iPhone XR – 1/250, f/1.8, ISO 25, Eval Meter

One of the basic tenets of the Photo of the Day project is to familiarize oneself with many different image capturing technologies.As of Day 262, I have used a variety of platforms with two dominating – my 5D Mk IV and the G7 X. However, I’ve also used two drones, my GoPro, the Nest doorbell, and the PlayStation 5. This PotD happens to be the second time I’ve used my iPhone to capture an image.

Now admittedly, the Nest doorbell and PS5 PotD were more a novelty. The two iPhone images were of family. The first iPhone PotD was actually Day 3 when we were eating supper at El Meson with Zack and Izzy. This PotD is of my nephew Alex who stopped in for a quick visit.

You can probably tell by my tone that I’m not a fan of the iPhone camera – and you’d be right. So here’s why:

1) I feel the images are to not as sharp. This is my biggest complaint. There are times when I want to blow up an image big, such as printing for a large frame. Now look at this picture – with an ISO of 25 and a shutter speed of 1/250, you’d think there would be no pixelation / blur. But there is. I actually had Alex’s friend take the picture. He wasn’t moving or shaking the camera, but the image is very soft.

2) it doesn’t capture as a RAW image. This is self explanatory. I like processing my own photos, I don’t want some software engineer in Japan who wrote some generic code to apply that code to all my pictures.

3) Ergonomics don’t feel right. I’m old fashioned I guess.

For now, I’m gonna stick to my 5D and G7 X! With those, if I have a bad photo, I know it was operator error and not the camera.