The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were announced this morning. I’m not going to lie, I’m excited about what these changes mean for the iPhone photography community.
LARGER SCREENS, BETTER RESOLUTION, BETTER SENSOR, AND… BETTER SELFIES?
The new iPhone 6 and 6 plus have larger screens, better resolution and a completely redesigned sensor that will make your photos better, clearer, crisper and more beautiful than ever. Here’s why:
Better Sensor
The newly designed iSight camera has a newly designed sensor with a new featured called focus pixels that will provide a better faster focus for both photo and video.
New Exposure Control
A new exposure control in iOS 8 lets you have (more) manual control over the exposure (brightness). But it doesn’t appear that you can separate the focus and exposure. Which is sad. But the good news is that it appears that all iPhones running iOS 8 will be able to have this feature and won’t be limited to the iPhone 6 and 6 plus.
Auto image stabilization
Auto image stabilization makes up for motion blur and hand shakiness by taking four photos with a short exposure time. Then the best parts of those photos are combined into one image with as little noise, subject motion, and hand shake as possible.
FaceTime HD
The front-facing FaceTime HD camera now captures 81 percent more light. It also has improved face detection. And its new burst mode takes 10 photos per second. Be prepared for 10x more selfies on Instagram.
Improved HDR photos and video
The new sensor enables beautiful HDR photos and video with great dynamic range, automatically giving you better-looking FaceTime video and of course better exposed selfies. (brightness not cleavage… silly girls)
Store More Photos
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have a model available with 2x the max in the iPhone predecessors. This means you can now store a lot more pictures if you get the 128 gig model.
8MP Camera… WHY GOD?
The Camera resolution is the same as iPhone 4s, 5, 5c, and 5s. This baffles me. What that means is that in theory the print sizes will stay the same. For more info read my post “How Large Can You Print iPhone Photos?” I’m sure they are way smarter than me and have really great reasons like “no one wants to print their iPhone photos really large… or the slightly better sensor will beat out Nokia's 40 something megapixel phone”… but alas. They win. Take my money Apple.
What’s different about the iPhone 6 plus?
In short (the bigger) iPhone 6 Plus has two main things none of the other iPhones have for photographers:
1. Bigger, better, and more hi resolution Retina HD screen. (1920×1080p)
2. Optical Image Stabilization which means better quality in low light photos. (concerts, indoor portraits, night photos etc)
Optical image stabilization with iPhone 6 plus
Apple says: “iPhone 6 Plus introduces optical image stabilization that works with the A8 chip, gyroscope, and M8 motion coprocessor to measure motion data and provide precise lens movement to compensate for hand shake in lower light. The fusing together of long- and short-exposure images also helps to reduce subject motion. This unique integration of hardware and software delivers beautiful low-light photos. “
So here’s the burning question… Should I upgrade?
If you have an iPhone 4s or older you will see such a drastic difference in image quality that you may want to upgrade… or you could keep crying about how your photos are kind of grainy and aren't super clear.
What if I have an iPhone 5 or later?
The image difference (I’m sure to a trained eye) will be noticeably better there too… but not as much. The jump from 4s to 5 was a big jump.
For me the answer is simple. The iPhone 6 Plus is the best iPhone camera out there. So I will most likely be upgrading to the 128 gig… after I get approval from my wife of course and figure out if I can fit it in my skinny jeans pockets 😉
(just kidding I put on too much sympathy weight with our second son to fit in those jeans. It will fit in my cargo pants or scarf that I wear in summer time)
Are you going to upgrade? Why or Why not? (Let me know with a comment below)
