now justifying all my photo gear. £1000’s of pounds worth of black, bulky, heavy photo equipment. Carted about in the hope of “seeing” something to justify the effort and crazy expense of it all.

Sport shots of my son..the dslr suddenly reigns king.

Virtually everything else 80-90% could be captured with my phone.

Oh and BTW, I absolutely adore the iPhone silvertone look, I cannot replicate that in my proper cameras.

I think by the time iphone 20 comes round most of us will have twigged it’s not worth the effort and expense anymore.

I can't speak to your cameras, but for Fuji shooters there is a recipe to get the Silvertone look: https://film.recipes/2022/09/15/silvertone-99-for-deep-metallic-mono/

I think the assumptions about the iPhone 20 assume a fixed curve of improvement. In reality phone camera progress has been slowing tremendously for years, and many of the improvements made will also apply to dedicated cameras with much larger sensors, mitigating the impact. In other words, phones may already be 'good enough' but they are unlikely to ever catch up to cameras even if they close the gap a bit more just due to physics. It's useful that phones often apply the corrections we use Lightroom/Capture One for automatically for us, but again they are working with lesser data and the tools on the PC/Mac side continue to improve (look at the recent gains in denoise for instance).

I don't really see that gap getting much narrower, although I can see more people deciding the improvements are not worth it.

 

[Rocky]

』It's useful that phones often apply the corrections we use Lightroom/Capture One for automatically for us, but again they are working with lesser data and the tools on the PC/Mac side continue to improve (look at the recent gains in denoise for instance).『
You just nail the difference between iPhone and the CAMERA. For most of people, 12 MP is more than enough to view the pictures on the computer screen. For me, convienence trumps less data.