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iPhone 7 Plus owners you know you were missing all the cool little iPhone lenses. Of course you were. Old Smartphone lenses must look like Greek myth cyclopes for you now. How can you fit a single clip on lens on a dual lens phone?
This is changing as gear makers are now making dual-lens optics for the iPhone 7 Plus. The first one we are seeing is coming from Kamerar, but I suspect that we will see more of those.
iOS10.1 is here, and there are a couple of big photo related bits of news. First up, the fake depth of field effect is here. Love it or hate it, if you have an iPhone 7 Plus, you’ve got it. “Portrait” mode has met a mixed reception. Most don’t see it as a serious tool, although it may help to improve your iPhone-shot Instagram photos.
The feature has been available to Beta users for a little while now, and we showed you some side-by-side comparisons not too long ago. Now, it’s available to all. Portrait mode images don’t look too bad on an iPhone screen. We’ll probably see quite a few images shot with the feature popping up on social media in the coming weeks. I would expect the effect to fall apart pretty quickly on big prints, though.
I think for most people, no matter how many comparisons or examples come out, the whole “actual camera vs smartphone camera” debate will never end. Every other new phone seems to be hailed as a “DSLR Killer” by social media. It’s only lately we’ve seen these sorts of claims from manufacturers themselves, though. It was a key selling point of the Huawei P9 and Apple say the iPhone 7 Plus shoots “DSLR quality pictures”. But does it?
We showed you some samples of the iPhone 7 Plus “portrait mode” recently, and many weren’t convinced. This video from Lee Morris over at FStoppers looks a little more in depth at the iPhone 7 Plus’ camera. He pits it against a DSLR in a bunch of different situations. Of course, it’s difficult to fairly compare a DSLR to any phone, given the vast difference in specs of today’s models. So, Lee chose to compare it with the 7 year old Nikon D300s.
Google is definitely giving apple a run for its money. Their new Pixel phone (formerly Nexus) just scored a full 89 on DXO’s mobile camera test. This is the highest score that a smartphone ever got on DXO.
It’s true the iPhone 7 Plus does have dual lenses and some pretty awesome features, but as far as camera quality, Google is setting a high bar. Not to say that the iPhone 7 scored badly, it scored 86 with a stellar review, but it is still 3 points short.
One of the primary lessons I teach in portraiture is how to control the viewer’s eye, and how depth of field is one of the key methods to do that. This is normally the preserve of expensive fast lenses, but soon anyone will be able achieve this with some new technology I’ve been trailing on the iPhone 7 plus.
This new IOS 10.1 software, currently in beta and available later this year uses the twin cameras built into the iPhone 7 plus. It basically provides you with a new and super simple ‘portrait’ camera mode which takes two image and uses software to artificially create a creamy depth of field….and it’s great!
[use the slider to see the regular/portrait version compared side by side]
A big part of Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 7 (and 7 plus) was the new dual lens camera. In fact, aside removing the headphone jack, it was probably the feature that created the most buzz. It has gone to saying that it could be a DSLR like experience.
Early portraits show that they are getting close with bokeh on portraits, but some things, like using a small sensor, can’t be easily solved.
The team at wired took the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus for a night drive for photos (7 plus) and vide (7). Results are not very surprising.
OK, so we already know that the iPhone 7 Plus will have two lense for about two hours, but now Apple shares all the details on the new iPhone seven camera and they are pretty impressive. (I am sure someone will come up with a comparisson like this soon enough).
Both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus have 12MP cameras. The iPhone 7 has an f/1.8 lens. But the big news is that the iPhone 7 Plus will have dual lenses and two cameras behind them. A an f/1.8 Wide-angle, and an f/2.8 Telephoto. The interesting bit is that both cameras can shoot together to create a single image. That added data can be used for several rather interesting applications.
Pretty much the only things that can be said for certain about the iPhone 7 are that it’ll eventually be announced (probably in September) and that it’ll be made by Apple.
If either of these cases are even close to real, however, the standard iPhone 7 will not possess dual cameras, an feature likely reserved for the iPhone 7 Plus.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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