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X10 vs Iphone 4 Camera Test ^ UPDATE! ^

Updated with Camera 360 tests
Hi everyone. Today i was a little bored so i decided to take some test photos with my x10 and compare vs my wife's iphone 4. Now i am not a photographer or anything like that..These are just amateur photos taken with stock settings and stock camera apps on both phones. The x10 is set at 8mp,single autofocus and the iphone is 5mp HDR off. I have cleaned the lens on both phones to get as clearer picures as they can. Now i do have shaky hands and it wasnt easy to get steady photos especially with the x10 as the iphone shutter is very quick and its a little bit easier. Here are the photos untouched..just they came out of the phones.
Iphone 4
X10 Stock Camera
x10 Camera 360 test 1
Camera 360 first two bigger size dont know why they came out smaller first time.
Iphone 4 vs X10 Camera 360 Close up
Edit: Did some pics with Vignette but they come up to over 5mb and imgeshack wont let me upload them..will find some other hosting site that will and will upload them too Big difference between stock camera and Camera 360 and Vignette.
Let me know what you think and if you have any requests for more comparisons ask me and i will try my best to do them.

Well though to some people the colours of iphone may sound better but to me(as i have some knowledge about photography)the colours on X10 are better as they sound natural unlike the colours on iphone's pics which looks over warmed and unnatural and as far as clarity and detail is concerned there is no doubt that X10 is way better(though in case of X10 you still shaked a bit in some photos)but still thumbs up dude for this comparison and yeah i would once again say X10's camera is better then iphone's

SK_007 said:
Well though to some people the colours of iphone may sound better but to me(as i have some knowledge about photography)the colours on X10 are better as they sound natural unlike the colours on iphone's pics which looks over warmed and unnatural and as far as clarity and detail is concerned there is no doubt that X10 is way better(though in case of X10 you still shaked a bit in some photos)but still thumbs up dude for this comparison and yeah i would once again say X10's camera is better then iphone's
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Yes, I agree with you. The colours taken by iphone is unnatural compared to photos taken by X10.
No doubt that SE camera is better than Apple, I think even other phone brand has better camera than iphone.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

Accuracy be damned. The pictures on the iphone look nicer, much nicer. And frankly, there is a strong blue tint to the x10 pictures, i find it hard to believe it was anywhere near that blue in real life.

I think we should post the poll in an iphone forum as well.. I mean its obvious the X10 is going to win here
I think 2 of the iphone pics were better than the X10, but yeah, once you zoom in, you can notice that the X10 pics were shaken a bit. Don't know if this is because the iphone is easier to hold or if the OP was simply so nervous about taking a pic with the X10 that he shook it
@OP:
1. Can you try turning image stabilization off in the X10.. I've found this has helped a lot
2. What about Vignette? We all know the stock camera isn't very good at post processing the image

JamesBarnes said:
Accuracy be damned. The pictures on the iphone look nicer, much nicer. And frankly, there is a strong blue tint to the x10 pictures, i find it hard to believe it was anywhere near that blue in real life.
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Strange my wife said the same thing that the x10 pics are too blue but the Iphones pics on the other hand are too yellow... if you look at the road on the first pic upclose you will see its yellow and on the x10 is gray as it should be..

pngface said:
I think we should post the poll in an iphone forum as well.. I mean its obvious the X10 is going to win here
I think 2 of the iphone pics were better than the X10, but yeah, once you zoom in, you can notice that the X10 pics were shaken a bit. Don't know if this is because the iphone is easier to hold or if the OP was simply so nervous about taking a pic with the X10 that he shook it
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Haha not nervous at all lol i just have shaky hands (too much coffee) the thing is that the iphones shutter is very quick and it takes the photo instantly as of the x10 i press the button and its slow so by the time it takes the pic my hands have moved? lol if that makes any sense..
@pngface the image stabilization is off actually and i will take some pics with Vignette tommorow i am pretty sure that even with the stock camera if i make some adjustments i would get better photos as it has so many options i wanted to do this to see how both cameras compare stock settings untouched. But i will make more photos tommorow possibly with vignette and will try different settings.

