Image quality wise? For most use cases, a phone is probably more than enough. But I think the reason most of us like photography is the experience of getting the shot, not the shot itself, having fine control over the entire process and being purposeful in your actions is very rewarding, and in my opinion does lead to better photos
I agree, I think. The iPhone 14 Pro is imperfect - mostly due to the difficult-to-avoid "computational photography" processing that often involves hideous amounts of sharpening and lack of real actual RAW output. On the other hand, it's also shockingly capable. In 48mp "RAW", it really is quite good. Fun test, take identical pix at 12mp and 48mp RAW and look at them and see how processed the 12mp is vs the 48mp. I much prefer using an actual camera to take pictures with intent, and love having a phone that can take great pictures if "it's the camera I have with me".
Bollocks. Maybe iPhone 14 pro, but on the iPhone 13 and the camera is garbage. Zoom in or do anything and it’s a pixelated mess. Don’t know how people actually get good quality out of an iPhone compared to an actually camera.
@@kevinwhite6176 Hi, do you mean that ProRAW is not a real actual RAW output. I'm curious what do you define as real RAW ? As I understand between the sensor and the RAW file, there are processing done by the camera. And I don't know what Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc... are doing there. To your knowledge what does Apple do in ProRAW format that doesn't fit what you call real RAW ? Thank you :)
Ergonomics and having a dedicated device for the purpose are my biggest priorities honestly. I really dislike using touchscreens for taking photos and even phones with shutter buttons like Sony's just don't feel good to use in my hand. Add to that natural, physical controls without digging into menus and the fact I've yet to find a good film simulation-like photo app for the phone and I just don't enjoy the experience at all. Maybe if there was something that combined manufacturer-provided software corrections with quality custom presets, I'd give the Xperias a serious shot but as-is, it's just not worth the compromise to me. I also hate to hand edit every single photo but any phone's automatic processing (or raw output) just isn't to my liking at all. It's hardly even "image quality" I'm concerned with because of online compression, it's literally just haptics and lack of customisation which especially the latter shouldn't be this hard to fix 😶
I've been shooting on my iPhone for the past month, over my Ricoh GR III, and the thing that pulls me to it is the workflow, taking a photo, editing and sharing on one device
Having just recently found your channel, I have enjoyed watching your videos. Your compositions challenge a lot of what I've learned over the years. The photo with the triangle sign over the wall, I would have never placed it so closely to the edge. Not enough room to breathe and yet it works really well. The scooter and wall of flowers, never would have placed the scooter so far into the corner. Once again, it works. Thanks.
I just wanna say I follow about a dozen photographers on RUclips, learning from all of you, and I must say that, though each one is unique, I think you take the best photos.
Being an avid hiker, I sometimes use my iPhone for wide angle shots and leave my wide angle lens at home, depending on what else I might carry on a given day. When I do this, I always shoot with ProRAW enabled and have come away with some very good photos after editing. I don't use JPEG/HEIC for anything other than snaps. I find the phone's processing to often be oversaturated and oversharpened.
I have a DSLR but i just got the Iphone 14 Pro, and i was hyped about taking pictures with it-so a few days ago, on my last trip to London, i just dumped the DSLR and took only the phone. I had 0 regrets, for a citybreak expericene it was more than enough, the pictures were incredibly detailed and perfectly exposed and i loved the ideea of having an ultra compact camera from which i can instantly send pictures to my friends on social media. Ill keep the DSLR for specialized photography like macro shots of insects in nature but for 90% of my trips and travels, the mobility of the phone combined with the top quality of the photos makes it the perfect choice. I think this is the future of DSLR and mirrorless: specialized photography( macro, astro, studio or advanced product photography) for the rest of the situations, the modern flagship phones with their advanced cameras and AIs will be more than enough.
Just speculating, but I would guess that Apple went with the wider lens so they could improve their digital stabilization, which was a big marketing point of these phones.
I'm pretty sure the wider focal length is a compromise between being able to fit a larger sensor into a phone without making the camera bump too thick.
I'd also guess they decided to go wider because with 40MP, they can very easily apply digital zoom. Most users wouldn't need 40MP or notice the loss on a cropped image.
Went on a family trip to Singapore in January. On previous trips I’ve taken my Nikon, but frankly I just couldn’t be bothered lugging that thing around all day. So this time I only took my iPhone, a 14 Pro Max, and was super chuffed with it. It does such a good job, and for the convenience of having it in my pocket, it was so worth it. They’ve come a long way.
Thanks for this video and showing us from a POV-ish viewpoint when taking the photos. It helps to add context to the composition and situation during the shots.
Hi James, looking behind you at your photos on the wall I was wondering if you could do a video on printing photos, why you decided on what size to print and how you arranged them on the wall? Just an idea!
I also miss the days of 28mm phone main cameras. They went to 26mm and now 24mm, which I find way too wide for what 90% of my phone photos are (pictures of people taken at around 1 meter). I'm pretty sure the focal length is a compromise between being able to fit larger camera sensors into a phone without making the camera bump too thick.
If you've got the megapixels and the sharpness you can always crop down. I find if you hand someone mostly used to using phone a proper mirrorless type camera with a something like 30/40/50mm (equivalent) prime they're lost and don't know what to do with it.
A couple of years ago, I replaced my aging Google Pixel 3XL with a Nokia XR20, (Zeiss Lens, plus Nokia Camera software). One of my reasons for upgrading form my old Pixel to the Nokia was that, unlike Google phones, the Nokia can accommodate a MicroSD card, whereas the Google Pixel requires the user to setup and maintain his/her own personal Google account, along with cloud storage, (at a price, naturally). One particular feature of the Pixel phone was that the user could set the camera to save one's photos as RAW (.dng), and as JPEG (.jpg) files simultaneously, and, (IIRC), the RAW photos were saved in the phone's internal storage area, whilst the JPEGs were also saved into their own internal folder, as well as being uploaded to Google Drive. For some reason, the logic of which I can't fathom, the RAW files were not saved to Google Drive by default, but I seem to remember that there was some way to specify that the RAW files be saved automatically to Google Drive along with the JPEGs, (but I'm no longer 100% sure of that). Since that time, I have not found another phone camera which has such an option.
