iPhone pictures in Leica quality? First impressions of using the Leica Lux App
My next level in the iPhone challenge. After using successfully, the ProCamera APP I discovered the Leica Lux APP. My favored use of ProCamera has been taking 48-megapixel pictures with Apple ProRAW and to develop them with Lightroom. A creative workflow but a lot of this process must be done at the computer. Something I never liked as in my job I am almost all day busy with my laptop. One of the reasons I changed from the Nikon camera portfolio to Fujifilm has been the great film emulations provided in their cameras e.g. X-PRO3. With my Fujifilm X-PRO3 its possible to take outstanding images without any external processing. You can setup the camera, that images are processed to your wishes within the camera.
The Leica Lux APP is providing the same possibilities. You can choose emulations of film looks and additional you can select from a list of iconic Leica lenses emulations and even control a virtual diaphragm setting to produce a selective field of depth. I love to control the field of depth. To me one of the strongest tools to enhance the message of a photography. To be honest, the missing of control of the field depth has been the only item that kept me away from the judgement of, I am able to do 100% of my travel photography with the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Yes, many of you all will tell me now that the bokeh produced with the Leica Lux APP is “only” virtual un sharpness generated by the software of the iPhone, but I must honestly say the result is impressive. Certainly, a result of the powerful GPU Cores provided by the A18Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Using the Leica Lux APP and the different Lens emulations is limiting the resolution to “only” 12 megapixels. In the current time of being on vogue to shoot with full frame cameras and minimum 40 megapixels, 12 megapixels seems to be not too much.
I start to laugh out loud when I see those full frame junkies using their 40-megapixel images only for Instagram pictures that allow maximum 1080 x 1350 Pixel = 1.5-megapixel (-;
Unless you want to print A1+ size images, 12 megapixel is more than enough resolution even for A3 format prints.
I made some foodporn pictures and a cute portrait of my old dog Lissy based on selective sharpness, using the Leica Lux APP. Next to the pure image I added one with a frame of the Leica software giving all the used parameters.
I am satisfied with the quality. The easiness of taking pictures with my Fujifilm X-PRO3 is back. The last point I am missing is the mechanical/electrical two-way release button and some dials to adjust the aperture or exposure time. To solve this, I have ordered the Fjorden Grip for my iPhone 16 Pro Max. This grip integrates seamless with the ProCamera and Leica Lux APP. Stay tuned, I will share soon a detailed test and my experiences on this channel.