Category Archives: Photography

iPhone 11 Pro – Part I

iPhone

The revolution realized.

Click here for an index of all iPhone articles.
Here’s an index of the iPhone 11 Pro pieces:

Part I – The revolution realized
Part II – Upgrading
Part III – The ultrawide lens
Part IV – The Normal lens
Part V – The Telephoto lens
Part VI – The Focos app
Part VII – Quirks and anomalies
Part VIII – HDR and the Night Mode
Part IX – The digital zoom function
Part X – A lens correction profile for the ultrawide optic



While the prognosticators told us that the latest iPhone 11 refresh was just tinkering at the margins, sales rumors – and long backlogged orders here – suggest otherwise.

I’ve been ticking along happily with my iPhone 7 with a pair of Panasonic GX7 MFT cameras and a handful of lenses for ‘serious’ work. Old Nikon D700 FF digital and F100 FF film bodies and a bunch of ‘metal era’ MF Nikkors do the trick when I absolutely insist on a sore neck and back. That and impressing with the whole retro thing.

Once I started seeing results from the new iPhone 11 Pro, the one with three lenses, I immediately started selling my MFT hardware. It will be worthless soon anyway, and it’s not like I have any more use for it. The original goal of MFT was to enjoy the low weight and small bulk of rangefinder film Leicas with the quality and immediacy of digital in a cheap and disposable package. The iPhone 11 Pro offers all of that and more, in a far smaller device.

The quality of results published by the community of iPhone 11 Pro testers immediately disclosed that MFT is dead. Unless you need a super long lens for some sports or wildlife event, then the iPhone 11 Pro offers everything the MFT format delivers, plus much more. Computational photography, recording of GPS data, a superb Night Mode which puts all regular cameras to shame, depth of field control after the button is pressed, big prints, no need for RAW, excellent control of dynamic range, you name it.

$1250 with tax, you ask? Are you nuts?

Not a bit of it.

First my net outlay is zero and my gear cabinet decluttered. Two MFT bodies, three MFT lenses and a Nikon ultrawide optic all gone. Second, you always have an iPhone with you. Not even the modest bulk of MFT compares for compactness. Third you get all the functionality of the internet. All serviced by the latest Apple A13 CPU with 8.5 billion transistors (Yeah, right!).

As a friend remarked, it’s too bad Apple doesn’t make a proper camera – for the ergonomics of the iPhone remain as miserable as ever – with a cell phone on the side.

But that comment did clarify my thinking. I think of the iPhone 11 Pro as a $2000 camera with a $750 rebate thrown in for the free phone and all the other functionality.



In Midnight Green, no less!

Midnight green? Consider it a tribute to that funky ‘Blumix’ which set me off on my MFT journey a decade ago.

More soon when I have taken some pictures.

Other makers’ cell phones? I never gave them a second’s thought. All use Google’s Android OS and unless you are from another galaxy you will know that for Google you are the product and your data the goods to be sold or stolen. My data is actually worth something, so I avoid Android like the plague and advise you to do likewise. Samsung has given up trying to steal Apple’s Face ID technology and has reverted to fingerprint recognition for secure sign in. Well, not that secure as any fingerprint from anyone will open the phone. They can’t even steal competently. Google? The arch thieves of your personal information? Why, their ‘Face ID’ clone will work when when your eyes are shut, and they recommend you revert to password input while they work on a fix. You really want to go with either of these clowns?

Deep Fusion

iPhone

The revolution continues.

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I referred to the three revolutions in photography since its invention in the previous column.

Now we are beginning to see one of the most significant steps forward for minuscule sensors in Apple’s catchily named Deep Fusion technology.



Phil Shills.

While this technology is all about merging disparate images to make a better whole, the software driving this process would not be possible without Apple’s A13 CPU, designed in Cupertino and made by ARM. After the creation of the original iPhone, one of Apple’s best ideas has been the decision to design its processing chips in-house, permitting a level of laser-like focus on design not available with off-the-shelf silicon. Those CPUs are invisible to users but make a lot of the magic underlying computational photography possible. The in-house design also makes it harder for the likes of thieves like Samsung and the others to steal Apple’s intellectual property, a particular expertise of certain far east nations.

Deep Fusion will become available in iOS 13.2 (13.0, 13.1 and 13.1.1, with my iPad a victim of all three, are horribly buggy) and will only work on the latest iPhone 11 models. The idea is not new. Hasselblad provides the ability to merge multiple pixel-shifted images in some of its ridiculously priced medium format digital cameras as does Sony, and maybe others, in some of their FF bodies. NASA has been using the technique for decades to enhance images from poor early sensors. But with all that processing power in the A13 CPU – Apple claims 8.5 billion transistors, and who am I to argue? – Cupertino goes for a far more complex solution. Three frames are taken before the shutter button is touched (how does the phone know to do that?), three more when it’s activated and then one more long exposure when you thought it was all over. The best one of the six short exposures and the long exposure are merged and the magic CPU does the work in delivering the best definition. The complexity notwithstanding, all of this happens invisibly and automatically, taking but one second.

