iPhone 6s vs Samsung SL620 point and shoot camera photo test

As a beauty blogger, I spend weekend free time taking pictures of my arm. It's an odd hobby to be sure, but I have been beefing up swatch and product photos on my blog recently. You might have noticed that I have been slowly replacing photos on some of my oldest posts, trying to make sure I have color accurate and high quality photos.

This post is a combination photo test and behind the scenes look at macro and product photography on my blog. I usually use my old Samsung SL 620 point and shoot camera, but can the iPhone 6s replace it?

Taken with an iPhone 6s camera

The fine print: none of the pictures in this post have been edited, except to add a watermark. I took each of these photos in natural light on a windowsill and tried to keep the shots as similar as possible. Everything shown in this post was purchased by me and was not sponsored or sent for PR review.

The Contenders:

1 - iPhone 6s
I have the gold 16gb iPhone 6s, shown in a Speck Mightyshell lilac purple/raisin case. The Speck Mightyshell is the iPhone 6 version, but it fits well as promised. This phone is new to me - no photos from this phone have been shown in a blog post yet, but you can see a few examples on my Instagram.

2 - Samsung SL620
This old school Samsung was purchased by me when my nicer digital camera was stolen from my dorm room years ago. I think it is representative of what you can do with an entry level digital point and shoot. You can see examples of the Samsung in action in posts here and here for reference.

Photo test 1: basic benchmark

This one should be as easy as it gets - I chose three standard makeup brush shapes against a white wall. From left to right, the Koyudo BP010 tapered face brush, the Hakuhodo J5523 eyeshadow blending brush, and the Koyudo BP035 eyeshadow shader brush. Pay special attention to how each camera handles the texture of the brush bristles, the colors of the handles and ferrules, and the depth of focus.

Taken with an iPhone 6s camera

Taken with a Samsung SL620 point and shoot camera

Both cameras do well here, but the wall texture of the iPhone 6s shot is a little distracting. I think both pictures in this round are of sufficient quality to show the products well. A close one, but the Samsung SL620 wins this test.