# iPhone 7 plus portrait mode: ingenious or rubbish



## JoFT (May 5, 2017)

Since a couple of month the iPhone 7plus is out, and one very special feature is this portrait mode. I got it very early. And had to wait until the release of the portrait mode. It has some ups and downs - and it is still in a beta phase....
My questions:

Does it work?

How does it perform?

[/size]Lets start with some technical considerations.Technically it is a pretty remarkable approach:

The photo is shot with the "telephoto-lens of the iPhone

The iPhone camera scans which part of the image is where

the "portrait subject" remains sharp

the other lens is set at shortest distance to deliver a blurred image

and than the magic starts: the art of the photo which should be blurred will be mixed according to the information what is before and behind the subject.

[/size]Quite ingenious approach. The simulation of a larger sensor with a smaller one.




But what is the portrait mode like? Well - I took my lens with the nicest bokeh I own on a Full Frame camera. I tried to make the same shot with the iPhone and my Canon EOS 5DMk IV with the Zeiss Milvus 50 mm f1.4 (I know pretty unfair... to some extend...)Above you see the result: Matching this I would say: Well the iPhone ends up with a f5.6-ish aperture... For full frame: pretty slow... But keep in mind... This is full frame... In reality this means - to name it with typical lenses used...:

Full frame: f5.6: sorry, but there are -literally no such slow 50mm lenses available for full frame...

APS-C: f4.x: You end up with 4.x-ish values: let´s assume a 24-70mm or 24-105mm f4.0 will deliver the same amount of bokeh...

µ43 (Olympus, Lumix): f 2.8: In this case you get the same amount of bokeh from the iPhone as if you would own a 12-40mm f2.8 (Oly) or 12-35 f2.8 (Pana)... And this sounds much nicer.

[/size]For more informations you might read my full blog entry....[/size]. http://bit.ly/2qAUokY


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## 3kramd5 (May 6, 2017)

It hasn't been in beta mode since version 10.1 of the OS.

It works okay in a lot of light, but it struggles with transparent items (like a wine glass) and hair.


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## Jopa (May 8, 2017)

The iPhone 50mm equivalent camera is 1/3.6" (8.6x crop) f/2.8, so it's a 50 f/24 equivalent in terms of DoF. It means the bokeh is "computed", i.e. fake  it's awesome if it's working but definitely not worth giving up on the Milvus.


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## Woody (May 8, 2017)

Thanks for this interesting bit of info. 

So, the iPhone software trickery only produces results equivalent to FF f/5.6? Certainly not enough for me. I'll rather stick to my EOS-M5 with 22 mm f/2 lens (equivalent to FF 35 mm f/3.2), a lightweight package which also happens to have much better high ISO performance in low light. ;D


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