I finally got around to comparing the camera on the iPhone 4S to the camera on the older iPhone 4.
In the above shot, can you guess which is which?
The first thing that stands out on these 100% crops is the level of noise with each shot; it’s quite obvious that the iPhone 4S has a much clearer image. This is largely due to its much improved image sensor, which can capture more light with its deeper pixel wells.
Dynamic range is also dramatically improved with the iPhone 4S. You can see how the older iPhone 4 blows the highlights on the white USB plug.
Coming up next, in a future blog post, will be a comparison between the iPhone 4S and a high-end compact camera. I’ve already taken dozens of side-by-side shots for this showdown.
I can tell you right now, the findings are very interesting!
This is pretty cool. I have the iPhone 4S myself and I love it. I upgraded from the 3GS so the differences were even more dramatic. I am looking forward to the comparison of the compact cameras!
I was guessing and hoping that the top picture was taken with an iPhone 4S. Very glad to see I was right. The iPhone 4S camera has some pretty good dynamic range. I recently tried to take a picture of a white object with a logo on my (at one time) expensive Kodak camera, and I wasn’t able to prevent the white background from washing the logo out. Pretty cool to know I could have just used my phone.