It was a dreary, rainy Sunday afternoon here in Munich – perfect time to go for a stroll around Nymphenburg Palace gardens and compare cameras!
I was seriously impressed by the quality of the iPhone X camera, so I thought it’d be fun to do a heads-up comparison with my Olympus OM-D E-M5, first released in 2012.
Disclaimer It was cold, wet and windy, so most of these snaps were taken rather quickly without much consideration and aren’t particularly good shots.
The iPhone X has a 28mm f1.8 wide-angle lens and a 52mm f2.4 lens in portrait mode.
I had the Olympus 17mm f1.8 lens on the Olympus (equivalent to 35mm) – currently my favourite walking-around lens.
All of these pics are straight out-of-camera JPEGs, without any post-processing.
Olympus on top, iPhone below.
Wide-angle
The Olympus shots are usually much warmer and tend to over-emphasize red shades.
There’s obviously a slight difference in focal lengths and the 16MP sensor on the OM-D manages to capture more detail than the 12MP sensor on the iPhone X.
Portrait
I’ve found the iPhone portrait mode to be pretty good when view on an iPhone, but the effect often looks artificial when viewed on a larger screen.
Final Thoughts
I often find myself using my phone even if I have my big camera with me, so I can quickly share a shot. And you do wonder whether it’s worth carrying the extra device around.
But for now the OM-D still has the edge. If you’re interested in making a step up from iPhone photography, I’d check out the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mkII (the successor to mine).