Amaya Toman The camera on the new iPhone XS is still a hotly debated topic. When the new iPhones were unveiled at the annual Keynote last month, the focus was more on their photography software than their hardware. Why was that? Sebastisan de With is on it Halide's blog tried to look at the tooth.
Another camera
The iPhone XS not only has a larger sensor, but a completely new camera. But its most significant changes lie more in the software side. One of the keys to achieving quality photos is understanding and following certain laws of physics. But they can also be bypassed, and I will use the methods of computational photography. Thanks to the powerful chip, the iPhone XS is able to take a large number of pictures - sometimes even before pressing the shutter - and merge them into one perfect photo.
The iPhone XS camera is masterful with exposure, motion capture and sharpness. It is precisely its ability to combine a series of images into one perfect one that makes it an extraordinary camera that can be relied on even in situations where other models would fail. While the iPhone X offered Auto HDR, its younger sibling comes with a completely different camera.
Beautygate does not exist
Last week, a "scandal" broke out regarding the overly beautiful pictures taken by the front camera of the iPhone XS (we wrote <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a>). Users across discussion forums have reported that their selfie camera is beautifying them too much, with the automatic application of a softening filter allegedly to blame. But nothing like that actually exists. Sebastiaan With says he doesn't want to accuse anyone of creating a fake scandal to boost YouTube views, but notes that it's important to take things like this on the Internet with a grain of salt.
According to Withe, the softening effect is mainly due to a more significant reduction in noise and the work of the new camera with exposure. There will be a reduction in the sharp contrast between dark and light tones where the light hits the skin. The iPhone XS camera can blend exposures, reduce the brightness of highlights while also reducing the dark tone of shadows. Details are preserved, but the loss of contrast causes our eye to perceive the image as less sharp.
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Noise reduction
With tested the iPhone XS alongside the iPhone X. The result was that the XS favors a faster shutter speed and higher ISO. The iPhone XS therefore takes photos a bit faster, which affects the noise in the resulting photo. With took the images in RAW format to make the noise more noticeable. The iPhone XS's higher shutter speed is justified by the fact that the images that the phone takes in quick succession must be as balanced as possible, which is difficult with the natural small movements of the hand when taking photos. A faster sequence results in higher noise, the removal of which in turn results in reduced rendering of detail.
The front camera also performs worse in low light conditions compared to the rear. In the front camera of the iPhone XS, we can find a smaller sensor, due to which there will be a higher occurrence of noise, and its automatic subsequent reduction results in the above-mentioned impaired display of details, and thus also a greater smoothing of the photo. The resulting appearance is very surprising for selfies, which usually look worse than images from the rear camera.
Definitely better
With's unsurprising conclusion is that the iPhone XS's camera is better than its predecessor's. Thanks to the latest addition to the family of Apple smartphones, even casual photographers can take really great photos without the need for any additional adjustments, while more professionally oriented users will need significantly less of said adjustments. Smartphone cameras are gradually changing from a mere component to a smart device in its own right, which also needs appropriate software for its performance.
The iPhone XS camera, like the iPhone itself, is practically in its infancy at this point and can suffer from a number of early childhood ailments. It can be assumed that Apple will fix any possible problems in the following updates of its operating system. The excessive beauty of the images taken with the iPhone XS, not only according to Whit, is definitely not something that cannot be solved.
