I always have my iPhone with me, so when I walk the dogs, that’s what I use to take photographs. However, its lens is a wide angle. That means sometimes I can’t get the picture I want. I rummaged around and found my old Canon SD790 IS, which was introduced in March 2008. That makes it more than 10 years old, an antique in the digital camera world. But, it is small, and it has image stabilization, so I thought I would give it a try. On Saturday, I took some comparison photos with it and my iPhone. I enhanced the Canon images a little, but not the iPhone’s.
This is a nice maple with red leaves. First the Canon, then the iPhone.
The iPhone image has more vibrant colors right out of the phone, and it looks more like what I see when I look at the scene. Notice the yellows. I’m not positive that the actual scene looked quite like the iPhone image, but I prefer it to the Canon.
Next was a yellow maple, Canon first, then phone.
The iPhone, again, has more vibrant colors. The Canon image seems especially muddy up in the top, right-hand corner.
Next, Canon first, then phone.
Again, the iPhone image has “nicer” colors.
Saturday was a cloudy day, and the colors were muted. It’s possible the Canon images are a more accurate representation of the scenes as they actually were; I’m not positive. I can say, though, that I prefer the iPhone images over the Canon images.
There is a setting within the Canon’s menu system that allows setting a “vivid color” mode. I plan to select that and try some more comparisons. I would really like to start using the little Canon again because the lens allows a little more flexibility in framing images. I’ll try that when I can.
The iPhone images definitely have richer colors. I think they’re sharper and more focused as well. What model iPhone are you using? The world of digital cameras and phone is quite a journey.
Robin — My phone is an iPhone 7. Later iPhones are said to have even better cameras. In the last comparison, I mistakenly put the iPhone image in for the Canon. With the actual Canon image in place, there is now a noticeable difference between the two.
I did some shooting today (Sunday) with the Canon in vivid-color mode, but I haven’t checked the images yet. I suspect they will still not match the colors of the iPhone images. Maybe I’ll look for a better pocket camera.