Does turning image stabilization off on the X10 actually give nicer photos? And if so, how could it?
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

Great Comparison & X10 camera is way better than iPhone camera, no doubt about that. I'm not saying that x10 camera is perfect but it has more natural colours than iPhone camera. iPhone has overwarmed, unnatural yellowish colours.

Mr Patchy Patch said:
Does turning image stabilization off on the X10 actually give nicer photos? And if so, how could it?
Sent from my X10a using XDA App
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Image stabilize effectively blurs the image slightly as to merge your shaky bits with good bits

yetep said:
Image stabilize effectively blurs the image slightly as to merge your shaky bits with good bits
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Click to collapse
Hmmm....so by having image stabilization "on" you say it adds a slight blur to my pictures? Therefore, if I turn it off and take pictures the blur should be gone? Because I always had it on and have always noticed a slight blur in my pictures especially when I was comparing stock camera to vignette. Now, if this is the case maybe Im gonna have to recompare these two. But I guess vignette will still be better since that compression crap on the stock.

Forgetting about the colors (it's possible to adjust in post), in this default setting the iphone camera is much better. Just look at 100%, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The default x10 app compress the image too much, and the final details become a blurred mess (photo 2, compare the background wall, photo 4, look the trees and the leaves). I'm work as visual effects artist and have photography as hobby. Last month I opened a thread about a better camera app for x10, so I tried vignette but the results are not good. I don't know what happens (probably the demosaicing algorithm?), but at 100% you see very bad artifacts. I've been using Camera 360, it's a good alternative for the default app. In both apps you can set the image compression to none or very little, making the image more sharp. Anyway, I think even using very low compression the x10 will not be able to capture the detail that iphone captures.
I'm doing my best to be unbiased here. Yes, I hate the apple marketing...

rafaperez3d said:
Forgetting about the colors (it's possible to adjust in post), in this default setting the iphone camera is much better. Just look at 100%, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The default x10 app compress the image too much, and the final details become a blurred mess (photo 2, compare the background wall, photo 4, look the trees and the leaves). I'm work as visual effects artist and have photography as hobby. Last month I opened a thread about a better camera app for x10, so I tried vignette but the results are not good. I don't know what happens (probably the demosaicing algorithm?), but at 100% you see very bad artifacts. I've been using Camera 360, it's a good alternative for the default app. In both apps you can set the image compression to none or very little, making the image more sharp. Anyway, I think even using very low compression the x10 will not be able to capture the detail that iphone captures.
I'm doing my best to be unbiased here. Yes, I hate the apple marketing...
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Click to collapse
Hmmm...I'm really pleased with vignette pictures....much nicer than stock..however now I'm gonna go try camera 360 like you suggested and compare. Thanks
Sent from my X10a using XDA App

Nokia N8 versus X10 versus Iphone 4
Generally speaking (according to this test), the N8 has the best camera, followed by the X10 and then the iPhone 4 (although those last two are a close call).
However, based on the pictures posted in this thread, the Iphone 4 is obviously superior in capturing detail. The difference between the two phones is quite large.

Photo
Hard to say which is better, for IPhone colors are oversaturated and our X10 sometimes fails in resolving details. Anyway a true shoot out must have and a third parties for benchmark - let say a midrange DSLR.

I totally agree with guys who voted for X10. I thought Nokia was leader with oversaturated colours but now I see Apple takes the lead . Only better image that iphone made is last one, and that is because x10 shaked.
Blueish tint generally shows if light source shoots into lens, or image is overexposed, and x10 images are bit overexposed, so feel free to adjust EV

Mr Patchy Patch said:
Hmmm....so by having image stabilization "on" you say it adds a slight blur to my pictures? Therefore, if I turn it off and take pictures the blur should be gone? Because I always had it on and have always noticed a slight blur in my pictures especially when I was comparing stock camera to vignette. Now, if this is the case maybe Im gonna have to recompare these two. But I guess vignette will still be better since that compression crap on the stock.
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Exactly! Stick wit non stock

