Smartphones with great cameras

[bonkers325]

Besides the iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, and HTC One, are there any other phones with great cameras? Any up-and-coming phones that have great cameras?

I currently use a Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile and I always wish I had phone with a better camera. I am contemplating the HTC One, but am hesitant because of how poorly supported the HTC phones are and how bad the battery life is (as a previous owner of an HTC Thunderbolt I am probably more biased ). I'm not married to the Android platform either. It's nice to be able to get underneath the skin of the OS and apply community-developed customizations, but after several years of that I'm pretty numb to the whole experience.

 

[notposting]

We can trade phones for a week, and your Nexus camera will seem amazing when you get it back!

<--HTC Trophy owner (your FFC probably takes better pics than the main camera on this thing)

Oh, and nothing useful to offer here. Except maybe the 4S as well, minus the bonus (you're aiming it wrong!) purple flares.

 

[shortylickens]

My Note 2 is great. The auto-wb is better than most beginners SLR's.

 

[Oyeve]

While nothing beats my camera only camera I like the shots my SGS3 takes. It does suffer in low light situations and the flash is way too bright IMO. And as much as I dislike the iphone 5 it does take decent pics. Being that I refresh phones twice a year (1 is my personal phone and the second is job phone) I am probably going to get the HTC one for work just to see what it can do. I will maybe get the SGS4 for my personal phone as i am interested in what the camera can do but am not holding my breath.

 

[bonkers325]

Interesting comparison of Galaxy S4 and HTC One's camera on GSMArena.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_vs_htc_one-review-913p10.php

S4 takes better photos compared to HTC One. But HTC One takes more consistent photos.

 

[Oyeve]

Interesting comparison of Galaxy S4 and HTC One's camera on GSMArena.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_vs_htc_one-review-913p10.php

S4 takes better photos compared to HTC One. But HTC One takes more consistent photos.

Wow. that is very interesting. I think overall I would rather have the best picture than consistency. In the end I will probably get both.

 

[shortylickens]

I dont think your sole reason for purchasing any particular phone should be the onboard camera. If image quality is really that important carry around a small camera and get whatever phone you want. You wont have to worry about losing capability when you upgrade your phone every year.

 

[Oyeve]

I dont think your sole reason for purchasing any particular phone should be the onboard camera. If image quality is really that important carry around a small camera and get whatever phone you want. You wont have to worry about losing capability when you upgrade your phone every year.

True, I always have camera on hand. I just use any excuse to upgrade.

 

[shortylickens]

True, I always have camera on hand. I just use any excuse to upgrade.

Ahh, well then you should get the Nokia 808. There wont be anything better for a LONG time.

 

[pantsaregood]

Ahh, well then you should get the Nokia 808. There wont be anything better for a LONG time.

The Lumia 920 actually trades blows with the 808. The 808 uses some crazy oversampling for clarity and digital zoom, but the 920 usually reproduces color and shoots better in low light.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I didn't see that. Whenever I look at samples, the 808 beats the pants off the 920 because it's less noisy. Post-processing to saturate colours after the fact can be done by anyone but removing noise is always lossy.


For the previous generation, I found the One X had a better camera than the GS3. It was quite a huge jump from my Note 1 anyway.

 

[quest55720]

Unless you want a 808 the 920 is where it is at for current cell phones. If you know what you are doing. You can take some amazing pictures with apps that give you full control over the camera. People seem to love pro shot app. Here is a thread on it with examples of pictures. You do have to sign up to see a lot of them though sorry.


http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-apps/215564-loving-proshot-camera-app.html

 

[hondaf17]

New BlackBerry Z10 takes great photos. Just got back from a vacation with it and I was very impressed with the results. I don't have an iphone to compare it to but they looked amazing and it can also do 1080p video.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Wow. that is very interesting. I think overall I would rather have the best picture than consistency. In the end I will probably get both.

But sometimes you only have time to shoot 1 or 2. You don't get to evaluate and shoot again. It's a time issue. I'd rather have consistency. I'm a photographer, and for certain scenes I can sit there and take time to adjust my camera, but I want to be able to just take a photo in 1 go also.

 

[Oyeve]

But sometimes you only have time to shoot 1 or 2. You don't get to evaluate and shoot again. It's a time issue. I'd rather have consistency. I'm a photographer, and for certain scenes I can sit there and take time to adjust my camera, but I want to be able to just take a photo in 1 go also.

Same here, which is why I will probably get both. I always carry my personal sgs3 and my work iphone 5 with me whereever I go. If i want to take calculated shots I use the S3 as it has a much larger screen and I like the quality of the photos even if I have to a few, plus I have a 64gb card and can take many shots and video. On the occasion, as mentioned above, if I need a super quick pick of something I use the ip5.

What I would really love, like in the old days, is a dedicated camera button.

 

[jengriffin]

Sony's Xperia series has great onboard camera, I'm planning to upgrade my Xperia Go to Xperia Z. It's also a great phone for people who love the outdoors.

 

[bonkers325]

I dont think your sole reason for purchasing any particular phone should be the onboard camera. If image quality is really that important carry around a small camera and get whatever phone you want. You wont have to worry about losing capability when you upgrade your phone every year.

I don't want to carry around two devices. Even when I do carry two devices, I prefer to use my smartphone as it does useful stuff like geo-tagging, photo sphere, and panoramic if I want it. Paired with instant-upload to dropbox and g+ means I don't ever have to worry about transferring files. It's just more convenient and I would rather consolidate my devices rather than carry a separate one.

 

[Munky]

The camera is the main reason why I'm still using the Nokia N8. Even if you have a DSLR and a compact camera, there's no way I'll believe anyone saying they carry one or the other as often as they carry a phone.

 

[krumme]

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Mobiles

Dxomark are among the most serious and scientific. Use them. Brian review on anandtech is worldclass background information.

I love my small rx100 btw. That is real pictures. And its portable in your jacket.

Phones dont have great cameras imho. The 808 is the only thing comparable to a real camera. But the phones improve very much and the video is quite good.

 

[Zstream]

The HTC 8X has a great low light camera. However, it's not as good as the Lumia 920 during the day. I can upload photos in a few to compare.

 

[logansmith]

Lumia 920 is nice Smartphones and nice cameras quality.