A phone with a front camera is larger than 8. A phone with a good camera. The main parameters of the camera in a smartphone

doesn't believe in increasing megapixels. As we saw with the 12MP iPhone 7, it is significantly better in quality compared to its competitors' 20MP cameras. We've seen amazing dual lens cameras on the iphone 7 plus, and hoping to see something exciting with iPhone 8... IPhone 8 camera how many megapixels? How much has the capacity of the iphone 8 increased?

• 16 MP primary f / 1.7 aperture
• 8 MP front camera
• Dual lens for iPhone 8+

This time around, the company is looking to take camera features to the next level. At Apple iPhone 8 there will be a 16 MP main camera with an upgraded F / 1.7 lens to improve image quality even in low light conditions. The phone also supports 4K recordings.

Talking about the front camera of the iPhone, it will have an 8MP camera with autofocus, HDR, panorama, face recognition functions. And this time, Apple can bring an iris scanner or face recognition. What to do if iPhone 8 - no network, cannot find a network, cannot see a network.

Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus: camera

• Iris or face recognition for iPhone 8

The iPhone 7 has a 12MP rear camera, while the iPhone 7 Plus has dual camera with 12 megapixels, one wide-angle, and another telephoto.

The iPhone 8 Plus will have a dual-lens camera, while the iPhone 8 won't have a dual-lens camera. However, the new 5-inch models will be equipped with a dual camera, but will be in a vertical format, not horizontal as it is now.

According to Bloomberg, the iPhone 8 will offer “more advanced cameras” so we can expect an improvement and the iPhone 8 will have the best camera on the market.

Conclusion:

More banal than this axiom is the only explanation “the iPhone, it turns out, does not have a memory card slot”. But beginners continue to make mistakes when they "bite" the number of megapixels in the camera, which means they have to repeat themselves.

Imagine a window - an ordinary window in a residential building or apartment. The megapixel count is roughly the amount of glass inside the window frame. If we continue to draw parallels with smartphones, in ancient times glass for windows was the same size and was considered a scarce commodity. Therefore, when the conventional "Tolyan" said that he had 5 glasses (megapixels) in the window block, everyone understood that Anatoly was a serious and wealthy person. And the characteristics of the window were also immediately clear - good overview outside the house, a large glazing area.

A few years later, windows (megapixels) ceased to be a shortage, so their number had only to be brought to the required level, and calm down on this. Just bring it in line with the area (a vent for ventilation and a loggia, for the sake of strength, require a different number of windows) so that the camera produces a slightly denser picture than 4K monitors and TVs produce. And finally, to do other characteristics - for example, to deal with clouding of glass and image distortion. Teach the cameras to correctly focus and paint the available megapixels with high quality, if you want specifics.

There are more "megapixels" on the right, but they give nothing but "obstacles" with the same area of ​​the "sensor"

But people are already accustomed to measuring the quality of cameras with megapixels, and sellers gladly indulged this. Therefore, the circus with a huge number of glasses (megapixels) in the same frame (the size of the camera matrix) continued. As a result, today the pixels in smartphone cameras, although not "packed" with the density of a mosquito net, but the "glass" has become too dense, and over 15 megapixels in smartphones almost always spoil rather than improve photos. It never happened before, and again it turned out that it was not size that mattered, but skill.

At the same time, the "evil", as you know, is not the megapixels themselves - if tons of megapixels were spread out on a sufficiently large camera, they would be good for the smartphone. When the camera is able to unleash the potential of all megapixels on board, and not "smear" them in large bulk when shooting, the photo can be enlarged, cropped, and it will remain of high quality. That is, no one will understand that this is just a fragment of a larger image. But now such miracles are found only in "correct" SLR and mirrorless cameras, in which only one matrix (a microcircuit with photo sensors, on which a picture arrives through the "glass" of the camera) is much larger than a smartphone camera assembly.

"Evil" is a tradition of stuffing megapixels into tiny cameras on mobile phones. This tradition brought nothing but blurring of the picture and excess of digital noise ("peas" in the frame).

Sony piled up 23 megapixels where competitors put 12-15 megapixels, and paid for this by reducing the clarity of the picture. (photo - manilashaker.com)

For reference: in the best cameraphones of 2017, the main rear cameras (not to be confused with b / w additional ones) all operate as one with the "pathetic" 12-13 megapixels. In photo resolution, this is about 4032x3024 pixels - enough for a Full HD (1920x1080) monitor, and for 4K (3840x2160) too, albeit end-to-end. Roughly speaking, if the smartphone camera has more than 10 megapixels, their number is no longer important. Other things are important.

How to determine that the camera is of high quality, before looking at the photos and videos from it

Aperture - how wide the smartphone opened its eyes

The squirrel feeds on nuts, the deputies - on the money of the people, and cameras - on light. The more light, the higher the quality of the photo and the more detail. Only sunny weather and studio-style bright lighting lamps for any occasion of life cannot be enough. Therefore, for good photos indoors, or outdoors in cloudy weather / at night, cameras are designed in such a way that they produce a lot of light even in adverse conditions.

The easiest way to get more light to hit the camera sensor is to make a larger hole in the lens. The indicator of how wide the "eyes" of the camera are, called aperture, aperture, or aperture - this is one and the same parameter. And the words are different so that the reviewers in the articles can show off in incomprehensible terms as long as possible. Because, if you don't show off, the aperture can simply be called, excuse me, a "hole", as is customary among photographers.

Aperture is indicated by a fraction with an f, a forward slash and a number (or with a capital F and no fraction: for example, F2.2). Why

so - to talk for a long time, and that's not the point, as Rotaru sings. The bottom line is this: the smaller the number after the letter F and the forward slash, the better camera in the smartphone. For example, f / 2.2 in smartphones is good, but f / 1.9 is better! The wider the aperture, the more light hits the sensor and the better smartphone“Sees” (takes photos and videos with better quality) at night. The bonus of the wide aperture is beautiful background blur when you photograph flowers up close, even if the smartphone does not have a dual camera.

Melania Trump explains what different apertures look like in smartphone cameras

Before buying a smartphone, do not be lazy to clarify how "sighted" the rear camera is. Looked after Samsung Galaxy J3 2017 - search for "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture", "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" or "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" to find out the exact number. If in the smartphone that you looked after for yourself nothing is known about the diaphragm, two options are possible:

• The camera is so bad that the manufacturer decided to keep quiet about its characteristics. Marketers are doing about the same rudeness when, in response to "what is the processor in the smartphone?" answer "quad-core" and evade in every possible way so as not to announce a specific model.
• The smartphone has just appeared on sale and no characteristics, except for those in the advertising announcement, have not yet been "delivered" on it. Wait a couple of weeks - usually during this time the details will come out.

What should be the aperture in the camera of a new smartphone?

In 2017-2018 even in a budget model, the rear camera should produce at least f / 2.2. If the number in the denominator of this fraction is greater, get ready for the camera to see the picture as if wearing tinted glasses. And in the evening and at night, she will be "blind" and will be able to see almost nothing even at a distance of several meters from the smartphone. And do not rely on "twists" of brightness - in a smartphone with f / 2.4 or f / 2.6 evening photography with a "stretched" programmatically the exposure will turn out to be a "rough blur", while a camera with f / 2.2 or f / 2.0 will take a better photo without any tweaks.

The wider the aperture, the higher the quality of shooting with the smartphone camera.

The coolest smartphones today are equipped with cameras with an aperture of f / 1.8, f / 1.7 or even f / 1.6. The aperture itself does not guarantee the maximum quality of images (the quality of the sensor and the "glass" has not been canceled) - this, to quote the photographers, is just a "hole" through which the camera looks at the world. But other things being equal, it is better to choose smartphones in which the camera does not “squint”, but receives an image with wide-open “eyes”.