X10 is better, the Iphone 4 dont look natural and the Quality of X10 is better. But i never make Image Stabilizator on becouse without it the Pictures look better but when you click the Button it shakes so i make the most of the Photos with the Touchscreen.

stabilisation use only in low light situation, when trying to capture still object

JamesBarnes said:
Accuracy be damned. The pictures on the iphone look nicer, much nicer. And frankly, there is a strong blue tint to the x10 pictures, i find it hard to believe it was anywhere near that blue in real life.
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Most people share that opinion when they move from a point and shoot compact camera to a semi professional SLR. The iphone haves too much post processing to increase the saturation of warmer colors. If you do get into photography you know what is good and real color is much better then the over processed ones as you may or may not post process it in photoshop to suit your goal on each specific photo.
From my point of view the X10 wins hands down. That said, I won't be using mine that much as it stands miles away from the quality I get with my Canon and Sony DSLRs.

x10 camera vs. satio camera

hey..
my friend has a SE satio which comes with a 12MP camera..
i just thought my photos sucked when taken at night because it's dark outside..
but when my friend took the same photos in same setting with her satio, it looked so much better..
i don't think 4MP would make such difference .. would it??
x10 came out after satio.. but i guess they put a crappier camera on x10.. hm..

So what you got Android

Considering most phones don't even break 4MP 8.1MP is quite a good camera for a cell phone. SE has been beastly with cameras in their phones and those 4MP do matter. if you took a picture with a 4MP camera and compared it to a picture taken with the X10, the X10 would look infinitely better.
Phone's rarely do well with lighting because they have fixed focus lenses, it's not practical to have a lense that extends and retracts on a cell phone. Cell phones are getting better and better camera but they will never be able to replace a good professional camera.
As for the decision to give the X10 an 8.1MP camera, it likely had to do with pricing. if SE would have put a 12MP camera in the price would have been much higher.

oh no.. i don't mean "i want a 12MP camera!"
but just i didn't think 'megapixels' made much difference in qualities when taken in dark...
it's just that when i took photos with the satio, we could see ppl's faces and etc.. but with x10 it was really dark, pixelated, and etc....

The Satio also has a xenon flash. I'd expect my C905 to beat out my X10 at night too.

lft4ded said:
The Satio also has a xenon flash. I'd expect my C905 to beat out my X10 at night too.
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+1! i loved the flash on my c905! it was awesome - infact sometimes too good. it would light up dust in the air and they would appear on shot

The amount of megapixels have nothing to do with the quality of the colors and how well it does in bad lit scenes. If you limit the amount of layers the light has to pass to get to the converting(light to electricity) layer of the cmos sensor then you get better results in dark settings.
Sony developed a back lit sensor in 2008 (i think). This sensor is lit from the back and the light doesn't have to pass all the layers. The result of this is it catches more light. And then you can take better pictures at night. Not sure if they have implemented it yet into mobile phones.
A xenon flash helps idd. Are the pictures in the dark also better without flash?
The x10's camera can capture colors very well with fine detail, it's not a bad camera.

Satio wins at night hands down (xenon flash ).
I saw images in day light and they were better compared with X10.
Problem with Satio is the software.
At least X10 got firmware updates for bug fixing but Satio is pretty much dead.

4 mp matters when it comes to Cypershot processor and Xenon Flash in Satio
even thought Pixels have nothing to do with quality but only in size of the picture

xperia x10 camera quality lacks
sony Ericsson want to sell his all mobile phones thats why there is no camera quality in x10..company never introduce all rounder phone which has good camera , android 2.1 (at least 2.1) , wifi , gps , 4inch screen , sexy look..
if such phone any company introduce than his other handset will not sold..
its marketing policy...nothing else...

swapniladsure said:
sony Ericsson want to sell his all mobile phones thats why there is no camera quality in x10..company never introduce all rounder phone which has good camera , android 2.1 (at least 2.1) , wifi , gps , 4inch screen , sexy look..
if such phone any company introduce than his other handset will not sold..
its marketing policy...nothing else...
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Click to collapse
What are you talking about? The X10 had the absolute best camera on a smartphone when it was released.
Also, megapixels mean absolutely, positively nothing when it comes to image capture in the dark. In fact, the more megapixels you shove into a tiny sensor, the crappier the image will be. A bigger CMOS sensor will give you a better picture, not more megapixels.

