Which smartphone shoots most camera-like photos?

Personally I would say the Oppo Find X8 Ultra in "Master" mode is the closest thing to rather natural processing we can currently get in a phone's SOOC JPEG output. The stock config for that mode has vignetting turned on and seems to underexpose a bit but since you can easily adjust EV values, I'm sure you can tune it into having excellent SOOC shots.

It's a China only phone but you can import it, just do proper research into the compromises that carries and make sure to check for band compatibility.



I'd also be curious to see how a -100% sharpening X200 Ultra's JPEG output would be like, I haven't been able to find image samples of those. Vivo oversharpens by default but they do leave you the option to mostly disable it.

For a globally released phone Xiaomi 14/15 ultra.

Camera like photos every time in my experience.

Paulalikescameras said:

I'd also be curious to see how a -100% sharpening X200 Ultra's JPEG output would be like, I haven't been able to find image samples of those. Vivo oversharpens by default but they do leave you the option to mostly disable it.

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Say you use -100% sharpening and and -XX% noise reduction, the phone won't still apply AI elements withing a photo? We sometimes see in certain phones added textures on certain objects that technically aren't accurate.

I shoot Pro Raw with the iPhone 16 Pro. Every shot is raw by default, per my camera settings menu. The output is very close in quality to my older APS-C DSLR. The 48 MP landscapes are especially good. This began as a 48 MP Pro Raw file that was converted to jpeg in the upload process.

16-bit raw 14EV levels. All raw converted to JPG

Post edits in LRM or stock editor

Howard V said:

I shoot Pro Raw with the iPhone 16 Pro. Every shot is raw by default, per my camera settings menu. The output is very close in quality to my older APS-C DSLR. The 48 MP landscapes are especially good. This began as a 48 MP Pro Raw file that was converted to jpeg in the upload process.

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That's good to know. I tried an iPhone a few years ago, and the raw setting did not "stick", but had to be selected in the camera app for every shot. Glad to hear that that's changed. (Or is it a Pro feature?)

Paulalikescameras said:

Personally I would say the Oppo Find X8 Ultra in "Master" mode is the closest thing to rather natural processing we can currently get in a phone's SOOC JPEG output.

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Interesting! I'll look into that. I'm based in Europe, so these things should be available.

bastibe said:

Howard V said:

I shoot Pro Raw with the iPhone 16 Pro. Every shot is raw by default, per my camera settings menu. The output is very close in quality to my older APS-C DSLR. The 48 MP landscapes are especially good. This began as a 48 MP Pro Raw file that was converted to jpeg in the upload process.

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That's good to know. I tried an iPhone a few years ago, and the raw setting did not "stick", but had to be selected in the camera app for every shot. Glad to hear that that's changed. (Or is it a Pro feature?)

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If you’re wanting camera-like output and features, you will most likely need to invest in pro model phones I guess.

After half a century of cameras and poo-pooing phone cameras, I’ve just about fully migrated to my iPhone 16 Pro Max. On a recent road trip in Australia, I didn’t use my cameras at all, and can honestly say the Pro-Raw output duly processed in LrC is fine. Sure you can’t crop to the same degree and the telephoto 5x lens isn’t as good as a good 120mm lens as well as limited to a 12mp sensor, but it’s still quite adequate for a photobook or viewing on 4-5K TVs or monitors. Wall size prints, well that’s asking too much.

Then there’s the camera apps doing their bit. I’m using Adobe’s Project Indigo camera app along with Apple’s native app and Reeflex’s pro app. Pi is looking very promising though doesn’t make full use of the phone’s 48mp sensor. But for noise reduction it’s amazing as is the super resolution of the 2x and 10x settings.

I’ve started to sell off some of my gear before it’s worthless!

--
Cheers, John

bastibe said:

Howard V said:

I shoot Pro Raw with the iPhone 16 Pro. Every shot is raw by default, per my camera settings menu. The output is very close in quality to my older APS-C DSLR. The 48 MP landscapes are especially good. This began as a 48 MP Pro Raw file that was converted to jpeg in the upload process.

Click to expand...

That's good to know. I tried an iPhone a few years ago, and the raw setting did not "stick", but had to be selected in the camera app for every shot. Glad to hear that that's changed. (Or is it a Pro feature?)

Click to expand...

The regular iPhone 16 doesn't shoot Pro Raw, as that's reserved for the Pro and Max models. The only route to raw with the 16 would be third party.

I can't confirm anything since I don't have the phone, but I believe the sharpening slider isn't regular sharpening, but indeed that AI enhanced sharpening that can be too aggressive at times.

I think iPhone 16/ 16 plus/ 16 pro with the "natural' mood selected gives very natural looking out of phone images - with natural looking highlights and shadows, and color. It doesn’t have the smart phone over processed look.

bastibe said:

Interesting! I'll look into that. I'm based in Europe, so these things should be available.

