Which phone handles lighting best (camera)?

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Not about megapixels but rather, which non-apple (Samsung, HTC, etc) smart phone has a camera that best handles light for the shooting scene, i.e. in auto shoot mode: the picture comes out with lighting that looks exactly the way the scene did instead of dark or overly bright, etc.
 
most of the newer flagship phones are "very good for smart phones".

in no particular order

Nokia Lumia 1020
LG G4
Samsung S6
Note 4
Nexus 6

probably left a few off.
even slightly older phones such as the
LG G3 and samsung S5 were good.
 
This is a loaded question and here's what to look for:

1) Dynamic range. Depends on the quality of the sensor. Can pick up shadow detail and highlights at the same time. Film used to get "ten stops" or 2 to the 10th power changes in light.

2) Facial recognition software. Goofy, but helpful, especially in backlit conditions and other extremes, like when snow throws it off. Even a red painted wall would "overload" the color correction into neutralizing the redness if it's not for the face recognition saying, hey, get this skin tone right. An adjunct is if you can quickly highlight a face or other feature in "preview" mode you want the camera to concentrate its focus and exposure on.

3) Optics. A lower aperture number (it's a ratio, so more glass) lets more light in and you need less "sensor gain" which is grainy and not as nice as getting the picture "honestly". A phone was advertised with an a f/1.8 lens which is pretty good, for phones. (Most are f/3.5 or worse.) Sorry, forget which phone.

If you can get specs for the actual physical size of the CMOS chip, more real estate is better. This is where a "real" digital camera outshines a phone, and why Richard Avedon shot large format film when others used 35mm.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
A phone was advertised with an a f/1.8 lens which is pretty good, for phones. (Most are f/3.5 or worse.) Sorry, forget which phone.

That's LG G4, I believe.

OP, also check out this ranking:
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/7285707615/dpreview-recommends-best-smartphone-cameras

You may have to sift through the individual reviews to get your "lighting" questions answered specifically, but it's a start. NOTE: LG G4 wasn't available at the time they put this ranking together.

Also, lighting can be fairly easily corrected in post processing, if you capture enough detail to begin with, but I do understand you want it to look good OOTB. Truthfully, even most stand alone cameras struggle with this, which is why using RAW format and post processing is often needed to get it to look exactly like it was supposed to.
 
I think all phone cams probably have similar sensor and optic specs and such. the software can be the difference. On Iphones and I think most dedicated cameras these days they have a multi exposure mode. So when you take a picture it actually takes say 3 pictures at varying exposures dark to light then combines them to extend the dynamic range. Photos saved in the raw image format can also be adjusted later. If this is android only I would search for apps that do this multi exposure method of processing.
 
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
I think all phone cams probably have similar sensor and optic specs and such.

Panasonic CM1 has a 1" sensor, but it costs $1,000
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Ha! I thought you said LIGHTNING".


Me too. People with that kind of experience may not be able to talk about it. Might be mentioned at the eulogy however.
 
My vote is for any of the HTC One phones.
The HTC One m7 had issues in there first run of phones, but most of the m7 issues have been resolved. Just try not to buy a used m7 because there are still m7 phones out on ebay with the defective camera lens. They had an issue with overheating the camera sensor causing a purple/pink tint to all photos.
The HTC One M8 & M9 have had these issues fully resolved with no problems with the camera.
IMO they have the best low light photos. I have a samsung note 2 for my work phone and my htc one m7 blows it out of the water in taking photos.
Lastly the HTC phones have a larger camera lens so the photos show more in a photo if that makes any sense. I guess you can say it has a build in wide angle lens.
Hope this helps!
 
Just for example I snapped a photo with each phone just to see if I could see a difference. (Sorry for the mess just finished a yard sale) lol.
Phones are in exact same position also.

HTC One M7:


Samsung Note 2:
 
Originally Posted By: horse123
HTC tends to have the best low light cameras, at least last I heard a year or two ago.


I have an HTC One M7 without the pink bug, and my better half has the Lumia 1520. There is no comparison at all, her camera rocks all day long, mine is usually awful with occasional moments of low resolution brilliance. And no, speaking as an old film SLR user, playing with the settings won't fix everything on the M7. Forcing a bunch of options doesn't help if it decides to wait 4 seconds to take the picture, and then still screws it us.

I've had two M7's and both act the same way.
 
I just recently got rid of my HTC one m7 launch edition phone. The purple tint was very bad, I waited too long to get it repaired they wouldn't do it for free like others said even after I complained.

My Galaxy note 4 camera with HDR on is really nice. Funny they have the settings on less than max out of the box. I had to enable HDR and UHD video manually.
 
Originally Posted By: porksoda
Just for example I snapped a photo with each phone just to see if I could see a difference.

So which one has the more accurate white balance and exposure? Only you can judge that.
 
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