Solar eclipses have come and gone and what a chance to witness the rare natural phenomenon. Like everyone else in the narrow path of a total solar eclipse, I welcomed the opportunity to photograph the eclipse with my smartphone. After comparing some of the best phones for astrophotography last fall, I thought a solar eclipse would be the perfect time to try out new phones.
That means I’m taking the Apple iPhone 15 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 8 Pro and OnePlus 12 to a proper solar eclipse flagship phone photo shoot to find out which one is best suited for the occasion – and those who are ahead do it the best. I’ve pitted several of them against each other, but I haven’t directly compared how well they do the sun.
Although I didn’t see 100% of the total, the forecast for me was still 88% to 90% – enough to blacken my backyard. While photographing with my camera, I learned a few things about the best way to capture a solar eclipse.
First, I used a suitable solar filter and carefully placed them in front of the camera. Second, I learned that the best results are achieved by using whatever manual mode is available rather than sticking with automatic mode. Each has certain peculiarities and nuances, which I will explain below, such as: b. Constantly need to disable macro and night mode. Overall, though, I’d say almost every one of them did a pretty good job of depicting the different phases of a solar eclipse.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro
Although the iPhone 15 Pro has a smaller zoom lens than its sibling, it’s a contender in our guide to the best camera phones. The 48-megapixel main camera in particular did a good job of capturing sunlight peeking through clouds, though I’d estimate it was 80% overall, but it was sorely lacking elsewhere.
What I found most difficult about photographing a solar eclipse with the iPhone 15 Pro is that there is no manual mode, which results in longer exposure times almost every time. Even when I stabilized it with a tripod and phone holder, I didn’t get good results with the iPhone 15 Pro. Indeed, the 12MP 3x zoom camera’s eclipse shots are noisy and full of artistic effects. In almost every zoom shot, the iPhone 15 Pro used a shutter speed of 1/15, which exposed the sun more than I could.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Impressively, the Galaxy S24 Ultra produced some of the most accurate solar eclipse photos I’ve ever taken. For most people I think auto mode is enough, but I got better results by switching to pro mode. This allows me to control the shutter speed and ISO to my liking, resulting in sharp images of the sun. Interestingly, Pro mode limits the telephoto camera zoom to 20x, which I found held up well with shots taken automatically at 100x zoom.
That’s because I can’t really believe it captures details that other cameras can’t, like a single sunspot in the center of the sun. I find it hard to believe that a 50 megapixel camera with 5x optical zoom and sensor can pull out this much detail, so I guess the background has a little help. I also admit that steadying the sun at 100x magnification is quite difficult, so I recommend using a tripod to steady it.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
My favorite camera phone, the Pixel 8 Pro, did a surprisingly good job in this showdown — certainly better than the iPhone 15 Pro, but not enough to beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra. On the one hand, manual controls are useful for adjusting the shutter speed to maintain a relatively low ISO. Thus, it didn’t suffer from the same heavy handling that plagued the iPhone 15 Pro.
The only weird thing about using the manual controls on the Pixel 8 Pro is that the screen sometimes makes the exposure of the scene appear brighter than it actually appears. So I had to compensate for this by shooting at faster shutter speeds, but stabilization at least provided stability. One of my favorite shots of the eclipse was when the clouds briefly obscured the sun and the silhouette of an airplane could be seen flying by.
OnePlus 12
Finally, there’s the OnePlus 12. I admit I was quite surprised by this understatement, as it’s a perfect example of how manual controls can make a big difference in eclipse photography. I’d also like to point out that the telephoto camera has 3x optical zoom, just like the iPhone 15 Pro, but it gives much better results thanks to this manual control.
With the 50-megapixel main camera, the eclipse almost looks like a small hole in the shot – but switching to the 64-megapixel telephoto camera with 6x zoom fills the frame nicely. Some photos show a bit too much sunlight, because it’s captured automatically. On the other hand, quieter images are produced through manual control. Like the S24 Ultra, I was able to take close-up photos – with darker sun spots – than the Samsung flagship. Technically I could automatically zoom up to 120x, but without a tripod it was almost impossible to get to the center of the eclipse.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Before I wrap up this solar eclipse photo session, I want to share some more photos taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Why include last year’s flagship phone? This is due to the long telephoto range – a 10 megapixel telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom. While it certainly has more range than any previous phone, I can’t say it makes a difference.
Manual control definitely helps, but I had to raise the ISO when the sun looked crescent-shaped – causing noise in the shot. It’s usable, but I can tell the shots were better with the S24 Ultra.
The leading phone to deal with a solar eclipse: Roy
After looking at all the pictures and considering my experience using it specifically for this occasion, I’m inclined to give this picture to the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It clearly handles images at larger zoom ranges better than others, which helps preserve detail without introducing as much distortion and noise as I see on other phones.