Exactly
Take a look at the pictures posted here : http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=195111&start=210
They are taken with a xperia x10 and they look stunning compared to other phones.

Infinity1988 said:
Exactly
Take a look at the pictures posted here : http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=195111&start=210
They are taken with a xperia x10 and they look stunning compared to other phones.
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Yes, but not compared to Satio
and you can see that in the link you provided

MJ_QaT said:
Yes, but not compared to Satio
and you can see that in the link you provided
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I didn't come across any comparison between the satio and the xperia x10 on that url, maby i overlooked it. But there are people there that switched from the satio to the x10 and are happy with it. That thread is for x10 pictures only.
Besides take a look here : http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Sony-Ericsson-Satio-12471 Those pictures don't look better than the pictures of the x10.
I think the only thing that's better on the satio (besides amount of mp) is the xenon flash.
I would like to see a direct comparison between the satio, c902 and x10.

not only photo taking sux... music oso sux...
SE never improvise the technology of cybershot and walkman to X10...
wat's the point trying to come out a high end phone but lack of all these... sux... even my brother lousy W350i tat have much much nicer music than mine...
shame on SE....

Infinity1988 said:
I didn't come across any comparison between the satio and the xperia x10 on that url, maby i overlooked it. But there are people there that switched from the satio to the x10 and are happy with it. That thread is for x10 pictures only.
Besides take a look here : http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Sony-Ericsson-Satio-12471 Those pictures don't look better than the pictures of the x10.
I think the only thing that's better on the satio (besides amount of mp) is the xenon flash.
I would like to see a direct comparison between the satio, c902 and x10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not saying that x10 picture quality is not good, I am happy with it :-D
But I used both cameras and excluding the mp difference satio's photos are better due to cypershot technology. However, using 3rd party applications like vignette in x10 makes its photos much better and more professional ;-)
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

MJ_QaT said:
I'm not saying that x10 picture quality is not good, I am happy with it :-D
But I used both cameras and excluding the mp difference satio's photos are better due to cypershot technology. However, using 3rd party applications like vignette in x10 makes its photos much better and more professional ;-)
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree on that. The stock camera application uses too much compression. They don't finetune the software of the camera like with the cybershot phones.

8MP camera shootout - Arc is somewhere in the middle

Well.. looks like in the end that the Arc's camera performance is not all that good...
http://www.gsmarena.com/8mp_shootout_2011-review-673p5.php
really bad... maybe some mod on the camera can get a bit more quality out of the device... really a shame to see xperia arc perform like this...

NeoCream said:
Well.. looks like in the end that the Arc's camera performance is not all that good...
http://www.gsmarena.com/8mp_shootout_2011-review-673p5.php
really bad... maybe some mod on the camera can get a bit more quality out of the device... really a shame to see xperia arc perform like this...
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Click to collapse
Those are take under Auto settings. When we set it to manual it can take great pictures ... Check this out

excuse me,but, there isn`t any developer working on this?
i think if the iphone use the same ccd,our arc can do better fotos.
i believe the compression ratio is very high...

I ma relly disappointed

Sorry to say that those comparsion is a bit of bias towards iphone 4S.

If you guys notice, the issue with the arc is mainly due to the high compression. I don't understand why SE wanted to do this . Be it photo or video arc loose due to the noise level and lack of detail, which are caused due to high compression and bite rate.

