Review of Sony Xperia Z3 (Including Samples)

Hi everyone,

I thought I make a review of a phone I just got a few days ago, and share my thoughts, impressions and image results with you.

Before I start, I have to note that my previous phone was a Nexus 5 and I'm usually don't use my phone for serious photography. I just think it's good to have a usable camera with you.

Okay, here is a short list of what I like and dislike, so for the ones who don't want to read the whole review

Pro:

- Nice Build Quality
- Camera produces good image results
- Good Low-Light performance for a phone (up to ISO 12800)
- 4k Video capturing is supported
- Waterproof, so you can use it even for underwater shots, which is great
- 120 fps Slowmotion video function
- Great battery life (Even when heavily used still around 40% at the end of the day)
- Dedicated camera button which opens the camera pretty quickly even when the phone is in standby

Cons:

- Sometimes the phone "floats" on the surface (probably because of the glas on the backside)
- Camera app is sometimes a little bit "complicated" to use
- Sometimes focus doesn't seem to lock correctl

Moving one and describing a little more what already mentioned above, especially the camera features:

While I don't use my phone for any serious photography as mentioned above, I found the results pretty good.

The camera itself offers 20.7 MP (and a F 2.0 lens!) but most time it makes more sense to use the reduced 8 MP mode, also because all the scene modes (like HDR, High ISO) just work in this resolution.

After taking the first shots in good lighting conditions at the full 20 MP resolution, I found the results quite good. The images showed a lot of detail, even due you could see some details where "smeared" especially in darker areas.

What I noticed while trying to take some flower macro shots: The focus doesn't seem to always focus on what you would actually like to. The default camera app doesn't offer any macro focus mode (at least I didn't see any), which make it tricky. After several tries, it finally worked, but it was a little bit annoying.

When shooting at night, I tried to use the High ISO mode offered by the app. It seems to be the best mode to get "bright" images even at night. It usually takes 1/8 s exposure time and uses an appropriate ISO, which can be as high as ISO 12800. I first thought you won't see anything but noise on the images, but was very impressed that you could still use them, at least in a very small size. Sure, they're still noisy and lack of detail, but having a photo is better than having none, right? In combination with the F2.0, you can still capture a lot of light, and the images are even brighter than what you see with your eyes.

I also like the ability to capture underwater. While the touchscreen is not working, you still have a dedicated shutter button to take your shots. I didn't had the chance to actually try it, but that will come soon as well.

All in all, I think it's a great phone and the camera quality is (for what you can expect from a smartphone) pretty good. It may also replace your Point and Shot, if you don't need an optical zoom.

Here, as promised, some Out-Of-Phone Samples:

Full-Resolution Sample (ISO 100)

HDR Mode

ISO 12800

Hope this was helpful and Best Regards

Torsten

afterswish1 wrote:

That's just what I was looking for, thanks very much! Have you tried the 120fps mode at all?

Yes, I also tried it. The internal app allows you to select the range you want to slow down after you've recorded it. This will then be saved as a seperate video. The original 120FPS 720p video is still available as an original which I think is great. The software video stabilization works great as long as you don't shot 4k (I guess there are limits for the processing in realtime here).

Regards

Torsten