Want to see just how good the iPhone 4S is as a video camera? Yeah, so did this guy. So he made a side-by-side comparison – and the results show the 4S is a pretty impressive piece of video recording kit.
Here’s the video:
iPhone 4S / Canon 5d MKII Side by Side Comparison from Robino Films on Vimeo.
With the 4S mounted on a rig alongside a Canon 5D MkII, he shot a series of scenes in different lighting conditions. The 4S was set to auto exposure and auto focus. The Canon was fitted with a 50mm 1.4 prime lens and as close to the iPhone’s settings as possible.
The results speak for themselves. No-one is suggesting you should sell your 5D on eBay and switch to iPhone for everything, but these images do show that the 4S delivers excellent results for its size and price. Delve into the video’s comments and you’ll see that even the critical viewers are generally impressed by what the 4S offers.
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
42 responses to “Video Comparison: iPhone 4S Versus Canon 5D [Video]”
The results really speak for themselves when he moves out to the street and shows the Budget truck driving by. The Canon still clearly beats the iPhone if you look at how much clearer the text “Budget” on the truck is. :)
And the Canon costs 2800 dollars more. The point is to show its damn near as good as a 3000 dollar camera
Can someone make a video that is just a little more boring, there is simply to much excitement going on here to pay attention to the camera’s qualities.
This test is a real world conditions test. Its not a movie for you to watch n eat popcorn
Wazzup with the LCD in the street at the top.. iPhone is producing the lines.. Always wonder why those are produced anyway..
I paused it, at 1:15, just when the Budget truck comes into view, and the 4S looked a lot clearer and legible to me. Either way, as MacHead said, it’s a comparison to show that the 4S can hold it’s own for what it is, and most people forget, that it’s main role is a phone, with all the extra gadgets and gizmos as a bonus.
:)
Are you high?
I think the problem is that the Canon was set up as close to the iPhones settings as possible. However when you let the Canon go all out the iPhone can’t keep up but for a tiny phone it handles the basics really well
The COM article isnt very detailed but the Canon is not throttled back. It is just using a lense that is close to the iPhones
Ok, ok. The iPhone 4s has an incredible little camera!! Keep in mind the 5d has all sorts of pro lens and manual setting options this comparison didn’t touch upon. Plus I think the resolution was sharper too (was the vimeo playback in 1080p?)
There is a lot of people flapping around making excuses here. Of course the 5D is better. BUT this isnt about the 5D it is about how good the 4S is. Everyone understands that they are two completely different beast but the POINT is the 4S rocks taking in to consideration it is a bloody telephone for goodness sake.
The 5D will out perform the 4S in lots of different scenarios but as the test shows with enough light the 4S kick butt, well done Apple. Just imagine if they started making cameras……
hang on how do you lock af on the iphone?
Do nerds actually use cameras to do anything other than these pointless tests? I’ll take the 5d by the way.
my classmate’s mother makes $70 every hour on the computer. She has been laid off for 6 months but last month her income was $9025 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read about it on this web site and get started, http://shr.tn/TsAx
Are you serious? This is a ridiculous test. Besides of being inadequate to compare a tiny sensor with a professional camera’s full frame sensor, the performance of the iphone4s in low light conditions is lower than a $200 point and shoot camera. I own an iphone4s and a full frame camera, by the way.
No, it is not even near as good as a 3000 dollar camera. It’s not even as good as a $200 dollar point and shoot in low light. These point and shoots have specialized hardware for such conditions, and get cheaper year after year. Your fanaticism is unbelievable! By the way, I own your same sacred phone model.
No, that is not a close lens. For that he should have used the 14-24 f/2.8. with 14 elements. The iphone camera lens (8 elements) doesn’t even get close to the 50mm (11 elements).
He should be really be comparing the iphone camera with the lumix, the coolpix, or the powershots which usually come with 8 elements.
Show us the iphone4s is better than these p&s and everybody will be happier.
unfortunately.. both cameras cant pick up sound….
Pausing the video on moving objects doesn’t give a good indicator of quality – you actually want moving objects to be blurred since if they are sharp (like the iPhone’s shots) then the movement becomes jerky, unnatural, etc. Blur moving objects are due shutter speed, which can be adjusted on some higher-end cameras. Pause any Blueray movie during an action scene – those shots were shot on multi-thousand dollar cameras, but will have blur because it’s more pleasing to the eye when watching action.
Please. The iPhone lens is hardly comparable to the 50 f1.4, and that’s a relatively budget Canon lens. The Canon was set f7-f22 (larger number indicating smaller aperture), basically using 0.3-5% of the light-gathering ability of this lens. Even with this disadvantage, the Canon video is still way superior – better contrast, more detail in dark areas, less jittery, better colour balance, etc. If you opened up the Canon lens fully, the difference would be staggering – more cinematic DOF, even better sharpness, colour, contrast, etc.
I can’t believe people are bickering about the comparison between a $3000 CAMERA, and a PHONE.
Fact of the matter is for a phone, it does a good job. It is not supposed to in any way be competing with a DSLR. Its a simple comparison.
Well, and iPhone 4S uses sensor designed by Sony, you all have to thank Sony too