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mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 11, 2012
1,599
1,227
Windy City
My wife currently has iPhone 6s and would like to upgrade her phone to have a better camera. The options on the Plus version are not of her interest; zoom, portrait and lighting modes are all gimmicks for her; however, one thing cough our attention when reviewing the spec of both phones is that Plus version has a wide angle main camera vs the regular size iPhone.

iPhone 8 spec sheet says
ƒ/1.8 aperture

but iPhone 8 Plus spec sheet says:
Wide-angle: ƒ/1.8 aperture

Does this mean that the main camera on the Plus is different than on 8? If I am not mistaken, many people stated that the camera on 8 and the main camera on 8 Plus are identical, but the spec sheet says otherwise?

I appreciate any input on this matter.
 

Diorama

macrumors 6502a
Oct 6, 2017
736
1,171
The Plus lens is called wide angle to differentiate it from the telephoto. This is not necessary on the 8 as there is only one lens.
I’m pretty sure it’s identical, the Plus doesn’t have an ultrawide/fish eye or anything.
[doublepost=1510150309][/doublepost]If there was a tandem version of my bicycle, what I call the ‘seat’ would now be called the ‘front seat’ despite being identical.
 

Vermifuge

macrumors 68020
Mar 7, 2009
2,067
1,589
My wife currently has iPhone 6s and would like to upgrade her phone to have a better camera. The options on the Plus version are not of her interest; zoom, portrait and lighting modes are all gimmicks for her; however, one thing cough our attention when reviewing the spec of both phones is that Plus version has a wide angle main camera vs the regular size iPhone.

iPhone 8 spec sheet says
ƒ/1.8 aperture

but iPhone 8 Plus spec sheet says:
Wide-angle: ƒ/1.8 aperture

Does this mean that the main camera on the Plus is different than on 8? If I am not mistaken, many people stated that the camera on 8 and the main camera on 8 Plus are identical, but the spec sheet says otherwise?

I appreciate any input on this matter.

The Plus has 3 cameras.
  • One front facing Face Time camera
  • Two cameras on back: The wide angle and the telephoto camera.
The wide angle camera on the 8 Plus is the same as the rear facing camera found on the standard 8. One thing to consider is Apple uses a technique it calls "Fusion" that take advantage of both of the 8 Pluses cameras to improve photography. This will make photos on the 8 Plus look better. This feature was introduced with the iPhone 7. This extended beyond just portrait mode..

He explains that when you take a picture, both the wide-angle lens and the telephoto fire off. The software then looks at the two 12-megapixel pictures for every shot and combines the best parts — Apple calls this technique “fusion.” This is probably why the iPhone 7 Plus has 3GB of RAM, the review notes.

“Fusion takes data from both sensors and merges them into the best possible picture for every condition,” Panzarino writes. “If, for instance, there is a low-light scene that has some dark areas, the image-processing chip could choose to pick up some image data (pixels or other stuff like luminance) from the brighter f1.8 wide angle and mix it in with the data from the f2.8 telephoto, creating a composite image on the fly without any input from the user.”
 

mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 11, 2012
1,599
1,227
Windy City
Thank you for clarifying this. I always suspected that the main shooters were identical; however, the spec sheet confused me.
 

Greg M

macrumors 6502
Jul 13, 2008
341
35
One thing to note is that the tele lens on the plus is not OIS, only the wide angle lens is. On the X both are OIS. That is one thing that's making me lean towards waiting for next year for the plus sized X.
 

DevinNj

macrumors 68000
Apr 27, 2016
1,722
1,740
New Jersey
My wife currently has iPhone 6s and would like to upgrade her phone to have a better camera. The options on the Plus version are not of her interest; zoom, portrait and lighting modes are all gimmicks for her; however, one thing cough our attention when reviewing the spec of both phones is that Plus version has a wide angle main camera vs the regular size iPhone.

iPhone 8 spec sheet says
ƒ/1.8 aperture

but iPhone 8 Plus spec sheet says:
Wide-angle: ƒ/1.8 aperture

Does this mean that the main camera on the Plus is different than on 8? If I am not mistaken, many people stated that the camera on 8 and the main camera on 8 Plus are identical, but the spec sheet says otherwise?

I appreciate any input on this matter.

The zoom is a gimmick? Far from it. The zoom is the reason I won't go to a regular sized phone anymore. I get that the plus may be too large for some, hence the X. But if "best camera" is a deciding factor, don't knock the plus or the X. Go and check them out for yourselves, you both may be surprised.
 
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