iPhone 7 Plus Review

There's a few cameras that hold a special place in my heart. 

The D200 was my first DSLR that I ever owned. 
The D4s was the workhorse that could shoot anything that I threw at it. 
And finally, the iPhone 7 Plus proved to me that it is possible to have an extremely capable camera in the palm of your hand.

After owning this phone for a little less than a year, I finally feel I'm in a place to properly review what it is capable of. Long story short, this phone has given me the ability to capture literally anything that I see on a daily basis. As the saying goes, "the best camera is the one you have with you." 

This is review departs from my traditional DSLR or lens review, but I think it is very fitting, as the iPhone 7 Plus has, and continues to impact my photography on a daily basis. A heads-up before reading more. This review is NOT about the phone itself (call quality, buttons/controls, OS, durability, etc). What this review focuses on is the cameras of this phone. 

First, the specs. The iPhone 7 Plus (for the sake of the review, I will abbreviate as 7P) broke new ground in carrying two cameras: a 28mm f1.8 wide angle, and a 50mm f2.8 telephoto. This was absolutely brilliant by the Apple engineers, as it allows the phone to "optically zoom" without having to house a complex zoom lens that would have added to the thickness of the phone. As you can see in the image above, the lenses are housed next to each other, and work in sync with each other. The default camera is the 28mm, and has a f1.8 aperture, letting in 50% more light than the earlier iPhones. When the user wants to zoom, the 50mm camera is activated. The 50mm is used for Apple's proprietary "Portrait Mode" (more on that later). According to Apple, around 1 billion calculations are made by the 7P's processor each time a photo is taken, which is pretty mind blowing! 

For more 7P photos, feel free to check out my Instagram, which majority of the images were shot on the 7P. 

This was one of the first landscape photos that I shot with the 7P and I knew right off the bat it would be a force to be reckoned with...

And that it had the ability to blur the background unlike any other phone I had owned previously...

Panoramas were also spot on...

And night photography was now possible with this camera.

One of the biggest things was not having to bring my DSLR when I would go traveling...

Because this camera could help me chase the good light when I saw it :)

AF Performance
I've owned the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 6, and the 7P's AF is the fastest hands down, in terms of focus speed and tracking. It's quick enough to track Mochiko running towards me at the dog park...

or to catch Ruby in action at one of her tennis matches. The 7P also has a burst mode which allows 10 fps, and you can choose to either keep all of the photos, or just keep certain frames. 

Optical/Digital Zoom
One of the unique characteristics of this phone is that it has 3 cameras (two front facing for general photography, and one rear facing for selfies). The front facing cameras work in sync to provide a versatile zoom 10X zoom range. The photo above is taken without zoom at 28mm. 

At 2X zoom, the 50mm camera kicks in. After that, the camera uses digital zoom, which results in loss of resolution. 

At 5X zoom (digital), resolution still holds up well. 

10X zoom (digital)

Flare
One of the remarkable aspects of the 7P's camera is how DSLR-like the flare is when pointed at a strong light source, namely the sun. This is probably due to the 6 element construction of the forward facing cameras. 

Flash
The 7P features a Quad LED True Tone Flash which renders fairly accurate colors when used on a close subject. The photo of the left is ambient light, the photo on the right is with the flash. 

Low Light Performance
Never thought I'd be writing this section for a camera phone review, but the 7P has proven to be quite capable in low light settings. I was able to grab some nice frames when I was shooting Gareth Emery for the Republik back in March. For the first time, I was able to get photos with my phone that weren't blurry when shooting in low light settings and had accurate color. 

Panoramas
Best rendering I've seen in a camera phone, hands down. As long as you keep the camera fairly level when shooting, the phone is able to intelligently stitch together the frames, even with exposure variations from sunsets. Lines are kept straight as well. 

Auto HDR:
Apple really outdid themselves here. The 7P renders HDR in a very beautiful manner, maintaining highlights and shadows within the frame. 

I've noticed that the 7P is particularly good at maintaining detail in the sky when it would normally be blown out when they are multiple levels of exposure in the frame. 

One important thing to note about the Auto HDR feature is that the subject needs to be static. If the subject is moving, you end up with a ghosting effect like in the photo above. This makes sense, as an HDR image is comprised of several images shot at different exposures, but using the same frame, so if the framing is off, the image won't work.

Another thing I noticed with the 7P's camera is that sometimes it would freeze, and I would have to hit reset the camera app to get it back up and running. This cost me photo opportunities in a number of instances, but isn't a deal breaker overall. I'm guessing since the 7P's camera was a radically new design for Apple, they still have some kinks in the software that need to be worked out. 

Bokeh
This is one of my favorite aspects of the 7P. Being a camera phone, the 7P can render bokeh that approaches mirrorless/DSLR quality. As long as you're able to get pretty close to your subject and have a good amount of distance behind them, you'll get some good bokeh from the 7P. 

Water droplets are particularly fun to shoot...

Shortly after the 7P hit the stores, Apple released a firmware update that would allow the 50mm camera to shoot in "Portrait Mode." This update basically creates a blur effect around the subject, using some very advanced algorithms. The technology is understandably not perfect, and sometimes fudges where the real edges around the subject are, but for the most part, works very well and can produce some very nice bokeh images, esp. with portraits. I've provided some examples below of the Portrait Mode. Original image is on the left, bokeh rendered image is on the right. 

Summary

Pros:
--12 Megapixel resolution allows for high detail in images for a cell phone camera.
--Fast AF allows for capturing of fast moving subjects, both perpendicular and parallel to the camera's field of view.
--50mm camera allows for 2X optical zoom without sacrificing thickness or mechanical complexity in the camera housing.
--Flare mimics DSLR's and mirrorless cameras.
--True Tone flash is generally accurate with colors on subjects close to the camera.
--low light performance is the best I've seen in a camera phone, probably due to the f1.8 aperture of the main camera.
--panoramas come out very clean and balanced, in terms of exposure across the frame and stitching.
--Auto HDR function works remarkably well, esp. when sky is part of the frame.
--Bokeh is remarkable for a camera phone, and the Portrait Mode builds on the 7 Plus' ability to aggressively blur the background.

Cons
--Auto HDR can create ghosting effects if the camera's subject is moving during the exposure.
--camera sometimes freezes and the camera app needs to be restarted for it to work again. 

Here are some parting images of what the 7P is capable of. Yes, the iPhone 8 is coming out soon (within the next week or so?), but if you aren't ready to drop a grand on a phone, but still want something awesome, there is the 7P. Just sayin...