I need a camera, I really hate the shooting experience on phones. Even with a Sony Xperia... which, at least, has a shutter button. It's not that they can't take decent pics, I just don't find it fun.
I had the Xperia as well, I did really appreciate the shutter button. Unfortunately the buttons started breaking and it was out of warranty so I had to replace it. Though it had a lot of things going for it I just couldn't stomach the price again. I'm on a pixel 6 pro now, and some of the images I get are very usable but lose detail very quickly when you push them. Even when shooting raw. I guess because even though it's advertised as a 50MP camera, it's quad-bayer and is binned down to 12.5MP. I find that although it has preserved and captured some priceless memories. I just wish I could have captured them with more detail and I can't go back and recapture those moments, and that's why I think I need a camera.
@@benferris2764Nothing could be further from the ttuth. But feel free to carry around ss many camera bodied and lens as you want if that makes you feel like your a real photog! 😂
Nice video. Curious how you got up on the hill? iPhone 14 Pro Max definitely is a good camera to take around but I feel that the colour AI it applies to photos doesn't resonate with me and maybe my perception but it feels like a snapshot camera for quick snaps and that process and the enjoyment of capturing photos and moments isn't there.
We went to the same region back in 2021 and I really loved the scenery there! Such a beautiful blend of nature and civilization, I guess you had a blast shooting there!
Man the European landscape is so different to Australia’s. Can wait till i have an opportunity to travel more. As for shooting on phones, i think modem phones have gotten to the point where they are pretty good for most scenarios (i use the wimpy little camera on my SE when i don’t have my camera and it’s fine). Might i suggest using the mobile Lightroom app? It lets you shoot manual and raw files. Great content and photos as always James!
Re: your last statement about not just going to Italy to take images on your phone, honestly, if anyone I follow on RUclips would do that just for the humour of it, it would be you. I love your dry sense of humour that no one else seems to have on this platform in the photography RUclips space
Today's mobile camera is good enough to take brilliant photos. However, the feel and joy of taking photos is not same as with real camera/mirrorless/dslr. In my honest opinion 😘. Amazing view by the way James
Once again a phantastic video! All people can see : It is not the AI of an Iphone, as it is not the power of a special camera - It is always and only the NI of the Artist! All your images are perfect in construction and harmony, and I will see this video still several times, to understand what you are there doing! By the way: This video makes us strong against the sometimes arrogant comments, that we mft-photographing people have to suffer!
Amalfi Coast………..Envy!! I loved it, coast, towns, backstreets, churches, fabulous photography. I loved the video, interested in the Saal stuff, have an iPhone 13 (also pretty good).
I think if you upload your presets into lightroom (not the classic one but the other one) on your computer, they should show up in your lightroom mobile (on you mobile) automatically in the presets category.
Yes if you set up presets on LR then they should sync to LR mob on your phone, I watched a Terry White RUclips video on it and how to get them also to sync to LRC
I just came back from the Amalfi Coast where I shot lots a photos with my iPhone 13 Pro and even more with my OM-1. I really don't see much of a difference in broad daylight. I used the CPL on the iPhone in most pictures which increases the quality immensely. When hiking, I just take the OM-1 with the 100-400 to catch birds and lizards, and the iPhone for the landscapes. No need to change lenses really.
I experienced the same switching from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to the 14 Pro Max. It was the first time the pictures felt like normal pictures. And dynamic range is great and exposure just feels correct. With an attached g-grip you can hold the phone with much more confident and you get the feeling of a „normal“ camera.
I’ve got one and it really is fantastic using the main lens and the portrait mode is quite interesting. Using it with Lightroom mobile it’s really slick and a fun workflow certainly for social media use, which I guess is what it’s going to be used for by the majority of buyers. If photography is your hobby or job your still going to want your gear, but this is in the pocket.
Great video mate. Very much agree. As a hobby photographer, the main (if not the only) thing that stops me just spending on the best iPhone to max the phone camera experience and ditch a mirrorless is the focal length issue as you stress. I just can't get on board with 24-ish mm, drives me mad! If we could get a main lens quality at a 35/40mm I'd struggle to ever justify camera gear/extra workflow for my use case. All the best from Ceredigion!
Hey James, just wanted to say that I love your videos! Watched so many over the past days and as a quite new subscriber, I'm watching some "old ones". We're quite alike in what we like, I'm also a huge fan of "man vs. nature" photography and I love your shots, and your vids. They are super cozy and I usually watch them besides work. Best regards from Croatia mate :)
I went to Hawaii and used the 48mp sensor as a legit alternative to my other 2 cameras. I treated it like a 24mm prime alongside an X100V on the days I left the a1/24-70 GM ii combo in the room safe. First phone that I really feel has good enough quality to keep up (at least from apple) in decent to good light
James! Your colors are so nice in these! I love your videos so much and I sort of welcomed the little bit of chaos in this video as it's a nice departure from your norm. Really great work. I love the iPhone 14 Pro camera. You used it so so well.
Great idea. Vid and phone looks a touch overexposed and could maybe stand a polarizer . The new phones are interesting and I like listening to your comp process.
You walked straight passed the small hotel we stayed at on our visit to Amalfi. Gorgeous scenery so hope you enjoyed your break. I'll be honest, you're a braver man than I am for walking to Positano. There are no pavements and the roads are ridiculously narrow, especially when buses and lorries trundle passed, Impressive!! We took the easy option of a water taxi which actually as well as being quicker, gave a composition of Positano from the sea which is quite impressive. On the topic of phones replacing cameras, You have just confirmed what I've been considering for a while. I use an R5 along with a load of RF Glass and have carted it all around on domestic and foreign holidays but have now come to the conclusion that unless I have a specific thing I want to capture that requires the extra flexibility and quality the R5 provides I don't need the hassle in the airport, plane etc and the weight of carrying everything when I can just take my iPhone. I tried it on a recent domestic short break and it was great not having a heavy bag to carry and having to stop to get the camera etc out and then put it all away. Phone in pocket, see something, get it out, compose and snap. Brilliant! My wife uses an iPhone 14Pro which as you say is pretty amazing and although I use the 12Pro it's still not bad. I'm hopefully upgrading to a 15Pro, maybe, possibly if the bank account will cope lol. I still love the R5 and will continue to use it when the need arises or when I just want to go out and play.😁
I'm using my camer mostly with telephoto lens and fisheye lens after acquireing Samsung S10 with 13mm, 24mm and 50mm lenses. It's wider than my Sigma 10-20mm APS-C, I don't need shallow DOF on most cases, and when I need them, the phone usually does it quite well.
