What started out as a good idea in my head turned out pretty bad. On our most recent podcast (Episode 17) I was making a general comparison between the iPhone (native camera) and a point and shoot’s auto setting.

If you listened to the show, I stumbled over my words because I could not exactly express my thoughts clearly. That’s what you get for thinking of a segment at the last minute (1 hour before showtime).

My argument was that the iPhone – for me – performed better than my point and shoot’s auto setting.

What I tried to say on the show was that with the end result, the iPhone’s photo was a better picture than the point and shoot. I’m not talking tech here. I’m just going on pure ascetics. These are the two photos that I mentioned on the show:

Photo taken with my point and shoot

and from the iPhone

Photo taken with the iPhone

In my opinion, the iPhone’s photo came out looking better.

But that was one day of crappy weather. I realize now, in retrospect, that I didn’t give them a fair comparison. This was a very casual comparison… not very fair for either side.

So to make things right, I will do this: I’m going to do the iPhone vs Point and Shoot challenge.

I will go out and take a bunch of photos under various conditions. Here are the rules:

iPhone: Native camera app only. No filters, no native HDR, just point and shoot.

Point and Shoot camera: I’m using the Nikon P7100’s auto setting only. No filters, no adjustments. All automatic.

What’s being judged? The photo as a whole. We’re not looking at pixel quality, or any of that stuff. We’re looking at the photo and simply judging which is better. It’s all judged on looks. No digging deeper, it’s simply the photo at face value.

Boom! Let the challenge begin.