The freshly released iPhone 5 has already been put through its paces in our camera test lab. So is the camera in Apple's latest mobile better than the 4S? How does it compare with the Samsung Galaxy S3? Which of the two star handsets of the moment gives better sharpness, better colours, etc.? Time to find out!
The iPhone 5 is still using an 8-Megapixel camera but, according to Apple, quality has been improved, with better results in low light. That should mean you can cut down on using the flash, which generally just overexposes shots (that’s something you get with pretty much any cameraphone, but to varying extents). You should therefore be able to shoot friends in places like bars and parties more effectively. Good news!
As soon as we received our iPhone 5, we whisked it off to our camera test lab. The results are already online in our camera Face-Off. In these preliminary tests, we compared the iPhone 5 with the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S3.
The iPhone 5 snapped shots and focused quickly. Photos were fast to save too. In fact, on that front, there’s been no real change since the iPhone 4S, which was already a speedy photo-saver.
However, when it comes to image quality, the iPhone 5 does a better job than its predecessor. For starters, quality is more consistent over all the test photos we took. Sharpness levels have improved a little too, with a bit more detail in the shots.
Noise was already handled well (for a smartphone) in the 4S, but the iPhone 5 manages to keep to lower ISO settings than the previous model. The result is a further reduction in digital noise, especially in darker parts of the picture. Using the flash always tends to overexpose images, and we generally don’t recommend using it, but the flash in the iPhone 5 handles the white balance better in low light. Just look at the two pictures below and you'll see how much clearer the iPhone 5's shots are, even in low lighting. Sure, how the image is treated has a lot to do with it—the pictures are smoothed more—but at least the scene shows more detail, especially in the middle of the shot, without any need for the flash.
Photo taken with no flash, in low light with the Apple iPhone 5
Photo taken with no flash, in low light with the Apple iPhone 4S
So is the iPhone 5 a better cameraphone than the iPhone 4S? Based on these test results, our answer to that has got to be yes, although the gain in quality isn’t enormous. The iPhone 4S is still a very good cameraphone, except in low-light conditions, where it visibly doesn’t do as good a job as the newer model. So in the current market, the iPhone 5 takes the top spot for camera quality, but it’ll be interesting to see how it compares with the Nokia Lumia 920, loaded with the firm’s PureView technology. Compared with the Galaxy S3, the new iPhone 5 gives better-quality results on the whole, with more harmonious and generally more sharply detailed shots.
We also compared the iPhone 5 with the Nokia 808 PureView—a cameraphone that’s effectively in a league of its own seeing as the quality of its lens is so much better than any of the other smartphones we’ve tested so far. The iPhone 5 is clearly no match for the 808. That said, in the "Barbie without flash" test, the Apple iPhone 5 did do a better job—we used the cropping zoom function in the 808 which narrowed its lead in this particular test.
We'll bring you a more detailed analysis of the camera (including functions like the new panorama mode) in our full review of the iPhone 5, coming soon.
The iPhone 5 is still using an 8-Megapixel camera but, according to Apple, quality has been improved, with better results in low light. That should mean you can cut down on using the flash, which generally just overexposes shots (that’s something you get with pretty much any cameraphone, but to varying extents). You should therefore be able to shoot friends in places like bars and parties more effectively. Good news!
Quality Gets Even
As soon as we received our iPhone 5, we whisked it off to our camera test lab. The results are already online in our camera Face-Off. In these preliminary tests, we compared the iPhone 5 with the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S3.
The iPhone 5 snapped shots and focused quickly. Photos were fast to save too. In fact, on that front, there’s been no real change since the iPhone 4S, which was already a speedy photo-saver.
However, when it comes to image quality, the iPhone 5 does a better job than its predecessor. For starters, quality is more consistent over all the test photos we took. Sharpness levels have improved a little too, with a bit more detail in the shots.
Noise was already handled well (for a smartphone) in the 4S, but the iPhone 5 manages to keep to lower ISO settings than the previous model. The result is a further reduction in digital noise, especially in darker parts of the picture. Using the flash always tends to overexpose images, and we generally don’t recommend using it, but the flash in the iPhone 5 handles the white balance better in low light. Just look at the two pictures below and you'll see how much clearer the iPhone 5's shots are, even in low lighting. Sure, how the image is treated has a lot to do with it—the pictures are smoothed more—but at least the scene shows more detail, especially in the middle of the shot, without any need for the flash.
Photo taken with no flash, in low light with the Apple iPhone 5
Photo taken with no flash, in low light with the Apple iPhone 4S
So is the iPhone 5 a better cameraphone than the iPhone 4S? Based on these test results, our answer to that has got to be yes, although the gain in quality isn’t enormous. The iPhone 4S is still a very good cameraphone, except in low-light conditions, where it visibly doesn’t do as good a job as the newer model. So in the current market, the iPhone 5 takes the top spot for camera quality, but it’ll be interesting to see how it compares with the Nokia Lumia 920, loaded with the firm’s PureView technology. Compared with the Galaxy S3, the new iPhone 5 gives better-quality results on the whole, with more harmonious and generally more sharply detailed shots.
We also compared the iPhone 5 with the Nokia 808 PureView—a cameraphone that’s effectively in a league of its own seeing as the quality of its lens is so much better than any of the other smartphones we’ve tested so far. The iPhone 5 is clearly no match for the 808. That said, in the "Barbie without flash" test, the Apple iPhone 5 did do a better job—we used the cropping zoom function in the 808 which narrowed its lead in this particular test.
Apple iPhone 5
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