Nicephore Niepce’s first photography completely changed the way we recognize and preserve memories, moments and emotions. It goes without saying that the methods we use to capture these moments, memories, emotions etc, has been constantly evolving and transforming in to new ways to express our desire to create and share our artistic tenancies or capture portraits of people and places we cherish. Now a days its often said that the best camera to use is the one that’s with you, and just about everyone in the world has a camera, whether its a small flip phone with a 0.3 megapixel sensor or a beefy Camera on the back of a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra which boosts a massive 108 megapixel sensor. Its getting more and more apparent that once casual photographers who shot with a SLR or DSLR, are ditching their traditional cameras for a pretty attractive smart phone camera.
I have been the biggest naysayer of this trend of moving away from the DSLR since I thought it could in no way shape or form be possible that a smartphone camera would ever compare in quality to a professional DSLR. However.. I will submit that it would be nice to carry less heavy gear when walking or hiking around for hour and hours while carrying around 30 pounds of gear. I also would like to add, that I am the type of person who loves to explore and go lose myself in nature and whenever I do this, I absolutely must bring my camera with me. This also means.. going on small hikes can be slightly more challenging since my FOMAS (Fear of Missing a Shot) would make it so I would always want to grab my DSLR.. every..where.. I went. So when I saw the new Phone from Sony, the Xperia 1 mark 2. I was a little intrigued. It was promising me 3 lenses, a 16mm wide angle, a 24mm lense and a 70mm telephoto/zoom lens, with full manual control and the ability to take RAW images. The ability to control the phone’s camera in manual mode and shoot raw was introduced in a few phones in the past, I believe One Plus does this, most google phones gave you an option to shoot in raw, and there would be apps which helped you shoot raw if you absolutely must. However I was never able to get a satisfying experience with shooting in raw in most apps or phones, so I was skeptical of Sony’s attempt, captured in the Xperia 1 mk. 2. But being the photo nerd I was, and my Pixel 3 xl dying on me, I bit the bullet and took a chance with the Xperia 1 mk 2.
Camera discussion aside, the phone was absolutely magnificent when I got it. The screen, the build quality and the unique 21:9 aspect ratio made it feel like I made the right choice for my next smartphone. But I was eager to try the camera to see if it could solve my problem and cure my obsession with dragging my DSLR absolutely everywhere. After I got used to my phone and learned its limitations and functions I decided to go to a park in the area, and perform a quick test in 3 categories, a long exposure shot, a close up portrait and a landscape/ scenic picture. The first picture was a shot of a waterfall which I took with a Nikon D7500 and my xperia 1mk 2 (both images were lightly processed in lightroom).
In my opinion, I thought the Xperia 1 mk 2 held its own against a full fledged DSLR. The lack of lighting in the first image was due to the fact that I was holding the ND filter up to the camera bump, so I tried to take the image with a slightly higher iso and lower time, that way I could minimize the chance of shaking the ND filter too much. I do have to say, I was shocked that a phone was able to produce an image of this quality, and I would not normally expect a photo like this to be taken from a smart phone. I will note that both the camera and the phone were mounted on a tripod. These two images were the sharpest and most in focus pictures capture via both mediums. I did take another image with the 70mm zoom on the Sony just for kicks as well. I would have spent easily another hour or so if I could to get more perfect pictures but, I had to move on since I was slowly getting eaten alive by mosquitos.
Again, the Xperia totally held its own! I thought this image was fantastic for the 70mm lens. Most of the images I took from the 70 mm lens on the mk2, turned out pretty soft or a little off, however this photo turned out fantastic (I did not use an ND filter for this).
Next up was portraits, however in year of COVID-19 I opted to use a less conventional model for my shooting, a very hairy old girl named Sophia. I will have to say, it was nearly impossible to get her to pose the way I wanted when shooting with the Xperia so the images are not an exact comparison.
I will add, my dog is way more tuned to look at me when I have my DSLR up to my face (years of conditioning with treats). I know its not an exact comparison, but the general idea was roughly the same, getting a close up shot of Sophia. It was much easier to snap the picture on my phone, but the quality of the portrait picture in my opinion goes to the Nikon.
Lastly, a landscape shot. For this shot, I was unable to get the exact same shot on both my phone and the DSLR, but again, I tried to capture the gist of the test, and took two pictures of a landscape during golden hour.
Again, I know its not the same picture, the images from the phone were not in focus or the camera were not in focus so I was not able to get the same exact shots on two different mediums. I do hope however that with these two images I can showcase how good the Xperia 1 mk2 is at capturing landscapes. Granted we are literally being flooded with light in this picture, but non the less i feel like this phone in the right hands could give an entry level DSLR + a kit lense a run for its money.
Technical aspects of photography aside. I feel like the Xperia 1 mk 2, did a fantastic job capturing quality images. A few of my gripes of the camera on the phone, Continuous shutter is only allowed when shooting in JPEG, and it still lags occasionally when rapid firing the shutter button. additionally, some of the images appear soft when using the 70mm lens, sometimes in the 24mm lens as well. Lower light performance is not the greatest, even with the shutter speed open for a longer period of time, the Mk2 struggles a bit with focusing and capturing an image which isnt heavy on the noise. Given its small form factor and its extremely impressive optics I think I can comfortably take this phone with me in lieu of my DSLR whenever I go on the casual hike or run through parks. I will not however, be getting rid of my DSLR anytime soon. I still think we still have along way to go interms of bringing DSLR level quality to a mobile phone, but this feels like a huge step in the right direction and I cannot wait to see what Sony has in store for the future!