Diagonal of the matrix (sensor): the more - the better

The matrix in a smartphone is not a matrix where people with complex faces in black cloaks dodge bullets. In mobile phones, this word means a photocell ... in other words, a plate onto which a picture flies through the "glass" of optics. In old cameras, the picture flew onto the film and was saved there, and the matrix instead accumulates information about the photograph and sends it to the smartphone's processor. The processor transforms all this into a final photo and stores the files in internal memory or microSD.

There is only one thing to know about the matrix - it should be as large as possible. If the optics is a water supply hose, and the diaphragm is the neck of the container, then the matrix is ​​the very reservoir for water, which is never enough.

The dimensions of the matrix are usually measured in inhuman, from the bell tower of ordinary buyers, Vidicon inches. One such inch is equal to 17 mm, but cameras in smartphones have not yet grown to such a size, so the matrix diagonal is denoted by a fraction, as is the case with the aperture. The smaller the second digit in the fraction (divisor), the larger the matrix -> the steeper the camera.

Is it clear that nothing is clear? Then just remember these numbers:

A budget smartphone will take pictures well if the matrix size in it is at least 1/3 "with a camera resolution not higher than 12 megapixels. More megapixels - lower quality in practice. And if there are less than ten megapixels, good large monitors and TVs will have a photo look loose, simply because they have fewer dots than the height-width of your monitor screen.

In mid-range smartphones good size matrices - 1 / 2.9 "or 1 / 2.8". If you find a larger one (1 / 2.6 "or 1 / 2.5", for example) - consider yourself very lucky. The flagship smartphones have a good tone - a matrix of at least 1 / 2.8 ", and better - 1 / 2.5".

Smartphones with a large sensor shoot better than models with small photocells

Is it even cooler? It happens - look at 1 / 2.3 "in Sony Xperia XZ Premium and XZ1. Why, then, do these smartphones not set records for photo quality? Because the “automatic” of the camera constantly makes mistakes with the selection of settings for shooting, and the stock of “clarity and vigilance” of the camera is spoiled by the number of megapixels - they were piled up in these models by 19 instead of the standard 12-13 megapixels for new flagships, and the fly in the ointment canceled out the advantages of a huge matrix.

Are there smartphones in nature with a good camera and less harsh specifications? Yes - take a look at Apple iPhone 7 with its 1/3 "at 12 megapixels. On the Honor 8, which lacks 1 / 2.9" with the same number of megapixels. Magic? No - just good optics and perfectly "licked" automation, which takes into account the potential of the camera as well as tailored trousers take into account the amount of cellulite on the thighs.

But there is a problem - manufacturers almost never indicate the size of the sensor in the specifications, because these are not megapixels, and you can be disgraced if the sensor is cheap. And in reviews or descriptions of smartphones in online stores, such characteristics of cameras are even less common. Even if you have chosen a smartphone with an adequate number of megapixels and a promising aperture value, there is a chance you will never know the size of the rear photosensor.In this case, pay attention to the last characteristic of smartphone cameras, which directly affects the quality.

Few large pixels are better than many small ones

Imagine a red caviar sandwich, or take a look at it if you have a hard time remembering how such delicacies look. Just as the eggs in a sandwich are distributed over a piece of loaf, the area of ​​the camera sensor (camera matrix) in a smartphone is occupied by light-sensitive elements - pixels. These pixels in smartphones, to put it mildly, not a dozen, or even a dozen. One megapixel - 1 million pixels, in typical smartphone cameras of 2015-2017, such megapixels are 12-20.

As we have already figured out, keeping an excessive amount of "dummies" on the matrix of a smartphone is destructive for pictures. The efficiency of such a crowd comes out, like that of specialized teams of people for replacing a light bulb. Therefore, in the camera it is better to observe fewer sensible pixels than more stupid ones. The larger each of the pixels in the camera, the less messy the photos will be, and the video recording will be less bouncy.

Large pixels in the camera (photo below) make evening and night shots better

The ideal smartphone camera consists of a large “foundation” (matrix / sensor) with large pixels on it. Only now, no one is going to make smartphones thicker or allocate half of the body behind for the camera. Therefore, the "building" will be such that the camera does not stick out of the body and does not take up much space, megapixels are large, even if there are only 12-13, and the matrix was as large as possible to accommodate all of them.

The pixel size in the camera is measured in micrometers and is denoted as micron in Russian or µm in Latin. Before you buy a smartphone, make sure that the pixels in it are large enough - this is an indirect sign that the camera is shooting well. Type in the search, for example, "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" or "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" - and you rejoice at the characteristics of the smartphone camera that you have noticed. Or upset - it depends on the numbers that you see as a result.

How big should a pixel be in a good camera phone?

The pixel size in the "modern" time is especially famous ... Google Pixel is a smartphone that came out in 2016 and "showed Kuzkin's mother" to competitors due to the combination of a huge (1 / 2.3 ") matrix and very large pixels of about 1.55 microns. With such a set, he almost always gave out the most detailed photographs, even in cloudy weather or in the dark.

Why don't manufacturers "crop" megapixels in the camera to a minimum and place at least pixels on the matrix? Such an experiment has already taken place - HTC in the flagship One M8 (2014) made the pixels so huge that they fit into the rear camera ... four on a 1/3 "matrix! Thus, One M8 received pixels of as much as 2 microns! As a result, the smartphone "tore" almost all competitors in terms of the quality of pictures in the dark. And photos in a resolution of 2688 × 1520 pixels were enough for Full HD monitors of that time. But the HTC camera did not become an all-round champion, because the Taiwanese were let down by HTC's color accuracy and "dumb" shooting algorithms, which did not know how to "properly prepare" settings for a sensor with unusual potential.

Today, all manufacturers are "outraged" by the race for the largest pixels, therefore:

• In good budget camera phones, the pixel size should be from 1.22 microns and more
• In flagships, pixels ranging in size from 1.25 microns to 1.4 or 1.5 microns are considered good form. More is better.

There are few smartphones with a good camera and relatively small pixels, but they exist in nature. These are, of course, Apple iPhone 7 with its 1.22 micron and OnePlus 5 with 1.12 micron - they “go out” due to very high-quality sensors, very good optics and “smart” automation.

Without these terms, small pixels ruin the quality of photos in flagship smartphones. For example, in the LG G6, the algorithms are obscene when shooting at night, and the sensor, although ennobled with good "glasses", is cheap in itself. IN

As a result, 1.12 microns always spoil night shots, except for the cases when you enter into battle with the "manual mode" instead of dull automation and correct its flaws yourself. The same picture reigns in shooting with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium or XZ1. And in the masterpiece, "on paper", camera Xiaomi Mi 5S competes with the flagships of the iPhone and Samsung because of the lack of optical stabilization and the same "crooked hands" of the algorithm developers, which is why the smartphone copes well with shooting only during the day, and at night it is no longer very impressive.

In order to understand how much to weigh in grams, take a look at the characteristics of cameras in some of the best cameraphones of our time.

What is the best type of autofocus

Autofocus is when a mobile phone independently "brings focus" while taking photos and videos. It is needed in order not to twist the settings "for every sneeze", like a gunner in a tank.

In old smartphones and in modern Chinese state employees, manufacturers use contrast autofocus. This is the most primitive focusing technique that focuses on how light or dark it is “right in front of the camera” in front of the camera, like a half-blind person. That is why it takes about a couple of seconds for cheap smartphones to focus, during which it is easy to "miss" a moving object, or reluctance to shoot what they were going to, because "the train left".

