Heres a fair test between the iPhone 4S and the Canon 5D MK II. I made a little rig that allowed me to shoot both cameras at the same time side by side. All scenes are perfectly synced together so you can pause and scrutinize the frames! See photo of the makeshift rig in the photo area.

Exposure, shutter speed, frame rate and picture style were matched as close as possible between the two cameras.

This test shows that the tiny F2.4 lens and sensor on the iPhone are pretty nice. It even got a little depth of field!

I did not overlay the exact ISO and Stops 5D settings per shot. It was too much to keep track for this simple test. To be fair I matched 5D exposure to the iPhone so no Cinestyle / 24p here.

Here are the settings:

iPhone 4S

- AE.AF locked. Thats all you have!

Canon 5D MKII

- Canon 50mm 1.4
- ISO 160 ~ 640 (varied per shot to match the iPhone)
- F 7~22 (varied per shot to match the iPhone)
- Shutter 1/60th
- Auto WB
- Standard Picture Style
- 1080p 30