iPhone vs Sony RX100 vs Sony A7riii

I recently toured the White House which does not allow large cameras.  Not wanting to use a phone, I borrowed and used the Sony RX100v.  You can read my thoughts and see the photos of the White House here.  Most of the visitors on the tour, including my own family, were using their phones.   Upon looking at the photos from my 11-year-old daughter, in terms of pure image quality, the phone photos looked as good as anything else.

Five years ago, I would tell people that buying a dSLR would improve their photographer, even if they simply shot with kit lenses in automatic modes and used photos straight out of the camera (SOOC).   I was using the original RX100 five years ago, and the images seemed amazing compared to anything coming out of a phone.  Even then, the RX100 seemed comparable to a kit dSLR in quality, despite the smaller sensor.   

I suspect this post will be controversial.   While the quality of the newer Sony RX100 models have crawled forward, phone cameras have advanced tremendously.   There is absolutely no question that a dSLR or a large sensor compact like the RX100 has more potential than a smart phone.   The raw files are much more malleable on “real cameras.”   “Real cameras” allow far more manipulation of aperture, shutter speed and focal length.   But many people just love taking snapshots.   For people who just want to take snapshots on auto and use them for smallish prints and instagram, is there much value in a “real camera?”

The Test

Keeping things simple, I decided to test a few different scenes with three different cameras.   All shooting was done in fully automatic modes.  Images were straight out of the camera (SOOC) JPEGs.   No post-processing was applied except cropping where noted.   

The three cameras:

• iPhone 7 (Simply my personal phone, 12 megapixels, 1.8 aperture and equivalent focal length of 28mm)
• Sony RX100v (1″ sensor, 20 megapixels, equivalent focal length range of 24-70mm, aperture f/1.8 – 2.8)
• Sony A7riii  with Sony FE 24-240mm lens.  (42 megapixel full frame sensor, 24-240mm range and aperture of 3.5 to 6.3).  

Scene One

Starting with a simple landscape…

• 

• 

• 

Reviewing these images at normal web sizes (similar to small prints), it’s hard to distinguish which came from which device.   All three are reasonably sharp though none are truly tack sharp.  (By using the Sony 24-240mm on the Sony A7riii, I simulated the quality of a “kit” lens).  All three images blew the highlights.  Personally, of the three images, I prefer the RX100v image.   Though the point of this test is just to examine how casual shooters treat their images, let’s crop these three images and take a closer look:

• 

• 

• 

Now when pixel peeping each image to the same size, the iphone starts to fail.  While larger elements are still sharp, fine detail is lost in the iphone image.  The 42 megapixels of the Sony A7riii starts to pay off and shows the most detail but even with just 20mp, the Sony RX100v competes very closely.

Scene Two – High Contrast Landscape

The challenge of bright skies and deep shadows.  An advanced shooter would know to adjust the exposure  and process a raw file to maximize the dynamic range.  But a point and shooter will just click the shutter button and hope for the best:

• 

• 

• 

Now things get interesting.   It appears the iPhone instantly analyzed the scene.  With incredible processing power, the iPhone immediately and instantly rendered high dynamic range.   Upon close examination, the Sony A7riii and Sony RX100v retain sharper detail but the iPhone was the only image to display the clouds and blue sky.  For those looking for the best straight out of the camera image, there is no clear winner:  It’s a choice between detail and actually seeing the sky.   Certainly, you could get a better HDR image out of the Sony RX100 and Sony A7riii, but that would have required adjusting the camera to take multiple exposures and then combine them.  The iPhone did it automatically, not requiring any knowledge from the photographer.