Pynzeta said:
excuse me,but, there isn`t any developer working on this?
i think if the iphone use the same ccd,our arc can do better fotos.
i believe the compression ratio is very high...
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Click to collapse
Its a CMOS sensor, not CCD. The phone they used to test is the arc S.
I read their review of the arc S and gsmarena commented that the camera output of arc S is somewhat different from the arc. The arc's camera performed better.
You may try checking the reviews of arc and arc S if you want.
The high JPEG compression is one issue here as majority of the pictures ranged from 500KB to 1.80MB (based from my experience and all photos are full 8megapixels)
I tried camera advance and camera fx, you can choose the JPEG compression but when I viewed it on PC at 100% magnification the picture has the same details as the default camera app.
I think the JPEG format processing of the arc itself is the problem. The X10 has more details and larger file size btw.
Perhaps gsmarena used the default settings of the camera (auto scene recognition) during their test. They did not bother at all to choose manual settings imho.

Pynzeta said:
excuse me,but, there isn`t any developer working on this?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, as much as I know no one is working on that... it seems to be pretty complicated to do... :-(

NeoCream said:
Well.. looks like in the end that the Arc's camera performance is not all that good...
http://www.gsmarena.com/8mp_shootout_2011-review-673p5.php
really bad... maybe some mod on the camera can get a bit more quality out of the device... really a shame to see xperia arc perform like this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a real old Daily GSMarena visitor.i must say check their other news about SE.One word:GSM arena only Loves nokia and is totaly biased

Yeah but if you read carefully the summary, every camera there has some problems.

I'm not biased, I use an Arc & compared it to iphone 4.
iphone 4 came out much better except during really low light settings.
So iphone 4s must be be even better.
Shame really due to the high compression rate. Also I own a xperia x1 with a 3.2mp & apart from being extremely slow the quality on pics is almost on par with the Arc.
Sent from my LT15i using xda premium

I have an arc S and my wife has a iphone 4s. Iv done a fair few comparisons and it turns out the iPhone is the winner. In EVERY photo the iphone has sooooo much more detail, has better colour saturation and doesnt blow out highlights like my arc does.
Im extremely disapointed with the arc camera quality. I got way better from my x10 and c905.
When the arc s and 4s have the same sensor it troubles me to think that the sony devs just couldnt give two ****s about competing especially if its going to eat into their camera business but guess what, selling their sensor to apple has pretty much stopped alot of people from going out and buying a point and shoot wether it be sony or another brand.
So all you android die hards that think apple is **** in every way, why dont you go compare the 4s camera to your arc and get a phone full of humiliation. Too the people or said they used auto exposure setting, what do you think the iphone uses, FAIR FIGHT....DONE!!!

harlz said:
I have an arc S and my wife has a iphone 4s. Iv done a fair few comparisons and it turns out the iPhone is the winner. In EVERY photo the iphone has sooooo much more detail, has better colour saturation and doesnt blow out highlights like my arc does.
Im extremely disapointed with the arc camera quality. I got way better from my x10 and c905.
When the arc s and 4s have the same sensor it troubles me to think that the sony devs just couldnt give two ****s about competing especially if its going to eat into their camera business but guess what, selling their sensor to apple has pretty much stopped alot of people from going out and buying a point and shoot wether it be sony or another brand.
So all you android die hards that think apple is **** in every way, why dont you go compare the 4s camera to your arc and get a phone full of humiliation. Too the people or said they used auto exposure setting, what do you think the iphone uses, FAIR FIGHT....DONE!!!
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True. But don't forget Apple and Android in general have another way of approaching things. Apple uses a 1-way-fits all approach in which there is very little customization possible. In UI, features, but also in camera this is obvious. This suits most (non-tech) people, but people who want to have control will hate it. In my opinion its too bland, closed and boring. But it works, so that is enough for a lot of people.
In android the user is the king. That means you have to know what you are doing to get the most out of it. Using the auto-setting is not as fine-tuned as it should be. SE and other Android manufacturers have many phones and setups to consider so making perfect auto-settings is out of the question in most cases. Apple had a much easier job with only 1 phone to tune. But most of us won't use auto-settings anyways. Even on normal-mode with middle-of-the-road settings you get better results than auto-settings on the Arc, which is very unpredictable.
I've compared both and they are very similar and subjected to taste. On auto the 4S is definitely better, that has to be said indeed. But if you care about those things and don't care about looking further than your nose than you should be better of with the iPhone experience anyways.

