iPhone 6s camera review: switzerland
Shot on iPhone 6s
The gear we used can be found at the bottom of the page… and BTS video coming soon ;-)
iPhone 6s Plus Camera Review: Switzerland
Shot on iPhone 6 ;-)
We’ve spent the last week in Switzerland rigorously testing the new iPhone 6s & 6s Plus cameras — pushing them to the max and learning how the iPhone 6s upgrade affects photographers. We have two 6s's and two 6s Plus's, in all four colors!
We’ve shot a lot on the 6s. In fact, we’ve already shot 2121 photos + 55 panoramas + 237 time-lapses + 1310 videos (including Live Photos)!
All along the way we’ve been carefully comparing the results to the iPhone 6.
There's all kinds of new technology packed into the 6s, so we set out to answer the same question as usual:
How does this make my pictures
(and videos) better than before?
The goal of our review is to see what the iPhone can do primarily as a standalone device, so all the gear used for this project can easily fit into a messenger bag — no big dSLR lenses, no fancy stabilizers, and no off-camera mics. Mobile photography’s unique advantage is, well, mobility, so we fight hard to maintain it. You can find the tripod and iPhone 6s tripod mount we use at the bottom of this post.
Camera-Relevant Upgrades
> Optical Image Stabilization for video (Update: I've learned OIS is only active on 30FPS video)
> Resolution increase for still + motion
> Live Photos
> New water proofing
> Selfie Camera flash + resolution increase
Game Changer:
Video Optical Image Stabilization
Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for video is hands down the most significant improvement in the iPhone 6s Plus camera upgrade. The 6 Plus has OIS for stills (mainly helpful with low-light photos), but it wasn’t active when shooting a video or time-lapse. Now, with the 6s Plus only (not the 6s), we have active optical stabilization of video and on both devices we have digital stabilization of time-lapse and slow-mo content… the improvement is dramatic.
The time-lapse piece at the top utilized the Digital Image Stabilization significantly. The ability to create stable time-lapses anywhere, anytime, opens up so many doors. I can't wait to see what everyone creates with this.
(Update: I've learned OIS is only active on 30FPS video. What's pictured here, a time-lapse, is Digital Image Stabilization.)
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Notes about stabilization
Note 1: I’m a huge fan of Instagram’s Hyperlapse app, which utilizes the accelerometers inside the iPhone to offer insanely great software stabilized video, so I was really curious to see how stable the footage might be when combining Apple’s built-in OIS with Hyperlapse. However, we quickly discovered Hyperlapse didn't work with the iPhone 6s while we were there, but they released an update on October 6, so I can't wait to see how it works!
Note 2: Time-lapses are now digitally stabilized, but still 1080p (1920x1080 @ 30FPS)
Note 3: Motion video can now be shot w/ the following settings:
> 1280x720 @ 30 FPS (720p HD)
> 1920 x 1280 @ 30FPS (1080p HD)
> 1920 x 1280 @ 60 FPS (1080p HD)
> 3840 x 2160 @ 30 FPS (4K)
Slow motion inherently makes video feel more stable, and now with stabilization active on slo-mo video as well, shooting handheld is rock solid. The following two shots are handheld.
> 1920x1080 @ 120FPS (previously this was 1280x720 @ 120FPS)
> 1280x720@240FPS
Note 4: Video settings can’t be changed in the native camera app. Change them in Settings > Photos & Camera > Record Slo-mo.
> Pro tip: I discovered you can use Siri to quickly switch to your camera settings. Just say, “Hey Siri, open camera settings.” We found ourselves switching shooting modes quite a bit based on our environment, so this little trick can help save a lot of time.
Note 5: We noticed a minimal crop (5–10%) on the 6s / 6s Plus in video mode. This is related to the new built-in stabilization features.
Note 6: We still prefer to shoot most video content in 1080p @ 60 FPS because it looks crisp/smooth, takes less space, and gives us the option to drop into half-speed slo-mo when needed.
