Let’s take the image right below. Can you tell what type of camera it was taken on?
The answer is it was shot on an iPhone 12. Now take that same photo, except shooting it on the Sony a7C with a Tamron 17-28 f2.8 millimeter lens.
The differences in image quality might be a bit more apparent now that you’ve had time to compare them side-by-side. Still, telling the $1000 iPhone 12 apart from the full frame $2700 Sony setup though isn’t as easy in every situation. The iPhone renders colors vibrantly especially in bright outdoor conditions like Utah’s mountains and in many cases, when the pictures aren’t next to each other picking them apart becomes more of a detective game.
I’ll let you test your skills watching in the video above to see how many out of 10 you can guess correctly.
No matter how you do, I think the iPhone holds up compared to the considerably larger build of a full frame mirrorless camera. Certainly the Sony outperforms in many ways but it’s also a larger device with two functions – to shoot videos and photos. Apple on the other hand has to design a device that can do both of those things well, but also be your emailing–social–media–posting-time-sucking-device most of us are attached to.
So if you’re wondering what kind of camera you need to get started on YouTube for example or to post travel videos on TikTok, the Sony a7C would be nice, but you don’t have to look further than the phone in your pocket. While every year phone cameras get better, most modern phones are so good, the differences are very incremental. Don’t think so? See if you can tell these iPhone 12 photos apart from the 11.
