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A Smartphone for A Photographer

Started May 31, 2015 | User reviews thread
GossCTP Veteran Member • Posts: 6,206
All roses save for the app
1

Ted Jo wrote:

I've been waiting for long time a smartphone camera that is reliable enough for a photographer like me.
I've just bought for a day and test the manual setting feature, and I like it very much.
Lens equivalent 28mm, clear and sharp
I can set these things manually:
WB, ISO: 50-2700, S: 30s-1/6000, AE-L, MF/AF

I like mine a lot as well. The lens is impressively sharp - at least in the center. Aside from the vignetting, it isn't too bad towards the corners either. After shooting head to head with my DSLR I have to say that 16mp is not too many pixels for a smart phone camera. At least not one with a decent sized sensor and a fast enough, sharp enough lens.

The screen is an absolute beauty. Resolution is ridiculous overkill for anyone with human vision, but the colors from the IPS screen are very pleasing and accurate. This site looks better on my phone than it has on any of the calibrated monitors I've used to date.

Despite some reviews stating that the HDR mode uses multiple shots, I'm pretty sure it is just cross processing the raw data. I've used the HDR mode a fair bit and have had no issues with moving objects in the photos. At the same time, the effect is not very pronounced and tends to have more shadow noise than one would expect from true HDR.

My only real gripe is with the camera app that so many sites rave over. In the non-manual modes, the jpegs have too much NR and sharpening applied, neither of which can be reduced. The manual mode seems quite clunky. I feel one should be able to manually set one parameter (shutter or ISO) and leave the other auto, but it seems to be all or nothing with the app. Bracketing would seem to be omitted as well. Granted, no phone I've had before had any of these things, but none of the phones I've had before was good enough to consciously take in lieu of a dedicated camera.

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