Phase detection autofocus "catches light" over the entire area of ​​the camera sensor, calculates the angle at which the rays enter the camera and draws conclusions about what is on the smartphone "in front of the nose" or a little further. Due to its "intelligence" and calculations, it works very quickly during the day and does not annoy at all. It is common in all modern smartphones, except for the very budget ones. The only drawback is work at night, when light arrives in a narrow hole in the diaphragm of a mobile phone in such small portions that the smartphone "breaks the roof" and it constantly fidgets with focusing due to a sharp change in information.

Laser autofocus is the most chic! Laser rangefinders have always been used to "throw" a beam at a long distance and calculate the distance for an object. LG in the smartphone G3 (2014) taught this "scan" to help the camera quickly focus.

Laser autofocus is surprisingly fast, even in indoor or semi-dark environments

Take a look at your Wrist Watch... although, what am I talking about ... okay, turn on the stopwatch in your smartphone and see how quickly one second passes. And now mentally divide it by 3.5 - in 0.276 seconds, the smartphone receives information about the distance to the subject and reports this to the camera. Moreover, it does not lose speed either in the dark or in bad weather. If you plan to take photos and videos near or on short distance with a lack of light, a smartphone with laser autofocus will help you out a lot.

But keep in mind that mobile phones are not Star Wars weapons, so the laser's range in the camera barely shifts a couple of meters. Everything that is further, the mobile phone examines with the help of the same phase autofocus. In other words, to shoot objects from afar, it is not necessary to look for a smartphone with "laser guidance" in the camera - you will not get any use from such a function in general plans of photos and videos.

Optical stabilization. Why is it needed and how it works

Have you ever driven a vehicle with leaf spring suspension? On army "UAZ" cars, for example, or an ambulance with the same design? In addition to the fact that in such cars you can "beat off the fifth point", it shakes incredibly in them - the suspension is as stiff as possible so as not to fall apart on the road, and therefore it tells passengers everything that it thinks about the road surface, frankly and not "springy" (therefore that there is nothing to spring).

Now you know how the camera feels in a smartphone without optical stabilization when you are trying to take a photo.

The problem with shooting on a smartphone is this:

• The camera needs a lot of light to take good pictures. Not direct rays of the sun in the "physiognomy", but diffused, ubiquitous light around.
• The longer the camera "examines" the image during the photo, the more light it picks up = the higher the picture quality.
• At the time of shooting and these "peepers" of the camera, the smartphone must be stationary so that the picture does not "blur". Leaves at least a fraction of a millimeter - the frame will be spoiled.

And human hands are shaking. This is clearly noticeable if you raise on outstretched arms and try to hold the barbell, and less noticeable when you hold a mobile phone in front of you to take a photo or video. The difference is that the bar can "float" in your hands within wide boundaries - just not to put it on a wall, a neighbor, or drop it on your feet. And the smartphone needs to have time to "grab" the light in order for the photo to be successful, and to do it before it deviates by a fraction of a millimeter in your hands.

Therefore, the algorithms are trying to please the camera, and not to put forward increased demands on your hands. That is, they tell the camera, for example, "so this means that 1/250 of a second you can take pictures, this is enough for the photo to be more or less successful, and to take a shot before the camera moves to the side is also enough." This thing is called an excerpt.

How does it work optical stabilization

What does the optostab have to do with it? So after all, he is that "amortization" with which the camera does not shake, like the body of army trucks, but "floats" within small boundaries. In the case of smartphones, it does not float in water, but is held by magnets and "fidgets" at a short distance from them.

That is, if the smartphone "leaves" a little or trembles during shooting, the camera will shake much weaker. With such insurance, a smartphone will be able to:

• To overestimate the shutter speed (guaranteed time "to see the picture before the photo is ready") for the camera. The camera receives more light, sees more image details = the quality of the photo during the day is even higher.
• Capture sharp shots in motion. Not during an off-road sprint, but while walking or out of the window of a shaking bus, for example.
• Compensate for shaking in video. Even if you stomp your feet very sharply or sway slightly under the weight of the bag in your other hand, this will not be as noticeable in the video recording as in smartphones without an optical stabilizer.

Therefore, an optostab (OIS, as it is called in English) is an extremely useful gizmo in a smartphone camera. Without it, it is also possible, but sadly - the camera must be of high quality "with a margin", and the automation will have to shorten (worsen) the exposure, because there is no insurance against shaking in the smartphone. When shooting a video, you have to "move" the picture on the fly so that the jitter is not visible. This is akin to how old movies imitated the speed of a driving car when it was actually stationary. With the difference that in films, these scenes were filmed from one take, and smartphones have to calculate the shaking and fight it on the fly.

Smartphones with a good camera, which shoot no worse than competitors with stabilization without stabilization, are vanishingly few - for example, Apple iPhone 6s, the first generation of Google Pixel, OnePlus 5, Xiaomi Mi 5s and, with some stretch, Honor 8 / Honor 9.

What you should not pay attention to

• Flash... Useful only when shooting in pitch darkness, when you need to take a photo at any cost. As a result, you see the pale faces of people in the frame (for all that, because the flash is low-power), eyes screwed up from the bright light, or a very strange color of buildings / trees - photographs with a smartphone flash are definitely not of artistic value. As a flashlight, the LED near the camera is much more useful.
• Number of lenses in the camera... "Before, when I had 5 Mbps internet, I wrote an essay in a day, but now, when I have 100 Mbps, I write it in 4 seconds." No, guys - it doesn't work that way. It doesn't matter how many lenses there are in a smartphone, it doesn't matter who released them (Carl Zeiss, judging by the quality of the new Nokia cameras, too). Lenses are either of high quality or not, and this can only be verified with real photographs.

The quality of the glass (lens) affects the quality of the camera. And the quantity is not

• Shooting in RAW... If you don't know what RAW is, I explain:

JPEG is the standard format in which a smartphone records photos; it is a “ready-to-use” image. Like an Olivier salad on a festive table - it is possible to disassemble it "into components" in order to transform it into another salad, but it will not work out very well.

RAW is a hefty volume on a "flash drive" file, in which in its pure form, in separate "lines" are sewn in all the options for brightness, clarity and color for photography. That is, the photo will not be “covered with small dots” (digital noise) if you decide to make it not as dark as it turned out in JPEG, but a little brighter, as if you had correctly set the brightness at the time of shooting.

In short, RAW allows you to “Photoshop” a frame much more conveniently than JPEG. But the catch is that flagship smartphones almost always select the settings correctly, therefore, apart from the smartphone memory soiled by "heavy" photos in RAW, there will be little use of "photoshop" files. And in cheap smartphones, the camera quality is so bad that you will see poor quality in JPEG, and just as bad in RAW. Don't bother.

• Camera sensor name... They were once super important because they were the “quality mark” of a camera. The sensor (module) model of the camera determines the size of the matrix, the number of megapixels and the size of the pixel, minor "family features" of the shooting algorithms.

From " big three»Manufacturers of camera modules for smartphones the highest quality modules are produced by Sony (we do not take individual examples into account, we are talking about the average temperature in the hospital), followed by Samsung (Samsung sensors in smartphones Samsung Galaxy is even better than the coolest Sony sensors, but Koreans are selling something absurd to the side), and, finally, OmniVision closes the list, which produces “consumer goods, but tolerable”. Intolerant consumer goods are produced by all the other basement Chinese offices, the name of which even the manufacturers themselves are ashamed to mention in the characteristics of smartphones.

8 - a variant of execution. Do you know how it happens in cars? The minimum configuration with a "cloth" on the seats and a "wooden" interior, the maximum - with seats made of artificial suede and leather dashboard... For buyers, the difference in this figure says little.

