iPhone 7 Plus - Portrait Mode

[Black Pearl]

After pre-ordering on the day it went live I have had to wait almost two months for my iPhone 7 Plus to arrive - the stocks have been woeful in general but I wanted the Jet Black which didn't help. However it turned up on Friday when (typically) I was at work and by the time I had it signed into my account, everything had downloaded and it was fully up and running it was 10pm and I was ready for bed....I live such a rock n roll lifestyle I know.

Saturday morning it was 5°c, hammering it down with rain and howling a gale but the dog needed a walk and I was a desperate man with his new toy - so I went down to the local beach for an hour. The reason I waited for the Plus model, which I don't even particularly like as I feel its a bit big, is that it has two cameras on it, one a 28mm f1.8 while the other is a 56mm f2.8 equivalent. Now I go out daily with my 35mm on the Fuji so I'm very used to seeing, framing and being very comfortable shooting with a 52.5mm equivalent lens so the longer of the iPhones lenses really appealed, and it is everything I hoped. It lacks the IS of the wider lens and no its not particularly bright but I found I could envision and shoot with it very easily - and - you get the Portrait Mode software trick that Apple has been banging on about that uses the two camera at once to 'fake' a narrow depth of field.

I won't bore you with the seascapes as they're not brilliant due to poor conditions and while I did try the 4k video (which is superb by the way) I'm going to limit this post to the Portrait Mode as its rather interesting. You can see the effect 'live' as you are framing and I have to say its rather good - no the transition between sharp and soft aren't perfect and no its never going to render the OOF areas like a large aperture prime but it ain't bad for a phone and I get the feeling it will be a nice tool to have in my photography drawer...

Both the 56mm lens only shot and the twin lens shot are recorded to the camera roll in the phone so you get to see both:

[Donald]

That is pretty impressive.

[LePetomane]

Good looking dog.

[dje]

Interesting Robin. I suspect this two camera technology will undergo further refinement in due course.

My wife has an iPhone 6 S Plus and the video on that, including 4k, is quite impressive too. It's the stabilisation that really makes it I think.

Dave

[Black Pearl]

Its an interesting feature and a nice one to use as you see it working. At the moment its a beta version so I wonder how far they can refine it when iOS 10.2 launches and it is fully part of the camera app.