Interesting that going to Settings > Camera > Formats and enabling Apple ProRAW doesn't actually enabled RAW, but enables the button that enables/disables RAW. I guess that does make it easy to switch back and forth on the fly, but I see your point in wanting to just enable RAW and never disable it.
Nice to see a photographer say they're doing 'some photography with their iPhone', instead of 'taking photos' with their iPhone. There is a difference.
Thamk you for another enlightening video. I’m extremely happy you survived that road. 😮. I’ve seen incredible images shot on cellphones, but I haven’t seen how well they do enlarge. Modern tech has come a long way
For me I find my phone does take excellent shots. It's the ergonomics thst are more of an issue than camera quality now. Recently I bought an inexpensive phone grip that adds a shutter button and a more camera like hand hold. It's neat.
Great video. Love the images from the phone. A humble recommendation in the event that you haven’t come across it, there is a phone grip / Bluetooth shutter called Snap Grip. It connects via the magnets on the iPhone and adds a nice grip / camera feel to taking pictures on the phone. Got a few months back and have been really enjoying it. Cheers
Love it and good experiment, I sometimes do this myself but have a samsung s22 ultra and they still come out well. Good to make you think a little bit more about what taking.
I can’t say I enjoyed the start of this video. You were walking on a narrow winding road with no sidewalk space. That looked a bit dangerous and I found myself tensing up. But other than that, you’ve really made me want to upgrade from my 11 Pro Max.
Have you tried NOMO raw on iPhone. It seems amazing as it makes 48 mp jpgs without sharpening. It uses pro raw but then makes a jpg rather than apple only making 12 mp jpgs.
You own a M11 and you are at the Amalfi coast and you shoot your iPhone 🤪. Visiting the same spot this summer (any dot not miss advice welcome :)), can`t wait, not sure which camera/lens I`ll bring. Sadly I do not own a iPhone pro mega max latest gen, I prefer to invest on good lens for my camera and own cheap old phone.
Very very rare i use my phone to take photos even though it has a good camera, ive gone for walks with just the phone and didn't take any, with camera im looking all over for things to photograph while walking, even out in town for a beer as i have a ricoh gr3 in a belt pouch
Couldn’t agree more James. I always take a few shots on my phone when I’m out with my camera. The sensor on the iPhone is spectacularly good, as are most other phones these days Great vid as always mate. Looking forward to seeing more of the Amalfi coast 👍
Thanks, interesting video. I wonder, were you using the iPhone camera app that came with the phone? The reason I ask is because you were talking about Lightroom Mobile which also doubles as a camera app. It can be set to "Pro" mode which will offer all the adjustments you can find on most cameras. It also has a button to toggle from JPG to DNG - and the fact it natively shoots DNG is useful for the Adobe Ecosystem. And, with my clumsy fingers, I find I am less of a klutz at accidentally toggling JPG in the Lightroom camera than with the iPhone camera app that came with the phone. You also don't need to import as the photo is already in the app when you take it.
So, 2 things. 1. I was watching, thinking “He”s taking photos while standing in the middle of a road on a blind curve. Will he live? Has the sun driven him mad? Is it the shame of thinking that someone will see the real, live, James Popsys shooting on a phone?” 2. My “best camera” is a full frame 12mp D700. Do you think a 40mp jpeg should look better than a 12mp raw file? I mostly watch your videos on a 10” iPad. Sometimes I don’t even go full screen. I just watch the videos in a corner of the screen while I read the comments. Results from a 6mp camera (raw or jpeg) might look the same on a small screen.
I love my iPhone 14 Pro. I only upgraded because of the camera ... my 11 was fine otherwise. I agree that it's great to always be carrying something half decent. I'm with you on the ease of accidentally having RAW set wrongly but we only have ourselves to blame!
Yeah, the ergononucs has always been a stumbling block for me, and, as you found out, it's much to easy to make things happen unintentionally. Pretty sketchy walkway there. Carry on! 👍🥂
I think that you’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater when you sold the Ricoh. I just sold my Fuji kit yesterday and it is now the only camera that I own!
My argument is and always will be this - it doesn't matter how good a phone camera is, as long as it's sensor is smaller than say, a full frame, it's quality will be inferior to the full frame. Whatever physical sensor tech advances is built into the phone camera, surely the same tech will be available to the much larger camera sensors too. Any post processing and computational processing the phone does, can be done better on the larger camera with AI and other imaging software. The bigger camera sensor simply has a higher quality low light and detail performance than the smaller phone sensor. At the same time, I am very happy that phone cameras are so much better, making them a nice tool when your camera is not around
I take snaps with my iPhone all the time - even when I also have one of my cameras. The reason why I wouldn’t use one solely for photography are the fixed focal length (or even ‘lengths’ on newer phones), lack of a viewfinder (which sucks in bright sunlight) and the horrible ergonomics/handling. Can’t fault the image quality generally though.
It honestly looks good enough to compete with compact cameras like the G7X or ZV1. I might be inclined to use a phone if it had a flip up screen to use the best lens for selfies, and it had a built in ND and a good optical zoom range. As it stands 48mp or not I think I'll stick with the extra utilities of the G7X.
I've been using Pixel phones for the last few years and they did me well. But after discovering the magic of Fuji and reminding myself how awesome shooting a dedicated camera can be, I simply switched to it full time. Phones are getting better (arguably we're almost at the tip end of the computational photography's capabilities), but it just removes the fun aspect of it for me.
First time I get really annoyed watching a video from you. I’ve been so angry at the iPhone camera app doing all kinds of fugly damage to my attempts of photography with its in-built un-disableable witchcraft. I’ve used the Lightroom app to some degree of success, at least the photos somewhat resembles what I see in real life. It was an epiphany when I realized there is an enable raw button option. I’m now no longer angry at you or your video, actually I’m very happy now. Thumbs up to you!
