Photographing Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Sony DSC-RX100M6
I recently purchased the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max and was anxious to test its camera against the Sony DSC RX100M6 for concert photography. With its 8x zoom, it now had an optical reach that matched the 200mm zoom lens of the Sony.
I had a front row ticket to see Heart with Ann and Nancy Wilson at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on December 10, 2025. I was looking forward to having an unobstructed view to take matching photos with both the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Sony DSC RX100M6. Both cameras performed very well, but there are some quirks with the iPhone that I uncovered.
My first observation is a personal one. I’ve used smart phone cameras for years now to take photos of friends and family. Everyone is familiar with the drill. You hold the phone up in front of you, compose the shot by looking at the nice big screen, then tap the big button to take the image. No big deal. However, in a concert setting, I found this to be challenging for me.
I was having a difficult time keeping the subject framed and hitting the shutter release (er, the white button on the screen) when I really wanted to capture something. I felt I was missing the precise moment every time. Perhaps if I used the button on the side of the phone to take the photo some of this would have been alleviated because I would not have been worrying about my finger drifting off the white button on the screen. Having the ability to feel the shutter release button probably would have been better – but I didn’t think of doing that during the concert.
It would be nice to be able to directly set the shutter speed on the iPhone.
My next quirk was not something I noticed until post-processing the iPhone images. Some images had shutter speeds that were too slow (1/40th). I’ve found that it is essential to use a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 at a concert no matter what. I would rather have noise from a higher ISO or an under-exposed image than a blurry picture. Blurry photos cannot be recovered – although some recent advances in AI can do some very impressive processing of blurry or out of focus images, but I would rather not introduce anything artificial in the images. It would be awesome if the shutter speed on the iPhone could be set – at least to a minimum value.
I was also frustrated with keeping the iPhone in RAW mode. I set this via the iPhone camera settings, but after a few minutes into the concert, I noticed in the upper-left corner of the camera view that it listed “JPEG24.” Tapping on JPEG brought up the option to select RAW. I tapped it, but every time the screen was turned off, the mode would default back to JPEG.
I have since tested this at home, and indeed the camera will remain in RAW mode if you open the phone back up quickly, but if you let the phone rest for a minute or so, the camera will revert to JPEG mode. This is very frustrating. Having to worry about this every time you open the camera is a pain.
I thought it was easier to post-process the Sony images
The post-processing workflow used on both the iPhone and Sony images was very similar. First was a pass with Photoshop AI Denoise, then adjustments with the Shadows, Black point, Whites and Highlights via Camera Raw Filter. I applied sharpening to parts of some of the images, like the hair, clothes and guitar.
Overall, I found it easier to get the results I was looking for when manipulating the Sony RAW files versus the iPhone images. That could be due to my extensive experience with post-processing Sony images (and Nikon images), but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was struggling a bit to get the iPhone images to look the way I wanted.
Here are two shots I took of Nancy Wilson with both the Sony and iPhone to closely match her position and the lighting so I could compare the final images to each other. My preference is the Sony image, but they are close. There is a softness with the iPhone image that you can see in the enlargement of Nancy’s head that I think may be influencing my preference between the two images. I did not apply any sharpening to these images.
For fun I decided to record some video with the iPhone. I was pleased with how well I was able to use the zoom feature while recording. As always, I’m amazed at the quality of the audio from the iPhone.
In conclusion, I definitely believe the iPhone 17 Pro Max is an excellent competitor to the Sony DSC-RX100M6 for concert photography. The optical zoom is the same, providing a great reach without compromising any sensor resolution. However, my instinct is still use the Sony. I think this may be due to my many years of taking photos with the camera against my eye. I’ve clearly developed a relationship with the way I view the world through the viewfinder that makes me intimate with what I am shooting, and that connection brakes when I hold a smart phone away from my body to compose a shot.
Perhaps with practice I could eventually get proficient with the iPhone, but, for now, I guess I’m just “old school.”