Why, after all this, you should not pay attention to the sensor model? Because with them things are the same as with megapixels - Chinese "alternatively gifted" manufacturers are actively buying expensive Sony sensors, trumpeting "super-quality camera in our smartphone!" ... and the camera is disgusting.

Because the "glasses" (lenses) in such mobile phones are of terrible quality and transmit light a little better than a plastic soda bottle. The aperture of the camera is far from ideal (f / 2.2 or even higher) because of the same bastard "glasses", and no one is engaged in adjusting the sensor so that the camera selects the colors correctly, works well with the processor and does not disfigure the pictures. Here's a good example of the fact that the sensor model has little effect:

As you can see, smartphones with the same camera sensor can shoot in completely different ways. So don't think that the cheap Moto G5 Plus with the IMX362 module will shoot as well as the HTC U11 does with its amazingly cool camera.

Even more annoying is the “noodles” that Xiaomi hangs on the ears of customers when it says that “the camera in Mi Max 2 is very similar to the camera in the flagship Mi 6 - they have the same IMX386 sensors! They are the same, only smartphones shoot in very different ways, the aperture (and therefore the ability to shoot in low light) is different in them, and Mi Max 2 does not withstand any competition with the flagship Mi6.

1. The additional camera "helps" to take photos at night, the main one and is able to shoot b / w photos. The most famous smartphones with such camera implementations are Huawei P9, Honor 8, Honor 9, Huawei P10.
2. The secondary camera allows you to "shove in the unstoppable", that is, it takes pictures with an almost panoramic angle of view. The only supporter of this type of camera was and remains LG - starting with the LG G5, continuing with the V20, G6, X Cam and now the V30.
3. Two cameras are needed for optical zoom (approximation without loss of quality). Most often, this effect is achieved by the simultaneous operation of two cameras at once (Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 8), although there are models that, when enlarged, simply switch to a separate "long-range" camera - ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom, for example.

How to choose a quality selfie camera in your smartphone?

Best of all - based on examples of real photos. Moreover, both during the day and at night. During the day, almost all selfie cameras give good photos, but only high-quality front cameras are capable of shooting something legible in the dark.

It is not necessary to study the vocabulary of photographers and delve deeper into what this or that characteristic is responsible for - you can simply memorize the numbers "so much is good, but if the number is larger, it is bad" and pick up a smartphone much faster. For an explanation of the terms, welcome to the beginning of the article, and here we will try to derive the formula quality camera in smartphones.

I do not want to understand the characteristics! Which smartphone to buy with good cameras?

There are countless smartphones made by manufacturers, but there are very few models that are good at photography and video.

Samsung recently introduced the Galaxy S3, the long-awaited successor to the Galaxy S2. The Ice Cream Sandwich quad-core smartphone has caused quite a stir among Android fans, but the 8MP camera wasn't cool enough to some. This is partly to blame for rumors that the Galaxy S3 will be equipped with 12 megapixels, and partly for the achievements of competitors: for example, HTC Titan II has a 16-megapixel camera, and Nokia's 808 PureView has a 41-megapixel camera! Unsurprisingly, with such indicators, the device made a splash at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Although 8 megapixels can be called the standard for modern smartphones, many consider a camera with such indicators to be yesterday. However, a 5-megapixel camera may be better than an 8-megapixel one, it just doesn't sound as good as an eight to buyers, even if the camera captures stunning shots. And if "eight" sounds good, then "twelve" is even better. The trick is (and anyone who knows about photography will tell you) is that megapixels alone tell little about how well a camera will shoot. For example, the Samsung Focus with five megapixels takes good photos, while the Motorola Droid Razr with eight is disappointing. The iPhone 4's 5-megapixel camera is superior to many 8-megapixel cameras and is particularly impressive in low light.

What's the formula for the perfect smartphone camera? It includes the characteristics of the entire camera module as a whole: not only the size of the lenses and the material from which they are made, but also the light sensor, the image processor, and software that ties it all together.

Key Ingredient: Matrix

Most experienced photographers will tell you that the sensor (or sensor) is one of the key elements of an optical system because it is what captures light. Essentially, a matrix for a digital camera is an analog of the material from which a film is made for an analog one. No light - no photo.

The light passes through the camera lens and is intercepted by a matrix, which converts it into an electronic signal. From it, the image processor creates a picture, which then undergoes corrections to get rid of the typical imperfections of photographs, for example, to remove noise. The size of the matrix matters: the larger it is, the more pixels it has, and the more pixels, the more light the matrix will be able to capture.

Experts vividly describe the relationship between megapixels and image quality. Their favorite image is buckets of water. Imagine you have buckets (pixels) on the asphalt (matrix). You want to collect as much water as possible in these buckets. Let's try to expand the analogy "water and buckets": the larger the piece of asphalt entrusted to you, the more buckets (pixels) you can put on it and the more water (light) you will collect. The larger sensor is the reason why 8 mekapixels for a DSLR is better than 10 for a smartphone. The number of pixels may be the same, but with an "adult" camera, they will be in a larger area and will be able to collect more light. And more light generally means less noise and a wider dynamic range.

Megapixel punctures

Now it should be clear to you that the desire to shove as many pixels into the matrix as possible is wrong, since it does not directly lead to an improvement in the quality of the photo. John Erenson, an analyst at Gartner, recalls the days when the mobile phone industry made the leap from one megapixel to two. “They made the pixels smaller to fit more into the sensor, which remained the same size,” he says, also using the water analogy, but replacing buckets with wells.

You will remember that light enters the wells, that is, it is captured by the light-sensitive parts of the matrix. So if you make the wells smaller, it becomes more difficult for light to reach the light-sensitive parts. And what is the bottom line? Noise increases. Thus, increasing the resolution does not justify itself.

The relationship between megapixels and physical sensor size is the reason why some 8MP cameras are worse than 5MP ones. It is not possible to increase the size of the sensor located inside thin smartphones; more smaller pixels are crammed onto it, which ultimately capture less light than you could get with a lower resolution.

Unfortunately, most smartphone manufacturers do not report such information as the size of the sensor, so it is impossible to predict how the camera will behave, knowing only the number of megapixels, it remains only to test.

What about Nokia's 41MP PureView?

PureView with 41MP camera is really interesting. Although the device is designed to capture up to 41 megapixels, most users see 5-megapixel images, according to Juha Alakarhu, head of photography technology at Nokia.

Typically, when using digital zoom, you frame the image and zoom in on each pixel. At the same time, noise, graininess "come out", clarity and colors suffer. Nokia uses an algorithm called oversampling. With Nokia PureView's default 5-megapixel resolution, it consolidates information captured by seven megapixels into one. They call it "superpixel". When you zoom in, you just see a portion of the image already captured by the sensor. This method should result in the creation digital images suitable for printing with more high resolution than we are used to.

It took five years to develop the technology for PureView. The device has a rather large sensor, approximately 2.7x3 cm, which is larger than that of other smartphones and even some “point-and-shoot” cameras, as well as special image processing algorithms that suppress noise.

Key ingredient number two: image processor

The image processor is playing important role along with lenses and matrix. Most high-end smartphones have GPUs built into the chip. Thanks to acceleration at the hardware level, they allow you to generate images (when photographing, shooting and watching videos, while playing games) without loading the main processor.

HTC Showcased HTC ImageChip - standalone at Mobile World Congress graphics processor for smartphones of the HTC One family, which allows you to take a series of photos at intervals of 0.7 seconds. The chip built into HTC One V, HTC One S and HTC One X provides these three devices, which differ significantly in other respects, with the same high quality of photography. A separate, non-embedded processor explains how HTC was able to provide identical photography options to the global version of the HTC One X with Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor and the American one with Qualcomm's Snapdagon S4.

