Animojis have swept the internet nation and gave birth to the Animoji Karaoke! But is the iPhone X camera really that much better than the iPhone 8’s? Or is the iPhone X camera just a one trick animoji pony/unicorn and only have the Animoji to offer.
Does the $999 price tag Show on iphone x camera?
Like the video? Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
The short answer for the question of iPhone X vs iPhone 8 camera comparison is “No, there are not much of a difference between the two”. Sure, iPhone X has slightly better telephoto lens when it comes to aperture size, the telephoto also has optical image stabilization (or OIS) and for the selfie mongers, the iPhone X has portrait mode for the front camera. And who wouldn’t forget Animojis!
But those are only a couple of features that will appeal to certain users. If you really want to go in-depth on how big the difference is between the iPhone X and iPhones 8’s, here is a bunch of navigational links that will help you traverse to this article.
- Difference between f2.4 and f2.8 – Can you see it?
- Is the OIS on the iPhone X telephoto lens noticeable?
- How does the iPhone X’s OIS compare to a Smooth Q gimbal?
- The upgraded front-facing camera. Worth it?
- Animojis: Fun or Nah?
We also did a detailed comparison between the cameras of the iPhone 6, 7 and 8’s. Check it out here to see how great a leap the iPhone camera did over 5 models. Spoiler alert. If you’re running an iPhone 6s, youʼll definitely see an upgrade in image quality, even if you just get a 7.
At Mobile Reviews Eh!, we base all our reviews on actual usage. We could just talk about new features from a marketing fluff or press release but where’s the fun in that? We’d rather see the new features in action because thatʼs just us. We could just say itʼs better like everybody else does but we want to see for ourselves by how much!
[ps2id id=’fstops’ target=”/]Difference between f2.4 and f2.8 – Can you see it?
From our basic understanding of photography, the lower the f-stop, the more light that getʼs let in. To test this we took a bunch of low-light photos. We did photos of Monty, our front door, our living area and some fruit.
From this small set of photos, we couldnʼt see a difference between the photos taken by the telephoto on either iPhone.
We surmised that the pics were too bright so we took another set of photos in near darkness and finally we were able to see a bit of difference. Notice that the light in the window has a uniform color in the iPhone X photo?
[ps2id id=’ois’ target=”/]Is the OIS on the iPhone X telephoto lens noticeable?
To this question, we had to do a bit of driving.
On the iPhone X, Apple says that the telephoto has OIS in the camera section. OIS is going to be useful for action shots and smoother video. From our older camera comparison video, OIS on the iPhone is noticeable so all we wanted was to see this hardware feature in action.
We will add that it seems odd to have OIS on the telephoto. Based on our personal experience, the telephoto only get used when we’re stationery. We’ve never come across a situation where we thought “Man, I wish I could zoom in on something to take a photo or video without any shaking?”.
To see the OIS on the new iPhone Xʼs telephoto, we mounted an 8 Plus and X on different car mounts and went for a drive during a snowstorm. As you can see on the photos below, there is a noticeable difference between the two cameras. The iPhone X footage is definitely smoother.
Now we thought that the car mount we used for each device might be an issue so we swapped the iPhoneʼs and did a bit more driving. The result is the same. You can definitely tell that the roads were not smooth that night on the iPhone 8.
[ps2id id=’oisvsgim’ target=”/]How does the iPhone X’s OIS compare to a Smooth Q gimbal?
For this question, we used a Zhiyun Smooth Q. We were quite certain that the Zhiyun Smooth Q was going to provide smoother footage. But we wanted to know by how much!
This section mostly consists of video footages. We suggest that you watch the video linked above to see the clips we recorded for this test to better understand what we’re talking about.
Before we did the actual test, we first tried to record a couple of videos without the OIS turned off on the iPhone X using the Filmic Pro. To our surprise the difference is noticeable.
On our actual tests, we just basically walked the same path twice, once with the iPhone X by itself and the second time with the Zhiyun Smooth Q. During our test, we noticed that the iPhone X telephoto footage isnʼt terrible. We think 75% of the clip is comparable to the Zhiyun Smooth Q footage.
