We are on the verge of a historic occasion, the impending release of iOS 10.1 for the iPhone7+.... making it the first phone camera that can produce a decent portrait, with a nicely blurred background and a reasonable focal length, flattering for the foreground subject compared to the typical phone's wide-angle lens.
I've been using the beta to test this new portrait mode and have found that, considering that it's purely computational-photography based (as compared to traditional optical photography) and blurring the background solely by using a z-depth map produced by the 28mm (equivalent) wide angle len, then compositing that background into the foreground shot by the 56mm lens, the results are outstanding. Yes, there are issues (you need a ton of light to make it happen well and it's not optically perfect), but WHOA!... these are real portraits, made by a
"camera" you can carry with you all the time.
For me, as a portrait photographer, this is a revelation.
Here are some examples of what I've done with it over the past few days. (BGR.COM wrote a nice article about it as well.)
Thanks for watching.
I have a long history of inventing tools for animators and also making films and photographs. My wife, daughter and I live at the foot of beautiful Mt. Tamalpais on the San Francisco Bay and I've been using technology to tell complex stories for a long time. My biggest claim to fame? Leading the team that created Autodesk 3ds Max... the most popular 3D animation tool of all time. When I sold the Yost Group to Autodesk at the end of the last century I jumped headfirst into pursing my original love... photography and filmmaking. Now I spend all of my time exploring the mysteries of my world with my cameras, and revealing what I find in my images and films.
You can find my verification post here.
iPhone 7 Plus is not the first camera to feature dual lenses or faux bokeh, but it's true its the first one in vogue, and I very much dislike the imagery. The problem is the telephoto part of the camera has a tiny, tiny sensor, even by smartphone standards. For example, the top smartphone cameras today - the Pixel XL and Galaxy S7 - have 1/2.3" sensors. The iPhone 7 Plus' tele sensor is only 1/3.6". That makes the active area half. Let alone some 1/80th that of a full frame sensor.
This results in a crop factor of 9x. The end result is that while the field of view does match that of a 56mm lens, it is really a 6mm lens in there. The perspective is akin to that of a 6mm lens. By itself, that wouldn't be an issue - in fact, I do like the expanded perspective small sensors allow. However, to see a shallow depth of field on this perspective is most bizarre and really makes me uncomfortable. What further bothers me is the fall off clearly looks artificial and not optical.
Of course, I'm ranting as a pedant, and I'm sure the whole world will get used to this aesthetic very quickly. :)
I would take a RX 100 V anyday. Not as small as a smartphone, but easily fits into your pocket, with some top notch imagery. Heck, the camera shoots video with better resolution than an Alexa!
That's a funny comparison between the Alexa and an RX100m5. (!) Res is not what makes the Arri so great but hey... we're comparing apples to mangos. I'm not going to give up my Nikon D4 (or D800) and favorite lenses like the 85mm/f.14, but those are never in my pocket. And I don't carry my RX100 around either because that's a PITA.... my phone is typically the camera that's always with me by default and I would much rather shoot a portrait with the computational "bokeh" mode than otherwise. But of course that's just a matter of taste and I respect your opinion. :)
Yes, I'm known to have offbeat opinion. ;) I also don't like the Alexa much - it gives up a lot in colour for the sake of pandering to film nostalgia. Deals very poorly with darker skin tones too, just like film. (Same can be said of Red's Dragon sensor, though I haven't had a look at Helium yet). I prefer the F65 and Varicam 35 vastly. Of course, Alexa's a much better camera than RX 100 V, but my point is, very impressive for the size and price! That said, Alexa is embarrassingly soft on a 4K screen. I was really disappointed to see how poorly it held up when intercut with an a7s II - we had to degrade the a7s II to match! Alright, /end rant. :)
I shudder to think of what your opinion of my Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6k is. :)
Congratulations @yostopia! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about this award, click here