I also have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and I love the quality of the pictures but I have experience difficulties when trying to focus if I shoot through a window, couldn’t get any help from Apple. I don’t know if this is helpful but there is something called Apple ProwRAW under default settings/camera?! Great video, makes me want to travel and make a print from Saal, guess I can use and old image, not as fun but cheaper.
Why don't you try Sony's Xperia 1 James? It's got a shutter button, textured back and sides to add grip, Alpha camera inspired control on the app, and they are even lockable so you can handle the phone like any camera without worrying about accidentaly changing any settings, have detachable SD card tray without the need of any tool, also the Raw files are lighter than iphone's Raw. The latest mkV model have the latest Dual layer sensor from sony that enables it to be used in ni time pretty well.
The main lens used to be 26mm, I don't mind the 24, but I really hate the ultra-wide being 12mm-ish. It's just so unusable, I really don't understand why Apple and Samsung consistently go below 16mm (probably that's what they can source in volume?). My dream setup on a phone would be 18mm, 28mm, 55mm.
I wish phones had some more useful lenses like 20mm + 40mm with a optional 85mm equivalent. In most cases you can do a panorama if you need a wider picture but its impossible to zoom in without loss of quallity. Thats the reason why i never bother to use my phone for anything useful. The main camera is just too wide, the wide angle even wider and the tele lenses are usually on the big phones
Its seems a lot of photographers are using the phone as portable camera now. Enjoyed your journey along the coast road. Thought you may be harbouring a death wish walking alongside Italian holiday traffic.
First switch on RAW in the formats section of Camera with 48MP, then set on for Apple ProRAW in preserve settings. That way you will always have highest quality in the camera unless you turn it off
I still have an iphone max X….I have captured alot of special moments on my phone. In fact, on a trip to London in 2019, it was only an jphone and Sony RX100V to document the trip. I shoot on film cameras. I shoot on classic DSLRs. I shoot on mirrorless. If you capture moments, it matters not how you do it!
agreed with the 24mm main camera... I went from using an Iphone SE 2020 and iphone 8+ which were both 28mm, to an iphone 12 pro max which is 26mm and slightly too wide IMO. I checked out my partners 13 pro max which has the 24mm and hate it... add to that that it does away with the 2x (50mm-ish) lens and has a 3x. So you've got a 13mm that I've never seen anyone use, a 24mm that's too wide for "normal", and a 75mm thats ok for some stuff but not as practical and versatile as the 50ish from previous cameras. I really hope apple go back to a 28 or 30mm and a 50ish on the iphone 15, ideally get rid of the ultrawide 13mm and do the 77mm again but that's not a deal breaker... lets go apple!
Personally buying an iPhone for smartphone photography sounds dumb since the bigger sized sensors with higher pixel density are found in Androids that iPhone is using a sensor that is 3 years old meanwhile all androids are using 1 year old sensors all from Sony which have 50mp on all the lens the google pixels are the defination of perfect smartphone photography heck the only reason anybody would choose an iphone over androids is that video quality and nothing else
Brilliant review, but I will say, if you waited for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, really you should have given a Google Pixel a go =) Even the seemingly dated Pixel 3a (~80 bucks used) beats most current phone cameras in my opinion. The way it renders colors and handles high dynamic range scenes is really, really impressive (and makes me wish camera manufacturers FINALLY started integrating those kinds of features into their cameras).
Sometimes I take photos with my phone and 50mp helps to crop if you don't have a zoom lens on it. And the raw-files are good and are not an issue in a day like you had. I don't like the jpgs very much, because they do look very processed and I decrease the saturation/contast. Lightroom mobile or snapseed are a great way to edit on the go. For me though, I still like to shpot with my "real" camera more. Ergonomics, choice of lenses. Having a view finder, that helps me to feel the process of making rather than taking an image.
But as I've seen, Raw photos reduce the picture quality although they are bigger in size. So after you do the edit in Snapseed, can they be seen sharper like jpeg photos?
I did it exactly reversely :) .. I ditched (a long time ago) my smartphone for a dumphone (hipster's no.1 choice TheLightPhone) and I stick with my camera(s) instead .. getting rid of smartphone along with quitting smoking were the best decisions that I did after my 30 yr ...
Well, if I'm alone with my Iphone 14 pro and it comes to taking a "serious" photo with it, I use the lightroom-app on it (tap the camera symbol). This makes all (most?) of the camera settings available manually (like buttons an knobs 🙃 ) and produces *.dng....
i've thought about ditching getting a camera since i have a pixel 7pro but i feel like a dedicated camera is a much better tool if im just taking pictures.
There are some kinds of shots that a phone can nail and you don't even notice it was taken by a phone. Equally there are many other occasions where you can tell it was a phone shot. Then there are a lot of occasions where you just need a camera because the phone can't capture the image. However I'm all for making phone cameras better, and the iPhone's is particularly impressive.
Thanks for watching as always. Here's a link to 50% off all Saal products: www.saal-digital.com/lp/jamespopsys-15762/
Better call ...saal
Image quality wise? For most use cases, a phone is probably more than enough. But I think the reason most of us like photography is the experience of getting the shot, not the shot itself, having fine control over the entire process and being purposeful in your actions is very rewarding, and in my opinion does lead to better photos
I agree, I think. The iPhone 14 Pro is imperfect - mostly due to the difficult-to-avoid "computational photography" processing that often involves hideous amounts of sharpening and lack of real actual RAW output. On the other hand, it's also shockingly capable. In 48mp "RAW", it really is quite good. Fun test, take identical pix at 12mp and 48mp RAW and look at them and see how processed the 12mp is vs the 48mp. I much prefer using an actual camera to take pictures with intent, and love having a phone that can take great pictures if "it's the camera I have with me".
Bollocks. Maybe iPhone 14 pro, but on the iPhone 13 and the camera is garbage. Zoom in or do anything and it’s a pixelated mess. Don’t know how people actually get good quality out of an iPhone compared to an actually camera.
@@kevinwhite6176 Hi, do you mean that ProRAW is not a real actual RAW output. I'm curious what do you define as real RAW ? As I understand between the sensor and the RAW file, there are processing done by the camera. And I don't know what Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc... are doing there. To your knowledge what does Apple do in ProRAW format that doesn't fit what you call real RAW ? Thank you :)
Ergonomics and having a dedicated device for the purpose are my biggest priorities honestly. I really dislike using touchscreens for taking photos and even phones with shutter buttons like Sony's just don't feel good to use in my hand.
