iPhone 8 Plus vs. 7 Plus: Dual rear camera shootout
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The IPHONE 7 PLUS takes great photos and video.
But now it has a younger sibling, the IPHONE 8 PLUS with larger camera sensors, a faster processor, and a new software trick called portrait lighting mode.
Mode.
But just how much better is the 8 Plus?
To find out, I took them around San Fransisco for a good old-fashioned iPhone camera shootout.
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First stop was Dolores Park in The Mission.
Overall, photos and videos from the 8 Plus had a touch more detail Saturation and dynamic range than those from the 7 Plus.
Here's a panning view of Dolores Park.
The video from the 8 Plus handles the highlights of the palm trees better and has a more tad more saturation in the greens of the grass and the blues of the sky.
The same is true with photos.
Look at this picture still of the cat taken with the seven plus.
Now, here she is taken with the eight plus.
Both photos are good.
But the one from the eight plus, has a bit more detail in her fur.
And a slightly wider dynamic range in the colors.
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And then, there's portrait.
Portrait Mode.
It was first introduced on the 7 Plus and uses the two rear cameras to stimulate an artistic blurry background.
The 8 Plus improves on this by adding new lighting effects which are currently in beta.
Portrait Mode photos taken in the 8 Plus pop a bit more than those from the 7 Plus.
Plus.
Some of the new lighting effects are better than others with natural light, studio light, and contour light working the best.
Stage light and stage light mono which completely blackout the background weren't consisted.
They often look a bit Picasso like and not in a good way.
But when a stage light effect shot did work Pictures looked stunning.
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My next stop was atop Twin Peaks to watch the sunset over the city.
Look, I don't like using a flash on any phone.
It's distracting.
and your subject turns into a glowing white light zombie against a dark background.
But, Apple addressed this on the eight and eight-plus with a new feature called slow sync flash.
Basically, the camera's shutter stays open longer, making the background look less dark.
And this is hands down my favorite feature on the eight-plus, and it works really well.
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But there are times where flash is not an option.
Low-light photos and videos from both the 7 Plus and 8 Plus were noisy especially when shot on the telephoto lens.
But the 8 Plus seemed to apply noise reduction smarter, cleaning up textures and patterns better than the 7 Plus.
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Next, I stop by a nearest cafe for an Espresso and to test out some slow motion video.
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The 8 Plus triumphs here being able to shoot 240 frames per second in 1080p compare to the 7 Plus is.
120 frames per second.
The results looks sharper and the motion more dramatic especially when someone is juggling potatoes.
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If you want the best iPhone photos and videos, it is definitely iPhone 8 Plus.
But if you're trying to decide between buying the 8 Plus and the 7 Plus I'd recommend giving the 7 Plus some serious consideration.
Image quality is really close to that of the 8 Plus, and if you can live with less storage, the 7 Plus is cheaper.
Of course, in November, everything changes.
The iPhone X will be available, giving us a chance to do another camera shootout.
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