The test images disclosed so far leave no doubt that the definition in iPhone 11 images is adequate for huge prints. Heck, I was making decent 13″ x 19″ prints from my iPhone 4 millenia ago. Sure, they had to be taken in medium lighting and relatively low contrast, but definition was not an issue. No one needs a 50mp monster sensor, unless employed as a spook or trying to impress his mates. Now we have definition galore, much better processing for broad dynamic range and the superb Night Mode which takes low light photography to a new level. The images of the latter disclosed to date are simply breathtaking.

So when I write that the sort of computational photography made possible by high end CPUs in the latest iPhones will kill MFT and, for that matter, most digital cameras, there’s a growing body of evidence to support that opinion.

My iPhone 11Pro? Well, I just took delivery of a new belt holder and protective case (the latter also stores a driver’s license, medical and credit cards), but I cannot buy the new iPhone until sales of my MFT hardware are completed. The cash thus raised will pay for the new cell phone, relieving me of a lot of clutter and no cash.

Update: For test results of Deep Fusion, click here.

The next revolution

iPhone, Photography

Time waits for no one.

There have been three revolutions since the invention of photography in the early 19th century.



Roger Fenton’s assistant in 1855 with his photo gear. The horse was extra.

The first was miniaturization, credited to German engineer Oskar Barnack who invented the Leica in 1913. The Leica user could take 36 images on one roll of film, loadable in daylight thanks to the cassette design, and enjoy decent quality not really that much worse in pocket prints from that delivered by the monster cameras which preceded this piece of design genius. Leica continues to this day but long ago ceased making cameras, remaining in existence as a purveyor of overpriced jewelry.



Barnack’s genius writ small.

The second revolution was the invention of the digital sensor camera for which we can thank Kodak. Being abject fools they concluded that film would last forever, abandoning digital, making one of the worst business decisions of the 20th century in the process. They went bankrupt. Steven Sasson was the Brooklyn born engineer behind this revolution (not the bankruptcy) and while his first design was anything but compact, rapid development of sensors fixed that.



Sasson with his invention. Genius writ large.

Digital sensor sizes are now whatever you want, from monsters divining distant galaxies in outer space to pin heads in digital cameras much loved by the Kremlin.

The third revolution was in the creation of the cell phone camera, and while the nutty genius running Apple could not claim the company had invented cell phone photography, he very much packaged the whole thing in a device that would become ubiquitous, user friendly and now delivering more images than any of its predecessors did in aggregate.



A man who is very much missed.

Now while no one could accuse today’s automaton CEO of Apple of ever having had an original idea, time marches on and, despite Apple’s characterless leadership, really good small sensors are now available in the latest iPhone, the four lensed iPhone 11Pro. What the business community expected to be just one more modest product refresh turns out to be at the cutting edge of the cell phone photography revolution. And that cutting edge performance is delivered with really small sensors.

The percentage of photographers needing large sensors in large bodies is minuscule, a statistic which predicts the rapid demise of all traditional cameras, be they medium format, FF, APS-C or MFT in format. Medium format and FF digital will retain infinitesimal market shares for specialized commercial and scientific purposes, but otherwise their time is done. And as for APS-C and MFT, with the latest cell phone cameras equalling or beating their output in terms of quality and versatility, those formats will shortly be indistinguishable from toast. A very tough time to be Canon, or even worse, Nikon. As for Panasonic and Sony, they can stick to making ever larger TV sets.

The cutting edge cell phone photographer has access to depth maps with his images, selective focus of his choice, multiple lenses with the wide in the Pro being very wide indeed and a Night Mode so spectacular that Walter Mandler must be spinning in his grave. Oh! and did I mention 4K video, all in a wafer thin package which also just happens to make phone calls and works seamlessly with the internet? And that photographer does all of this with the most sophisticated CPU and brilliant software design available, neither feature found in traditional cameras.

The new iPhone’s three forward facing lens design is nothing new. Leica and many movie cameras have had it for ages. No, ‘selfies’ were out. No fourth lens for you.



Early 1950s Leica three lens camera attachment. 35/50/90mm focal length choices, f/2.8-4. Weight? A lot.

But now the lens in the ‘turret’ is chosen with a touch, nothing moves, it’s stabilized for all but the ultrawide option, and you choose the depth of field after taking the picture:



Apple updates the turret.13/26/52mm options. f/1.8-2.4. Yes, that’s 13mm. Weight? Unnoticeable.

