iPhone vs $2000 Pro Camera — How Close Are They Really?

I constantly see articles or videos proclaiming that iPhones are better than traditional cameras or that traditional cameras will always be superior to the iPhone’s camera system. So it’s great to see a measured opinion – with plenty of comparisons – from someone who clearly loves shooting with both pieces of hardware.

That’s exactly what designer and creator Oliur has done with his latest video and blog post.

I took the new iPhone 17 Pro and the Fujifilm X100VI out with me, shot the same scenes, edited everything the same way I normally do, and then mixed them up to see whether anyone could guess which was which.

Some of the results genuinely surprised me.

I originally posted the challenge on X to see who could figure out which camera was which, and out of all the comments, only one person got them all right.

What’s striking is how, despite the Fuji camera’s evident technical prowess, it’s not so simple:

Technically, the Fuji should win. But in real-world photos — especially the kind most people share online — the gap isn’t as big anymore.

While the blog version is good, I’d recommend Oliur’s YouTube version for more in-depth breakdowns and an interesting conclusion.

The iPhone’s convenience and computational power make it competitive in almost every normal scenario. If someone told me they rely solely on their phone for photography today, I wouldn’t argue with them.

As someone who loves photography but doesn’t want to commit to a dedicated camera, it’s good to know that after some adjustments, the iPhone’s input can now result in an output that is competitive with a traditional camera – at least for my use cases.