Scene Three – Low Light

For those who look down at phone-cameras, the common refrain is that the difference is low light!   So these images were taken at night by a couple of artificial lights.  The images were cropped a bit to match each other:

• 

• 

• 

If we are being honest, the iPhone hangs in very well.  In fact, the Sony A7riii image is ruined by terrible white balance.   The RX100v got the white balance most accurately, followed by the phone.   When looking at the images in small print/web size, there is really no significant noticeable advantage of the Sony A7riii.  Sure, if you really look closely you will see slightly more detail.   It’s noteworthy that the iPhone has the widest aperture (1.8), allowing it to shoot lower ISO than the other cameras.  The slow 24-240mm lens used its maximum aperture of F3.5, requiring it to boost the ISO to 4000, where the Sony RX100v captured its image at ISO 1600.   

First Conclusion

If you’re shooting snapshots on auto, taking your results straight out of the camera, you might want to stick with a decent phone.   With their powerful computers, phones can be “smarter” than “real cameras.”  Phones can instantly share the images, you can do lots of easy post-processing with apps ranging from Lightroom to Instagram to Snapchat.  

But, But, But…..

• You really see the difference when you print large! But how often do you print large?  For some people, it’s pretty common. Many many shooters never do anything beyond share images on Facebook or small prints.   
• Phones don’t have optical zoom! The iPhone 7 tested here does lack any optical zoom.   But the iPhone “Plus” models effectively cover 28mm to 55mm, not that far off from the 24mm-70mm range of the Sony RX100v, or many dSLR kit lenses.   The Samsung Galaxy 10 is rumored to have  a triple camera set up, ranging from wide angle to telephoto.   If you love shooting birds, you need a long telephoto reach, but many shooters can easily subsist with a more limited range. 
• The ergonomics of phones are horrible! Very true.   A phone isn’t the most comfortable camera to use.  But it’s already in your pocket. So it becomes a subjective choice:  Carrying an extra device just because it feels better in your hands or sticking to the phone that is always with you anyway.  
• What about background blur, depth of field? Larger sensors are indeed more capable of creating background separation.  Though a camera like the RX100 doesn’t really offer a tremendous amount more background separation than you would get with a phone.  And even an aps-c or full frame dSLR, if you are using a small aperture kit lens, it limits your ability to get pleasing background blur.  Meanwhile, phones like the iPhone 8 plus, using computational photography, can simulate pretty convincing background blur.   It will only improve in future generations.   No need to understand how depth of field works, just click portrait mode.
• But I shoot raw!  But I manually adjust my settings!  Then I’m not talking to you in this post!   

Am I Saying That We Should Just Use Our Phones?

No.

Lessons Learned

Simply buying a “real camera” isn’t going to give you better photography than you can achieve with a good phone.   If you are a snap shooter who wants your gear to do all of the work, you might truly wish to forgo investing in a real camera.

On the other hand, if you want to take your photography to the next level, the “enthusiast,” level, it’s not just a matter of buying a better camera.   A camera like the Sony RX100vi will give you a nice 24mm to 200mm range with potential to do some things you can’t do with a phone.  A dSLR or mirrorless interchangeable lens camera will give you far more potential for low light, high resolution, dynamic range, narrow depth of field.   You just can’t expect to get those results simply by purchasing a decent camera and putting it in auto mode..

The point of this post is to encourage those who truly want better photography, to invest the time into learning photography.  I teach an adult continuing education class in photography and suspect most people can find a similar class.   There are great books like Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.   A trial of Kindle Unlimited will let you read lots of photography texts for free.   

Further, don’t go purchase a $1,000 to $3,000 camera and expect to get the best of results with a consumer grade kit lens.  Such lenses do have some value but won’t make the most of the camera’s resolution, the camera’s ability to blur backgrounds, or the camera’s capabilities in low light.   For Sony shooters, at a minimum, add a lens to your bag like the Sony FE 50mm F/1.8 (Reviewed here) or a zoom lens like the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 (Reviewed here).  

In the end, I love phones for photography because they are introducing young people to picture taking.   My 11-year-old daughter is already developing an eye for composition and has probably taken more pictures than I did in my entire life before the age of 18.  But the photography community needs more enthusiasts, those who want to truly grow beyond their phones.  Merely buying a “real camera” won’t do it.   Be prepared to invest in lenses and even more importantly, be prepared to invest time into a photography education.