Sports Illustrated published their first cover shot with a smartphone

If someone told you an iconic magazine like Sports Illustrated put a smartphone photo on a cover, you probably wouldn’t believe them. But, this has actually happened. Sports Illustrated hired a photographer Michael LeBrecht, who has already created some memorable photos for this magazine. But this time, they posed him with a challenge to take the shots with a smartphone – and so he did. In my opinion, the results are remarkable.

Michael’s “weapon of choice” was Motorola’s new model, Moto-Z. Michael paired it with Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod attachment to achieve the best results. The attachment provides Moto-Z with a 12MP 1/2.3″ BSI CMOS sensor with sensitivity up to ISO 3200. It has 10x optical zoom (a 35mm equivalent focal length of 25-250mm), and an f/3.5-6.5 aperture. As for the light setup, Michael started with the available light, and the slowly built in continuous light to increase the overall quality of the images.

I know smartphone images can rarely be compared to those taken with a DLSR. Also, we often hear that everyone calls themselves a photographer these days. But, we can’t deny that Michael LeBrecht really did a great job. And if Sports Illustrated decided that smartphone images are good enough for their cover, maybe we should also change perspective a little.