[litzer]

Notice that none of these images are zooming in on pixels to get the comparison. The fight for quality among high end DSLR's is nearing the description of unnoticeable difference, but phone cameras are benefitting immensely from new tech.

In fact, it's probably the area where we see the most gain compared to any other improvements in iPhone versions.

Perhaps your feeling is from the fact that new phones are released in rapid succession. If that's the case, just compare quality in phones a year or two apart instead of a few months.

[overcast]

Biggest game in DSLR world right now is low light. The new D850 is pretty crazy in that respect, with a full stop of ISO reduction. No phone camera on this earth is going to help me take better photos in low light restaurants(which I need for a side business).

Also, focus stacking!

[sho]

> Biggest game in DSLR world right now is low light

As an a7Sii owner I couldn't agree more (the D850 looks great too). Phone cameras are going to have a hard time catching up there. There's only so much light and at some point, sensor size matters.

In my GP comment I mentioned being amazed by my friend's iphone 7+ pics, and it's true, I was. But when the sun went down, the a7Sii ruled over everything and captured every good picture from then on. There's a long way to go for the mobiles to be able to compete at night. Nice to know our investments aren't totally useless :P

[vosper]

Is low light something that a lens attachment over the iPhone camera could help with? There's a few lenses out there that are supposed to be quite good (like the Moment ones) but I don't know if they help out with that. It would be interesting if they kept the FOV the same and just provided more light.

[overcast]

No, you still need a LARGE sensor to capture all that light. You're just not fitting that in a cell phone.

[sho]

Well, you could collect a huge amount of light and send it through to the phone sensor; that would have the same effect. But you're talking a very big lens. The pro DSLRs have a 35mm sensor - that's ~865mm². The iphone's is what, 60mm²? Thereabouts?

No matter how you cut it, that's generously 1/10th the sensing area/capacity (same thing). And it's not like the sensor tech in the iPhone will be 10x more efficient than contemporary DSLRs - iPhone sensors are made by sony, who will use the same tech in their own cameras. To get comparable light cell for cell into that you'll need a lens with 10x more light ingress, and sophisticated optics to focus it precisely down to a tiny half-square-centimetre. This lens would be larger, heavier and more expensive than the phone itself. Think "large can of tomatoes" size.

Not saying it's impossible. Mobile phone companies have pulled off some amazing advances and I have no idea what tricks might be up their sleeves. But for now, no mobile even touches full frame DSLRs in low light, and it doesn't seem like an easy hill to climb.

[tambourine_man]

You can get pretty good results by taking multiple shots and averaging the noise. Specially in raw.

[overcast]

Sure, more work, more time, less $$$.

[janekm]

Actually there is an example in the article, comparing pixel-level detail from the last 4 iPhones in a low-light scenario (“old man” picture). The improvement with the 8 is impressive to say the least.

[Bahamut]

Interestingly, the article points it out how far cellphone cameras have come by comparing shots from just various versions of iPhones and you can see how much better the quality has been getting even just from Apple.