Hey guys it’s Sagar from Tecworkz, and in
this video let us compare the cameras on the
OnePlus Nord with the one on the new iPhone
SE.
We have over 75 image and video samples from
both these phones, so make sure you watch
the complete video.
These phones are not exactly competing with
each other, yet some of you guys asked me
to compare the cameras on them.
Nord starts at Rs.27,999 and the new iPhone
SE now starts at Rs.35,999.
So there is a Rs.8000 price difference between
these 2.
I know Nord is supposed to start at 25K Rs.
but that variant is not out yet, so I will
consider its current pricing.
At this price, iPhone SE gets a single 12
megapixel camera with F/1.8 aperture and Optical
image stabilisation on its back, and that’s
it.
You don’t get a wide angle camera or some
other useless macro or depth sensor.
Just 1 camera and that’s it.
OnePlus Nord on the other hand gets a quad
camera setup on its back.
Primary camera gets a 48 megapixel sensor
with F/1.8 aperture and Optical Image stabilisation.
Then there is an 8 megapixel sensor with F/2.25
aperture and an ultra wide angle lens.
Followed by a 2 megapixel macro camera with
F/2.4 aperture and a 5 megapixel depth sensor
again with F/2.4 aperture.
At the front, iPhone SE gets a 7 megapixel
camera with F/2.2 aperture.
OnePlus Nord gets 2 camera at the front.
Main one gets a 32 megapixel sensor with F/2.5
aperture and the 2nd one gets an 8 megapixel
sensor with F/2.5 aperture and an ultra wide
angle lens.
If you want a better look at the camera interface
on both these phones, I suggest you guys check
out my dedicated camera reviews of both these
phones.
I will leave card to them on the top right
corner of the screen, and also link them in
the description section.
Now before we move on to the image samples,
if you are new to this channel, make sure
to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon
next to it.
That way you won’t miss out on any of the
amazing videos on this channel.
As always let us start with the day time images.
There are plenty of details in these daytime
shots.
Although the SE has a lower resolution sensor,
it doesn’t feel that its images are showing
less details compared to the Nord’s higher
resolution primary camera.
There is more contrast in the images from
the Nord, so the shadows in its images appear
a bit darker.
Whereas you can see a lot of details in the
shadows in the iPhone’s image.
Images from both the phones have a different
look, OnePlus Nord tends to capture colour
colour tones, whereas the iPhone SE captures
naturally warm colour tones.
This is an indoor shot in day time.
Both have captured a lot of details, but when
we zoom in, we see more details in the darker
part of the stairway, in the image from the
iPhone SE compared to the Nord.
There is a bit more noise in iPhone SE’s
images when we shoot in diffused lighting
conditions.
I took this image at sunrise, and as you can
see OnePlus Nord tried to add a lot more light
in the scene, whereas the iPhone SE captured
the scene exactly as it was.
Again we can see the Nord adding more contrast
to the shot, and SE showing more details in
the shadows.
Nord tries to over expose some of the shots,
so you might need to pull the brightness slider
down manually for some of these shots.
Colours, specially the greens are more natural
in the images from the iPhone SE.
Actual colours of the scene were close to
how the iPhone captured them.
Colour is a personal choice and everyone perceives
them in a different way, so which one of these
images you like will depend on your colour
preference.
I like natural looking colours from the iPhone,
but your choice might be different, and that
is completely fine.
To make sure that these phones capture the
best dynamic range in all situations, I left
the SmartHDR on the iPhone SE and the UltraShot
HDR on the OnePlus Nord on auto, for all of
my shots.
As we have seen in some of the shots before,
thanks to the SmartHDR, iPhone SE captures
brighter shadows compared to the Nord.
Both phones are doing a good job in these
high dynamic range demanding situations.
On the iPhone, you can see the smartHDR at
work in the viewfinder, while on the Nord,
you have to wait until after you have clicked
the image, to see if it has done a good job
or not.
I am actually surprised to see the iPhone
SE doing a better job here.
I thought OnePlus Nord would be better at
these HDR shots.
This tells us, good image processing is more
important than having a higher resolution
sensor.
Don’t get me wrong, Nord id doing a pretty
good job in these images, it’s just that
the iPhone SE is even better.
Both phones do a very good job, when we capture
close up shots.
Subject is in sharp focus, and since both
have a wide aperture, background gets very
nice optical blur.
