LEICA vs iPhone

and

LEICA Q2 vs iPhone 11 Pro Max vs Fuji X100F vs Canon 90D

LEICA Q2

iPhone 11 Pro Max

FUJI X100F

Canon 90D

LEICA Q2, iPhone 11 Pro Max, Fuji X100F and Canon 90D.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.

 

June 2020   Better Pictures   LEICA   Apple   Fuji   Canon   Nikon   Sony   All Reviews

Why Fixed Lenses Take Better Pictures

How to Shoot FilmPlease help KenRockwell.com

 

LEICA Q2 vs. iPhone 11 Pro Max       top

Do I dare? Both the LEICA Q2 and iPhone 11 Pro Max have a lens with the same speed and equivalent focal length. The iPhone also has wider and longer lenses and shoots in the dark with one hand and a bunch of other things, but let's just shoot the same subject and see what happens:

iPhone 11 Pro Max versus LEICA Q2

iPhone 11 Pro Max versus LEICA Q2

The iPhone 11 Pro Max was shot as-is in its native Camera app, 4.2mm lens (26mm eq.) at f/1.8 at 1/757 at Auto ISO 32 (LV 12.9), shown exactly as shot.

The Q2 was shot with its 28mm lens in Program mode at f/4.5 at 1/200 at Auto ISO 100 (LV 12.0), cropped to 4:3 to fit nicely with the iPhone shot, and otherwose shown exactly as shot. I set my Q2 to VIVID Film Style, HIGH Sharpening and HIGH Saturation, and it still looks duller than the iPhone shot.

The scene looked as it looks in the iPhone shot; the Q2 shot is much harsher than it looked.

To my eyes, the iPhone 11 Pro Max wins. it has much better colors, and much better highlights and shadows. Look at the sky; the Q2 blows-out the sky as it lacks the dynamic range, so the sky washes-out to white rather than the actual blue I saw that morning, as accurately captured by my iPhone. Look at the rocks in the foreground: the highlights are washed-out to white in the LEICA but look as they should in the iPhone snap. There's more shadow detail in the iPhone, too.

How can this be? Easy: the iPhone is much smarter. The iPhone continuously is capturing images at several different exposures. When you tap the iPhone shutter, only then does it process all this data into one final image that captures a wider dynamic range just as it looks to our eyes. The LEICA has old-world craftsmanship, and old-world single-frame technology that can't keep up.

But isn't the LEICA, with 47MP and a SUMMILUX ASPH lens, supposed to be sharper than the 12 MP iPhone? Let's see. These 600 × 450 pixel crops will vary in size to fit your browser window:

If they are about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, the complete images would print at a jumbo 28 × 42″ (2½ × 3½ feet or 71 × 106 cm) at this same high magnification.

If they are about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, the complete images would print at a huge 56 × 84″ (5 × 7 feet or 1.4 × 2.1 meters) at this same high magnification.

If they are about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, the complete images would print at a mammoth 112 × 167″ (9 × 14 feet or 2.8 × 4.2 meters) at this same extremely high magnification!

iPhone 11 Pro Max versus LEICA Q2
iPhone 11 Pro Max versus LEICA Q2

AHA! While the tree trunk on the right side of these crops is sharper in the Q2 snap because that's what's in focus, we're not shooting a flat test target. Real world subjects have three dimensions (or four if you include time), and in this case, the iPhone's 4.2mm lens has much more depth-of-field than the Q2's 28mm lens. Therefore the objects in the background, which is most of this photo, are at least as sharp in the iPhone photo.

 

LEICA Q2 vs. Fuji X100F vs iPhone 11 Pro Max vs Canon 90D

Do I dare? No one dares shoot a common camera against a LEICA, but says who? Let's shoot the LEICA Q2, Fuji X100F, iPhone 11 Pro Max and Canon 90D against each other.

Click any for the camera-original JPG files. The images below are directly from the JPGs, except one converted from a Q2 DNG as marked. I also have the LEICA Q2 DNG (92 MB), Fuji X100F RAF (26 MB) and Canon 90D CR3 (45MB) raw files to download by clicking those links. Raw files do nothing in your browser; you have to download them and then play with them in the software of your choice.

Fuji Z100F Sample Image

LEICA Q2 Sample Image

iPhone 11 Max Pro Sample Image

iPhone 11 Max Pro Sample Image

Canon 90D Sample Image File

Click any for the camera-original © JPG files or the full-resolution JPG from the Q2 DNG.

Here are the LEICA Q2 DNG (92 MB), Fuji X100F RAF (26 MB) and Canon 90D CR3 (45MB) raw files to download by clicking those links.

The iPhone and Q2 have about the same horizontal angle of view. The iPhone uses the Ideal Format 4:3 aspect ratio, so it has a little larger vertical angle of view. The X100F has a slightly smaller angle of view (35mm equivalent), so I stepped back to give about the same view.

My X100F was shot at my usual COLOR +4 and SHARP +4 settings, in NORMAL JPG + RAF mode. (Image above direct from JPG.)

My Q2 was shot in VIVID with HIGH SATURATION and HIGH SHARPENING in JPG + DNG mode. (Image above direct from JPG.)

My iPhone 11 Pro Max was shot using its native Camera app.

My Canon 90D was shot with STANDARD Picture Style, +4 Saturation and 7, 5, 5 sharpening, in JPG + Raw mode. (Image above direct from JPG.)

Please make your own observations of this photo of palms in late afternoon light.

Personally I prefer the Canon 90D shot, followed by the iPhone 11 Pro Max image; their colors and tones look the best. I don't like the Fuji or LEICA colors.

My Canon 90D lets me set its saturation much higher than any of these others, and high saturation is what I want for vivid, colorful images. Bravo!

Why is the iPhone better than LEICA and Fuji? Simple: the iPhone has by far the most advanced technology, as opposed to just a lot of pixels. Apple has a lot more and smarter people and resources to design the iPhone, which has sold over two billion copies, than either LEICA or Fuji have. The iPhone is running magic HDR all the time, and as such, shows all the highlights and shadows marvelously, and its colors also look the very best.

What's telling is that the iPhone's colors are much better, and at least as vivid, as the LEICA and FUJI are when set to their maximum color saturations as I've set them here.

The X100F photo is a bit dark, but that's because I used some negative compensation to save the highlights. Overall it's not too exciting; I prefer the iPhone shot.

The Q2 shot looks bad. Even at -0.6 stops compensation the JPG lost the highlights; look at the tips of the palm trunk and the house on the right. The Q2's colors are kind of yucky and uninviting. It's a nice, sharp photo, but doesn't look as good - to me - as my iPhone snap.

Of course you could play with the raw files until you're blind. I tried the Q2 DNG in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6. I was easily able to recover the highlights and lift the dark shadows, but even after all that effort the colors are still not impressive at all; it's still a yuckier photo with yellow tinges in the palm trunk compared to the better-looking photo that comes from my iPhone with all it's processing power to do all this for me.

 

This 100% all-content website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection.

Thanks for helping me help you!

Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

 

Help Me Help You

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

 

 

15 June 2020