We also tried our luck on an icy path but the OIS on the iPhone X did not help at all. Our footing was never stable so the Zhiyun Smooth Q was able to compensate more than the iPhone X.
We also want to point out that shooting video with the telephoto lens is tough. Because of the slight zoom, every hiccup in our walking is multiplied on screen.
Aside from that, we also wanted to how much of a difference between the normal wide angle lens and the Zhiyun Smooth Q. We found out that as long as youʼre walking in a stable manner, i.e. with your quads, landing on the balls of your feet, the OIS on the normal wide angle lens isnʼt terrible. Almost comparable to the Smooth Q footage.
The last thing we did was to see the difference whenever we were moving quickly. Surprise, surprise, the Zhiyun Smooth Q comes out on top handily.
Between all our tests, we were surprised at how well the OIS on the iPhone X worked on favourable walking surfaces. However when the going get a little rougher, the OIS on the iPhone X couldnʼt keep up with the Zhiyun Smooth Q. This was to be expected.
So whatʼs the lesson out of all of these? The OIS on the iPhone X is going to work well in videos and photos where you donʼt need to move much. Basically it will keep your footage stable if you only need to move around a bit like getting your dog into the frame as heʼs doing something silly. For those who need to capture footage in a quick moving environment? Youʼll need the gimbal.
[ps2id id=’frontfacing’ target=”/]The upgraded front-facing camera. Worth it?
Remember the times when the front face camera was just an afterthought on the iPhones?
That was before Apple and every other smartphone company realized that humanity in general liked taking photos of ourselves with our tongues out giving the peace sign.
Now we have to do it with fake animal features on it. Humanity is doomed isnʼt it?
We really enjoy using Portrait mode on my iPhone 8 Plus. Specifically, the portrait lighting feature. We have a newborn and the photos we can take with the updated portrait mode is amazing. Portrait mode with portrait lighting is one of those features that takes 80% of what a professional photographer does and puts it in the hands of a normal heathen like us. So cool.
But trying to take a selfie using an iPhone 8 Plus in portrait mode is near impossible as our arms arenʼt long enough. We donʼt have that issue with the iPhone X as Portrait mode allows me to use the front facing camera. The process of using Portrait lighting is the same as before as you can select your lighting before your photo OR you can edit it after youʼve taken the photo.
Is the picture quality of the front-facing camera better on the iPhone X?
Before we answer that question, we will say that the front facing camera on the iPhone X takes better pictures than the iPhone 8 Plus. The TrueDepth camera does a better job of exposing the photos. In this set of selfies, the iPhone X photo does a better job of exposing my forehead under my ball cap. In this set of selfies, my entire face just seems brighter in the iPhone X photo.
So if you love taking selfies of yourself with animal parts, the iPhone X is for you!
So is there a difference between the portrait modes of front and rear facing cameras of the iPhone X?
The surprising thing for us was the difference in the FOV between the two photos above. Standing at the same spot, the front facing camera saw way more of our t-shirt than the rear-facing camera. The front facing camera only has a 7 megapixel sensor whereas the rear facing camera has 12 so youʼll be able to crop out more of the rear-facing camera than the front and still maintain a decent photo. The f-stops are smaller on the rear-facing camera which means youʼre portrait photos will have a bit more depth which is evident by the amount of blur of the blue box in the background.
Other than that, the portrait mode and lighting features are exactly the same.o.
[ps2id id=’animoji’ target=”/]Animojis – Fun or Nah?
In our mind, we keep joking that it is worth paying an extra $300 dollars for the iPhone X over the iPhone 8 so that we can animate my facial movements onto a turd.
Now Animojis basically use the TrueDepth camera and reads how your face is moving and animates it onto the emoji.
How much fun is it? The Animoji is so fun, we even used it as an ending card for our video. Check out the ending of the video to see how it worked out
So this is our iPhone X vs. iPhone 8 Camera Comparison! Have any questions? Leave them below! Definitely SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel to stay on top of all the new things we are review!
If you want to know more about what we do, check out this page!
