iPhone 7 Plus camera can surpass a DSLR camera. Occasionally

Okay, like Apple wasn’t entirely joking, even if it made the comparison of the iPhone 7 Plus with a DSLR camera in a fun way when it announced the new iPhones. The phone has some almost magic-like tricks that can help it click photos that would otherwise be impossible to shoot with a phone camera.

Before you read further, just one disclaimer: here at India Today Tech, we are reviewing the Canon 5D Mark IV, a state-of-the-art full-frame DSLR camera launched in India just several weeks ago. By the way, based on what we have seen, this camera looks like a shooting machine. It’s brilliant, but that is a story for another day. Just for fun, while reviewing this camera, we considered pitting it against the iPhone 7 Plus, which recently received an iOS update that adds Portrait Mode to its camera. This mode creates many buzzes, and we thought we should compare the two while we tested this model and the 5D model.

The results were astonishing. Now, this should not be taken as something that knocks down the 5D. It’s a great camera and miles ahead of the iPhone 7 Plus. To make a comparison a bit fair, I curtailed its capabilities somewhat. The 5D Mark IV I used has a 24-70mm F4 L Lens attached. This is a high-end lens; the whole set-up is as pro as they come. But instead of shooting manually, I put the camera on auto mode, which mainstream consumers do. Second, I set the focal length to around 57mm, similar to the focal length of the second camera in the iPhone 7 Plus, because at 70mm, it would have easily delivered a knockout punch to the iPhone in this test.

Summary show

The result I got was this.

— The iPhone image has better colors. But that is because of processing. The colors from the Canon shooter are more accurate, and if I want, I can get better colors from it by editing the image in something like Lightroom.

— The iPhone image is sharper. This is because of the small sensor size, and Apple tunes the way pictures. Due to the small sensor size, for iPhone 7 Plus, it is easier to manage the depth of field. The Canon 5D Mark IV is a full-frame camera that operates the depth of field for better sharpness; it is pertinent for a shooter to use the manual mode or at least control the aperture. But I deliberately used the auto mode because that is how most mainstream consumers with DSLR cameras use them.

— Because the iPhone bokeh, aka the blurred background, is artificial and calculated by AI, if you look hard enough, you can see a disconnect between the background and foreground. There is even a blemish in the image, resulting in image processing problems (notice the solid gray area above the left arm of the teddy). There are no such issues with the 5D image because, in this image, the bokeh results from pure lens physics.

— Overall, the iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode is awesome. For most mainstream consumers, it will be easier to click great-looking pictures with an iPhone 7 Plus than with an advanced DSLR camera that requires fiddling with aperture and focal length.

Now, about the Portrait Mode in the iPhone 7 Plus. In this mode, which is still in beta, the phone clicks the photo using the second camera with a longer 57mm focal length. Apple says it’s 56mm. The EXIF data from the images says it is 57mm. Due to the longer focal length, the second camera clicks images with better bokeh or, in other words, blurring the background. But it is still not as good as what a good proper camera will capture. So, Apple then uses the data collected with the other camera in the iPhone 7 Plus to calculate better bokeh.

This is all done using a dedicated image processing chip, and it’s impressive how Apple can calculate this in such a precise manner. The overall result is pretty nice, although this mode is still in beta, and there could be issues, such as the solid gray in the following image. Use the slider to see how the image was before and after the Portrait Mode processed it.