Should I replace the iPhone 8 Plus for the iPhone 11? When Singtel sent a $120 voucher to sweeten the deal for renewing my expiring 2 year contract, that sealed the deal. The question then turned to whether to get the iPhone 11 or the 11 Pro? I got a new iphone 11 recently and am happy to say that the new iPhone 11 food photos turned out great.
iPhone 8 Plus vs iPhone 11 or the iPhone 11 Pro
The 64 GB iPhone 8 Plus was the best iPhone I have had thus far. It had a large screen, a good camera with two lenses, a long battery life and was fully functional for the entire two years of its life. One reason to let it go was its resale value. The 8 Plus is apparently still in demand and is being sold new at Apple. Singtel took it in at a trade in value of $350. My friends tell me I can get a better price elsewhere. But I am too lazy to shop around and did the deal at the same time at Comcentre at Somerset Road. With trade-in and the Singtel voucher I paid the balance of around $240 for a new 128GB iPhone 11.
So the next question was whether to get the 11 or the Pro. Budget wise, the Pro costs a few hundred more. There are various differences but the main attraction to me was its three forward lenses as compared to the 11’s two. The first two lenses are the same. The third lens that separates the two is a telephoto lens. Since I seldom need to take shots from long range or human portraits, I decided I could do without it.
My new iPhone 11 food photos look very sharp
This post is written to share a user’s experience and is not intended to be a technical review of the iPhone 11. The photos have been slightly cropped and edited to make them look good, using the free Photos software that comes with the iPhone and on the Mac.
When I started using the new iPhone, I found the pictures to have a high level of clarity. The pictures with the wide lens look very sharp. I was impressed by these new iphone 11 food photos taken at a recent dim sum lunch. The jelly and the reflections on the place were so clear (above picture). The translucent skin of the steamed dumplings (picture below) were reproduced delicately accurate.
The Ultra Wide Angle Lens
The two lenses on the iPhone 11 are the ultra wide and wide. The “ultra wide” lens with ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view is the new feature. The “wide” is the normal lens with ƒ/1.8 aperture. I think the approximate 35mm equivalent focal length is 16mm and 26mm respectively. I find the wide and super wide angle very useful for taking food pictures and pictures in restaurants.
The photo above is taken with the wide lens and is what we are used to as the normal lens. Switching to the ultra wide lens (picture below), I could take a picture of half the table and the restaurant context. The 120° field of view is close to that of the human eye.
Here are pictures taken of the restaurant with the wide lens (above) and the ultra wide (below). Apart from the new iPhone 11 food photos, the ultra wide is also great for group dining shots in the confined space of a restaurant. I realised that the ultra wide lens is wide enough to have the fisheye lens distortion (see the white column on the right). Care have to be taken when tilting the camera to avoid the bending effect. Alternatively the fish eye effect can be used intentionally for nice effects.
The images taken using the wide lens seems to be sharper than the ultra wide. I assume that the six‑element lens of the former is better than the 5-element lens of the latter. The optical image stablisation feature of the wide lens may have also smoothed out my shaky hands.
Portrait Mode on the iPhone 11
The iPhone 8 Plus also has a portrait mode but I think the one on the iPhone 11 has a more pronounced blurring of the background. This was used to great effect to have the yam rolls pop up from the background (picture above) and the roast duck from the rest of the picture (picture below).
People may not like to have their photos taken and neither do we like to have them in the background. The portrait mode on the iPhone 11 provides a win-win solution as it allows us to easily blur out our fellow diners at the next table into part of the bokkeh.
My new iPhone 11 food photos turned out great. I am told that the video quality is also much better than the iPhone 8 Plus. This is something I will investigate further.
The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog
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