It is a cloudy morning and Scarlett is sitting next to a window. I decided to take advantage of the diffuse natural light to compare two of my cameras, a Nikon Z 5 and a Google Pixel 7 Pro. Let’s start with a side-by-side of the two with the Nikon Z 5 on the left and the Pixel 7 Pro on the right. You can click on this image (or any of the ones on my blog) to see it larger.
Two things struck me right away. First, the Pixel made everything sharp, from the near edge of the bird’s wing to the text on the plaque on the wall in the background. Second, the Nikon did a better job with the exposure and the colors.
Here is a second side-by-side, zoomed in to examine the level of detail in the bird’s face. The Nikon did a better job than the Pixel of capturing detail in the feathers around the bird’s ear and on top of it’s head. At this magnification, you can see the compromises that the AI in the Pixel has introduced. There is a “smudged” area on the right side of the eye for no obvious reason; other parts of the face next to this area are sharp.
I shot both photos pretty simply. I took the picture with the Pixel first. I selected 5x zoom because the phone has a separate camera and lens for that zoom level. I tapped on the bird’s eye on the phone’s screen to tell the camera app where to focus.
Then I took the same picture with the Nikon, using my 85mm lens because the focal length was close to the same and it would open up to the same aperture. I set the focus area to the bird’s eye. I used M mode, setting the exposure to F/3.5 and 1/250th second and letting the camera adjust the ISO.
In my judgement, the Nikon gave me what I was aiming for: accurate colors, properly exposed, with the bird’s face drawing the viewer’s attention. The Pixel gave me a good snapshot, with everything sharp and without requiring me to make any decisions.
Here are the original photos, straight out of the cameras.
Download the original images with these links.
- Comparison screen snapshot: Screenshot from 2022-12-11 11-02-34.jpg
- Zoomed in comparison screen snapshot: Screenshot-from-2022-12-11-11-43-01.jpg
- Nikon Z 5 photo: 2022-12-11_04-28-46.jpg
- Google Pixel 7 Pro photo: PXL_20221211_162635643.jpg
Very interesting that, even with the faster shutter speed, the Nikon blurs the background more than the Pixel. I’d be curious to see side-by-side photos with equivalent shutter speeds, or with equivalent ISOs.
(This comment made by someone with much more experience in measurement than photography, so it may reveal stunning ignorance.)
The blurred background in the Nikon image is intentional and is due to the shallow depth-of-field. This looks like a pretty good intro to DoF and F-stops. https://photographylife.com/what-is-depth-of-field
I often shoot at a low F-stop which makes the background less distracting by making it a bit blurry.
You’re right. It would be interesting to see a more exact comparison. However, cameras these days involve so much software that they defy simple comparisons. In trying to make this concise enough for a comment, I realize that it needs to be it’s own blog post. I’ll write that soon.