The image processor is also responsible for ensuring that the camera shutter works without delay, shooting exactly at the moment you press the button. In general, the processor is responsible for what comes out of the light collected by the sensor and processed into an electronic signal, and what you see on the phone screen. Note that this is one of the most subjective moments in photography: the assessment of the result depends on how exactly your eyes perceive the clarity, color reproduction, etc.

And that is not all

Smartphone manufacturers are increasingly integrating backlit matrices into their products. It is believed that this type of sensor performs especially well in low light conditions, that is, it is associated with high light sensitivity. However, in bright light, it can spoil the image.

The size of the sensor and the quality of the image processor are key elements in how good photos will turn out, but other components of the camera module are also important, namely their quality. Better parts should provide best photos, but at the same time they increase the price of the camera module. According to analysts, using the highest quality parts doubles the cost of the camera, and it is clear that not all manufacturers go for it.

Convenience comes first

Despite the fact that the quality of photos is influenced by the physical parameters of the camera module described above, it cannot be denied that the general impression is most important for users - how comfortable it will be for them to shoot, how long it takes for the camera to "wake up", are there any interesting effects, modes shooting and just "baubles". HTC, for example, equips some of its phones with the Amaze 4G feature, which automatically detects smiles and selects the ones it considers most successful from a series of photos. Samsung's Galaxy S3 will offer similar capabilities too.

For many users, the ability to conveniently share photos is just as important as the number of megapixels. It is not for nothing that the Instagram program, which allows you to publish photos that do not shine with quality, on the Web, has gained insane popularity. To upload pictures to Facbook and Google+, which is what most fans of taking pictures on a smartphone do (some also send them to friends and relatives by mail), eight flash pixels, or even five, are enough with a margin.

Of course, this does not mean that the number of megapixels when choosing a smartphone, if a good camera is important to you, should be ignored. It's just that the importance of this indicator is greatly exaggerated - there are other factors that are worth paying attention to. And be sure to check the camera before buying it, or at least read the reviews.

Based on materials:CNet

Today, many smartphones are equipped with a dual photo module. This allows you to get a spectacular background blur for macro photography and portraits, sharper shots, zoom without loss of quality, or wide-angle photos.

In this article, we have collected best models based on expert opinions (DxOmark, CNet, Techradar) and consumer reviews.

Perhaps, best phone that you can buy today. This also applies to him. A double 12 Mp module with optical stabilization is used. One f / 1.8 wide-angle lens, the other f / 2.4 telephoto (this allows you to realize a high-quality 2x zoom). Pictures are clear, juicy, macro like from DSLR-devices. The 7-megapixel front camera is also good.

We note a decent autonomy, a productive chipset, Face ID face recognition system, protection from water and dust according to the IP67 standard. There are also drawbacks: there is no fingerprint scanner (but this is a matter of habit), a slot for memory cards and a very, very high price.

Characteristics

• Display: 5.8 inches (2,436 x 1,125 pixels).
• Processor: Apple A11 Bionic.
• Memory: 3 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM.
• Cameras: main - 12 + 12 Mp, front - 7 Mp.
• OS: iOS 11.
• Price: from 66,000 rubles.

Perhaps the second best phone you can buy today. Unlike the previous generation, the S9 Plus model has a dual 12-megapixel camera module (the regular S9 has a single one). And - after all, you have to somehow persuade people to upgrade from the S8 - Samsung swears that they have invented the camera anew. And these are not marketing gimmicks. The world's first camera with a variable aperture (from f / 2.4 to f / 1.5). This brings the S9 Plus as close as possible to DSLRs and allows the device to adapt to different shooting conditions. For example, when shooting landscapes, you get very natural light, and in the dark, the pictures come out super sharp and bright (as much as possible).

The modules also have optical stabilization, super slow motion and noise removal options (when 12 shots are taken at the same time and one is almost perfect), a 2x zoom is available without loss of quality. The front camera (8 MP, f / 1.7) blurs the background well and makes great shots.

Other features: a powerful hardware platform, a retina scanner, IP68 moisture protection, a slot for memory cards up to 400 GB, stereo speakers. In the reviews, someone complains about the active post-processing of images, someone about the low battery capacity, but this is not very critical.

Characteristics

• Display: 6.2 inches (2,960 x 1,440 pixels).
• Processor: Exynos 9810.
• Memory: 6 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM + microSD slot.
• Cameras: main - 12 + 12 Mp, front - 8 Mp.
• Battery: 3500 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.0.
• Price: from 67,000 rubles.

DxOMark claims to be the best camera phone on the market today. There are already three "eyes" on the back panel of the device: a dual module (the size of the main sensor is 1 / 1.7 ″, aperture f / 1.8, a resolution of 40 megapixels + a monochrome 20-megapixel sensor with a matrix of 1 / 2.7 ″ and aperture f / 1.6) + 8 megapixel telephoto lens with a focal length of 80 mm and an aperture of f / 2.4. The smartphone boasts 3x optical and 5x hybrid zoom, the ability to shoot at high ISO 102400 and in Super Slow-Mo, an intelligent optical stabilization system and advanced autofocus and no less advanced 24-megapixel front camera.

Before us is a model with outstanding cameras. Everyone notes high-quality and extremely clear pictures in all lighting conditions, in black and white mode. Among other things, the P20 Pro is a flagship with a top-end "filling". Please note that there is no memory card slot, but 128 GB in the base version makes up for this.

Characteristics

• Display: 6.1 inches (2,240 x 1,080 pixels).
• Memory: 6 GB RAM, 128 GB ROM.
• Cameras: main - 40 + 20 + 8 Mp, front - 24 Mp.
• Battery: 4000 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.1.
• Price: from 55,000 rubles.

Not such a "cunning" option, but more affordable. The Leica-branded dual camera features two modules (12 + 20 MP, one monochrome, f / 1.6 aperture) with optical stabilization and 2x hybrid zoom. The pictures are good both from the main camera and from the front camera at 8 megapixels (but there is a minus - it has a fixed focus). Huawei relies on technology artificial intelligence- recognition of shooting objects.

And the rest is a good device for its money: top-end chipset, waterproof IP67, capacious, attractive glass case (but rather easily soiled). There is no memory card slot.

Characteristics

• Display: 6 inches (2,160 x 1,080 pixels).
• Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 970.
• Memory: from 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of ROM.
• Cameras: main - 12 + 20 Mp, front - 8 Mp.
• Battery: 4000 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.0.
• Price: from 40,000 rubles.

Honor is the "daughter" of Huawei, as you probably know. At the same time, both brands are now producing strong models at good prices and are competing with might and main. The new Honor 10 can be called budget flagship... It is distinguished by an affordable price, an iridescent glass body, a fashionable design with bangs, a dual camera module (24 + 16 Mp, one monochrome sensor, there are AI functions) and, if not top-end, but productive hardware stuffing. There is no memory card slot. The pictures are very good, but the quality decreases in low light conditions.

Characteristics

• Display: 5.84 inches (2,280 x 1,080 pixels).
• Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 970.
• Memory: 4 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM.
• Cameras: main - 24 + 16 Mp, front - 24 Mp.
• Battery: 3 400 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.1.
• Price: from 27,000 rubles.

The newest flagship from the Chinese. Of course, with top-end hardware and a dual camera. Modules with an aperture of f / 1.8 and f / 2.4 are used, 2x zoom is available without loss of quality, optical stabilization. Again, artificial intelligence technologies are offered to determine the content and select the best settings. The device just went on sale, but judging by the first reviews and test results of the same DxOMark, the camera turned out to be successful. The front 20-megapixel module with f / 2.0 aperture is also excellent and uses different "beautification" modes.

The smartphone is beautiful (although it obviously copies the iPhone X), only the relatively low battery capacity frustrates. The device has not yet arrived in Russia, but it can be purchased on AliExpress.

