TAKING PICTURES NOW A SNAP
THE technology behind Apple iPhone 8 Plus photography is mind boggling.
The A11 Bionic chip is capable of 600 billion processes a second.
In portrait mode, the results are stunning – and quite unbelievable.
The new facial landmarking feature allows you to take a portrait photo with different effects and then edit the photo after you have taken it – changing it to a natural light, studio light, contour light, stage light or stage light mono.
I took a portrait of my father under fluorescent lighting in a building. He has wiry, white hair.
The camera was able to blur the background perfectly and then when I added the stage light effect, it created a perfect deep etch of my father’s face against a deep black background.
For a graphic artist to deep etch the hair, it would have taken forever. This happened in seconds.
I did the same with a series of photographs of an obliging pelican in daylight. Again, stunning results you would be happy with from a DSLR. As the pelican took off, the camera, which has improved focus speed, was able to capture a sharp image, even while still in portrait mode.
Like many top of the range phones, the iPhone 8 Plus has two cameras – one wide angle and one telephoto – still at 2x optical zoom.
The wide angle camera has an improved ƒ/1.8 six-element lens, optical image stabilisation, and a larger, faster 12MP sensor. The telephoto is an ƒ/2.8 lens.
In comparison, Samsung’s Note 8 also shoots incredible portrait photos with a Bokeh (blurred) effect. But the post editing options are not as fancy as the iPhone 8 Plus.
I did another photo shoot with my teenage son and a friend. Both of them deemed the outcomes to be Instagramworthy. High praise indeed.
The natural light option is normally very good, but if you are looking for something a little more stark, contour lighting adds more dramatic shadows with highlights and lowlights. Stage light mono produces some beautiful black and white images.
Video capability has also been improved with full HD at 240 frames per second, 4K in 60 FPS, and faster compression to upload videos more quickly. The flash system is also improved.
When it comes to the screen display, the iPhone 8 Plus is more realistic in colour presentation than some of the latest Androids, which tend to be more vivid.
So should you buy the iPhone 8 or wait for the X?
Apart from the all-new 5.8 inch super retina screen and the facial recognitions, the 8 Plus has all the features of the X and keeps the home button.
And at $350 cheaper than the X, price is certainly a consideration. That said, I’ll be looking forward to checking out Apple’s X factor.