I just started looking at photos and videos we took on vacation. I have an iPhone 16 Pro.

And when I use the Photos app on my Apple TV to review a couple videos I took, I'm surprised at the weird, wavy quality I'm seeing in them. It's really strange.

I will compare this to the videos I took with my Sony a6700. But until then, I'm surprised at how odd the videos looked on a large OLED TV. Might be compression from iCloud or something. Can't quite explain it otherwise.

I have no shortage of friends who asked me why I bothered to buy a real camera, but if you're a hobbyist photographer, it's nice to use a real camera and have full control. There are apps that do let you do this on a smartphone, and it's definitely more convenient.

But there's something about the real photos (with real Bokeh) that still look much better to me.

When I owned an S21 Ultra, I found the photos were horribly paintbrushed due to excessive machine-learning. They look nice on a little screen, but pixel peeping is terrible.

Using a OnePlus 12 now, and find the photos much less overprocessed (and wavy).

iCloud videos look terrible on Apple TV, the first time it caught me by surprise too. The originals are significantly nicer.

I upgraded to the 16p instead of buying a new wide angle lens. The real bokeh is definitely nicer though.