Camera review of the smaller, often neglected, iPhone 7.

Why is everyone only talking about iPhone 7 Plus? If you’re struggling to find a proper camera review of the 4.7" iPhone 7, you’re not alone.

I must confess – I spent a hell lot of time deciding if I want the smaller iPhone 7 or the larger iPhone 7 Plus. So after reading tons of reviews, I was left feeling very disappointed by the fact that most of them, if not all, focused heavily on the iPhone 7 Plus’s camera (and rightfully so, since it has the more exciting duo-camera that enables a few neat tricks exclusive to the Plus). But how about the iPhone 7?! I just wanted to know (and see) if the iPhone 7 camera is still a pretty darn good one, despite being a camera less than its brother.

So here we are – a camera review of the iPhone 7, by someone — who like majority of you reading this — who is not a professional photographer by any measurement.

*Disclaimer: All photos are taken straight out from the iPhone 7 without any form of editing.

Photos

The first thing you’ll notice when you launch the iPhone 7 camera app in a well-lit area is that… there’s reallly no visible difference. At least not at first sight.

However, if you pay close attention, you will notice that the 7 shoots more vibrantly. The camera captures a wider range of colors, and the screen supports the display of such colors. What this means is that you will not be able to see the full color representation of a photo taken on iPhone 7 when viewed on any older iPhone and most computers. Exceptions include the iPad Pro and iMac with Retina display, both which support cinematic color display.

Popping colours that still look natural to the eyes.

I particularly chose these two photos because you can see how well the colours are being captured and at the same time giving you a sense of the texture of the objects.

The 7, for some strange reason, produces warmer photos than the 6s, and this is largely visible when you compare the photos. For example:

iPhone 6s on the left, iPhone 7 on the right.

Notice that the right photo has a yellow tint to it. The 7’s photo is sharper when you zoom right in, and significantly less noisy, but I prefer the “whiter” version taken by the 6s.

Speaking of sharpness, the 7 really captures significant amount of details, and photos taken in the day really highlight the amount of sharpness and richness in details.

Look at how sharp the photo looks.

Don’t you love the lines?

The iPhone 7 also has a larger aperture. This means a few things, both for day and night shots. Let’s talk about the former first. A larger aperture means that you take in more light. This means that dark spots are now more visible, and you can see more details in them. Take for example:

Sky colour is rendered well, leaves are sharp, and details can be seen even amongst the shadow.

Notice that the the leaves are beautiful and sharp, and at the bottom right of the photo, you can still see the leaves even amongst the shadow.

The second implication is that the 7 now captures a shallower depth of field. For those who are confused, depth of field is often associated with the “bluriness” of the background (and sometimes foreground) when you are shooting an object, and the shallower it is, the blurrier it gets. Look at the Starbucks drinks below, you can see that the background is nicely blurred, placing the focus on the drinks themselves.

Starbucks for you, Sir?

It is important to note, however, that the iPhone 7 Plus has an exclusive feature that makes such effect even more prominent (it’s called the portrait mode). Nevertheless, I still want to highlight that the 7 can do something similar too, though not as good as the 7 Pus. Hopefully the duo-camera makes its way to the smaller iPhone next year.

Pek-a-boo!

I think the camera really stands out when capturing objects close to the camera. Take the photo above for example. The nice blur at the background, together with the high level of details (see the hair and fingers) and colour accuracy (look at the skin tone) makes the overall photo very close to the quality of a good standalone point-to-shoot camera like my Canon G7x.

The larger aperture also means the camera takes in more light. And hell yeah, this makes day and night difference (pun not intended) when you take night shots. Just look at the photos below:

Photos shot on iPhone 6s (left) and iPhone 7 (right).

Notice how much sharper the building looks, and the details of the trees on the left of the photos amongst the shadow. Here are a few more:

Shot on iPhone 6s (left) and iPhone 7 (right). The difference is here dramatic and self explanatory.

Shot on iPhone 6s (left) and iPhone 7 (right). Once again, much brighter, much more details. Overall a much usable photo.

Compared to the iPhone 6s, photos taken with the 7 are dramatically brighter, less noisy and sharper. More photos taken by the 7 below:

The stadium never sleeps. Really.

