Astrophotography's no longer just a hobby amongst enthusiasts, especially now that more phones are increasingly making it a part of their camera features. Tom's Guide took three phones, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Pixel Fold to see how they stack up against each other - while also throwing in a Sony mirrorless camera to see if it can match the low light king.
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00:00One area where we're seeing great advances in is an area of low-light photography with
00:11all the different night modes out there.
00:13So we've taken the flagships from Apple, Samsung, Google to see how well they do when it comes
00:18to capturing the night sky, the stars, the moon, in this astrophotography face-off.
00:23Interestingly, it was the Pixel 3 that launched all of this with Night Sight, and then came
00:32the iPhone 11 with its own night mode, and eventually the Samsung Galaxy S22 came out
00:38with its version that was called Nightography.
00:41So what is night mode?
00:43Well, it's actually nothing really new.
00:45It's a form of long exposure photography.
00:48So essentially what happens here is that when you take a photo, there's more light being
00:52drawn into the camera sensor over a period of time.
00:56One of our video producers here at Tom's Guide actually went out to Cherry Springs State
01:00Park.
01:01It's a dark night preserve, and it's actually the perfect conditions for astrophotography
01:06because there's minimal to zero light pollution in the sky.
01:10He took the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the Google Pixel Fold
01:16to see how they stack up when it comes to capturing the night sky.
01:20He also used the Sony A7S III, which is renowned for its low-light capabilities for photos
01:26and video, but he also set it up using a tripod, which I want to mention that you'll probably
01:31want to use two with a phone because you want to have as minimal shake as possible to capture
01:36the night sky.
01:38Here we have the Sony A7S III, and as you can see here, we have a pretty great image,
01:43but what can you expect from a $5,000 low-light beast?
01:46We have some major celestial bodies here, properly white-balanced images, and lots of
01:51stars.
01:53Now we have the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
01:58They don't exactly stack up, but that's okay.
02:01These were taken in standard night mode with about 30-second exposure time.
02:04Both of these images are okay, but not great.
02:07You could make out some of the same constellations between the two, but we didn't get anywhere
02:11near the same result with the A7S III.
02:13The Samsung lineup has a lovely feature called Pro Mode, complete with ISO and shutter speed
02:19control.
02:20Now this is where it gets interesting.
02:21With the ability to dial in your settings, it seems we're able to get an overall better
02:25image on the S23 Ultra compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which has no such feature available.
02:32You can make out a few more stars and a bit more of the nebula in the arm of the Milky
02:36Way.
02:37For Apple, this is a major disadvantage in the low-light department, and it puts the
02:40latest that Apple has to offer behind the competition.
02:44Now what about the Pixel Fold?
02:45Well, this just may be the king of astrophotography at first glance, although we do have some
02:50caveats.
02:51We're definitely seeing the most stars and constellations in the Pixel Fold's image.
02:56Our only issue is how much of the image is actually captured and how much of it is filled
03:01by AI.
03:02Your guess is as good as ours.
03:04Pixel's astrophotography mode takes about 5 minutes and captures a lovely little 5-second
03:08time lapse of the night sky.
03:10It's a unique feature to the Pixel phones.
03:12We're guessing this probably exposes several 20-30 second images over 5 minutes to achieve
03:17this.
03:18Now if you want to get started with astrophotography and you don't want to spend the thousands
03:23and thousands of dollars on a DSLR with a fancy lens, then go with the Samsung Galaxy
03:29S23 Ultra, primarily because of its Pro Mode.
03:33The Pro Mode is unique because it gives you those DSLR-like features.
03:38You'll be able to tune in the settings like the ISO, the shutter speed, even the white
03:42balance.
03:43As for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, it's sorely lagging behind competition when it came to
03:47capturing the Milky Way because it's missing the manual controls that we found on the other
03:51phones.
03:52And as a result, it didn't capture quite as many stars.
03:56On the other hand, if you can afford the $1800, check out the Google Pixel Fold if you don't
04:01mind those AI enhancements because in our testing, it did produce some really crisp
04:06looking images of the night sky and you also get the live photos with the astrophotography
04:10mode.
04:11So what do you guys think?
04:12Which phone did the best?
04:13Was it the Pixel Fold, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, or maybe the iPhone 14 Pro Max?
04:19Let me know in the comments.
04:20Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
04:23I'm John V. and I'll see you in my next video.