The above is all by way of a preamble to my upcoming purchase of an iPhone 11Pro. I’m sticking with Apple as only an insane person would trust Google/Android with his data and, yes, all my MFT hardware is being sold as I write. I’m getting with the plan before it becomes completely worthless. It’s been a fun decade since that groundbreaking Panasonic G1.

I’ll keep a few items of Nikon FF digital and film gear, as they are already worthless, and as I still have vestiges of nostalgia in my psyche. But, as a street snapper, I can see no reason to actually use this megalithic gear. And I try very hard, in an increasingly uncluttered life, to avoid owning things I do not use.

The old cliché has it that “the best camera is the one you have with you“. You always have your cell phone with you.

Computational photography

iPhone

The new magic.

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The latest nom de jour in photography circles is ‘computational photography’, which is a fancy way of saying that image control has been passed from hardware to software. This augurs poorly for the latest high end ILCs with their ridiculous 50mp and higher sensors, with attendant demands on computer upgrades to handle those behemoth files in something under a week per snap.

DP Review’s technical writer Rishi Sanyal does an excellent job of explaining just how software in devices like the Phone 11Pro is taking the lead from hardware in delivering the best image quality in small files using brains, not brawn. Sanyal writes:

“Newer, faster processors often mean increased photo and video capability, and the iPhone 11 is no exception. Its image processing pipeline, which handles everything from auto white balance to auto exposure, autofocus, and image ‘development’, gets some new features: a 10-bit rendering pipeline upgraded from the previous 8-bit one, and the generation of a segmentation mask that isolates human subjects and faces, allowing for ‘semantic rendering’.”

What shines through in his detailed exposition of the newest iPhone’s features is how all three of its cameras are used to deliver the best picture, along with brilliant technologies like storage of a depth information profile for an image which allows the application of selective focus, as an example, in post processing.

Some 13 years ago in a piece titled “It’s the software, stupid” I wrote:

“And who will be the genius designing these new ‘lenses’? It won’t be a god the likes of Max Berek or Walter Mandler in Wetzlar. It will be some kid who is really sharp at coding who happens to like a superb picture from the one ounce piece of plastic passing for a lens attached to his camera. The great days of optics are yet to come and their designs will emanate from the keyboard of some unknown master even now getting his lips around the teat on that plastic milk bottle.”

Like that milk bottle, today’s lenses are plastic, their unprocessed quality is garbage, and software does what plastic cannot. Say goodbye to big cameras, big lenses and big sensors.

The iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone

Profound implications for camera makers.

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Ugly as sin – Steve must be spinning in his grave.

Yes, the price of the new iPhone 11Pro, just introduced, is high. Yes, the ergonomics are as awful as they were with iPhone 1 back in 2007. The on/off switch remains opposite the shutter button, making sure you turn off the camera when you most need it. And yes, the absence of a proper viewfinder in bright light makes framing a hit-or-miss proposition. And yes, the device is sprouting ugly faster than the pig in the Oval Office, with its three clunky lenses and increasingly confusing menu structure.

But take a moment to read the specifications and compare them with your advanced MFT or FF camera:

And don’t forget the always on GPS so you always know where your snap was taken. And the cell phone. And the internet. And email. And Messaging. And Google Maps. And all those stupid games. Your camera does none of those.

When I started with MFT one of the primary appeals was that you could get close to FF quality without FF bulk. This was especially true when it came to the size of lenses, something which has always made a nonsense of the ‘in between’ APS-C interchangeable lens format whose lenses are scarcely smaller than their FF counterparts. I transitioned to MFT with the superb Panasonic G1 a decade ago. As a replacement for the film Leica M it was a street snapper’s dream. Better definition, finer grain, lots of images on one card, great lens range and size and bulk comparable to the exemplar of film rangefinder cameras. Later upgrades saw the Panasonic G3 replace the G1 and finally the GX7 which is the ultimate Leica M replacement, with its truly silent electronic shutter and Leica M form factor.

But now the iPhone, with its multiple lenses covering most of what a photographer needs – wide, standard, modest telephoto – looks set to obsolete the MFT system in a much smaller package. FF? At the high end for sports snappers and journalists needing ‘street cred’ (who is going to take you seriously if the iPhone is your camera of choice?) it’s likely to survive, albeit with a minuscule and falling market share.

Price of the new iPhone 11? $1,000 with 64gB, which compares with $600 for iPhone 1 in July, 2007, with its crappy 2mp camera. Inflate that at 4% annually and you get $960 and the new iPhone has a larger, better screen, eight times the memory and is several orders of magnitude faster. So while $1,000 sounds like a lot, I prefer to think that $600 back on 2007 was really expensive. I know. I bought one.