“Aside from folks who still shoot film, almost nobody uses the term ‘digital photography’ anymore – it’s simply ‘photography,’ just as we don’t keep our food in an ‘electric refrigerator,'” Jeff Carlson writes for Digital Photography Review. “Given the changes in the camera system in Apple’s latest iPhone models, we’re headed down a path where the term ‘computational photography’ will also just be referred to as ‘photography,’ at least by the majority of photographers.”
“The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max feature the same dual-camera and processing hardware; the upcoming iPhone XR also sports the same processing power, but with only a single camera: the same wide-angle F1.8 one on the other models,” Carlson writes. “More important this year is upgraded computational power and the software it enables: the A12 Bionic processor, the eight-core ‘Neural Engine,’ and the image signal processor (ISP) dedicated to the camera functions. The results include a new Smart HDR feature that rapidly combines multiple exposures for every capture, and improved depth-of-field simulation using Portrait mode. (All the examples throughout are straight out of the device.)”
“Tthe camera system in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max turn out to be larger improvements than they initially seemed, especially for the majority of iPhone owners who want to take good photos without fuss,” Carlson writes. “Apple’s computational photography advancements in these models deliver great results most of the time, and point toward more improvements in the future.”
Much more, including many sample photos, in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote two weeks ago after moving from iPhone X to iPhone Xs Max:
Holy f-stop, this leap forward in camera quality is stunning! — MacDailyNews, September 20, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Austin Mann reviews iPhone Xs camera: ‘I’ve never worked with a camera that can balance light like this – not even close’ – September 20, 2018
Inside Apple’s iPhone Xs camera technology that rivals DSLR quality – September 20, 2018
‘Shot on iPhone Xs’ video showcases Apple’s amazing new camera – September 13, 2018
Dpreview.com has always been the best digital camera review site, even though it is now owned by Amazon.
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