Travelin' Bud Loc: New Mexico, Central Ohio & Eastern Kentucky

I keep watching the commercials about the new iPhone, showing examples of the camera's "Night Mode". I have 2 questions.

1) For those of you who have the new phone, is it really that good?

2) Do any DSLRs have a similar feature?

I'm just curious. Lord knows I can't afford either one. Thanks!

GeneV Loc: Lampasas, Texas

Just tonight I was wondering the same thing. Is it that good or just TV hype??? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Gene

User ID

Many cameras have night mode.
There are different night modes.
To me, only the regular controls
make sense. "Scene" modes are
based on algorithms that usually
don't think the same way I think.

I'd spoze much depends on what
you do or where you go at night.

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tjw47 Loc: Michigan

Night mode - time exposure on tripod. Use exposure peaking or view graph to not overexpose highlights.

You also could take multiple exposures to do HDR to increase exposure range. ( Stars will move )

DSLR'S will do better do to Iphone's low ISO...

bleirer

On some cameras and phones night mode takes 4 rapid shots handheld then averages them to produce a single jpeg. Moving subjects can cause a problem. Of course you can take the 4 shots and align and average in post on any camera.

Chadp Loc: Virginia Beach

It is pretty good. It uses a 2 or 3 second exposure. But it’s also doing some type of computational photography as a moving subject will not show as much blur as you would have normally at that exposure length. I actually think it is taking both a video and multiple photos and doing some type of computational photography.

This was taken using night mode with at least a 2 second exposure. The car was traveling around 25mph.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

I saw that add too an wondered. I know some people with the new iphone, but haven't seen any pictures they've taken with night mode. I know the portrait mode makes photos look pretty good though. Might have to ask and see if they've used the night mode and what they think.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

Very nice pic. There must be quite a lot of computational things going on for that 2-3 second exposure. Obviously the makers would know that a majority of their users would be hand holding, and even holding a phone still that long would be difficult to not have a complete blurry mess. Interesting what phone makers are able to do with the cameras in them now.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I have an older digital that has Night Mode and literally can shoot in pitch-black darkness. I demonstrated this to some SWAT team friends of mine and they were not only impressed but rather spooked that someone could see them in the dark.
--Bob

Travelin' Bud Loc: New Mexico, Central Ohio & Eastern Kentucky

Make & Model, please.

Travelin' Bud Loc: New Mexico, Central Ohio & Eastern Kentucky

I shoot with a Canon T6i and the only "night mode" that I can find is SCN (Scene). I almost always need to use a tripod or the very least a solid rest in order to get acceptable results and these are usually at dusk/sunset, not at night.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Sony DSC-F-707
--Bob

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

In my mind, there are two responses to this question:

First...the cell phone industry is both healthy and huge. There is dynamic competition between the manufacturers (at lease the main ones), and they generate sufficient revenue and profit to pay for substantial amounts of leading edge research and development. Their work on cameras several years ago began to pretty thoroughly debunk the notion that low light photography requires large sensors with gigantic individual sensing elements. My hope is that at least some of the work that they are doing continues to seep over into the full size dedicated purpose camera industry.

Second...I work with high school kids every day. Many of them have learned to use the cameras in their phones to produce technically and artistically excellent photographs. Some of them then come to embrace the Nikon DSLRs that the school provides, or to borrow their parents' cameras, or occasionally to buy or receive as a gift a camera of their own. They continue to create ever better photographs, both technically and artistically. The same is true with video...starting with their phones and progressing to dedicated equipment including steadicam grips and LED panel lighting, as examples.

Bottom line...if we want to insure the continued life and health of our profession and hobby, we need to stop polarizing ourselves over equipment and methods. We need to bury our misplaced arrogance around cell phone cameras. We need to learn more about all of the methods, encourage those who follow a path different from our own, and seek to support and develop those who share our interests if not our techniques.

BebuLamar

I actually like the night mode on my IPhone 11. It works quite well.

steve33 Loc: Yarmouth MA

The new galaxy s20 ultra is coming out with a 108 MP camera with 10x optical zoom, and 100x digital zoom. Digital zoom should be ok since croppping would still end up with a 10+ MP picture. In low light, the phone combines 9 pixels into one. Which leaves you with a 12MP photo . Sounds pretty good, but at $1400.