iPhone 11 Pro Diary

I had only a few minutes to play with the iPhone 11 Pro camera on release day, taking just a few hand-held iPhone night photos to test Night Mode.

But a couple of readers made a good point in response. Although the vast, vast majority of iPhone photos will be handheld, it wasn’t fair to compare the results against a DSLR or mirrorless camera when those were tripod-mounted 30-second exposures. For a fair comparison, I should also mount the iPhone on a tripod, and let it also use its longest-available (pseudo) shutter speed…

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In my iPhone 11 Pro Diary pieces to date, there’s been one consistent theme: it’s all about the cameras. In particular, I wanted to know whether the combination of ultra-wide-angle lens and Night Mode might enable the iPhone to serve as the only camera I need when traveling?

Friday night gave me a few minutes to play around with Night Mode. We were on our way home from the theatre, so these are just a few very quick snapshots, but they give a decent initial sense of how well the Night Mode copes late at night…

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The iPhone 11 Pro camera module has been a source of controversy ever since the first renders were seen. Many complained that this was the ugliest camera bump yet. Some felt the entire square block was unappealing, while others hated the triangular camera arrangement within the square.

My own view was somewhat neutral. Regular readers will know that I’m not a fan of camera bumps at all. I’d far rather the phone were slightly thicker to allow the camera to be flush. But given that Apple has gone this route, I had three thoughts about it – and two of those thoughts turned out to be wrong once I took delivery of my shiny matte new iPhone…

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We’ve already seen a bunch of iPhone 11 Pro sample photos from both Apple and independent reviewers, and there will be more to come for sure.

The ones I’ve read so far have really whetted my appetite for the new camera capabilities…

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I wrote back in July about ‘the feature that will likely have me buy the iPhone 11,’ namely a wide-angle lens.

A wide-angle lens was the one missing camera feature for me. The photo above, and the gallery below, are all shots taken with a wide-angle lens (in this case a Sigma 10-20mm on a Nikon D3). None of those shots would have been possible on any current iPhone. Adding a wide-angle lens would make the iPhone a much more versatile camera.

And that’s what we saw yesterday…

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I didn’t think I’d be very likely to buy the iPhone 11. My plan to date has been to hold out another year with my iPhone X.

The iPhone XS didn’t offer enough to persuade me to upgrade last year, and the rumors to date for this year have made the 2019 iPhones sound rather like another S year. With a much bigger update likely in 2020, including 5G support, the sensible plan seemed to be to wait until then.

But something we learned yesterday through a 9to5Mac exclusive will likely be enough to persuade me to upgrade this year …

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