Add to that natural, physical controls without digging into menus and the fact I've yet to find a good film simulation-like photo app for the phone and I just don't enjoy the experience at all. Maybe if there was something that combined manufacturer-provided software corrections with quality custom presets, I'd give the Xperias a serious shot but as-is, it's just not worth the compromise to me. I also hate to hand edit every single photo but any phone's automatic processing (or raw output) just isn't to my liking at all.
It's hardly even "image quality" I'm concerned with because of online compression, it's literally just haptics and lack of customisation which especially the latter shouldn't be this hard to fix 😶
Shot a event Saturday night in low light, phone would have been useless, can’t compare the two.
I've been shooting on my iPhone for the past month, over my Ricoh GR III, and the thing that pulls me to it is the workflow, taking a photo, editing and sharing on one device
Impressed with the quality of the photos James. Also impressed you made it along that road without getting run over 😅
Having just recently found your channel, I have enjoyed watching your videos. Your compositions challenge a lot of what I've learned over the years. The photo with the triangle sign over the wall, I would have never placed it so closely to the edge. Not enough room to breathe and yet it works really well. The scooter and wall of flowers, never would have placed the scooter so far into the corner. Once again, it works. Thanks.
I just wanna say I follow about a dozen photographers on RUclips, learning from all of you, and I must say that, though each one is unique, I think you take the best photos.
By far
Nice lesson in composition with the dish ,tree, and building 😊
Being an avid hiker, I sometimes use my iPhone for wide angle shots and leave my wide angle lens at home, depending on what else I might carry on a given day. When I do this, I always shoot with ProRAW enabled and have come away with some very good photos after editing. I don't use JPEG/HEIC for anything other than snaps. I find the phone's processing to often be oversaturated and oversharpened.
I too don't like the oversaturated and oversharpened photos. Proraw looks like a game changer in this regard
iOS 16 processing is the worst by far, so misleading cannot understand Apple not fixing it
I’ve been along that road and I cannot believe you walked it! It’s mental! You’re a brave man 😮
I have a DSLR but i just got the Iphone 14 Pro, and i was hyped about taking pictures with it-so a few days ago, on my last trip to London, i just dumped the DSLR and took only the phone. I had 0 regrets, for a citybreak expericene it was more than enough, the pictures were incredibly detailed and perfectly exposed and i loved the ideea of having an ultra compact camera from which i can instantly send pictures to my friends on social media. Ill keep the DSLR for specialized photography like macro shots of insects in nature but for 90% of my trips and travels, the mobility of the phone combined with the top quality of the photos makes it the perfect choice. I think this is the future of DSLR and mirrorless: specialized photography( macro, astro, studio or advanced product photography) for the rest of the situations, the modern flagship phones with their advanced cameras and AIs will be more than enough.
Just speculating, but I would guess that Apple went with the wider lens so they could improve their digital stabilization, which was a big marketing point of these phones.
I'm pretty sure the wider focal length is a compromise between being able to fit a larger sensor into a phone without making the camera bump too thick.
I'd also guess they decided to go wider because with 40MP, they can very easily apply digital zoom. Most users wouldn't need 40MP or notice the loss on a cropped image.
Went on a family trip to Singapore in January. On previous trips I’ve taken my Nikon, but frankly I just couldn’t be bothered lugging that thing around all day. So this time I only took my iPhone, a 14 Pro Max, and was super chuffed with it. It does such a good job, and for the convenience of having it in my pocket, it was so worth it. They’ve come a long way.
Thanks for this video and showing us from a POV-ish viewpoint when taking the photos. It helps to add context to the composition and situation during the shots.
Hi James, looking behind you at your photos on the wall I was wondering if you could do a video on printing photos, why you decided on what size to print and how you arranged them on the wall? Just an idea!
Very nice. And, I just ordered the full collection of your presets. Clothes for photos, I like that.
I also miss the days of 28mm phone main cameras. They went to 26mm and now 24mm, which I find way too wide for what 90% of my phone photos are (pictures of people taken at around 1 meter). I'm pretty sure the focal length is a compromise between being able to fit larger camera sensors into a phone without making the camera bump too thick.
If you've got the megapixels and the sharpness you can always crop down.
I find if you hand someone mostly used to using phone a proper mirrorless type camera with a something like 30/40/50mm (equivalent) prime they're lost and don't know what to do with it.
Bring on the bump!
A couple of years ago, I replaced my aging Google Pixel 3XL with a Nokia XR20, (Zeiss Lens, plus Nokia Camera software). One of my reasons for upgrading form my old Pixel to the Nokia was that, unlike Google phones, the Nokia can accommodate a MicroSD card, whereas the Google Pixel requires the user to setup and maintain his/her own personal Google account, along with cloud storage, (at a price, naturally).
One particular feature of the Pixel phone was that the user could set the camera to save one's photos as RAW (.dng), and as JPEG (.jpg) files simultaneously, and, (IIRC), the RAW photos were saved in the phone's internal storage area, whilst the JPEGs were also saved into their own internal folder, as well as being uploaded to Google Drive. For some reason, the logic of which I can't fathom, the RAW files were not saved to Google Drive by default, but I seem to remember that there was some way to specify that the RAW files be saved automatically to Google Drive along with the JPEGs, (but I'm no longer 100% sure of that).
Since that time, I have not found another phone camera which has such an option.
I need a camera, I really hate the shooting experience on phones. Even with a Sony Xperia... which, at least, has a shutter button. It's not that they can't take decent pics, I just don't find it fun.
I had the Xperia as well, I did really appreciate the shutter button. Unfortunately the buttons started breaking and it was out of warranty so I had to replace it.
Though it had a lot of things going for it I just couldn't stomach the price again. I'm on a pixel 6 pro now, and some of the images I get are very usable but lose detail very quickly when you push them. Even when shooting raw. I guess because even though it's advertised as a 50MP camera, it's quad-bayer and is binned down to 12.5MP.
I find that although it has preserved and captured some priceless memories. I just wish I could have captured them with more detail and I can't go back and recapture those moments, and that's why I think I need a camera.