If im not mistaken, when I watched Iphone 4S keynote, I remember when they introduced the 8MP camera sensor, and said that they "have done something to the sensor, we added additional lens to for better picture quality and..."
so same sensor on the Arc, but with a little modifications made by Apple to make it better?
Too much compression on Arc is very irritating

thephilip said:
I'm not biased, I use an Arc & compared it to iphone 4.
iphone 4 came out much better except during really low light settings.
So iphone 4s must be be even better.
Shame really due to the high compression rate. Also I own a xperia x1 with a 3.2mp & apart from being extremely slow the quality on pics is almost on par with the Arc.
Sent from my LT15i using xda premium
Click to expand...
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That's interesting comment because I also own X1 and also think it has amazing camera, I made amazing shots with it.
But I still think Arc camera is amazing. Also in low light.
It even got camera of the year award. Honestly X10 is a little worse.
The only thing which can spoil the game is compression.

I can't comment about the original arc since I have the arc s but I do know the camera could be much better. Is it possible that the arc s camera may not be as good as the original arc? if it won best camera phone award I don't see how.
Sent from my LT18i using XDA App

harlz said:
I can't comment about the original arc since I have the arc s but I do know the camera could be much better. Is it possible that the arc s camera may not be as good as the original arc? if it won best camera phone award I don't see how.
Sent from my LT18i using XDA App
Click to expand...
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Well I don't know, the overall quality incl. night shots plus features?!
The funny thing is to go carefully through GSMArena comparative test.
In some areas X10 is the best of all three (X10/Arc/iPhone 4s)
but in some it loses.
iPhone 4s has great detail but - it makes too bright pics! Just look at ISO 12233 chart, which is grey but on iPhone it's white, lol.
P.S. Just compared Arc S/Arc/iPhone 4s and definitely there are spots where Arc S performs better than Arc, and tiny bit better than iPhone.
Arc S and Arc cameras are very similar but not identical.

Here some nice comparison pictures between the one the galaxys4 and the iphone5

Strange thing is..that i like the htc one pictures better and not what the reviewer says..(my fair opinion)
http://www.appdated.de/2013/04/sams...vergleich-der-kameraqualitaet-foto-und-video/

Panorama
By the way that Panorama shot is realy great from the htc one......:good:

comparison
what do you guys think?

I agree the htc one blows the i5 and s4 out of the water, if you cant see that you have to be color blind

Not sure if translator is off, but they generally say that the HTC one was in last place... Was I missing something? (I will admit, I only skimmed the article)

In daylight for me the S4 is the clear leader, although the reviewer there preferred the i5 shots.
In low light the One is the clear leader.
Pretty much like every other comparison I've seen, although I wouldn't count that amongst the better comparisons out there.

HTC one looks the best to me overall, even in the day light shots, especially the macro shots.
Video quality wise, it is a close call (in bright light).

Im not saying this just because i have a One, but the One's pictures by far do carry better lighting and detail. . . however, 1 picture i feel the iPhone 5 one. . . the picture of the bridge accros water. . . the iPhone 5 had a better Focus Point, drawing your attention immediately to the vertical pole. . . however the rest of the pictures the One is better. . . .

dobknobby said:
Im not saying this just because i have a One, but the One's pictures by far do carry better lighting and detail. . . however, 1 picture i feel the iPhone 5 one. . . the picture of the bridge accros water. . . the iPhone 5 had a better Focus Point, drawing your attention immediately to the vertical pole. . . however the rest of the pictures the One is better. . . .
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I have the same feeling...
If the galaxy s4 (i had the have the s3 still)was better i will say so..
But its al a matter of taste also....

I bet i know which one would win for moving objects.... Forget Low light faat shutter speed is what i need so i need the one /)
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

Better detail in the One daylight shots? C'mon people, you know that isn't true. I can't find anywhere to find full-res shots, without which the comparison fails badly.

