Spectre - Iphone 12 Pro

I have spent a large proportion of my life geeking out on the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos but I have to say that the capability of todays smart phones to capture beautiful images constantly surprises and amazes.

Spectre is a hand iPhone App that allows you to take ‘long’ exposures of 3, 5 or 9 seconds. It uses the iPhone in-built stabilisation to capture convincing looking long exposures hand-held.

Here is an example of a long exposure captured on my iPhone 12 Pro with Spectre

iPhone 12 Pro hand-held using the excellent Spectre Application to emulate a slow shutter speed.

This shot was taken near Skelwith Bridge in the Lake District, UK - The flowing water in this stream has been rendered quite realistically in this case and for a snap taken on a phone hand-held you can’t really complain.

iPhone replacing X-T3 Digital Camera?

I quite like the idea that I can replace my X-T3, Tripod, filters and other weighty items during hikes in the countryside. In fact, I recently made a decision to try and leave the camera bag back at base when out and about in the (usually) less than photogenic harsh light of day. - I figure I’d save the decent gear for golden hours and misty mornings.

The question is, can an iPhone replace a dedicated digital camera for shots such as the example taken above. I thought it might give the X-T3 a run for its money but when you compare the images side by side the decision to leave the camera behind is a little harder

iPhone vs X-T3 - Long Exposure of Woodland Stream

I decided to take my X-T3 out to the woods to capture the beauty of Stock Ghyll and the many waterfalls and cascades along its winding route through the Lake District countryside.

I used the Fuji X-T3 with the excellent 16-55mm and attached a Lee polarising filter. Set up on a sturdy Gitzo Tripod and took a few shots experimenting with the shutter speed.

To compare later I took out the iPhone and captured the same scene in Spectre you can see the two images below for comparison including some 100% crops

In isolation the iPhone shot doesn’t look too bad but when put side by side with the polarised shot from the X-T3 the difference is significant. The colors are far more saturated and the image overall has much more fidelity. This will not come as a surprise but it is still an interesting exercise to compare the shots

100% Crops

The crops below are 100% - 1000x1000px crops of both images. This underlines the additional fidelity provided by the X-T3.

Summary

It is pretty clear that the X-T3 easily beats the iPhone for image quality but I still think that the iPhone has produced and interesting result.

The convenience of the iPhone and ability to shoot hand-held images that make a good approximation of the effect of extended shutter speeds is interesting. I will need to consider my photography approach carefully for future trips out.