Photo Comparison via a Tour of Italy
iPhone 13 vs. Sony A7Rii
This year I was so excited to finally upgrade my camera devices – big time.
I went from an iPhone 6S to an iPhone 13 mini, and a Nikon D5500 to a Sony A7Rii.
So basicallyyy…my photos should be leaps and bounds better than they were last year (trying my best at this one lol.)
I also just wanted to slide in a note about the two cameras. First of all, I have the iPhone 13 Mini, which I’m pretty sure has the same cameras as a regular iPhone 13. It’s obviously not as “good” as the iPhone 13 Pro, which I know a lot of you material gworls and guys are all over.
Also, if you’re not familiar with the Sony A7 series, the Sony A7Rii that I have is an older model – a lot of bloggers these days use the A7iii. BUT the R in the name stands for resolution. So the resolution is almost double what you get in an A7ii or A7iii (A7iii is 24.2 megapixels and A7Rii is 42.4 megapixels). Not that it matters here since I’m gonna compress the photos in this post anyway haha.
Anyway, I thought it’d be interesting to compare the 2 cameras by taking exactly the same shot with both devices.
I’m not going to bore you with the same old “the best travel camera is the one that’s with you” shtick. Yes we all know the iPhone is more convenient to carry around because it’ll be on you anyways. Also, if you get a Sony alpha series camera…it’s gonna probably be really HEAVY. But in all realness, an actual physical camera is going to be better – it just is. But I’ll let you be the judge…
Test #1 – Nighttime
Location – The Colosseum in Rome
I have to say I had a lot of fun capturing evening photos in Rome. They light up the archeological sites so well it was easy capturing the glowy sites even when it was pitch dark out.
I first tried this shot with my iPhone 13 Mini:
Then to see if I could do better than my iPhone photos, I took this from the exact same angle:
The winner of test #1?
iPhone 13 Mini
Wow. I have to say I’m surprised I’m writing this, but I do believe the iPhone 13 Mini took the better photo here. I am quite impressed with the clarity and contrast even in the light areas. The color tones are really pretty too – very warm and glowy, not blown out at all. On top of all this, it was far easier to capture this shot with the iPhone! Literally a tap of a button – no tripod or support needed.
_______________________
Test #2 – Daytime
Location – Villa Borghese in Rome
Again, I first captured this shot on my iPhone 13 Mini. I zoomed in a little bit to compress the background with the foreground a bit. I’ll list the stats below the pic.
And here is the shot captured with the Sony A7Rii. Again I tried to compress the background a bit. Details below:
The winner of test #2?
Sony A7Rii
I am really happy with both images, but I have to give this one to the Sony. The colors are a bit more muted and natural which I love. The photo appears softer and more realistic while still maintaining clarity and sharpness. The background compression I was able to achieve make this photo great and also minimize distortion compared to the iPhone.
_______________________
Test #3 – Daytime
Location – Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore)
In this comparison, I made Lightroom adjustments to the Sony picture, so I thought it’d only be fair if I applied the exact same settings to the iPhone picture. Gosh these are soo close! I don’t know how I’ll pick a winner.
Below is the shot taken from the iPhone 13 Mini:
Then we have the shot from the Sony A7Rii:
The winner of test #3?
Sony A7Rii
My goodness I am shocked at just how close these two images are. I apologize that you guys can’t see them in their full resolution glory (thanks WordPress), but you’ll just have to take my word that it is incredibly hard to pick a winner and it would ultimately come down to personal preference.
In the end, I picked the Sony as the winner because I prefer how it has softer contrast and a creamier look. I also prefer the more subdued appearance of the water in the Sony image, probably thanks to my polarizer.
_______________________
Test #4 – Portrait
Location – Piazzale Michelangelo (overlooking Florence)
Now it’s pretty clear that these aren’t exactly the same shot. The subject is me so I obviously wasn’t the one taking the photos. But I still thought it could be interesting to compare!
First, here is the iPhone 13 Mini photo:
Then we have the Sony A7Rii photo:
The winner of test #4?
Sony A7Rii
Easy. To me the difference is clear, with the Sony being the winner. The image looks crisp yet ~creamy~ (yes I am going to be using that word a ton) and the color depth is amazing compared to the iPhone. Also I get really tired of looking at the oversaturated skies from iPhone pics, but I digress…
_______________________
Test #5 – Architecture
Location – Pisa, Italy
Here is the iPhone 13 Mini:
And here is the Sony A7Rii (Don’t ask me why the tower is leaning so much more in this one lol!)
The winner of test #5?
Sony A7Rii
Creamy, creamy creamy! Mmm I can’t get enough of the luscious image quality the Sony gives. Not gonna lie, the iPhone pic here looks crusty and stale. Like an old saltine cracker. That oversaturated blue sky…the hyper sharpness…bleh!
______________________________________________
My Overall Thoughts
After looking through these comparisons, I feel the Sony A7Rii photos are generally superior to the iPhone 13 Mini’s.
Once again, I am asking you to allow me to call the Sony photos “creamy.” By that I mean the iPhone’s look like they’ve been artificially sharpened, but the Sony’s have a gentleness about their edges. A soft realism. Though it doesn’t shine through when compressed for this blog post, the quality of the Sony A7Rii images are – as to be expected – far higher than the iPhone.
I had fun making this blog post! I personally feel that my Sony mirrorless full frame camera was better in most cases (surprise, surprise), but I have to say I was impressed with the way the low light photos look with the iPhone!
So in conclusion – do I think the difference is significant enough to warrant lugging around my heavy and expensive Sony A7Rii during trips?
Honestly…yes! I really am impressed with the results from the Sony. I’m sort of regretting that I didn’t lug it around more frequently actually!!
I would love to hear your thoughts! Comment on this post or comment on my accompanying Instagram post @themonthlymigrant on IG!
In the meantime, maybe you’d be interested in some of my other blog articles!
If you’re curious about the Italy trip I took to get these photos, check out this post!
Do you enjoy photography challenges? Check out this post!
My most popular blog article at the moment – open for a surprise!
