Wesley's Tool-Box

With the official release of the iPhone 7 series in Korea set to be on October 21, just a week away as of this writing, I've been asked about how different the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are. This is because I own both. If we disregard the obvious differences that come due to the size (e.g. screen resolution, weight, and battery), the camera is still a key differentiator. It used to be that only the Plus got the Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). This year, the smaller model got that as well, so the perk for the Plus model is an additional camera module in telephoto mode that provides 2x optical zoom. Naturally, I wanted to see how good it was. I should note that the wide angle camera on both 7 and 7 Plus are identical. Keep reading if the extra camera is worth the trouble.



When there is sufficient light, the telephoto camera provides excellent results. You can basically zoom into stuff and see it closer in more detail. I've been using this a lot outside with satisfactory results. But after a while I began to see a lot of limitations as well.


For one thing, it won't work with an object that's too close to you. This isn't surprising at all if you've used zoom lenses on a camera. Longer focal length tends to come with longer minimum focusing distance. The wide angle camera can focus on an item as close as 8.5cm (3.3") away, but the telephoto camera can only do up to 28cm (11"). To get a macro shot, always stick to the wide angle.

While the iPhone 7 I got from Japan was busy getting reviewed, the iPhone 7 Plus and the Apple Watch Series 2 I asked my friend Andy in the United States to preorder for me was traveling around the world. The 7 Plus in particular was actually stuck in here South Korea for a while in transit from China to United States due to shipping issues. Once it landed in the States, Andy sent it back across the Pacific so I could have it in my hands. And that's why it took three weeks to arrive.


The box for the iPhone 7 Plus is the same size as the one for 6S Plus, but with the same new design as the 7. It seems the new Apple Watch Series 2 also come in the same-sized box as the previous version. I ordered a Stainless Steel one this time, unlike the Aluminum (Sport) version last year and was a bit surprised how heavy the box was. Shipping weight was 1.2kg for the watch and 0.5kg for the phone; even with the shipment box removed the boxes weighed 880g and 460g, respectively.

Continuing from the last post, let's look at the indoor performance of the front camera. I took photos of a table in the living room where the kids have built what's essentially a toy village with Lego blocks. It should serve to show differences in colour reproduction, if any.


With the exception of iPhone 4, the colours look more or less correct, which is good. Also, the iPhone 7 did manage to take clear photos when the objects are closer, so it's doing a good job as its intended role of a selfie camera. 6S Plus result is fuzzier, but this time it can be attributed to a slight camera shake and would likely be nearly as good as 7 but with less pixels otherwise.

Next up, I took shots of the same scene with the rear camera, once with good indoor lighting and once with faint indirect lighting so I could observe how much noise can be seen for each cases. For the darker shots, I tried to have the camera maintain at or close to ISO 800 to make a close comparison.

It is pretty safe to assume that the latest iPhone has the best camera in general. The tradition continues with iPhone 7, which allows me to take impressive photos like the one you see here. But to truly appreciate the improvements, a good round of comparison is in order.

First, let's look at the basic specifications as reported by the EXIF data. For the rear camera, we have these values:

And for the front camera:
Last year's rear camera was mostly about the increased pixel count; with the quality improvement taking a back seat. Front camera did jump out of the 1.2-megapixel hole, which was overdue. This year, enhancing the image quality is back in focus. The sensor can now capture on a much wider colour space (DCI-P3, a.k.a. Display-P3, instead of the traditional sRGB), and the wider aperture on the new rear lens (f/1.8, up from f/2.2) should allow for lower noise and brighter night shots. Meanwhile, the front camera can now take 7-megapixel photos.