Camera-Phone Photos

[David Martin]

That is rather nice.

[LEE]

That is rather nice.

Thanks, I'll take that as high praise indeed.

We were out walking through Hampshire fields one evening when a thunderstorm rolled in.  30 minutes later were were getting truly soaked but this was at that magical time when you are stood in bright sun watching someone else, a few miles away, getting soaked.

It's possibly the first photo I've taken on a phone that I don't regret not having a "proper" camera with me.

That's 30% down to the improvement in Camera-Phones but 70% down to the ambient conditions matching the phone's capabilities nicely.

They still don't do a very good job with less than perfect lighting.  I think the trick is to understand your phone's capabilities and you can squeeze a decent photo out of them occasionally. 

Of course any photo is sometimes better than none and I have some fairly awful images, but of some lovely memories, courtesy of my phone.

[andyoxon]

Here one from my initial crop of photos from my first smartphone (Huawei Ascend Y300) 

5MP camera.  I needed to set WB cloudy, as auto was too undersaturated, and also took the exposure down to -1 (as DR not great as expected).  Sharpened a tad in Picasa.

Not too bad really, considering the fingerprint on lens I've just noticed. 


IMG_20130914_110857 by ao, on Flickr

[bloomers100]

[marcusjb]

By luck rather than judgement:

[LEE]

Quarley, St Michael's Church
HTC Desire S

I think the sweaty lens (phone stuffed in rear pocket) added to the effect rather than subtracted from it.

I'm finding that, with my "old" HTC and my Wife's new Samsung, if you take 5-10 photos at various settings/metering you tend to come away with a couple of decent photos, good enough for full screen display on a large monitor.  Certainly capable of more than a 10x8" size print.

In that respect they have definitely moved on from the "crap but better than nothing at all" device of just a few years ago.

Ambient light is still the limiting factor, I've yet to see one deal with difficult lighting conditions well.  I don't see the point of a LOMO camera when most camera phones exhibit most of the (desirable?) image issues of a LOMO camera/film (or have a built-in LOMO filter).

[Peter]

That looks great - New Forest?

[Peter]

htc wildfire s any idea what it is

Loafer, I've only just seen this; it's a swallow-tail moth.

[LEE]

That looks great - New Forest?

About 30km north of NF.

[Peter]

Yes, sorry, I didn't notice you'd put the place!

[loafer]

htc wildfire s any idea what it is

Loafer, I've only just seen this; it's a swallow-tail moth.

 thanks peter 

[LEE]

I am very very pleased with this from my old HTC Desire S

It's "The Holy Trinity" taken last night into a very interesting sky.  Just sharpened a touch but nothing else.



The Holy Trinity?

(click to show/hide)

Best, Law & Charlton of course

[tiermat]

The moon rise, at my digs, a couple of nights ago:



ETA: photo taken with a HTC One

[LEE]

Any photos from your new Christmas toys?

Interested to see iPhone 5 and especially the new Nokia Lumia 41Mp

[LEE]

Interesting article from DPREVIEW

http://connect.dpreview.com/post/5533410947/smartphones-versus-dslr-versus-film?page=4

Summary

It’s sobering to look back at the old reviews of the cameras that we included. The earliest, the Canon EOS10D was a marvel of 2003. Phil Askey from DPReview described it as “the absolute best in its class, with the best image quality, lowest high sensitivity noise, superb build quality and excellent price.” He described the “Excellent resolution”, the “Noise free ‘silky smooth’ images”, with “very low noise levels even at ISO 1600.” The EOS 10D ran rings around the film that we’d been using for 50 years in terms of clarity and freedom from grain.

Yet it’s comprehensively humbled by modern phones. The iPhone out-shoots it, and the Nokia out-resolves it, all by huge margins.

[David Martin]

IMAG1937 by davidmamartin, on Flickr

This morning on my way in.

[LEE]

IMAG1937 by davidmamartin, on Flickr

This morning on my way in.

HTC Desire S ?

It's done a nice job of difficult light.  The detail in the tree branches is ridiculous for a "pin hole" lens.

Just looking at your FLIKR stuff.  Apart from the obvious telephoto lens, it's not obvious, quality wise, where the HTC photos run into the D80 photos.

I'm tempted to drive out to a favourite photo spot, armed with all my family's cast off phones and do a head-to-head.

[LEE]

It feels like years since it's been here..... by  DJB, on Flickr


The world revolving around you by  DJB, on Flickr

iPhone 5 according to FLIKR (running some in-camera effects.)

Stunning I think.

[bumper]

Thanks Lee, too kind

Love playing with my iphone. It's all I use now, always with me too unlike my dslrs.

[David Martin]

IMAG1937 by davidmamartin, on Flickr

This morning on my way in.

HTC Desire S ?

It's done a nice job of difficult light.  The detail in the tree branches is ridiculous for a "pin hole" lens.

Just looking at your FLIKR stuff.  Apart from the obvious telephoto lens, it's not obvious, quality wise, where the HTC photos run into the D80 photos.

I'm tempted to drive out to a favourite photo spot, armed with all my family's cast off phones and do a head-to-head.

If the exposure is spot on and within a credible range then the Desire S does very well. As soon as you want telephoto, action, or difficult exposures then it falls down on enlargement to full screen. There is almost no detail in the shadow - the D80 would have kept some (and the D610 a bit more) but one was at home and the other at work.

[loafer]

nokia lumia 920         my g/f not impressed with the weather....

[T42]

Motorola MB525:



After my eye op in February. 

[bumper]

Motorola MB525:



After my eye op in February.

Eye op OR I hop

The buggers taken your other leg off!

[LEE]

Just got a new (Mk2) Motorola Moto G.  It's a £149 phone so nothing special but it has an 8Mp camera on the back and a 2Mp "selfie" camera on the front.

I'm always amazed by the pin-hole "selfie" cameras, that they manage to produce anything at all but check this out...





The top photo is in 6Mp mode (widescreen) and the bottom is the 2Mp "pin-hole" camera.  Perfectly usable for a 6x4 print.
In fact, in some respects, it's actually better.

The main camera resolves detail, colours and contrast better but I'm still impressed by the bottom image (after a bit of tweaking to get come contrast and sharpness back).

The lens is perhaps a millimetre in diameter at most.  Incredible.

[LEE]

My first chance to play with the MOTO G Mk2.  Oct 2104.

It's clear to me that, even with a fairly cheap (if you can consider a £150 phone cheap) phone, forgetting your "real" camera is getting to be much less of an issue, as long as you understand the limitations of the lens and sensor size.