What Mobile Phone do you own, and what is the best camera feature

[ricktas]

So let's get this forum started.

What mobile phone do you own and what would you say is the best feature of the camera on that phone?

[Mary Anne]

At present I have the iPhone SE which I like as its smaller than its Big Brothers so fits in my pocket just right.
Really like the Landscapes it produces of the local lagoon and the Ducks there, the colours look natural there is plenty of detail even shooting at f/2.2.
I use my SE for many of the weekly challenges especially if its food related as it takes great shots in the Supermarket of anything on the shelves

[Floribunda]

I have the iPhone 6 Plus.
Best feature? It being with me all the time.

[ameerat42]

Sony Xperia some years old (but I got it for 0-thing).
12 MPx camera with some manual features, the most useful being the EV adjustment.
Full HD video (very infrequently used).
Main portable communications device; always in pocket.

Samsung Galaxy S5 (also some years old, also got for 0-thing).
16 MPx camera with some (useless) manual features.
4K video (never used).
Not used for communicating but as deployed Internet tool.
Sometimes take the odd shot.

Image quality from both cameras: S5 - excellent; Xperia - good enough for snaps, recording serviceable
images. The Xperia is my main phone camera by far, mainly because of its ease of use and sensible/useful
menus. The S5 menus are a pain.

I've posted a good few pics here that were taken with the Xperia. - None so far with the S5
Macro with the Xperia is achieved by lashing a powerful close-up lens over the objective. It has
very good AF.

Ultimately, they both produce in-camera jpegs, but...

(Must try the S5 more often )

Size: Samsung Galaxy S5 is way larger than the Xperia. - You know when it's in your pocket as it requires
cargo pants.

- - - Updated - - -

A final thing: Xperia is USB 2, while S5 is USB 3, so images take muuuuch longer to
download with the former.

PS: Forgot to mention - I have NO data on the plan; just pay for what calls made. It's only a "smartphone" when
back on a WiFi network. If ever we plan to meet, you will know me by being the ONLY PERSON NOT staring at the
phone in PUBLICK.

[Tannin]

My ancient dumb phone, which I was perfectly happy with, has finally kicked the bucket after 7 years of faithful service. Even at that age, the battery still lasted close to a week between charges.

After a good deal of research, I replaced it - just last week - with a Huawei Y7, which is allegedly the smartphone with the best battery life. I haven't had a chance to test it properly yet, but early indications are that it will go a full week now that I've switched off as much of the rubbish as possible and cleaned out all the useless apps. For example, I switched off the GPS (if I ever want it, not so likely in Australia but probably overseas) I can always switch it on again. To be honest, it came out of the box pretty clean.

I despise using Snoopoid Android, but given that the only realistic alternative is Apple, what can you do?

I am currently wondering whether to switch off all the camera permissions, tape over the lenses, or just accept that either Google or some hacker will spy on me. In reality, the only time I'd actually want the camera would be to live-stream one of those scary live-action moments (fire, riot, train wreck, you know the kind of thing) to Facebook. A fair plan, but I'm not convinced that a riot would stop and wait while I (a) unpeel the tape, (b) switch on the permissions, (c) figure how what you have to do to take a picture, and (d) sign up for a Facebook account.

[jim]

Phone: iPhone 8 Plus. (yes, I know. Posh, eh?)
Best feature: it's in my pocket.

[Geoff79]

At present I have the iPhone SE which I like as its smaller than its Big Brothers so fits in my pocket just right.
Really like the Landscapes it produces of the local lagoon and the Ducks there, the colours look natural there is plenty of detail even shooting at f/2.2.
I use my SE for many of the weekly challenges especially if its food related as it takes great shots in the Supermarket of anything on the shelves

Much of this for me too. I also have the Iphone SE (and for the record, my wife has the Iphone 6, or 7... or one of the recent models. Not the X, but a recent one) and there's no way the photos from that are any better than the ones produced with the SE.

I agree with Mary Anne about the colours... it's a good point. It seems to often get the colours spot on, which doesn't sound like it should be too hard to do, but I've been continually impressed with it.

I haven't been able to get involved in many of the weekly challenges this year, even if I still plan to, if I ever get up-to-date with everything else, but last year I was in most of them, and I also used my phone for 99% of my entries in the challenges. Just easy and convenient to use during the working week.

Anyway, my favourite feature on it? As a father to two young children, I absolutely love the burst function. Not required for landscape shots and stuff, but my word it's great for capturing a sequence of shots of the kids and very quickly picking the one or two winners afterwards. Using my camera, I often miss the best shot with a pretty slow burst feature on my 70D, which lasts for about a dozen shots and then stops as the camera processes the images to the card, holding up any future shots as it performs this function, thus doubly missing out on my subject.

With the burst function on my phone, I have taken 200+ shots in one burst and it never stops to take a breath. Getting nice looking faces, especially from two kids, can be extremely tricky - especially when trying to capture two at the same time - and this burst function definitely increases the odds of getting that occasional winner.

I also use the video function quite a lot too (again, just for the kids - not shooting motion pictures or anything), and it seems to be a good quality. 100% better than the output from my Canon Legria HFR36 Camcorder.

[Claire M]

Just a thought, but you know it would be really great if members above could post 1 image (or even 2) from their phone giving us an example (Geoff - maybe keep it to just a few burst shots ) re - what their phone camera's best feature is. ?
(Though Lyn's and Jim's pics could be very interesting. )

[ricktas]

I have the Samsung Note 8.

