Head To Head: Apple Iphone 8 Plus Olympus Pen E-PL9

Can a phone camera rival a mirrorless camera in photo quality? We pitted these two devices against each other to find out.

- Terry Sullivan

Cameras on mobile devices have come a long way in the past eleven years. And the makers of smartphones, including Apple, Samsung, LG, and Google, keep rolling out new improvements. Despite these enhancements, experienced photographers and pros still consider phone cameras to be inferior to advanced standalone cameras—particularly D-SLR (digital single-lens reflex) and mirrorless cameras, which yield high image quality and versatility. But in recent years, smartphone makers have attempted to compete in the rarefied world of advanced cameras.

In the fall of 2016, Apple announced the introduction of a new portrait mode that would soon be available on upcoming iPhones. This ushered in a new level of excitement (or hype, depending on your point of view) about just how advanced the cameras on a mobile device could be. During that product launch, Apple said its new Portrait mode would produce images that had a particular characteristic—shallow depth of field (DOF): “This effect, also known as ‘bokeh’ and previously only capable on D-SLR cameras, turns the camera you carry around with you every day into an even more powerful photography tool.”

Actually, not only D-SLRs can produce this effect. You can get shallow depth of field with newer mirrorless models, too. Both types of standalone cameras work with a wide array of high-quality (and pricey) interchangeable lenses that you can swap out, and both include large sensors in the camera body. Matching a wide aperture on a D-SLR or mirrorless lens with a large sensor is essential to capturing an image with a shallow depth of field, which displays your subject in sharp focus but renders the background in beautiful blur.