How well does the latest version of Apple flagship iPhone do against the top rated pro-somer camera on the market. Lee Morris of Fstoppers gives us a head-to-head video quality battle between the iPhone X and the Panasonic GH5.
Lee compares video shot a 4K 30fps, 4K 60fps, and 1080p at 120fps to get a look at how well the slow-mo footage look from each. Both the iPhone X and the GH5 were mounted to the same camera gimbal stabilizer to get an exact replication for the results.
We were impressed with the iPhone X’s results. It held it’s own with the Panasonic Gh5 even in shadows and did well not to blow out highlights as most mobile phone will. For some unknown reason the phone was able to produce a much puncher color reproduction without having to an anything in post production.
When zooming in on each camera’s videos you can clearly see degradation from the iPhone X because of the much lower bitrate. The GH5 can record at up the 400mbits so there is no way the iPhone with it’s 54Mpbs can match the quality.
The iPhone X video specs here:
The H.264 4K videos give you a bitrate of around 46Mbps, but audio is recorded in mono at 96Kbps in AAC format. Also, Apple may be pioneering the 4K video with 60fps but it’s still giving you mono audio capturing. We wish Apple would really have a look at what LG and Nokia are doing in the audio field.
The 1080p videos come at 30fps and have a bitrate of 16 Mbps, with the same audio, while the 60fps ones give you a 23Mbps bitrate.
The H.265 4K videos at 60fps bring a bitrate of 54Mbps, while the audio is also mono. The 4K at 30fps clips are recorded at 24Mbps which is half the H.264 files. The 1080p 30fps and 60fps bitrates are also halved at 8.5 and 12.5 Mbps respectively.
If phones low light ability gets much better and they get an optical zoom it will put an end to most low end video cameras.
@timmy I doubt that will happen anytime soon. I wish it would. I still love my GX85 and I don’t think a camera like that will be replaced by a phone anytime soon. And , I own a Samsung Galaxy S8.