Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
I really like theiPhone 15 Pro Max’scamera , which performed well in both our review and arecent camera test .
But after discovering an older , long - forgottenApple iPhone 5 in a draftsman at home and finding it was still in perfect workings order , I wonder just how unlike photos taken with it would be compared to those adopt by its current equivalents . I make up one’s mind to find out in one of the more unusual photographic camera test I ’ve ever do .
Context and cameras
Before getting into the picture , it ’s deserving set everything into setting . In September 2012 , Apple issue the iPhone 5 — a flagship $ 650 smartphone that took on theSamsung Galaxy S3and a host of other telephone , include theNokia Lumia 920and theHTC One S. More than 10 years afterwards , at the last of 2023 , Apple released the $ 1,200 iPhone 15 Pro Max , which vie with theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultraand sound like theOnePlus 11for attention .
The iPhone 5 is tiny compared to its modern equivalents with its 4 - inch , 1136 x 640 - pixel covert , and immediately recognizable due to the expectant bezels surrounding it , plus the physical Home button in the small section . There ’s a exclusive 8 - megapixel tv camera on the back and a 1.2MP selfie tv camera on the front . There ’s no wide - angle camera , no portrait way , only 1080p video recording recording , andabsolutely no AIor canny camera technical school like Deep Fusion .
The iPhone 15 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra are positively loaded with feature , have multiple television camera , and vastly unlike specification . I throw the OnePlus 11 into the mix for this test , where the camera has the championship of Hasselblad — one of the biggest names in the television camera business enterprise .
The evolution of iPhone bezels.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Obviously , these newer headphone will all take far superior photograph . But justhow muchhave things change over the last 11 geezerhood ?
Night mode
Why am I start with Night style ? It ’s because the key differences in the iPhone 5 ’s lowlight performance compared to today ’s phones also seem to shape the main camera ’s performance . Lowlight is also where smartphone cameras have genuinely advanced over the last X , as you ’re about to see .
Unsurprisingly , photos taken in the dark with the iPhone 5 do n’t fall close to the figure we get from a modern smartphone . In the photo above , the Christmas tree is placeable , but there ’s no definition ; the lights are blow out , and the ground is noisy and absent item . It ’s a altogether different story looking at the pic from the newer headphone , which have definition , pellucidity , and contingent throughout .
Interestingly , you may see similarities between the overall tonicity and handling of lowlight scene in the two Apple phone , as the iPhone 15 Pro Max ’s exposure is n’t to a fault bright either . The Galaxy S23 Ultra and the OnePlus 11 increase the brightness a circle by comparison , and it ’ll be down to personal taste which one you opt .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The picture of the tree diagram was taken in an environment with plenty of ambient light . The 2nd photo had far less light available , with only a nearby street lamp illuminating the scene . You do n’t necessitate me to point out the differences here , with the iPhone 5 unable to pull in enough light ( or having the software ability to correct for a lack of it ) to show anything of note value . It ’s accurate , though , as it was almost this dark to my own eyes .
Look at all four , and you may see how the OnePlus 11 ’s photo is much brighter than the others — showing so much more of the surrounding picture and even boosting the colour too . It ’s the least naturalistic and the picture that pack the most lick . regard alongside the iPhone 5 ’s photo , it ’s barely believable the two photos were taken at the same time in the same spot .
Now that we see how light impact the iPhone 5 ’s camera at night , you ’ll be able to see how it also change its daytime performance .
The iPhone 5 (top) and iPhone 15 Pro MaxAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
Main camera
The iPhone 5 only has a undivided photographic camera , so let ’s see how it perform in different environments . The first picture of the church building was take in fairly poor daytime , around noon , and while it was n’t sunny , it certainly was n’t dark . Unfortunately , the image is mirky and dull , lack any color even in the eatage . It ’s not representative of what I was see with my own eye at all .
The OnePlus 11 does n’t do a large job in this environment either , with poor exposure washing out the sky and washup detail in shadow . The iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra took quite similar pic , with slender variation in color , contrast , and correspondence . But all show a very unlike , far more accurate depiction of the fit than the iPhone 5 .
How about something more colorful ? The iPhone 5 ’s photo of the fruit is also lack punch and vibrancy , with the chicken shade being particularly slow . There ’s also a mint less contingent and texture , as you ’d expect , give the difference in pixel counts . The ikon taken with the iPhone 5 are 3264 x 2448 pixels , considerably lower than the iPhone 15 Pro Max ’s 5712 x 4284 pixels .
The iPhone 15 Pro Max (top) and iPhone 5Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
It was also a dreary day when the exposure was accept , but this is somewhat block out by today ’s tv camera , which make the scene a little more exciting and tempting than it was in real aliveness . The iPhone 5 ’s sober aspect of reality only does n’t inspire you to take many photos . Along with the photo of the church , you may begin to see how emotions connect with the pic can change between the cameras , too .
But the lilliputian iPhone 5 can still surprise , and I opine it did in the image of the lake , where the contrast , exposure , tone , and colors are all far more natural and appealing compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max ’s picture , which arrest it all wrong . The OnePlus 11 and Galaxy S23 Ultra took great picture , though , and are far more appealing and natural than both of the iPhone pic .
It does n’t usually shape out that way , with photos choose with the iPhone 5 on bright twenty-four hours appearing more like painting than photographs due to the minimum detail and inherent softness . In photos taken with the iPhone 5 , skies are less naughty , green less vivacious , and the mankind is apparently a slightly drearier blank space . Modern smartphone cameras all encourage the colouring , direct contrast , and saturation to make the surrounding existence more visually exciting in our photos .
The cosmos is n’t just more visually exciting , it ’s alsohappierwhen shot through a modern sound ’s photographic camera . The iPhone 5 ’s photo of the funny Christmas medal on the wooden tabular array borders on the depressing , with its overexposed sky and disconsolate color , but the same scene captured by the other cameras gives a very different emotion . exposure should prompt a response , but it ’s backbreaking to feel anything for the iPhone 5 ’s photo .
More than just better quality
After I used the iPhone 5 and look at the resulting picture , it was n’t the quality of the icon that really stood out to me . It was always obvious a modern phone would take better photos than one made 10 geezerhood ago , and seeing the difference in detail was n’t a surprisal . But I had n’t await to find such a dramaticemotionaldifference in the photos .
If the iPhone 5 was the pinnacle of smartphone camera today , I simply would n’t take as many photograph and certainly would n’t partake them very often , at least not in the same way I do today . There would be less creative exemption and fewer opportunities to capture extra photos you require to edit and enhance . If it were the best I could get , then I would n’t roll in the hay any different , but I ’d by all odds manage less about taking photos if the iPhone 5 was in my pouch every day in 2023 .
Many matter have shaped how phone cameras have shift over the last decade , with technology improvement , societal media , and even faster data speeding to make sharing simulacrum quicker and easier , all take on a part . The iPhone 5 ’s view of the world was n’t precise or enticing , and even if modern phones run to get around in the opposite direction a little too far sometimes — through substantial HDR , manufacturer - specific tuning , and a immense raiment of filters — I definitely favor it . They avail material body memory board unite with emotion in a room the iPhone 5 can not .
We often await back at the past with rose wine - tinted glass , but the iPhone 5 ’s television camera is a admonisher that some thing really can exchange for the better .
