Apple My scenic photos from the new iPhone 6s-Plus camera.

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dalethorn

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This is from the new '6s' series phone. I don't know if this 6s-plus camera has any advantage over the 6s, as the iPhone 6-plus camera had over the iPhone 6. In any case, there is an obvious gain in resolution over the 8 mp phone cameras, but the noise suppression smearing is about the same in any of these. I hope to post some handheld night shots soon, since the iPhone 6 and 6s seems to do better against a lot of small cameras in that respect.

iPhone 6s-plus.
Charleston_Bridge33_s.jpg
 
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My second image with the new iPhone 6s-Plus. I think Apple got the formula right for their phones. I don't see a significant gain in quality from the increased pixels, but the noise processing they do when the image has decent lighting and contrast is very good.

iPhone 6s-Plus, handheld.
Charleston_Downtown39_s.jpg
 
I'm glad this is 2015 and not 1965. Some of what Apple is aiming for with their camera is strongly reminiscent of Kodak and those enhanced-color Kodak Moments. Either Apple is cognizant of accurate color beyond the general public's tastes, or their involvement in accurate color processing for photographers is acting as a check on the iPhone developments.
 
The detail in that second shot looks a little bit more phone-camera like than anything in the first one, which is incredible. Maybe it's the proximity of foliage in the second one or something. Both are great if you don't look too closely though... And both blow the doors off of what I generally get from my iphone 6+ (non-"C")... The again, I've never tried to get particularly ambitious with my phone cams. I know BB, who used to hang out here a lot, has been shooting pretty much exclusively with her iphone 5 for quite a while now and some of her results are amazing, so maybe it's not the camera... ;)

-Ray
 
The detail in that second shot looks a little bit more phone-camera like than anything in the first one, which is incredible. Maybe it's the proximity of foliage in the second one or something. Both are great if you don't look too closely though... And both blow the doors off of what I generally get from my iphone 6+ (non-"C")... The again, I've never tried to get particularly ambitious with my phone cams. I know BB, who used to hang out here a lot, has been shooting pretty much exclusively with her iphone 5 for quite a while now and some of her results are amazing, so maybe it's not the camera... ;)
-Ray

Unfortunately, it is the camera. The foliage is always worst-case, and when the original image with this kind of detail is less than 3 mb in size, something has to give. But I can see it in the bridge shot too - the water at bottom to the left and right of center is smeared, and the cables on the bridge aren't perfectly straight and smooth. Still, without trying to make big prints, there's nothing I do on the Internet that requires better. But if I were selling, the real cameras would definitely be needed.
 
And that reminds me - you can tell with the puffy clouds too. With a full-frame or half-frame camera the clouds would have smooth to whispy edges, whereas these clouds almost look painted in.
 
More iPhone 6s images: I took several exposures of the mannequins, and this one was the only one that came out reasonably sharp. And that was good lighting. A mystery to me. The graffiti was easy to make look good. Hardly a challenge. For the shot of the park, pier, and bridge in a light fog at night, handheld, I took 6 exposures, and 2 of those looked like this - the other 4 were extremely noisy. I may be getting inconsistent results because I keep the HDR setting always ON. But the camera always saves the original.

iPhone 6s-plus, handheld.
Charleston_Downtown42_s.jpg


iPhone 6s-plus, handheld.
Charleston_Downtown41_s.jpg


iPhone 6s-plus, handheld.
Mtpleasant_Park22_s.jpg
 
Phone cameras sure came a long way, but it's still a long way to go before I'd use one instead of putting my Ricoh GR in a pocket if I intend to take pictures and don't want to carry much.

I have a Nikon Coolpix A that's small and easy to carry, but it's a 28 mm perspective. If I find a pocket camera with an effective 35 mm fixed lens with 4/3 or better sensor, smaller and slimmer than the Nikon, I might buy it. But this project is just an exploration.
 
Apple certainly has color and white-balance figured out.
And in a phone camera - which is mostly about convenience - that's kind of the most important aspect in my opinion...

They really do - it's why I mentioned the Kodak Moment thing from years ago - the dread that any of the important photo companies would go that route and over-enrich their colors. So what Apple is doing is compensating some of the shortcomings of their camera by being more consistent in other respects.
 
Today's images with iPhone 6s-plus:
1) A new local pier record, spotted trout, 25.5 inches and 6 lb 3 oz.
2) Mt. Pleasant Memorial Park (wars memorial).
3) Cooper River, loading docks, container ship.

iPhone 6s-plus handheld.
Mtpleasant_Jerry10_s.jpg


iPhone 6s-plus handheld.
Mtpleasant_Park23_s.jpg

iPhone 6s-plus handheld.
Mtpleasant_Park24_s.jpg
 
IIRC the significant difference between the 6S and 6s+ is that the Plus has image stabilisation. Cant remember if the 6Plus did.

The 6+ had stabilization over the 6, and while the 6s+ has stabilization, I haven't heard that the 6s doesn't. I just don't know. The 6s+ ability to take certain night shots handheld without offensive or excess noise is amazing to me. I would also regard it as a near-ideal candid portrait camera, except it is prone to serious perspective distortions if not careful.
 
What does the 6s+ have over the 6+... Is it a different sensor?

I didn't look for the usual tear-down, but one thing they did was go from 8 to 12 mp. Other things like the noise processing and color are about the same. Now when you view a typical 6sp image at 100 percent compared to a LX100 (or other 12 mp premium camera) image at 100 percent, I think you'll see with the camera image what looks like a lot of interpolation.
 
Published specs for iPhone6S camera:
New 12-megapixel iSight camera with 1.22µ pixels
Live Photos (not on the iPhone 6)
Autofocus with Focus Pixels
Optical image stabilisation (iPhone 6s Plus only)
True Tone flash
Panorama (up to 63 megapixels) (43Mp on the iphone 6)
Auto HDR for photos
Exposure control
Burst mode
Timer mode
ƒ/2.2 aperture
Five-element lens
Hybrid IR filter
Backside illumination sensor
Sapphire crystal lens cover
Auto image stabilisation
Improved local tone mapping (not on iPhone 6)
Improved noise reduction (not on iPhone 6)
Face detection
Photo geotagging

I imagine that "Tap to focus" would be on the 6S as well, its actually stated on the specs for the 6, but not for the 6S.
 
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The tap to focus works very well, but a little clumsy sometimes unless you have a good grip with the other hand. I like it much better braced for stability, yet it stabilizes very well. The HDR rarely does anything worthwhile for me. My favorite thing along that line is in the LX100 with the highlight/shadow menu setting. The lens is fantastic, but I have to say that the 12 mp really do look interpolated - in most cases I'd say there are 3-4 good megapixels. But given the camera is just one feature of a total data and communication device, it's really incredible.
 
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