A couple of notes on my methodology. One of the main advantages of interchangeable lens cameras is that, well, the lenses are interchangeable, letting you obliterate backgrounds into nothingness with wide apertures, or shoot far-off subjects with telephoto zooms. Another advantage of pro cameras is the vast array of manual control you have over the exposure parameters, letting you tweak your image in detail before you’ve even taken it. Obviously, a smartphone can't match up to this. So to make things more interesting, I thought I’d turn my X-T1 into as much of an iPhone as possible.

is the difference enough for you to buy a serious camera?

I used the 18mm f/2 lens, which has a similar field of view to the 5S. I made sure the cameras would be handling light in the same way by keeping the X-T1’s aperture locked in at f/2.2, like the 5S’ fixed lens, and leaving ISO and shutter speed controls on automatic, just like iOS does. I could have gotten better results with the X-T1 on certain occasions by using a different setting, but hey — I’d probably be able to say the same for the 5S if it were running iOS 8 with its more advanced exposure controls. This way, we can see how the two cameras deal with the same situations and judge the image quality as such.

So with that said, make up your own mind by using the slider tool on the photos below. The iPhone photos are on the left, the X-T1’s are on the right; all the images are JPEGs that haven't been edited in any way beside minor cropping for aspect ratio and alignment. You won’t be surprised by which comes out on top, but is the difference enough for you to buy a serious camera?