Just How Much Has The iPhone’s Camera Improved Over The Years? This Brilliant Comparison Shows Us

In recent years, the cameras Apple has packed into its iPhones have been the “one to beat”, but usually, their quality is compared to other top-flight phones of the current generation. What’s less clear is just how much the iPhone’s camera has evolved over time. While it’s obvious that, like the phone itself, the camera is going to improve with each generation, you might just be surprised at how stark the improvements actually are.

Yup – that’s one of each generation iPhone seen below, dating back to the original that was released back in 2007. The collection belongs to Lisa Bettany, who is the co-founder of tap tap tap, creators if the Camera+ and magicam iOS apps. She put each phone’s camera through a collection of tests to see how each one stacks up. The comparisons are made intuitive with the ability to easily compare all nine versions of any given image.

One thing that will become clear across all of the examples is that the original iPhone and 3G had awful cameras (not to say that other phones of the time didn’t). The shots captured are blurry and faded. When the 4s came along, it dramatically enhanced both the clarity of the shots and the lighting. From there on out, each iPhone iteration improved the last phone’s camera ever-so-slightly. Below, you can see an example of the phone’s macro capabilities; the first two iPhones are ridiculously blurry, while the most current releases are nice and crisp.

Here’s another shot that’s downright impressive. This helicopter looks discolored and blurry on the first three iPhones, but gradually improves from that point on. It’s interesting how the 6s even manages to differentiate itself quite well from the 6, although the gains are far less pronounced than those of earlier generations.

Another great test is with portraits. Once again, the older iPhones struggle with scene brightness and generally give a blurrier result, whereas later iPhones dramatically improve the overall composition.

It’s impressive to me just how much better a camera can become over a single generation. While the iPhone 6 has a good camera, and the 6s improves on it ever-so-slightly, once you compare the two side-by-side, you’d never want to settle for the older generation. With that being the case, unless you’re wanting to buy the latest 6s or 6s Plus, your wallet might thank you for not checking out the full comparison.