iPhone vs. DSLR: The San Gabriels

[plugsnpixels]

I live within easy view of the San Gabriel mountain range in SoCal and have spent many years trying to catch views of the various weather occurrences that dance among the peaks. I've got a nice little collection of stock photos, most shot with non-DSLR long-range zoom cameras.

This week it rained and today when it cleared I expected some nice snow up there, but no. Nevertheless, my little walk gave me an opportunity to compare shooting the mountains with the iPhone I always have on my belt vs. my Canon EOS Rebel T3 which I have to purposefully dig out of the closet.

And here are the results! Second photo taken at 130mm zoom out of 300.

[Manfred M]

I'm afraid that the comparison makes no sense at all as the images we are seeing are resampled to display on our computer screens.

A valid test would be to print both to a large size (say 17" x 22") using a wide gamut colour space for the DSLR image and then do the comparison.

[plugsnpixels]

Thanks Manfred. If it helps, both images are full frame or close to it. My main point was the difference in zoom factor between the two devices; not so much the quality.

In other words, if you want decent mountain photos, put the phone away (unless you're already up in the mountains...).

[plugsnpixels]

BTW, if you go up on that snowy peak and look back down, here's what you see (found online).

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. If it helps, both images are full frame or close to it. My main point was the difference in zoom factor between the two devices; not so much the quality.

In other words, if you want decent mountain photos, put the phone away (unless you're already up in the mountains...).

The Rebel 3i is 18MP and has an image size of 5184 × 3456 pixels, recent iPhones are 12MP and are around 4000 x3 000 pixels.

Your average computer screen is somewhere in the order of 1920 x 1080 pixels at full screen, or about 2MP. These tiny images are just a few hundred pixels high and wide, so are massively downsampled.

[plugsnpixels]

Heading out for groceries today, no DSLR, only the iPhone. Mountains are doing their thing again after a rain.

I pull over, stand on my toes with the phone over my head. That's all I got. Only artsy can save it... Maybe.

[dem]

If the lack of reach is the only problem, you can get a telephoto add-on lens for your phone. These lenses are about as big as a Snickers bar (before they went fun size) and will get you about 8-12 times closer.

You might want to buy a little tripod at the same time.

[plugsnpixels]

Thanks dem, I recently did try a clip-on Smart Lens and was very disappointed (I believe I have another thread here about my experience). It magnified alright (8x) but had horrible pincushioning and other aberations. Very Lomo-like.

I already have a little (and big) tripod ;-)