Any guesses where this location is?

Factory along the river.

Escaping Road Pricing.

Once again, allow me to remind you that none of these photos have been retouched in any form before. No flash has been used in any of the photos too. Obviously we are still quite far away before our iPhones can shoot high quality night photos but this is a step in the right direction. If you don’t zoom in too much, some night shots are starting to look pretty decent.

Crossroads of modern and ancient architectures.

As for the panorama photos, nothing overly new here, but for sake of completeness, here’s a day and night shot each for your pleasure:

Right before the sun sets.

Really dark, but trust me, it would have been completely black in the past.

Videos

Finally, after waiting for 2 years, the smaller iPhone 7 gets the Optical Image Stabilisation(OIS)! Previously a feature exclusive to the Plus models, OIS enables the capturing of sharper photos and videos by providing hardware-level compensation to your shaky hands.

I personally think that the effect is the greatest when taking videos. It makes your videos buttery smooth even when you move around holding your iPhone without any accessories. In the video below, I was chasing after my dog as I record the video, holding the 7 with nothing but my hands. Look how stable the video is:

Run, shall we run, shall we run. Shot in 1080p at 60fps.

The video was shot in 1080p (full HD) at 60 frames per second (fps). This is my preferred format because it allows you to see moving objects much clearer than the alternative 30fps. Meanwhile, the iPhone 7 also captures in 4K at 30fps. If you, like me, have display with enough or more pixels to fully appreciate 4K resolution, you will see the quality difference between a 4K video and a 1080p one. Otherwise, the majority of you might find it hard to spot any difference in quality. Here’s a video I took in 4K (again, stabilised thanks to OIS):

Growing up. Shot in 4K at 30fps.

Time lapse videos seems to benefit from the camera upgrade as well. It’s smoother and sharper, improving the problem of shaky time lapse videos when taken holding the iPhone in the past:

Taking timelapse videos without a stand is possible!

Lastly, slow-mo videos still looks very low-res for modern standards, even though it is set at 1080p resolution. It’s fun, but I wish the quality can have some improvement.

Problems

Although I am largely positive about the camera capabilities of the iPhone 7, that is not to say there isn’t any problems.

Occasionally, I will encounter image quality inconsistency. Take a look at the two photos below, taken a few seconds apart:

Shot at the same place a few seconds apart. Why so different?

Notice how one the photo on the left is cooler and the one on the right is warmer? Also notice that the foreground of the left photo is darker compared to the right photo. What this means is that sometimes you have to take a few shots before arriving at one that is of satisfaction.

The second problem that I notice on a more regular basis is that photos tend to turn grainy easily. Look at some examples below:

There is still plenty of light but the cars are already very grainy.

If you pay attention to the details of the tallest tree, the leaves are actually very grainy. And yes, the flying creatures are dragonflies.

Look at the grey shelves — the wall is so grainy looking.

I don’t even think it has anything to do with the amount of light present. In perfect lighting condition the problem sometimes still surfaces. I’ve yet to really figure out why.

The final issue that I have is that for some strange reason, some shots seems to have internally processed in a way that causes a “smoothening” effect on the photos, sort of like the retouching effect (or more commonly known as “美圖”).

The smoothening of the skin partially ruins the otherwise lovely photo.

I am sure the mash potatoes did not look so “plasticky”.

I know some people find such retouching effect acceptable (thus you actually have it in-built explicitly in Samsung phones). But I really dislike it because it makes the whole photo looks fake. I don’t recall at all seeing such a problem in the last few iPhones, and this actually annoys me quite a bit.

Conclusion

Do I love the iPhone 7? Absolutely. It has its short-comings, like all smartphones, but none of them are significantly weaker than any other alternative smartphones in the market.

I don’t attempt to rank the iPhone’s camera with other smartphones. I also don’t seek to crown the iPhone as the best-of-breed. All I am saying is that it takes great shots, and it’s not only the 7 Plus, the iPhone 7 also has a fantastic camera too. And I am remarkably surprised by some of the shots taken by the iPhone 7. Those shots looks almost very similar in quality to those taken by my Canon G7x, which is supposed to have a way superior camera system than any smartphones.

Hope you find it useful.