Since the main sensor on the Nord is larger,
the background in its close up shots is blurred
out a bit more.
The difference is not much, but the iPhone
SE is faster at setting the focus on a nearby
object.
If you want to get even closer to your subject,
OnePlus Nord gets a 2 megapixel macro camera.
It lets you get much closer to the subject
and still lets you set the focus.
But since this is just a 2 megapixel camera,
quality of these images is abysmal.
You are better off with taking 2 or 3x digitally
zoomed in images.
As you can see, these digitally zoomed shots
look much better than the 2 megapixel macro
shots.
I did get a software update while I was taking
these samples, which was supposed to improve
the Macro camera.
But even with that update installed, I don’t
think the Macro camera saw any major improvements.
If your phone doesn’t have the macro lens,
you can use this trick of just digitally zooming
in with the main camera.
Nord also gets a secondary wide lens, which
lets you capture a much wider field of view
compared to the primary lens. iPhone SE doesn’t
get any of these extra lenses.
Nord also gets a 2x zoom option, but it doesn’t
have a telephoto lens, so this mode just captures
digitally zoomed in shots.
The wide shots are not as sharp as the primary
ones, specially around the edges of the frame,
but I think it is still nice to have this
lens, as it lets us capture a different perspective
of the scene by standing at the same exact
spot.
It specially comes in handy if you want to
capture a large architecture, or if you are
in a small room, and you don’t have enough
place to move back so you can capture the
whole scene with the main camera.
Now you can use add on wide lenses with the
iPhone SE, but it means you have to carry
an extra piece of equipment with you, and
it is just not as convenient as have an extra
wide lens built into your phone.
Coming to the portrait shots.
This is my favourite mode on any smartphone
to shoot in.
Whenever I have people in my shot, I straightaway
shift to the portrait mode.
So a phones portrait mode performance could
be a make or break deal for me.
Looking at these images, I think it is safe
to say that both are doing a good job with
these portrait shots.
Both are able to accurately separate the subject
from its background.
Nord is able to keep a few more strands of
hair in focus, but overall I would say both
are equally good.
You can take 2x digitally zoomed portraits
with the Nord.
I feel the face is a bit too soft in these
zoomed portrait shots, so I did not like them
very much.
If we look a bit closer, main subject is sharper
in the portraits from the iPhone SE. it is
also capturing more natural looking skin tones.
Nord again captures more contrast, so some
of its portrait shots appear darker.
If you look at the dynamic range of the background,
Nord has definitely done a better job of preserving
more details in the bright sky.
But in that process, it brings up the shadows
on the face and makes it look un natural.
As you can see, Nord has not captured any
details in some parts of the face, whereas
the iPhone SE while blowing up the highlights
in the background, still did a wonderful job
of preserving the skin tones and its portrait
shots look better to me overall.
SE is also much faster at taking these portrait
shots, whereas the OnePlus Nord takes a few
seconds to detect the edges for these shots.
Now another thing that the SE’s camera can’t
do, is take portraits of objects with the
native camera app.
You can do it with a few 3rd party apps, but
for the stock camera app to take portrait
shots, it needs to detect a face in the scene.
Nord doesn’t have that problem.
It can take portraits of objects without any
hesitation, and as you can see, it is pretty
good at it too.
Let us now move to the images which I took
in indoors, artificial and lower lighting
situations.
Both phones have a wide aperture on the main
lens, and they also get optical image stabilisation
which helps the sensor capture more more light
for a longer time, so they capture good images
in most of the indoor and artificial lighting
situations.
Like it did in outdoor lighting situations,
OnePlus Nord tries to cool the colours in
these lighting situations as well.
In some of the shots, iPhone SE captures brighter
image but as we zoom in, we see that it has
also captured a lot of noise, and basically
no details at all.
While taking outdoor evening shots, again
the colours of the lights were as we see it
in the iPhone’s images, and Nord tried to
cool them down in its shot.
In all of these late evening situations, Nord
has definitely captured more details and comparatively
less noise in its images.
But every now and then, iPhone SE pulls out
amazing looking shots like these.
Nord has a very good main camera and it does
really well in most of the low light shots,
I just think it should be a bit more consistent.
As we get to even lower light, noise start
to replace the details in the iPhone SE’s
images, and while the Nord’s images are
not very bright, at least it doesn’t capture
as much noise.
To help in these situations, Nord gets the
night scape mode, which the iPhone SE does
not.