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Oppo has not released the phone in Europe, they do have their Find X8 Pro globally avaible but that one's a little less ideal depending on your needs.

bastibe said:

I don't like the smartphone photo aesthetic. I don't like the oversharpening, I don't like the flattened shadows and highlights, I don't like the discolored highlights.

Which current smartphone takes the least phone-like pictures?

We have pixel phones, which at least can shoot pseudo-raw by default, so I can create a reasonable render in post. Whenever I look at my relatives' iPhone pictures, I like the JPEG render much less than the Pixels, and as far as I can tell, you have to manually select the raw format for every shot, and can't just leave it enabled always (is that correct?).

Which current smartphone can always capture raw in addition to JPEGs?

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All what you listed are the common to phone photography though each item can be 'tamed' reasonably easy. There are phones with 'better' processing, you can always resort to ported GCAM on Android phones. Most phones still produce 'cooked' raws - you cannot beat the physics small sensors bring along. You say 'flattened shadows and highlights' - sounds like the HDR look I am also not personally happy about (if used). The challenge of squeezing the high DR scene may deviate from reality - our vision is not plain simple. Which bring us to your cryptic 'discoloured highlights' - you are probably referring to blown highlights. But that is IMO personal preference: I am not aiming to have the bulb filament visible in dark scene, rather prefer the scene rendered the way I saw it. I cannot see the midday Sun but white. While the 'perfection' may be possible, the scene may be rendered unnaturally.

Out of all top-tier phones, I have the worst one: Samsung S23U. Raws are not that at all (though the latest update on Expert Raw app and LR mobile brings some 'malleability' of the files it produces). Like with the real cameras, you must know what your hardware is capable of (and even more importantly, know the limitations of the same). You can set raw+jpeg option all time (there is even a separate standard app, Expert Raw built in). I do believe Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo Ultra devices have much better anything compared to Pixel, Apple or Samsung have to offer, having more advanced hardware to start with (i.e. bigger sensors). But, they are still small sensors relative to full frame cameras - so physics must be cheated somehow.

As an example, below is a pair of photos, one jpeg one from raw. On rare occasions, using raw makes the difference.




jpeg




from raw

Yet, in most cases the phone just do the things right. Perfect? No, but coming from film and old DSLR, I could only dream to get handheld snap like this. Taken last nigh when walking to an event, noticed this girl 'imprisoned' by the water, the way I saw it.



It would help if you could post something illustrating your frustration with the phone photography. As said, all what you listed is valid, yet not exclusively applicable to phone photography but a general one as well. Phone witchcraft is quite powerful so raw route is not always needed...

ZorSy said:

It would help if you could post something illustrating your frustration with the phone photography. As said, all what you listed is valid, yet not exclusively applicable to phone photography but a general one as well. Phone witchcraft is quite powerful so raw route is not always needed...

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I am the photographer in our family. After an event or vacation, I'll often collect photos from everybody, and put them into a shared gallery or post. In this context especially, the phone pictures don't fit in.

I've set our own Pixel phones to always capture raw, so I can mostly edit them to match with the camera pictures. From friends and family, however, I'll only get JPEGs, which have that distinct "smartphone look". I could go into detail about the symptoms, but you all know what I mean. Every phone does it differently, but you can spot the phone pictures in a gallery from a mile away.

So that got me wondering about phones with a more neutral rendering. Perhaps the Pixels and oldish iPhones that I typically collect are just particularly "phoney".

bastibe said:

I could go into detail about the symptoms, but you all know what I mean. Every phone does it differently, but you can spot the phone pictures in a gallery from a mile away.

So that got me wondering about phones with a more neutral rendering. Perhaps the Pixels and oldish iPhones that I typically collect are just particularly "phoney".

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I have been walking in your shoes for 25 years - different cameras, different phones and every possible combination, so I get that (though, since girls no longer participate as rarely in family outings, still have a few 'sources'). But, symptoms are many, so without comparable sample hard to visualise what you mean..

To ME, it's the colour and, in case of flowers, DOF. I don't have a new camera but my old D7100 occasionally goes with me, even if equipped with the all-in-one zoom. Not to spend too much time, here are 2 screenshots illustrating difference I'm having in my collections.









Don't have to point the phone photo. This is no PP, JPEG from both. I could easily match colours, no problem in there. I actually like the phone sharpness more (ok, AF tune on my DSLR is a bit off, plus lens was Tamron 16-300 which is soft on its own).

I think modern phones do have much better rendering than my S23U - even my old Xiaomi Note10 had much more natural everything..... But needed pen for business reasons, and no other phone could beat Samsung on that feature.