@@KennyYau5093 their good for what they are. But conventional cameras are still better at everything except portablity i guess
I made my phoneography slightly more enjoyable by adding mountable lenses.
I'm in the same boat. I have a Samsung S20, and while there's the portability, it's just not the same.
@@benferris2764Nothing could be further from the ttuth. But feel free to carry around ss many camera bodied and lens as you want if that makes you feel like your a real photog! 😂
Nice video. Curious how you got up on the hill? iPhone 14 Pro Max definitely is a good camera to take around but I feel that the colour AI it applies to photos doesn't resonate with me and maybe my perception but it feels like a snapshot camera for quick snaps and that process and the enjoyment of capturing photos and moments isn't there.
We went to the same region back in 2021 and I really loved the scenery there! Such a beautiful blend of nature and civilization, I guess you had a blast shooting there!
Man the European landscape is so different to Australia’s. Can wait till i have an opportunity to travel more. As for shooting on phones, i think modem phones have gotten to the point where they are pretty good for most scenarios (i use the wimpy little camera on my SE when i don’t have my camera and it’s fine). Might i suggest using the mobile Lightroom app? It lets you shoot manual and raw files. Great content and photos as always James!
Re: your last statement about not just going to Italy to take images on your phone, honestly, if anyone I follow on RUclips would do that just for the humour of it, it would be you. I love your dry sense of humour that no one else seems to have on this platform in the photography RUclips space
Today's mobile camera is good enough to take brilliant photos. However, the feel and joy of taking photos is not same as with real camera/mirrorless/dslr. In my honest opinion 😘. Amazing view by the way James
That second image, with the leaning tree and scooter was great!
Once again a phantastic video! All people can see : It is not the AI of an Iphone, as it is not the power of a special camera - It is always and only the NI of the Artist!
All your images are perfect in construction and harmony, and I will see this video still several times, to understand what you are there doing!
By the way: This video makes us strong against the sometimes arrogant comments, that we mft-photographing people have to suffer!
I went to Ischia around about the same time and only had my iPhone, not bringing my camera for the first time and I'm really happy with the results
Amalfi Coast………..Envy!! I loved it, coast, towns, backstreets, churches, fabulous photography. I loved the video, interested in the Saal stuff, have an iPhone 13 (also pretty good).
I think if you upload your presets into lightroom (not the classic one but the other one) on your computer, they should show up in your lightroom mobile (on you mobile) automatically in the presets category.
Yes if you set up presets on LR then they should sync to LR mob on your phone, I watched a Terry White RUclips video on it and how to get them also to sync to LRC
Thank you!
I just came back from the Amalfi Coast where I shot lots a photos with my iPhone 13 Pro and even more with my OM-1. I really don't see much of a difference in broad daylight. I used the CPL on the iPhone in most pictures which increases the quality immensely. When hiking, I just take the OM-1 with the 100-400 to catch birds and lizards, and the iPhone for the landscapes. No need to change lenses really.
I experienced the same switching from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to the 14 Pro Max. It was the first time the pictures felt like normal pictures. And dynamic range is great and exposure just feels correct. With an attached g-grip you can hold the phone with much more confident and you get the feeling of a „normal“ camera.
I’ve got one and it really is fantastic using the main lens and the portrait mode is quite interesting. Using it with Lightroom mobile it’s really slick and a fun workflow certainly for social media use, which I guess is what it’s going to be used for by the majority of buyers. If photography is your hobby or job your still going to want your gear, but this is in the pocket.
I’ve been looking for a book printing service lately- thanks for the heads up 👍🏼
Great video mate. Very much agree. As a hobby photographer, the main (if not the only) thing that stops me just spending on the best iPhone to max the phone camera experience and ditch a mirrorless is the focal length issue as you stress. I just can't get on board with 24-ish mm, drives me mad! If we could get a main lens quality at a 35/40mm I'd struggle to ever justify camera gear/extra workflow for my use case. All the best from Ceredigion!
Hey James, just wanted to say that I love your videos! Watched so many over the past days and as a quite new subscriber, I'm watching some "old ones". We're quite alike in what we like, I'm also a huge fan of "man vs. nature" photography and I love your shots, and your vids. They are super cozy and I usually watch them besides work. Best regards from Croatia mate :)
I went to Hawaii and used the 48mp sensor as a legit alternative to my other 2 cameras. I treated it like a 24mm prime alongside an X100V on the days I left the a1/24-70 GM ii combo in the room safe. First phone that I really feel has good enough quality to keep up (at least from apple) in decent to good light
James! Your colors are so nice in these! I love your videos so much and I sort of welcomed the little bit of chaos in this video as it's a nice departure from your norm. Really great work. I love the iPhone 14 Pro camera. You used it so so well.
Great idea. Vid and phone looks a touch overexposed and could maybe stand a polarizer . The new phones are interesting and I like listening to your comp process.
You walked straight passed the small hotel we stayed at on our visit to Amalfi. Gorgeous scenery so hope you enjoyed your break. I'll be honest, you're a braver man than I am for walking to Positano. There are no pavements and the roads are ridiculously narrow, especially when buses and lorries trundle passed, Impressive!! We took the easy option of a water taxi which actually as well as being quicker, gave a composition of Positano from the sea which is quite impressive.
On the topic of phones replacing cameras, You have just confirmed what I've been considering for a while. I use an R5 along with a load of RF Glass and have carted it all around on domestic and foreign holidays but have now come to the conclusion that unless I have a specific thing I want to capture that requires the extra flexibility and quality the R5 provides I don't need the hassle in the airport, plane etc and the weight of carrying everything when I can just take my iPhone. I tried it on a recent domestic short break and it was great not having a heavy bag to carry and having to stop to get the camera etc out and then put it all away. Phone in pocket, see something, get it out, compose and snap. Brilliant!
My wife uses an iPhone 14Pro which as you say is pretty amazing and although I use the 12Pro it's still not bad. I'm hopefully upgrading to a 15Pro, maybe, possibly if the bank account will cope lol.
I still love the R5 and will continue to use it when the need arises or when I just want to go out and play.😁
I'm using my camer mostly with telephoto lens and fisheye lens after acquireing Samsung S10 with 13mm, 24mm and 50mm lenses. It's wider than my Sigma 10-20mm APS-C, I don't need shallow DOF on most cases, and when I need them, the phone usually does it quite well.