NZtechfreak said:
Better detail in the One daylight shots? C'mon people, you know that isn't true. I can't find anywhere to find full-res shots, without which the comparison fails badly.
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For me(dont get me wrong) without zooming i like the color and the detail better on the htc one on that review..
Look at that panorama shot the htc one wins clearly..
If your gonna zoom the samsung absolutely gonna win.
But the htc one did not win on all pictures... thats for sure...

Impossible to say about sharpness and detail overall since we don't have the full size shots but in terms of colours etc. the one looks better imo.
Of course the GS 4 will win when you crop/zoom since it has way more MP but when looking at the photos zoomed out, I doubt that there will be a huge difference, at least not enough to be worth worrying about anyway.
Until we see the full size photos, you can't say which phone is better for detail and sharpness.
The macro shots look more detailed on the one though, especially the rusty pole shot.

neonsector said:
I agree the htc one blows the i5 and s4 out of the water, if you cant see that you have to be color blind
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Look at the last few seconds of the vid, only the iphone recorded the path correctly. The other phones overexposed it.

i do agree the one lacks contrast.
otherwise, it beats the s4 in night shots.

IMO, for day shots the iphone wins some and the s4 wins some. For low light the One is the clear winner.

There is no denying it, Xperia Cameras suck :(

Let me just first put it out there that I'm a loyal Sony guy. I've owned the Xperia TL, Xperia ZL, Xperia Z1 and now the Xperia Z3C.
With that said, I knew the Sony cameras took subpar pics, whether in full auto or manual mode, they just look bad. Add low light or indoor to the mix, and you've got what looks like a pic from a 2005 Nokia phone. Sorry, I know we all love our Xperias, but Sony should be ashamed of themselves for doing this, considering that they make awesome DSLRs and point and shoots.
So why am I being a rabble rouser all of a sudden? Well, I just got a Note 4 as my work phone and needless to say, I was blown away by the camera results. The differences are night and day between the two. Sadly, I'm supposed to be carrying my work phone just during work days, but I found myself leaving my Z3C at home and going out with the Note 4 this weekend, and you should see the pics I took.
I don't know if the lens is good but the software is bad on the Sony, but if there is any hope that Lollipop will make it better with RAW, I sure hope Sony takes advantage of it.

I agree. The camera of the Lumia 925 that I had, was much better than the camera's compact Z3.
To be honest, this camera does not please me one bit, outside the fact that it does not have optical image stabilizer.

Check the "post pictures that you have taken with your z3c" or something thread. Also, photos will naturally look better on amoled. Transfer your z3c pictures to Note 4 and then look at them again. Might seem better. I find both cameras great by the way
Sent from my D5833 using XDA Free mobile app

I wouldn't say suck. I'd just say average.
If you buy this phone for the camera, you're doing it from the wrong direction.
It'd be like buying this phone for the 'best speakers on the market', when HTC One's are those.
The Z3C phone is the best for compact and power; it's a pocket rocket and that's what it specializes at first and foremost, second being its water proof-dust proof without being some rugged phone.
So why am I being a rabble rouser all of a sudden? Well, I just got a Note 4 as my work phone and needless to say, I was blown away by the camera results. The differences are night and day between the two. Sadly, I'm supposed to be carrying my work phone just during work days, but I found myself leaving my Z3C at home and going out with the Note 4 this weekend, and you should see the pics I took.
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If you're taking around a Note 4, then you're clearly weren't in for the Z3C's compact and pocket rocket in the first place, and you're now choosing the best camera in stead.

Please just tell me that you're comparing pictures on a PC.

Moist said:
Please just tell me that you're comparing pictures on a PC.
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EXACTLY.
Sent from my D5833 using XDA Free mobile app

You are comparing a quad HD display to a 720p. You're not comparing the camera performance. Just the display. I'd do the comparison again on a PC

I still don't understand what is wrong with Sony's compact camera ... my compact camera is taking great pictures :laugh:

No, I've been comparing the photos on my thunderbolt display, so no bias toward the Note 4's screen in any way.
And no, I'm not all sold on the Note 4, I still can't live without the compactness of my Z3C.
I will take identical photos from both phones today and post here.