Personally, I like Xiaomi image rendering (and is only global release CN phone is that matters in your country, like it does in my). Good luck.

bastibe said:

I am the photographer in our family. After an event or vacation, I'll often collect photos from everybody, and put them into a shared gallery or post. In this context especially, the phone pictures don't fit in.

I've set our own Pixel phones to always capture raw, so I can mostly edit them to match with the camera pictures. From friends and family, however, I'll only get JPEGs, which have that distinct "smartphone look". I could go into detail about the symptoms, but you all know what I mean. Every phone does it differently, but you can spot the phone pictures in a gallery from a mile away.

So that got me wondering about phones with a more neutral rendering. Perhaps the Pixels and oldish iPhones that I typically collect are just particularly "phoney".

Click to expand...

A good portrait mode can truly help make phone shots fit in a lot better when it comes to photos of gatherings since the DoF is always an instant giveaway that it's a phone shot. I can't really share any of the shots I have in mind because they're all personal, but I have managed to take some shots using the telephoto on my Iqoo 12 that fit nearly perfectly with the rest of the shots I took on my EM1 mark 3 paired with a 25mm f1.4. I need to edit the colors slightly to get them to where I want, but once everything's harmonized, I can often be rather impressed by how good Vivo's portrait mode is. The shots end up a little sharpened for sure but nothing insane, it's almost tastefully done if you ask me.

The only real problem at the moment would be reliability, sometimes the DoF approximations fail but my phone isn't really their imaging flagship and they've improved already since then.

Vivo does have the X200 Pro in Europe with its massive 1/1.4" 200MP sensor 85mm f2.6 telephoto, it's avaible on Gomibo but it's rather up there in pricing. I'm comfortable with ordering on Aliexpress where it's a lot cheaper but I can recognize that it's not really everybody's cup of tea. I also reckon it's better to wait for the X300 Pro to release this fall to wait for possible price drops.

I do also want to mention how Iphones, Galaxies and Pixels are all dramatically behind when compared to the chinese competition. My friends are often impressed by my phone's cameras even though they own the flagship models from these brands while I own a sub-flagship model. Not to say Oppo, Vivo or Xiaomi are perfect, but they're definitely a lot better! I can instantly recognize Iphone or Pixel shots from a mile away and that's not a compliment.

bastibe said:

ZorSy said:

It would help if you could post something illustrating your frustration with the phone photography. As said, all what you listed is valid, yet not exclusively applicable to phone photography but a general one as well. Phone witchcraft is quite powerful so raw route is not always needed...

Click to expand...

I am the photographer in our family. After an event or vacation, I'll often collect photos from everybody, and put them into a shared gallery or post. In this context especially, the phone pictures don't fit in.

I've set our own Pixel phones to always capture raw, so I can mostly edit them to match with the camera pictures. From friends and family, however, I'll only get JPEGs, which have that distinct "smartphone look". I could go into detail about the symptoms, but you all know what I mean. Every phone does it differently, but you can spot the phone pictures in a gallery from a mile away.

So that got me wondering about phones with a more neutral rendering. Perhaps the Pixels and oldish iPhones that I typically collect are just particularly "phoney".

Click to expand...

There’s a big change in image characteristics between the old iPhones and those that are current. A lot of what you don’t like is tamed down. (I’ve had experience with both old and new.)

Howard V said:

There’s a big change in image characteristics between the old iPhones and those that are current. A lot of what you don’t like is tamed down. (I’ve had experience with both old and new.)

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That's good to know. I have been wondering how some photographers praise iPhone photos, yet when I see them I see very little praiseworthy. But I mostly see photos from old phones.

ZorSy said:

But, symptoms are many, so without comparable sample hard to visualise what you mean.

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My main grievances are:

• Oversharpening, although I can mostly compensate for that in editing.
• Aggressive HDR compression, such that highlights and shadows often end up a similar brightness. This is impossible to correct.
• Discolored highlights. Reflections on skin turn yellow, bright skies turn cyan, roses turn magenta. This is especially prevalent in (old?) iPhone pictures (and Capture One).
• Aggressive noise reduction. In particular, color smoothing that makes skins waxy. Fujifilm JPEGs also do this, but less aggressively.

Otherwise, I'm not expecting wonders. The sensor is small, the lenses are mediocre. There will be distortion and noise and diffraction, and limited DoF. That's fine, that's the price for having it in my pocket.

ZorSy said:

I think modern phones do have much better rendering than my S23U - even my old Xiaomi Note10 had much more natural everything..... But needed pen for business reasons, and no other phone could beat Samsung on that feature.

Personally, I like Xiaomi image rendering (and is only global release CN phone is that matters in your country, like it does in my). Good luck.

Click to expand...

That's very interesting. I'll look into those.