And it makes a huge difference.
Even when there is plenty of light around,
Night scape mode helps the OnePlus Nord capture
more light and more details in the overall
shot, and also reduced the noise level in
its images.
Without the night mode support, iPhone SE
struggles a lot in these low lighting situations.
Processor inside the SE is perfectly capable
of taking night mode shots, but for some reason
Apple decided not to give us this mode.
Which makes the iPhone SE fall way behind
the android phones which cost much less than
it, in lower lighting situations.
You can use the Gcam on the OnePlus Nord and
make it it even better images.
So if you take most of your shots in lower
light, you should definitely go with the Oneplus
Nord.
That brings us to the front facing cameras.
iPhone has the lower resolution selfie camera,
and it shows when we compare some of these
selfies side by side.
In most cases you won’t notice a huge difference
in the detail levels, but it is there.
What you will notice is that the main selfie
camera on the OnePlus Nord has a wider field
of view compared to the iPhone SE.
Although the selfies are a bit detailed form
the Nord, I still prefer the natural colours
and look of the skin tones in the selfies
from the iPhone SE.
Again, colour is a personal choice, so which
one you like will depend on your preference.
Nord gets a secondary wide lens at the front
as well, and it lets you capture much wider
field of view.
This will come in handy when the pandemic
is over, and you will want to get in more
of your friends in one shot.
Even with a much higher megapixel count on
the main selfie camera, Nord’s selfies are
not very good in lower light.
In fact, as we zoom in, we see the iPhone
SE capture more details in these low light
selfies.
Both can take portrait selfies, and here iPhone
SE is clearly doing a better job of detecting
the edges.
There is a hard line separating your subject
from the background in most of the portrait
selfies from the Nord, which doesn’t look
very natural.
Again colours, skin tones and dynamics range
is better in the portrait selfies from the
iPhone SE.
I am actually surprised to see the selfie
camera on the iPhone SE perform this good
compared to the ones on the OnePlus Nord.
Here is a video from he front facing camera
of the iPhone SE and the OnePlus Nord.
You can see how these phones are handling
overall colours of the scene, exposure and
stabilisation when I am walking around with
them.
Both can shoot 4K videos at 30fps.
iPhone SE can even shoot 4K 60fps videos.
It also used OIS and EIS to stabilise videos
at every resolution and frame rate option,
whereas the OnePlus Nord despite of having
OIS, only used EIS to stabilise all its videos.
OIS just doesn’t work on the onePlus Nord
while shooting videos.
Both can shoot 60fps videos in 1080p.
Here are small video sequences I put together
from both the phones.
Video from the iPhone SE has been shot in
4k at 60fps and ones from the OnePlus Nord
have been shot in 1080p 60fps.
Video shooting options and quality, both are
better from the iPhone SE.
But the videos from the OnePlus Nord are also
very good.
So after looking at over 75 image and video
samples, one thing is clear, that even without
a higher megapixel main camera iPhone SE is
no slouch in the camera department.
While going into this comparison, I expected
the OnePlus Nord to come on top in most if
not all the lighting conditions.
But other than in lower light, iPhone SE ended
up coming on top in almost all of these images.
It captured better dynamic range and colours
in all of the shots that we saw.
iPhone doesn’t have the macro and Wide lens,
so the Nord is the obvious winner in those
2 categories.
SE again comes back strong with its better
looking portrait shots.
In indoor light, I don’t mind using either
of the 2 but in lower light, Nord is definitely
better.
Overall, if you have the extra money and you
want a better camera phone, you should go
with the iPhone SE.
It gets a single camera, but it makes the
most of it in all lighting conditions.
OnePlus Nord on the other hand, gets a versatile
and feature rich camera module.
And if you are looking to save yourself some
money, you can go with it, and still end up
with a very capable set of cameras on your
phone.
So these were my thoughts about the cameras
on these 2 phones.
After looking at all the image and video samples
in this comparison, what do you think about
these cameras?
let me know in the comments.
If you end up liking any one of these phones
and are looking to purchase it.
I will really appreciate if you get it from
the affiliate links in the description section.
That is it for this video guys.
Please hit the like button if you enjoyed
this video, and subscribe tot he channel for
more quality tech videos like this.
You can also check out some of the other videos
from this channel.
This has been Sagar, and I will catch you
guys in the next video.
Take Care.
