Mac users, we’re pleased to announce Macphun’s all-in-one photo editor Luminar is now available for just $69£52 for new users, or $59£44 for existing Macphun users.Use coupon code “PHOTOBLOG” to save another $10 on Luminar.
We rated Luminar as “Highly Recommended”. Visit the Luminar web site to try it for free.
Introduction
The Apple iPhone 7 is the latest iOS smartphone and is the follow up to last year’s iPhone 6S. It features a 12 megapixel camera, with an f/1.8 fixed length (28mm equivalent) lens. Although it has the same resolution as its predecessor, Apple claims that the camera is a “huge advancement” in comparison, and that everything is entirely new. Not only has the maximum aperture improved from the f/2.2 of the iPhone 6S, but the camera is promised to be 60% faster and 30% more efficient. Other specifications of interest to photographers include a TrueTone flash, optical image stabilisation (previously only available on the iPhone Plus model), the ability to shoot raw format photos and a 7 megapixel front-facing (selfie) camera. Apple has improved the screen to display a wider gamut of colours, and there’s also some of the same functions as brought over from the previous generation, such as Live Photos, 4K video recording, the ability to capture panoramas, slo-mo videos and timelapses. The iPhone 7 was announced at the same time as the iPhone 7 Plus. The biggest difference between the two being that the iPhone 7 Plus has a dual camera setup.
Ease of Use
Apple keeps the camera operation very simple for its iPhone cameras, and there’s not much in the way of changes from the old model. The body design of the Apple iPhone 7 phone itself is also the same.
One new feature is “lift to wake” which is available as part of iOS 10 for iPhone 6S phones and later. This basically means that as soon as you lift the phone, the display switches on without you having to press a button. From here, you can simply swipe left on the screen to be taken directly to the native camera shooting app without unlocking the phone.
You’ll be able to take as many photos as you like without unlocking the Apple iPhone 7, and you can press a small square in the bottom corner of the screen to view any you’ve taken – but unless you unlock the phone, you’ll only be able to view any images you’ve taken during that session, rather than any you’ve taken in the past.
If you’ve used an iPhone before, you’ll be familiar with the native camera app, which has relatively few options available when compared to some of the Android models currently on the market. For example, you won’t find any “pro” modes, or anything that allows you to change advanced settings such as aperture, white balance etc.
 |
| Front of the Apple iPhone 7 |
Although you can now shoot in raw format, you can’t do that through the native camera app. To do that, you’ll have to download one of the myriad other apps available for iPhone, such as Manual, which gives you access to that setting. From there you’ll be able to record photos in the universal DNG raw format.
Going back to the Apple iPhone 7’s native camera app, you have different shooting modes along the bottom of the screen (or to the right if you turn the phone on its side to shoot landscape). You switch between these modes by simply swiping. There’s Time-Lapse, Slo-Mo and Video for movie recording, and Photo, Square, and Pano for stills shooting.
The Apple iPhone 7 can shoot 4K video, but if you want to enable that you’ll need to go into the phone settings rather than activate it via the camera app itself. Annoyingly, if you want to switch back to full HD, you’ll also have to go back through the settings. Recording in 4K will eat up your memory quite quickly, so it’s best reserved only for special videos rather than every day movies.
 |
| Rear of the Apple iPhone 7 |
Along the top of the screen, or to the left in horizontal format, there’s a few more options. You can switch the flash on and off, switch HDR capture on and off, enable Live Photos, activate a timer, or choose from 8 different digital filters.
For both HDR and flash you can choose an “Auto” mode which means the camera will automatically decide for you if those modes should be enabled. Live Photos means that the camera will record a couple of seconds of video with each photo which can be played back on the iPhone, or in certain apps such as Facebook.
When you activate the timer, you have the choice of 3 seconds or 10 seconds. Either way, you’ll see a large display counter on screen counting down how long until the exposure will be tripped, and at the end, the camera will take 10 photos in quick succession. This can be useful for selfies and group shots so you’ve got different ones to choose from. The camera will automatically select which it thinks is the best one, but you can choose from the others if you prefer.
 |
| The Apple iPhone 7 – Camera Mode |
If you want to switch between using the rear camera and the selfie camera, then you simply press an icon near the shutter release and the cameras will switch over. You can continue to use all of the same features when using the front camera as when using the rear camera. If you choose to activate the flash, when you take the picture, the screen will light up to illuminate your face, rather than be a standard flash such as you’d find on the back of the camera.
