What's the difference between taking a photo with a iPhone 7 vs a Canon camera?

Is the photo better in a canon? What's the difference?

Is there a need for me to buy a canon camera?

A proper camera, such as the unspecified model of Canon to which you refer,
should be capable of taking better pictures than the camera in a phone can,
but only if the person operating the Canon (or other good brand)
knows how to Get better results.

Otherwise, the outcome is likely to be no better than what the phone can do.

Probably would depend on which Canon camera you are comparing to the iPhone 7. In most cases though the dedicated camera would probably do better.

Asking such a question indicates that YOU will probably be best off to just use your phone.

You can't say "Canon camera". They make many models with VASTLY different operational requirements and results. You can get a point and shoot camera for around $150 or a DSLR body only for several thousands of dollars and then still have to spend hundreds of dollars on lenses. Such a camera, however, requires skill and knowledge on the part of the photographer in order to get good results.

Some things a good camera will do, (with a skilled user), is allow you to take good photos in many different conditions. A phone does a very poor job in dim light, but a good camera can produce excellent quality photos in such conditions. A single lens reflex (SLR) type of camera allows you to change lenses in order to best capture your subject. You can also be far more creative with a good camera. You can create soft or sharp backgrounds, you can show motion of subjects by adjusting shutter speeds, you can alter how a scene is lit by adjusting exposure. You can shoot is what is called a RAW format that allows a large amount of adjustment to the photo in computer programs.

All the above, again however, requires YOU to make a LOT of effort learning photography and how to use such a camera. Most people don't want to bother and prefer to just push a button on a phone and accept what they can get. So if you do not want to make the effort in time and study to learn how to use a good camera properly, stay with a phone. It has major compromises as to what it can do, but it is easy and that is all most people seem to want now.

There's a huge difference but some people swear their phones are as good as cameras when it comes to photos. Seasoned photographers beg to disagree. Which side are you on?

This is the Cameras section so naturally, we'll tell you that the camera shoots better pictures than a phone especially if the one holding the camera knows what he's doing.

What's the difference? Even with a low-end camera, the optics, sensor size and options are more favorable towards getting a better photo as compared to a phone. What high-end phones have on their side is programming - taking out the need to know photography, to get good pictures. It doesn't work all the time though and just like cameras, if you don't know what to do with it, you won't get good photos at all unless you get lucky.

Yes, the image quality of any type of Canon camera will be better than any smartphone. But image quality is just one part of it all.

What you will get out of a real camera is first a zoom lens. Smartphones all use wide-angle lenses which are equivalent to about 28mm in a 35mm format camera, or 18mm in an APS-C format camera (Canon makes cameras in both formats). Having a zoom lens will greatly increase the types of shots that you can get and get well. For example, go to a sporting event with a smartphone and your shots will be comprised of most of the field and the players will be very small. You can't zoom in on just one, two or even three players. With a real camera, especially a mirrorless or DSLR, you can use different lenses to help you get the type of shots that you want to get. For example, instead of a wide-angle lens, you can put on a 55-250mm or a 100-400 that will allow you to zoom in on just a few players. This will allow you to get shots that much closer to the style of shot that you'd see in Sports Illustrated.

Cameras, not just Canon models, use more sophisticated lenses which have better optics, and they use an aperture that has far more settings than the camera models in smartphones. They will also have a much wider range of shutter speeds. This increase in range will again, allow you to take better shots in a wider array of shooting situations.

More advanced cameras like mirrorless or DSLRs will have an even more expanded range of aperture and shutter speed settings along with exposure modes like full manual, shutter priority and aperture priority that allows the user to manipulate the final look of the shot. You want to blur out backgrounds? Stop or intentionally blur moving subjects? You can do that with a mirrorless or DSLR, but you can't do that with a smartphone.

So not only do cameras like those from Canon, Pentax, Nikon, Olympus, and Fujifilm but they also more importantly allow you to choose the settings that will allow you to capture the image in unique ways that no smartphone could ever do.

You could easily take a shot with a smartphone that looks just as good as one taken with a DSLR. However, the situation needs to be specifically within the working parameters of the smartphone's capabilities. It's kind of like driving 5 MPH down the block in a golf cart and then doing the same thing in a Ferrari. Both the golf cart and the $250,000 Ferrari will do an equally good job of going 10' at 5MPH, and if that's all you need out of a vehicle, then a golf cart could be a far better vehicle than a Ferrari. This is why golf carts are very popular in senior living developments, and Ferraris are not.

My point is that there are no "bad" cameras, just those that do not do what you need or won't allow you to express your vision.