FUJI X100 vs IPHONE 11 PRO / Afternoon Shots Around Sydney Central Station

Today⁠ — just for fun ⁠— I carried my 2 favourite photography cameras: the good old Fuji X100 and the brand new iPhone 11 Pro for some quicky street photography!

The aim is to have some kind of photo quality comparisons between the two. We can say that the X100 is behaving more like a real camera, and quality should be superior.

We do know that by now, the Fuji X100 original (8 years old in 2019) is so much slower compared to the iPhone, however, X100 still has advantage of larger sensor overall.

The iPhone 11 Pro now has a plus to be able to shot at low light situations using "Night Mode" that is triggered automatically. Slower shutter and extra processing reducing noise.

Both cameras are handheld during this photo session. The photos were taken at around 6 PM. The sky is still blue and in theory it's the perfect twilight hour, spring season.

I am not using the iPhone 11 Pro Ultra Wide or Telephoto Lens, but simply the Wide lens to match the Fuji X100 lens. As for now, only Wide lens can take Night Shot.

LOCATION

As for location today, I choose the small Belmore park nearby Central Station. There is a little tunnel and some cars. I did not take photos of train or tram passing by. I should have. There are some people always around this place. In general it is pretty relaxing place, there are few homeless, normally you should be pretty safe, just watch your bags.

THE PHOTOS

PHOTO 001

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 400 - 4.25mm  -0.04 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - 0 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/20s

PHOTO 002

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 800 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -0.33 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/7s

PHOTO 003

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 640 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - 0 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/9s

PHOTO 004

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 500 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/33s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/40s

PHOTO 005

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 500 4.25mm 0 ev ƒ/1.8 1/50s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/75s

PHOTO 006

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 640 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/13s

PHOTO 007

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 640 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s 

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - 1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/15s

PHOTO 007

IPHONE 11 PRO:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8

ISO 500 - 4.25mm - 0 ev - ƒ/1.8 - 1/25s

X100:

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/25s

CONCLUSIONS

Below are some of my notes:

• The iPhone has a nicer overall High Dynamic Range, this is without having to worry about RAW. 
• I actually did use RAW of the Fuji X100 and have "better dynamic range" photos that I could process to match the iPhone. However, I did not use iPhone RAW, I could have used Halide App to take RAW.
• Fuji X100 being real camera of course does its usual slow shutter, I am simply using the automatic setup. I could have setup the exposure better, etc.
• iPhone camera is very, very fast. X100 is much slower and I could easily introduce blur. Not the case with iPhone.
• X100 still has that nice richer and deeper color film look compared to iPhone. Not sure why. It could be the CCD or camera sensor thing?
• iPhone 11 Photos in the dark is so much cleaner now. iPhone photo format is HEIF, not JPEG, so probably better compression? 

ADDITIONAL NOTES: 

I really could have taken better photos with the Fuji X100 camera, it's just that I have been using iPhone too much and while doing this photo shot, I was too clumsy (not patience enough) and introduces blur etc. I also have slight slow focusing issue with X100. I miss getting a proper focusing occasionally. X100 is well know for slow focusing.

It is slightly embarrassing for me not to take proper photos with the Fuji X100. Maybe the ISO needs to be higher. Sorry about this 😅. Next time I will try to do better!

I wonder if I matched both camera settings whether I could get a more similar shots. In term of "point and shoot" actually the iPhone is a clear winner. It is really fast for photography and one does not need to think too much about photo settings. It's seriously "cheating".

On top of this, the iPhone actually take Live Photos (yes, I have it enabled always), so I have some extra video data.

With RAW photography and a bit of editing for both iPhone 11 Pro and Fuji X100 might be able to boost the photos slightly.

EXTRA PHOTOS

I took a few extra photos. Sometimes with photography, I think a mistake like blurry shots, etc is actually ... interesting.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100

ISO 500 - 23mm - -1 ev - ƒ/2 - 1/7s