Characteristics

• Display: 6.21 inches (2,280 x 1,080 pixels).
• Memory: 6 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM.
• Cameras: main - 12 + 12 Mp, front - 20 Mp.
• Battery: 3300 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.1.
• Price: from 35,000 rubles.

Another advanced Chinese flagship, which became a bright new product of the last month. The body is made of metal and glass, a screen with a "bang" and minimal bezels. Not iPhone copy, while beautiful. Iron is traditionally for OnePlus "at the forefront of the attack." They also tried to make the camera stand out. Two modules from Sony are used: a 16-megapixel IMX 519 with optical stabilization and an aperture of f / 1.7, as well as a 20-megapixel IMX 376K. To showcase the shooting capabilities of the OnePlus 6, a model was even captured on the cover of Indian Vogue. The manufacturer offers an improved HDR mode and automatic selection of shooting parameters depending on the scene.

Everything is good, but I would like the battery to be more capacious. And keep in mind: there is no memory card slot, like the Mi8. Does he seem to have begun to recede into the past?

Characteristics

• Display: 6.28 inches (2,280 x 1,080 pixels).
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845.
• Memory: from 6 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM.

DxOmark is confident that this smartphone takes the second place in terms of its photo capabilities. - the first flagship of the company after a long break, which has a dual camera (recall that the brand was once a pioneer in the market, presenting a model with a dual camera and a 3D screen). It uses a 12-megapixel wide-angle module (f / 1.75, optical stabilization) and a 16-megapixel telephoto with a 54mm f / 2.6 lens. Such a bundle allows you to make a 2x zoom without loss of quality. We also note the UltraPixel 4 technology, traditional for the brand (larger pixels receive more light).

The smartphone has a Pro manual shooting mode and RAW support. Ultraspeed Autofocus 2 (a combination of phase detection and laser autofocus) ensures sharp focusing. Supports 4K video recording at 60 fps. The pictures are beautiful good effect bokeh. This also applies to the front module: it is also double.

Otherwise, we have a top-end novelty based on Qualcomm 845 with IP68 water protection and Edge Sense option (you can squeeze the edges of the smartphone to activate some functions). And the U12 + also has a translucent body. But the gadget is too expensive for a model from a company that is struggling to stay afloat.

Characteristics

• Display: 6 inches (2,880 x 1,440 pixels).
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845.
• Memory: 6 GB of RAM, from 64 GB of ROM, slot for memory cards microSD.
• Cameras: main - 12 + 16 Mp, front - 8 + 8 Mp.
• Battery: 3,500 mAh.
• OS: Android 8.0.
• Price: from 59,000 rubles.

Prepared camera comparison best smartphones... Their last comparison of 8-megapixel cameras dates back to 2008. It turned out that modern 8-megapixel cameras are very different from them.

Six Comparison Participants

Only smartphone cameras will be considered. Smartphones are very good on their own, but we are only interested in how well they photograph and shoot high-definition video. This is not a battle of platforms and ideologies. We are interested in which smartphone has the best camera. Meet the participants: iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S, HTC Sensation XE, Nokia N9 and WP-smartphone HTC Titan. Specially prepared tests were carried out. So which of these smartphones has the best 8MP camera?

The quality of the filmed video also played a huge role in the assessment, but there is a suspicion that it is directly related to the quality of photographing. Let's take a look before testing specifications cameras.

Camera specifications

The compared smartphone models run on 4 different platforms. This is iOS, MeeGo, Windows Phone and various Android modifications from various manufacturers. Some of the functionality is similar, but there are some unique features. For convenience, comparative tables have been compiled. In them you will find everything important characteristics: resolution, scenes, user settings (ISO, clarity, etc.) and minor ones, like the ability to launch the camera from the lock page. Not all of these characteristics are equally important to every user. Not everyone uses effects or uses them when post-processing photos in third-party applications. They were included in the comparison, but did not have a strong effect on the result.

The table says "Yes" or "No", but what does this mean from a usability point of view? Each smartphone has its own pros and cons, let's take a quick look at them. IPhone 4S has the fewest settings available to the user: you can activate geotagging, viewfinder grid and touch focus. Although it has modes that other smartphones do not have: HDR and AE / AF lock. So say that u iPhone cameras 4S is not enough functions with all the minimalism of its interface, it would be wrong.

The camera can be started by pressing the key twice. home page... Nokia N9 has no viewfinder settings, but it does have resolution, scene and flash settings. The settings menu is probably the best of all - it's simple, straightforward, and contains a lot of options.

Samsung Galaxy S II has the best viewfinder - there are 4 icons to choose from. The settings menu is rich, with many different options, but for an ordinary user, due to the alias of the submenus and some illogicality, it may seem unnecessarily complicated.

In the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S, you can also choose the icons to appear in the viewfinder, and the settings menu is simple and straightforward. Options are scarce, however, and the shutter button is awkward. But at least it is. There is press-to-focus, but oa only works when the press-capture option is activated, that is, every time you touch the screen, it focuses and takes a picture.

HTC Sensation XE has a few basic icons in the viewfinder and an impressive selection of settings. HTC Sense's interface allows you to launch the camera directly from lock mode.

The HTC Titan's camera has a wealth of options, but they're all buried deep in the settings menu. The shutter button is very convenient, although it can accidentally unlock the phone in your pocket and take a picture of its contents (in other models, the camera starts in lock mode, but first you need to wake up the phone).

All cameras have different interfaces, each one has pros and cons, so to make comparison easier, GSMArena rated each of them from 1 to 10 for their functions.

Camera start time and interval between shots

The camera in your mobile is convenient because it is always with you. But you can miss the moment if it starts slowly or allows too long an interval between shots. The hot and cold start times of the camera were measured, as well as the interval between shots.

The iPhone 4S has the smallest interval between snaps - just 0.7 seconds. The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S also has a small 0.9 s, and the hot start is even faster - in 1.1 s versus 1.4 s for the iPhone 4S. However, the arc S slowly opens the camera for the first time - the worst result among the six smartphones tested.

Macro photography

The macro mode was tested for each camera. All cameras were 7.5cm (or less) and all were able to focus. The Samsung Galaxy S II was able to get closest to the subject. The area captured in macro photography was also measured. All cameras shoot at the same resolution, so the smaller this area, the greater the magnification.

Despite the minimum distance to the object, the Galaxy S II did not become the best - the HTC Titan receives the award. Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S proved to be the worst of all, but the difference is small - only 30%. Keep in mind that all phones report focus lock if the picture is out of focus for a long time. Therefore, be careful if you want your pictures to come out right. Usually the problem manifests itself when using continuous autofocus.

Camera specifications

Fine-tuning a camera takes time and requires some trade-offs. But a great result is worth it, isn't it? It took several days to test the cameras of these phones. All chambers were rated for every aspect. You can judge the results for yourself - examples of test shots are attached. You will see both full-size photos and fragments.

Shooting in bright light

For testing shooting in daylight, 4 fragments were used. You will see full-size images during individual analysis of each camera. Now look at the differences.

Resolution

To evaluate the resolution, you need to see how many small details fall into the final image. Fragment A shows white lines at different angles, fragment B shows the texture of the wall, and fragment C shows gas station prices.

iPhone 4S renders white lines thin, straight and crisp and retains high detail in the texture of the wall, prices are also readable. The iPhone 4S is the clear winner in this category, while the Samsung Galaxy S II came in second. The last places go to Nokia N9 and HTC Titan, which show poor results in all segments.

Noise and squelch

Noise is best seen in solid colors, as well as in dark areas of the photo. therefore Special attention should be given to fragment D. In other fragments, noise can be eliminated at the cost of reducing the detail.

