How do iPhones produce such good low light images and could mirrorless mimic them?

[Rufus]

Well the title says it all, really!

I am astounded at how well an iPhone copes with low light, and does so far better than my DSLR. How does it do this?

Do you think camera manufacturers will ever catch up with Apple. I would love a mirrorless Canon camera with a full frame or APC sensor that had the same on board processing capability built in to it to provide the same flexibilty as my phone. This would add far more value than some of many the "improvements" manufacturers make to their model line-ups.

[DanK]

They do it with lots and lots of postprocessing and computational stuff.

All DSLRs and MILCs will do some processing for you (shooting JPEG), and have substantial computational photography functions as well, e.g., the OM-1 Mark II. However, the two types of tools are aimed at different markets. To some extent, the DSLR and MILC market is aimed at people who want control. That's true even of some people who shoot JPEG, e.g., sports photographers. Phone cameras are point-and-shoots, designed for people who just want to hold something in front of them that will take a photo. The manufacturers have gotten increasingly clever at using computation to make up for the lack of human judgment in deciding how to capture or process the image.

DSLRs and MILCs, used right, can do low-light photography that phones can't. For example, this photo is a 7-minute exposure, ISO 100, taken around midnight with a Canon 5D Mark III. It's essentially noiseless, and since it didn't need noise reduction, it has a great deal of detail (which you can't really see at this size) that would be lost with noise reduction.

[lunaticitizen]

The iPhone does the processing for you and it is very good at it. When a mighty company employs tens or even hundreds of engineers just for image processing you can expect good things to happen.

[billtils]

Nice photo and nice exposition Dan.

[Rufus]

Thank you Dan for your explanation.

I have since found this article by Robin Whalley on Lenscraft which goes into more detail.