Samsung S9 vs iPhone 6 Plus

[Stu]

Having picked up a FoneMate cheaply off eBay, plus upgrading to a Samsung S9 recently I thought it would be interesting to see the difference in the camera capability.

I got the Samsung largely because of its better low light performance camera and also the fact that using Android means it should operate with my AZGTi Mount much more easily.

So, simple test, last night I was out with the Tak on the Ercole mount just looking at a few doubles mainly. I happened to be in the area of the Coathanger cluster so took an image with both phones to compare. It wasn’t a scientific comparison, but I did adjust the settings (ISO and exposure) so that a similar number of stars were visible. This was using a 24mm Panoptic which has the diopter attachment allowing the FoneMate to attach.

iPhone image first, Samsung second. The difference in background noise level is quite dramatic! Just shows how quickly sensor technology is advancing, and I believe smartphones are an important driver which can only help other imaging products improve.

The third image is a ten second shot, shows the vignetting I get with the phone adaptor, but noise is still well controlled I think? I managed to catch a satellite going through the image too which was cool. If I used a cable release, plus popped the scope on the GP mount so it tracked I’m sure I could get some better results, possibly even some more interesting objects.

Last two are attempts, using the iPhone, to capture the Double Double. It looked lovely last night at around x120, splitting visually from below x100 despite average seeing. These images needed over x200 with the Nag zoom to show the split in the image, hand holding the phone at the eyepiece.

Visually last night, Izar split cleanly despite the average seeing. Delta Cygnus split too, but that was much more of a challenge because of the conditions. Pi Aquilae was a little clearer, probably because it has components which are more equal in brightness.

Remarkably, given the bright sky, M57 was very easy to pick up, and showed a clear ring at around x100. M13 sparkled away with averted vision, surprising levels of resolution of stars given the conditions.

As always, my sincere apologies to any genuine imagers out there for inflicting this on you  

Nice little session, first non planetary for quite a while!

[Davey-T]

My sons partner recently swopped her iPhone for the Samsung, seduced by the adverts for the camera but as a phone it drove her bananas, only lasted a week before going back to the iPhone 

Dave

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

My sons partner recently swopped her iPhone for the Samsung, seduced by the adverts for the camera but as a phone it drove her bananas, only lasted a week before going back to the iPhone 

Dave

I can fully understand that Dave. At the moment, my iPhone still works perfectly well so I’m mainly using the Samsung as a camera and for the AZGTi. I had a bit of a panic after Lorna knocked a glass of Apple juice over the iPhone and it stopped working, but a few days in the airing cupboard and it is back to normal thankfully! I guess given the brand, Lorna made a good choice....