For the options square and panorama, they’re pretty self explanatory. The square option is useful for framing your shots ready for Instagram if you prefer the square format. For panorama you need to sweep the phone across the scene in a steady motion and it will capture the panorama automatically.
Unlike the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone 7 just has a fixed lens, but you can activate digital zoom if necessary. To do that, you make a pinching in and out gesture on the screen itself and the zoom will be activated. In order to set the autofocus point you simply tap an area on the screen that you want to focus on – generally speaking the camera will have already chosen a focus point, but if you want to change it then this is useful.
 |
| The Apple iPhone 7 In-hand |
You’ll also see that you can change exposure compensation by dragging your finger up and down the screen when setting the AF point. This can be helpful when you’re faced with a high contrast scene.
In order to take the shot you have a couple of options. You can use the virtual button on the screen itself, or you can use one of the physical volume buttons on the side of the camera. You may find this latter way is more akin to using a “Real” camera, but you need to be careful about where you place your fingers in case you obscure the camera’s lens.
As always with iPhones, you still can’t expand the internal memory by adding a micro SD card as you can with lots of iPhones. It’s therefore worth investing in the largest memory you can afford, especially if you intend to take a lot of photos or videos. The options you have are 32GB, 128GB and 256GB. For photographers, at least the 128GB version is recommended.
Mac users, we’re pleased to announce Macphun’s all-in-one photo editor Luminar is now available for just $69£52, and now comes with 12 portrait presets created by Scott Kelby, plus 1 month of access to KelbyOne photography training.
Use coupon code “PHOTOBLOG” to save another $10 on Luminar.
We rated Luminar as “Highly Recommended”. Visit the Luminar web site to try it for free.
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 12 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.
When the light is bright, image quality of JPEGs directly from the camera is very good. The wide gamut of colours is especially vibrant when viewing the photos on the iPhone 7’s screen, but they also appear vivid and bold when viewing them on a computer.
You’d probably find it quite tricky to differentiate between shots taken with the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 6S when comparing if the light is good. However, in lower light conditions, the iPhone 7 shows a marked improvement thanks to the wider maximum aperture of the lens.
That’s not to say that low light performance is perfect, though. There’s still plenty of improvement to be made here, and it’s possible to see image smoothing appearing from mid-range ISOs like ISO 640. Still, if you’re only planning to share images at small sizes, such as online.
The filters are a fun way to experiment with different looks without having to use apps such as Instagram, while the panoramic images can be a good idea depending on the subject. Panoramas can suffer a little from jagged edges and visible joins, but again only if you really examine them closely.
Exposures are generally very pleasing, and it’s rare that you need to actually just the exposure compensation. Leaving HDR switched on to “Auto” is a good idea, as it helps to maintain detail across the frame that might otherwise have been lost to shadows, but manages to do it without looking artificial or fake. Automatic white balance copes well in a range of different lighting conditions, including artificial lighting – sometimes the colours can creep towards looking a little yellowish. You can’t change the white balance setting in the native app, but if you get one of those which allows manual control you could alter it if you prefer.
Although you can shoot in raw format, again through a third party app, there’s probably not a particularly strong argument for doing so. Yes, you could take extra control over the shot in post production, but how often you’d want to do that with basic snaps from a phone like this is questionable.
Noise
There are 7 ISO settings available on the Apple iPhone 7. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with the JPEG version on the left and the RAW on the right.
|
JPEG |
RAW |
|
|
ISO 32 (100% Crop) |
ISO 32 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 50 (100% Crop) |
ISO 50 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
|
|
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
 |
Focal Range
The Apple iPhone 7’s lens provides a fixed focal length of 28mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.
|
28mm |
 |
Chromatic Aberrations
The Apple iPhone 7 handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review, with limited purple fringing mainly present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
|
Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Macro
The Apple iPhone 7 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera.
|
Macro |
 |
Flash
The flash settings on the Apple iPhone 7 are Off, On and Auto. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
|
Flash Wide Off |
Flash Wide On |
 |
 |
And here are a couple of portrait shots.
|
Flash Off |
Flash On |
 |
 |
Filters
The Apple iPhone 7 offers 8 different digital filter effects.
|
Chrome |
Fade |
 |
 |
|
Instant |
Mono |
 |
 |
|
Noir |
Process |
 |
 |
|
Tonal |
Transfer |
 |
 |
Panorama
The Apple iPhone 7 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by ‘sweeping’ with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera automatically does all the processing and stitching.
|
Panorama |
 |