Best feature of the camera for me, is the dual lenses, thus being able to instantly zoom (2x) in by switching between the lenses. But the 'pro' mode is where it shines for me. Being able to manually change shutter speed, ISO, focus mode (single point, multipoint, movement tracking) and aperture with ease, means I can get creative with the phone camera, just not let the camera software determine the photo settings.

shutter speed adjustment - just tap on the screen for the shutter speed wanted
shutter.jpg

ISO adjustment, again tap the screen to select the ISO
ISO.jpg

As you adjust these, the live view changes to reflect the settings you have chosen. So as I go to a lower ISO, the image on screen darkens to reflect the result from the lower ISO, etc.

Which means I can take photos in low light, with shallow depth of field.

Model : Liberty
Liberty.jpg

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 : camera specs: Dual: 12 MP (f/1.7, 26mm, 1/2.5", 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF) + 12MP (f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.6", 1µm, AF), OIS, phase detection autofocus, 2x optical zoom, LED flash,

[ameerat42]

(Hmm! Sure beats my humble EV)

[Geoff79]

Bloody hell, Rick, that sounds more like an actual camera than a phone. You sure you can call people on that thing?

[landyvlad]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note5.

The camera is "pretty good" but not earth shattering - the changeable options are a bit fiddly to do.

Of course, that's with the standard camera app that comes with the phone. There are a number of other camera apps which can be downloaded (many for free) with different features / implementations / user interfaces. I'm still on the lookout for a good one - with the emphasis more on photography rather than selfies/ emojis. (I'm neither 12 years old nor a Kardashian)


The biggest limitation for me is that my phone is 32Gb, with no SD card expansion. So it fills up way too quickly.

I'd like to upgrade to a new/er Samsung but can't justify the $ so I'll have to work with what I have. It all hinges on me finding that best app....



Oh the camera on the Note7 had a really interesting "close up of a fire" mode....

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a link I just found to an article about the 'best' camera phones currently on the market (2018)
https://www.cnet.com/topics/phones/best-phones/camera/

[ameerat42]

I might have to engage in a bit of revisionism about this statement:

...
Image quality from both cameras: S5 - excellent; Xperia - good enough for snaps, recording serviceable
images. The Xperia is my main phone camera by far, mainly because of its ease of use and sensible/useful
menus...

I took a(n odd blithe) shot with the S5 today and was appalled at the milky smooth texture I saw in a flower
image. But shooting conditions were awful, with lots of movement from wind gusts and general dreary light.

So I'm going to do some comparison shots and I will post the results...

[ameerat42]

Well, the only other "device" I recently got was a $200 RedMi Note 4.
Main reason: Dual-4G SIM and 64GB on-board memory. It's camera 13MPx system is clearly not as good as either the Xperia or the S5, so no pictures shown.
The low price also got me only USB2 connectivity, amongst the usual others. All other dual Sim phones were upwards of $600 and as rare as fowl fangs.
Also excluded was a region setting for Oz - in fact, not even a generic region - so I use USA as the only other English language settings. Apart from that...

So with this persistent average weather I tried instead for some controlled shots inside... - an erstwhile test pattern. It showed me that the Samsung
Galaxy S5 has the edge - though slim - over the Xperia...

Salient crops of indoor test, S5 vs Sony Xperia, both set to 12 MPx and both set Flash ON...
Sonyvs=S5.jpg

[rexboggs5]

I have an iPhone X. A few things that I like - the 2X optical zoom allows to me better fill the frame. The Live mode takes about 2 seconds of photos and then I can choose which one I prefer. The built-in editing tools are similar to those in the Lightroom Basic module. Today I had my phone camera on a small tripod so the lens was less than 2 cm off the table and I used the volume button on my earphones to take the photo - ie a remote shutter release. Below is one of my photos from today using this set-up.
Cheers, Rex
Hello Lori 2 AP.jpg

[Geoff79]

Good result, Rex.

Been meaning to ask this... but I downloaded that Lightroom CC app the other day, as per another thread. Still got no idea whatsoever how to get the DNG files onto my laptop, so I’ve been converting the images to jpeg to get to my camera roll to transfer to computer. Vain as it seems, here’s why;

Is it possible that, using the same phone with the same camera on it, that I can take photos through the Lightroom CC app that don’t show blown highlights as strong as when I just use the standard camera phone? Is that possible, or is it just in my head? Because I’m sure it’s happening...

[rexboggs5]

I'm not entirely sure, but I will have a go anyway ... The raw file that the camera takes will be the same for both, as that is what a raw file is - straight from the camera. But once the raw file is available, different software can process it differently. So the Lightroom CC app may process the raw photo and reduce the blown highlights, before you see it. If so, you aren't seeing the photo straight from the camera, you are seeing a partially processed photo. So, I'm not sure if Lightroom CC does this, but it is certainly possible.
Cheers, Rex

[Bianca]

Is it possible that, using the same phone with the same camera on it, that I can take photos through the Lightroom CC app that don’t show blown highlights as strong as when I just use the standard camera phone? Is that possible, or is it just in my head? Because I’m sure it’s happening...

It is possible to get different results using different camera apps on Android phones. Not sure about iPhones, though...

[Mark L]

It is possible to get different results using different camera apps on Android phones. Not sure about iPhones, though...

Android phones and iPhones??

sent from my laptop using a keyboard

[ameerat42]

Android phones and iPhones??
...

Well, do you remember this?