I've Never Been A Fan Of Phone Cameras, But...

Old Country Store in Meadows of Dan, Virginia. (click to enlarge)
iPhone 14 Pro Max; 24mm ~e lens; 1/150th sec. @ f/1.8; ISO 64

...my mind may be changing.  Maybe.  Let me explain.

Recently, I traded in my iPhone 8+ for a new iPhone 14 Pro Max.  (Go big or go home!)  I didn't make the trade because of the phone's camera capabilities but because Verizon's service in my area has gotten very poor since they implemented 5G service several months ago.  Every day we were experiencing dropped calls, the inability to send a message, being unable to load internet pages, etc.  That was the norm.  Mind you, I'm 2.75 miles from the nearest Verizon tower and have direct line-of-sight.  No mountains, buildings or structures of any kind between my home and the Verizon tower.  Yet, Verizon's service became really poor.  I normally keep a phone for a long time, but I had to do something since my wife's and my iPhones are our only means of outside voice contact.

Due to those conditions, my wife and I decided to try AT&T mobile service.  Others in our area tell us they have no issues with phone calls, internet or messaging.  The AT&T tower is about 10 miles away.  In order to switch, we needed new phones.  That brings me to the camera in my new iPhone.  I found the phone, its speed and its features vastly improved over my old 8+.  Will the camera have the same level of improvements?

~100% crop of image above. (click to enlarge)

Last week, my wife and I joined some close friends in the northwestern North Carolina mountains for several days of camaraderie, photography, good food and dare I say it, "shopping." (grimace)  In any case, we had a great time.  I didn't come home with any portfolio quality images but I made some I like.  This five day trip also provided an opportunity to try out the camera on my new iPhone.  I didn't make many images, but I did some experimentation.

The new camera system in the iPhone 14 Pro Max has three different focal lengths available with the 'normal' or standard focal length being the equivalent of a 24mm lens on a 35mm camera.  That 'normal' lens also has the ability to record images up to 48mp in the RAW format and output the images as DNGs.  The other cameras, I believe, resolve 12mp.  I set the camera for the 48mp resolution for most of my test shots.  You can find more specs about this camera system anywhere on the Internet so I won’t go into any more.

Also, the camera system in this phone has a night mode.  I think this mode has existed for a couple of models now but I was new to it so I tried it inside a rather dark small country church to give it a good test.

I have not read much about the camera, only some brief articles when the phone was first introduced so I really don't know how to use it to its fullest extent yet.  I plan on finding some tutorials so I can exploit everything the camera can provide to me.  That said, here are some images I made from last week's trip.  I'm posting the entire image as well as some ~100% crops so you can see the detail and sharpness.

iPhone 14 PRO MAX; 24mm lens ~e; 1/2000th sec. @ f/1.8; ISO 100 (click to enlarge)

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iPhone 14 PRO MAX; 48mm ~e lens; 1/60th sec. @ f/1.8; ISO 250

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iPhone 14 PRO MAX; 48mm ~e lens; 1/40th sec. @ f/1.8; ISO 160 (click to enlarge)

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The below image was made using the night mode.  I have no idea how the camera system accomplishes images this sharp with a long exposure, but whatever it does, it works well.

iPhone 14 PRO MAX; 24mm ~e lens; 1/60th sec. @ f/1.8; ISO 500 (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Overall, I'm impressed with the images I made.  The resolution, sharpness, color and white balance all seem excellent.  I understand the iPhone cannot fill the role of a full blown interchangeable lens camera at this point in time.  But its capabilities seem to be vastly improved over my old iPhone 8+.  I plan on continuing my experiments with the camera system and periodically report what I find and how I feel about it.  In the mean time, I'll continue to use my Fujifilm and Nikon cameras for my serious work.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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