Z3c camera doesn't suck, it's "just" above average.
The only other phone with superior camera that rivals Z3C's performance, size and specs is the iPhone 5s to be honest.
Samsung phones have the best cameras overall, but their devices aren't one-hand friendly.

If you want top notch pictures then you need to buy a decent camera.. For a mobile phone camera it does its job, I have no issues with it.
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Premium HD app

pricey2009 said:
If you want top notch pictures then you need to buy a decent camera.. For a mobile phone camera it does its job, I have no issues with it.
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Premium HD app
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Try Lumia920. I still prefer it.

Compare any Nokia you want against an alpha 6000 (or any dslr or mirrorless camera).
Once you go big lenses and big sensors, you never go back.

ro_explorer said:
I still don't understand what is wrong with Sony's compact camera ... my compact camera is taking great pictures :laugh:
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I'm curious what's settings are you using?(mode, iso, etc)
Any tip to improve my photos?

XQC said:
Z3c camera doesn't suck, it's "just" above average.
The only other phone with superior camera that rivals Z3C's performance, size and specs is the iPhone 5s to be honest.
Samsung phones have the best cameras overall, but their devices aren't one-hand friendly.
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Pretty much this.
I see nothing but good things about Samsung's phones, but when they get smaller and remove those physical buttons, I'll consider grabbing one... which may be never since it's their signature.

cerberustri said:
I'm curious what's settings are you using?(mode, iso, etc)
Any tip to improve my photos?
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There is no universal recipe for taking good photos. All parameters are heavily dependant on the camera specs.
In my case, I'm taking usable photos even at ISO6400 and, with a size reduction afterwards, I can even go higher (12800).
The aperture is dependant on the lens you are using. A too large aperture will lead to blurry edges and soft images on cheap lenses. A too closed one will generate light fringing leading to artefacts. Then there is the focal length .... again, the lenses are behaving totally different.
It's all coming down to trial and error and understanding the limitations of your equipment.
And coming back on-topic, I would love to have full manual controls over the Z3C's camera (including long exposure and RAW data). That will allow for truly great photos with this tiny camera.

The most terrible thing I am concerned about is "soft skin" effect that seems to be always turned on.
See the discussion here: https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z3-Compact/Soft-Skin-effect/td-p/838361/highlight/false/page/4

ro_explorer said:
There is no universal recipe for taking good photos. All parameters are heavily dependant on the camera specs.
In my case, I'm taking usable photos even at ISO6400 and, with a size reduction afterwards, I can even go higher (12800).
The aperture is dependant on the lens you are using. A too large aperture will lead to blurry edges and soft images on cheap lenses. A too closed one will generate light fringing leading to artefacts. Then there is the focal length .... again, the lenses are behaving totally different.
It's all coming down to trial and error and understanding the limitations of your equipment.
And coming back on-topic, I would love to have full manual controls over the Z3C's camera (including long exposure and RAW data). That will allow for truly great photos with this tiny camera.
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I think, he thought you took the picture of the camera, with your Z3C. And so, was asking what settings you had on your phone to make the picture of the camera look so good compared to his.

ogyct said:
The most terrible thing I am concerned about is "soft skin" effect that seems to be always turned on.
See the discussion here: https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z3-Compact/Soft-Skin-effect/td-p/838361/highlight/false/page/4
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Yeah. It's still not fixed in lollipop update.
I just don't understand why they don't fix this bug. It's a simple thing to fix i think, and because of that, front camera isn't useable at all!!

Calvat said:
I think, he thought you took the picture of the camera, with your Z3C. And so, was asking what settings you had on your phone to make the picture of the camera look so good compared to his.
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Actually I took that picture with the z3c just to show what I'm actually using to take photos . The phones camera was on auto but, the camera itself is only part of the picture. There is also framing and there is also light.
BTW, these are a bunch of samples captured today, on manual mode, with z3c running lollipop (for who is interested). In my opinion the quality of the camera is pretty low but still, usable in case of emergency.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08eVSlv8mIUNnBTcTc5YmlHcVk/view?usp=sharing
// sent from my phone //