Here, the Samsung Galaxy S II camera managed to show a minimum of noise and not lose detail - the sky is clear, you can see leaves on the trees. iPhone 4S came in second to show some light noise. HTC Sensation XE and Titan lost this round - too much noise and poor clarity.

Dynamic level

The dynamic level determines the amount of detail the camera captures the lightest and darkest areas of the picture in high-contrast scenes. Such scenes present certain difficulties for mobile phone cameras - too dark shades and bright light sources. With a limited dynamic level, the camera makes a compromise - either it loses detail in light objects or in dark ones, having no idea what exactly you need. Fortunately, almost all cameras passed this test well. Snippet C is a great example of dynamic camera levels.

Camera Nokia N9 performed better than others here - it practically does not lose detail either in light (mainly white objects) or in dark areas of the picture (just perfect). The second place was taken by the iPhone 4S, which lost a little detail on the sunlit walls. Sensation XE has lost a lot of parts in dark and light areas and moderately in light areas. In the remaining spectrum, the results are good, but the Sensation XE still confidently took the last place in this test. In the same test, it was checked how correctly the cameras choose the shutter speed. Where most cameras try to overexpose photos, the N9 retains the most natural colors. The iPhone 4S is close to it, although it is noticeable in all the captured images that they are overexposed. The worst performance here is Arc S.

The most common problems were with the balance of warm tones, resulting in a yellowish footage, or incorrect color balance when individual colors appear oversaturated. iPhone 4S reproduces colors closest to the truth. The Galaxy S II has colder colors, but at least not oversaturated. In second place, you can also put the N9, which also slightly distorts the color (but in this case, makes them warmer). The remaining three cameras reproduce colors roughly the same, so they will all take the last place.

results

Below are the ratings for each camera in bright light conditions. Not all parameters are created equal (perhaps someone would prefer a higher dynamic level of color accuracy), so these ratings do not give a clear picture of who won.

The iPhone 4S is the clear winner here - although it didn't rank as the best in all categories, overall the photos it took with its camera are the best. Some smartphones turn out to be somewhat better than the iPhone 4S, but in the end this does not affect its superiority in any way.

Low light shooting

No flash

First, let's look at the shots taken in low light conditions with the flash turned off (fragment E). Since the flashes are different, it is not known how each sensor will behave with the flash under the same lighting conditions.

The Samsung Galaxy S II and Nokia N9 capture the same highly detailed, quiet pictures. The Xperia arc S's camera also performed well, but it had more color noise. Sensation XE takes very noisy pictures in the dark, albeit detailed. Titan shoots pretty much the same way.

With flash

Now let's look at the photos taken using the flash. The subject is quite close and the flash is the only light source. This is fragment F.

The best results were obtained with the flash and camera sensor of the Galaxy S II - a good quiet shot (with greenish noise in dark areas). iPhone 4S shot a little worse, but retained the detail and did not allow color interference. The Sensation XE overcame noise (including color), but its powerful dual-LED flash spoiled the picture a little. The Titan's flash is very strong, but despite this, digital noise is present in the photographs. The Xperia arc S reproduces colors very well (no clutter), but allows for color noise. Take a look at all images in full resolution:

results

Let's take a look at the assessment of cameras of all smartphones when shooting both with and without a flash.

The results are practically the same as in the previous test. As you can see, there is a clear winner - the Samsung Galaxy S II, but the iPhone 4S is very close to it. HTC Sensation XE rehabilitated itself a little after poor performance when shooting in bright light.

Analysis of photography

iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S leaves noticeable lighting noise in photos, but delivers an impressive amount of detail - more than any other smartphone in our review. Bright parts come out overexposed, and shadows come out very well. The image is clear, the colors are transmitted reliably, there are few artifacts. In low light conditions, some noise is noticeable, but detail is maintained at a high level. Color reproduction is very good, although the flash performance was not impressive. See sample photos:

The camera of the Nokia N9 impressed with its good shutter speed and excellent dynamic level (the very best in the comparison). There is graininess in the pictures, but no color noise. At 100% zoom, it is noticeable that the details of the pictures do not shine. Photos taken in sunlight do not contain artifacts, colors are accurately reproduced (although a slight increase in saturation is noticeable). Photos taken in low light contain little noise and are quite detailed, but contain artificial color casts. The flash is weak compared to other smartphones. See examples of photos:

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II

Photos captured by the Samsung Galaxy S II contain almost no digital noise, are highly detailed and slightly grainy. The pictures are clear, moderately sharp. White balance maintains neutrality for all colors except cool tones. In general, however, colors are accurate. Of the artifacts, only the presence of excessive clarity can be called. There is little noise in low light, but detail and contrast leave a lot to be desired. There are artificial color tints in the shadows. The single-LED flash performs quite average, but the pictures when using it are practically noise-free. See examples of photos:

Sony Ericsson Arc S

The Sony Ericsson Arc S camera does not really struggle with noise, so the noise is noticeable (especially in dark fragments), but the details are high. Bright fragments are overexposed and therefore there is no need to talk about high detail, dark fragments contain both high detail and noise. Photos are yellowish (users usually prefer warm colors). The colors are oversaturated, in the center of some photos a pink spot is found. There is a noticeable bluishness around the high-contrast edges. In pictures taken in low light, detail is high, contrast is low and there is noticeable color noise. LED flash shows average results. See examples of photos:

There is too much noise in the pictures taken with the HTC Sensation XE camera. The dynamic level of the camera is limited, which means that you will not see very light and dark colors in the pictures taken with this camera. The shutter speed of the camera is very good, but this is clearly not enough. The balance is shifted towards yellow. Also, the color saturation is too high. HTC Sensation XE, among the smartphones under review, takes the noisiest photos with a flash in low light conditions, which, by the way, is the strongest of the six. The detail in such photos is too low. Shots in bright light are surprisingly good.

The HTC Titan's camera lens has the widest angle we've seen so far, allowing you to capture more panoramic information at the expense of less detail and more distortion when zooming in. The squelch works too aggressively, giving pictures the look of painted pictures. The detail is high, but there is some visible color noise. The HTC Titan's camera balances sharpness better than the other cameras in review, but like the XE, the picture is too yellow. Pink spots are also noticeable in the pictures. In low light, noise appears, but detail remains at a high level. The flash is bright, but it affects the color of the photos. Overall, low-light photography is quite good.

Video analysis

With the incredible simplification of the possibility of posting custom videos on the Internet, the popularity of camcorders in mobile phones has grown so much that smartphones that cannot shoot HD video are considered obsolete. However, not all cameras shoot HD video in the same way - three of the six phones tested here shoot FullHD (each frame of such video has a resolution of 2 megapixels), and the remaining three only shoot 720p (about 0.9 megapixels). However, high resolution does not necessarily provide high image quality. Viewing angle, compression, choice of codec, autofocus modes, color quality - all this affects the result, and can improve or worsen it. To identify the smartphone with the best camcorder, we tested the individual footage they captured, smoothness, and sound. You will see examples of shooting both 1080p and 720p. Cameras that can shoot in both modes are presented in both categories.

All smartphone cameras have their pros and cons, and having the same performance ratings does not mean that cameras have the same performance. HTC Titan has the most comfortable shutter button, which raised its rating. The iPhone 4S has amazing built-in video stabilization (but the volume rocker doesn't replace a real shutter button). The Xperia arc S's camera is packed with features and has a hardware shutter button (pretty handy).