Interesting that going to Settings > Camera > Formats and enabling Apple ProRAW doesn't actually enabled RAW, but enables the button that enables/disables RAW. I guess that does make it easy to switch back and forth on the fly, but I see your point in wanting to just enable RAW and never disable it.
Nice to see a photographer say they're doing 'some photography with their iPhone', instead of 'taking photos' with their iPhone. There is a difference.
Thamk you for another enlightening video. I’m extremely happy you survived that road. 😮. I’ve seen incredible images shot on cellphones, but I haven’t seen how well they do enlarge. Modern tech has come a long way
For me I find my phone does take excellent shots. It's the ergonomics thst are more of an issue than camera quality now. Recently I bought an inexpensive phone grip that adds a shutter button and a more camera like hand hold. It's neat.
Great shots! Do you have a lens cover installed ?
Your color science is phenomenal
Great video. Love the images from the phone. A humble recommendation in the event that you haven’t come across it, there is a phone grip / Bluetooth shutter called Snap Grip. It connects via the magnets on the iPhone and adds a nice grip / camera feel to taking pictures on the phone. Got a few months back and have been really enjoying it. Cheers
Nice! Which presets of yours did you use on these pics?☺️
Love it and good experiment, I sometimes do this myself but have a samsung s22 ultra and they still come out well. Good to make you think a little bit more about what taking.
I can’t say I enjoyed the start of this video. You were walking on a narrow winding road with no sidewalk space. That looked a bit dangerous and I found myself tensing up. But other than that, you’ve really made me want to upgrade from my 11 Pro Max.
Have you tried NOMO raw on iPhone. It seems amazing as it makes 48 mp jpgs without sharpening. It uses pro raw but then makes a jpg rather than apple only making 12 mp jpgs.
You own a M11 and you are at the Amalfi coast and you shoot your iPhone 🤪. Visiting the same spot this summer (any dot not miss advice welcome :)), can`t wait, not sure which camera/lens I`ll bring. Sadly I do not own a iPhone pro mega max latest gen, I prefer to invest on good lens for my camera and own cheap old phone.
I was just thinking this!
4:38 my favourite type of photography
Very very rare i use my phone to take photos even though it has a good camera, ive gone for walks with just the phone and didn't take any, with camera im looking all over for things to photograph while walking, even out in town for a beer as i have a ricoh gr3 in a belt pouch
Couldn’t agree more James. I always take a few shots on my phone when I’m out with my camera. The sensor on the iPhone is spectacularly good, as are most other phones these days
Great vid as always mate. Looking forward to seeing more of the Amalfi coast 👍
Quite agree. The new iPhone camera is fantastic, especially if the shot does not require clever depth of field effects or slow shutter speeds.
You're in Naples?? There's a photography event at the national museum (MANN) this sunday, if you want to! :D
Super wide should be 14-16mm, standard lens should be 35 IMO.
Great video though, those phone pictures look awesome
Thanks, interesting video. I wonder, were you using the iPhone camera app that came with the phone? The reason I ask is because you were talking about Lightroom Mobile which also doubles as a camera app. It can be set to "Pro" mode which will offer all the adjustments you can find on most cameras. It also has a button to toggle from JPG to DNG - and the fact it natively shoots DNG is useful for the Adobe Ecosystem. And, with my clumsy fingers, I find I am less of a klutz at accidentally toggling JPG in the Lightroom camera than with the iPhone camera app that came with the phone. You also don't need to import as the photo is already in the app when you take it.
So, 2 things. 1. I was watching, thinking “He”s taking photos while standing in the middle of a road on a blind curve. Will he live? Has the sun driven him mad? Is it the shame of thinking that someone will see the real, live, James Popsys shooting on a phone?” 2. My “best camera” is a full frame 12mp D700. Do you think a 40mp jpeg should look better than a 12mp raw file? I mostly watch your videos on a 10” iPad. Sometimes I don’t even go full screen. I just watch the videos in a corner of the screen while I read the comments. Results from a 6mp camera (raw or jpeg) might look the same on a small screen.
I love my iPhone 14 Pro. I only upgraded because of the camera ... my 11 was fine otherwise. I agree that it's great to always be carrying something half decent. I'm with you on the ease of accidentally having RAW set wrongly but we only have ourselves to blame!
Thanks for the video. It’s funny. I never use my phone for photos anymore. Except if I need to remember something and I’m to lazy to right it down.
Yeah, the ergononucs has always been a stumbling block for me, and, as you found out, it's much to easy to make things happen unintentionally. Pretty sketchy walkway there. Carry on! 👍🥂
I think that you’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater when you sold the Ricoh. I just sold my Fuji kit yesterday and it is now the only camera that I own!
My argument is and always will be this - it doesn't matter how good a phone camera is, as long as it's sensor is smaller than say, a full frame, it's quality will be inferior to the full frame. Whatever physical sensor tech advances is built into the phone camera, surely the same tech will be available to the much larger camera sensors too. Any post processing and computational processing the phone does, can be done better on the larger camera with AI and other imaging software. The bigger camera sensor simply has a higher quality low light and detail performance than the smaller phone sensor. At the same time, I am very happy that phone cameras are so much better, making them a nice tool when your camera is not around
I take snaps with my iPhone all the time - even when I also have one of my cameras. The reason why I wouldn’t use one solely for photography are the fixed focal length (or even ‘lengths’ on newer phones), lack of a viewfinder (which sucks in bright sunlight) and the horrible ergonomics/handling. Can’t fault the image quality generally though.
Do you know if there is a difference between the RAW files from the main camera app and the RAW files from the Lightroom app?
It honestly looks good enough to compete with compact cameras like the G7X or ZV1. I might be inclined to use a phone if it had a flip up screen to use the best lens for selfies, and it had a built in ND and a good optical zoom range. As it stands 48mp or not I think I'll stick with the extra utilities of the G7X.
The iPhone 48 megapixel main camera is impressive. I took a photo that was 149.8 MB in size.
3:12 love it
What's that flashing on your desk? And can it not?
Gonna check out Saal for sure.