Shooting video in good lighting conditions

Resolution when shooting in good light conditions

First of all, let's take a look at how these smartphones shoot videos in bright light. The iPhone 4S is the clear leader here, with the Galaxy S II and Sensation XE tied for second. 1080p video captured by Android smartphones looks softer than video, shot iPhone 4S. Nokia N9 loses, losing detail, and Sensation XE in 720p mode shoots no better. For clarity, see these frames:

Color rendering in good light conditions

All cameras have approximately the same color rendition. Oddly, the Galaxy S II uses different color balances, and 720p video looks much better than 1080p. Sensation XE also changes the white balance when shooting 720p.

Noise and noise reduction in good lighting conditions

In this aspect, the balance was taken into account - there should be as little noise as possible with as little loss of picture detail as possible. In 1080p mode, the iPhone 4S was the best, in 720p mode - Samsung Galaxy S II (new pixel technologies in action). The Xperia arc S video has a lot of color noise, so he lost this round.

We also measured the frame rate and bit rate of each video captured in sufficient lighting. All smartphones except the Nokia N9 managed to keep the frame rate at 30 fps, and something strange happened to the Nokia N9, which we will look at later.

The iPhone 4S uses the highest bitrate among the smartphones compared (which is why, in part, it has such a high video quality), but it's bad that it does not have the option to shoot 720p video, in this mode the memory would be consumed much less. The Galaxy S II uses a slightly higher bitrate at 720p than the Sensation XE at 1080p, so the video size is about the same.

results
Look at the table with grades from 1 to 10 in each category for all six participants:

The iPhone 4S is closest to the ideal 10 points, slightly behind the Galaxy S II, which showed itself not very well in color balance (at 720p, the S II is a confident winner). Among smartphones that shoot only 720p video, the winner is the HTC Titan. The Nokia N9 lost points in the smoothness category as it shoots video at 24 fps (this number appears when the flash is turned off).

Low light shooting

Resolution

iPhone 4S is the winner in low light mode. The Galaxy S II came in second at 1080p, with the N9 again in last. And again illustrations:

Color rendering

In 720p mode, the Galaxy SII became the best, in the dark it reproduces colors even better than the iPhone 4S. The rest, apart from Titan, are slightly worse.

Noise and noise reduction

At 720p, the noise situation is somewhat different. The Samsung Galaxy S II uses the new pixel technology at 720p and performs the same as the iPhone 4S at 1080p. Nokia N9 and Xperia arc S have a lot of noise.

Frame rate and bit rate

With a decrease in illumination, most cameras have a lower frame rate. Sensation XE reduces it the most - below 24 fps. Surprisingly, Nokia raises the frame rate to 29 fps. Experiments have shown that the darker the picture, the closer the frame rate to the declared 30 fps. Probably, it's all about the volume of the processed parts.

results

Check out the summary table with ratings for each smartphone:

iPhone again, now without flash, takes the first place. It is again followed by the Galaxy S II, which wins the consolation prize for the most best shooting 720p video in the dark, and among smartphones that can only shoot 720p video, the Titan has the best camera.

Video recording analysis

iPhone 4S

Videos captured by the iPhone 4S camera have a high degree of detail - better than five other smartphones. High detail is achieved due to the large file size. A 20-second video weighs almost 60 megabytes, there is no possibility to choose another resolution. A 10-minute video will take 1.7-1.8 GB, which means that owners of a 16 GB iPhone versions 4S will have to transfer captured videos from the phone too often to free up memory space. Even videos shot in the dark have high details, although there is noticeable noise. However, the camera of this smartphone shoots better in low light than others. Don't forget the AE / AF lock with video stabilizer. It's safe to say that iPhone 4S is equipped with the best mobile camera for shooting FullHD video. The only drawback is the mono sound recording in AAC format with a bitrate of 64 kbps. In addition, the field of view in video mode is 40mm, which is slightly smaller than the field of view in photo mode. Check out an example of how to shoot a video with an iPhone 4S camera in both bright and low light. Do not forget to select 1080p resolution when viewing and expand the video to full screen.

The Nokia N9 shoots 720p video in very low detail. A low contrast indicates an excessively high compression level. Sometimes skipping frames are noticeable (the camera does not reach 30 fps, it shoots 25-27 fps). Light and shadows are captured well. The colors are too saturated, and there is no white balance in relatively cool tones. Despite the wide aperture of the camera, videos shot in low light have high levels of noise and noticeable motion blur. Stereo sound is recorded in AAC format at 132 kbps. Watch an example of filming a video Nokia camera N9 in both bright and low light. Do not forget to select 720p resolution when viewing and expand the video to full screen.

Samsung camera Galaxy S II captures highly detailed video. White balance reproduces cool tones in the same way as in photography. In general, the colors are good, there are no complaints about the video quality. By the way, at 720p the colors are more natural. In low light, noise kills most of the detail, but the quality is still high. In low light, the FullHD frame rate drops to 25 fps, while the 720p frame rate remains at the same 30 fps. Sound is recorded in AAC format in mono at 60 kbps. See an example of shooting.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S camera shoots 720p video with a good degree of detail. The compression level is too high, as a result, some parts of the picture are not clear enough. In low light, the video clearly falls short of the declared 30 fps. In the dark, the noise level increases, the detail decreases. Stereo sound is recorded in AAC format at 128 kbps. Watch an example of filming a video Sony camera Ericsson Xperia arc S. Do not forget to select 720p resolution when viewing and expand the video to full screen.

The detail of the video captured by the HTC Sensation XE camera is high, but the compression “kills” the details in places with low contrast. Motion blur is more noticeable than other smartphones. The colors are oversaturated. In low light conditions, the recording quality and frame rate drop noticeably below 24 fps for both 1080p and 720p resolutions. Stereo sound is recorded in AAC format at 128 kbps. See an example of shooting.

The 720p camera provides very high detail for 720p, but again high compression sometimes blur the picture. Low-light performance is very good - there is little noise and detail is almost the same as in good light. The sound is also recorded in stereo using the AAC codec. Check out an example of video shooting with the HTC Titan camera. Don't forget to expand the video to full screen.

Conclusion

Exactly three years have passed since the last, and look how much everything has changed. The picture quality became unusually high and they learned how to shoot high-definition video. You have seen all the tables, read all the explanations for them. It's time to take stock. We remind you that only the cameras of these smartphones were tested and nothing else. Smartphone has the best camera iPhone 4S... His camera was the winner or second in every test he ran. She also makes excellent video shoots. It can be seen that Apple employees put their heart and soul into the creation of this smartphone (although, if you remember, the cameras of the first iPhone models were not very good). Once again, Apple disagrees with anything less than perfect, ignoring things like 720p video or photo resolutions below 8 megapixels. They added long-awaited features like HDR mode, AE / AF lock and video stabilizer. The Samsung Galaxy S II camera also shows excellent results - the quality of photo and video shooting in most cases is higher than that of other cameras. She set the fashion for 8MP / 1080p mobile cameras, but after a long (by technical standards) 8 months of presence on the market, it's time to offer new standard.

HTC Sensation XE can be considered an option if you mostly need to shoot 1080p video. Nokia N9 - a good choice for those who value a high dynamic level of photo, but in general, the camera of this smartphone has low performance. The camera in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S is average but pretty good. HTC Titan surprised. Nobody expected this from a WP-smartphone HTC, but its camera takes well-balanced photos (even with a weak flash) and high-quality (for 720p) video.

What's more surprising is that usually iPhone cameras didn't perform well, and they certainly weren't the best. But that was a long time ago, Apple caught up. They are lucky - time in this industry means a lot. 8MP cameras have been around in smartphones for a long time, but that doesn't mean that their development has stopped. The quality of video recording began to increase, smartphones and tablets have greatly changed the ideology of cameras. The 12-megapixel line has already been crossed, but manufacturers still prefer to install high-quality 8-megapixel cameras in smartphones. This is not to say that this is bad - after all, quality is more important than quantity.