I've been using Pixel phones for the last few years and they did me well. But after discovering the magic of Fuji and reminding myself how awesome shooting a dedicated camera can be, I simply switched to it full time. Phones are getting better (arguably we're almost at the tip end of the computational photography's capabilities), but it just removes the fun aspect of it for me.
First time I get really annoyed watching a video from you. I’ve been so angry at the iPhone camera app doing all kinds of fugly damage to my attempts of photography with its in-built un-disableable witchcraft. I’ve used the Lightroom app to some degree of success, at least the photos somewhat resembles what I see in real life. It was an epiphany when I realized there is an enable raw button option.
I’m now no longer angry at you or your video, actually I’m very happy now. Thumbs up to you!
Yes! Tried the alternative and it sucked. Great food for thought for others perhaps. Be Well James, Thank You.
Red autobianchi for the win. Had a blue one a long time ago.
I really like having the 24mm because I use it to scout.
I also have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and I love the quality of the pictures but I have experience difficulties when trying to focus if I shoot through a window, couldn’t get any help from Apple. I don’t know if this is helpful but there is something called Apple ProwRAW under default settings/camera?! Great video, makes me want to travel and make a print from Saal, guess I can use and old image, not as fun but cheaper.
Why don't you try Sony's Xperia 1 James? It's got a shutter button, textured back and sides to add grip, Alpha camera inspired control on the app, and they are even lockable so you can handle the phone like any camera without worrying about accidentaly changing any settings, have detachable SD card tray without the need of any tool, also the Raw files are lighter than iphone's Raw.
The latest mkV model have the latest Dual layer sensor from sony that enables it to be used in ni time pretty well.
I find it to be a good option for certain scenarios, but there just isn’t enough play in the files for me for all around use.
Hi James. I’d always prefer a 24mm over a 28mm. Just saying.
The main lens used to be 26mm, I don't mind the 24, but I really hate the ultra-wide being 12mm-ish. It's just so unusable, I really don't understand why Apple and Samsung consistently go below 16mm (probably that's what they can source in volume?). My dream setup on a phone would be 18mm, 28mm, 55mm.
Oh wow, apple is finally catching up to the om d em-5. This is great.
I wish phones had some more useful lenses like 20mm + 40mm with a optional 85mm equivalent. In most cases you can do a panorama if you need a wider picture but its impossible to zoom in without loss of quallity. Thats the reason why i never bother to use my phone for anything useful. The main camera is just too wide, the wide angle even wider and the tele lenses are usually on the big phones
Curious whether this edges out the Ricoh GR3X as a useful carry-everywhere camera.
How’s you get that misty look? It looks sick
How do you edit those photos to look like film?
Its seems a lot of photographers are using the phone as portable camera now. Enjoyed your journey along the coast road. Thought you may be harbouring a death wish walking alongside Italian holiday traffic.
First switch on RAW in the formats section of Camera with 48MP, then set on for Apple ProRAW in preserve settings. That way you will always have highest quality in the camera unless you turn it off
I still have an iphone max X….I have captured alot of special moments on my phone. In fact, on a trip to London in 2019, it was only an jphone and Sony RX100V to document the trip. I shoot on film cameras. I shoot on classic DSLRs. I shoot on mirrorless. If you capture moments, it matters not how you do it!
agreed with the 24mm main camera... I went from using an Iphone SE 2020 and iphone 8+ which were both 28mm, to an iphone 12 pro max which is 26mm and slightly too wide IMO. I checked out my partners 13 pro max which has the 24mm and hate it... add to that that it does away with the 2x (50mm-ish) lens and has a 3x. So you've got a 13mm that I've never seen anyone use, a 24mm that's too wide for "normal", and a 75mm thats ok for some stuff but not as practical and versatile as the 50ish from previous cameras. I really hope apple go back to a 28 or 30mm and a 50ish on the iphone 15, ideally get rid of the ultrawide 13mm and do the 77mm again but that's not a deal breaker... lets go apple!
I'm very happy with my phone as well (Pixel 6). Although the jpg can be kinda too much "googly", the raws are so good!
Personally buying an iPhone for smartphone photography sounds dumb since the bigger sized sensors with higher pixel density are found in Androids that iPhone is using a sensor that is 3 years old meanwhile all androids are using 1 year old sensors all from Sony which have 50mp on all the lens the google pixels are the defination of perfect smartphone photography heck the only reason anybody would choose an iphone over androids is that video quality and nothing else
Brilliant review, but I will say, if you waited for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, really you should have given a Google Pixel a go =) Even the seemingly dated Pixel 3a (~80 bucks used) beats most current phone cameras in my opinion. The way it renders colors and handles high dynamic range scenes is really, really impressive (and makes me wish camera manufacturers FINALLY started integrating those kinds of features into their cameras).
Sometimes I take photos with my phone and 50mp helps to crop if you don't have a zoom lens on it. And the raw-files are good and are not an issue in a day like you had. I don't like the jpgs very much, because they do look very processed and I decrease the saturation/contast.
Lightroom mobile or snapseed are a great way to edit on the go.
For me though, I still like to shpot with my "real" camera more. Ergonomics, choice of lenses. Having a view finder, that helps me to feel the process of making rather than taking an image.
But as I've seen, Raw photos reduce the picture quality although they are bigger in size. So after you do the edit in Snapseed, can they be seen sharper like jpeg photos?
What u used for editing
I did it exactly reversely :) .. I ditched (a long time ago) my smartphone for a dumphone (hipster's no.1 choice TheLightPhone) and I stick with my camera(s) instead .. getting rid of smartphone along with quitting smoking were the best decisions that I did after my 30 yr ...
Well, if I'm alone with my Iphone 14 pro and it comes to taking a "serious" photo with it, I use the lightroom-app on it (tap the camera symbol). This makes all (most?) of the camera settings available manually (like buttons an knobs 🙃 ) and produces *.dng....
You should also probably try Sony Xperia mark 1 V,great manual controls on it
i've thought about ditching getting a camera since i have a pixel 7pro but i feel like a dedicated camera is a much better tool if im just taking pictures.
There are some kinds of shots that a phone can nail and you don't even notice it was taken by a phone. Equally there are many other occasions where you can tell it was a phone shot. Then there are a lot of occasions where you just need a camera because the phone can't capture the image. However I'm all for making phone cameras better, and the iPhone's is particularly impressive.