is the iPhone the only one with a fast camera?

silk186

silk186

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
1,628
I will buy a new phone next week. I'm pretty set on the Samsung S4 right now but the thing that really bothered me about my S2 was the camera. I have used iPhones to take photos of friends and the auto focus is instant and i can snap photos fast. My S2 on the other hand take longer to focus, longer to snap a photo and longer before I can snap the next photo.

I have looked at many phone reviews and the camera section typically focuses on low light. Image quality is great, however, if I really want good photos I will use my DSLR. What I really want is a fast and responsive camera with instant auto focus.

Can anyone with experience comment on the S4 or other current smartphones?
 
I have an S4, and have yet to have a time where I was waiting for focusing to occur
 
good to hear. It was the one thing I really thought that the iPhone was better at.
 
Phones with dedicated image processors or core in Motorola's case are good for this:

This list includes:
iPhone 5S
Moto X - new update needed to correct software image flaw
HTC One
 
Last edited:
Nokia Lumia 1020 can take photos at 1/16,000 of a second, and with flash this really makes a difference and wipes the iPhone off the grid. :D

But if we're talking about autofocus time, standard at best.
 
Cerulean said:
Nokia Lumia 1020 can take photos at 1/16,000 of a second, and with flash this really makes a difference and wipes the iPhone off the grid. :D

But if we're talking about autofocus time, standard at best.
Click to expand...

I listen to the Verge's podcasts (both their mobile show and Vergecast) and pretty much their whole team agreed that the iPhone's camera was much easier to use and more reliable than the 1020s and despite the 1020 having the best IQ over any phone ever, none of them thought it was the best overall camera. I know they seem pretty Apple biased sometimes (to me), but their owner (Josh Topolski) even stated in that same podcast that he still prefers Android to iOS and addressed that he has nothing to gain by being bias in their mobile reviews as they're much more than a mobile tech site. From what I've seen of the 1020, I'd have to agree with them and I believe the 1020 is very much a niche device, esp. with it running WP8 since it is not very appealing to most people that have used iOS and/or Android due to lack of 3rd party support and a lot of other (seemingly) basic functionality.

To answer OPs question about the GS4s camera though; I just got my wife a GS4 and although it has been a pretty decent camera and it focuses quickly enough, the shutter button definitely lags a little from the time you press the button to the time it takes the pic. I'd say it's almost a full second, which is noticable. I'm sure it can be fixed in an update though because my Note 2s camera is pretty much instant when I press the shutter button. There's also a considerably smaller field of view on the GS4's camera compared to other phones like the One, iPhone and the Note 2's. I'm not sure why Samsung thought that was a good idea. Overall though; it seems most people/reviewers favor the iPhone's camea over any other for its speed, consistency and IQ. But the GS4's is certainly one of the more capable cameras on a smart phone too. My wife hasn't had any complaints with hers (and she's a semi-pro photographer that shoots her D600 normally), but almost anything newer is worlds better than her previous Rezound's camera was.
 
Last edited:
My opinion is that pretty much all modern smartphone cameras are quite good. And they all suck in low light, but for 99% of everyday shots, I doubt it makes a difference, its all very much down to preference. i.e. I don't think choice of a phone can be done on the basis of a camera anymore.
 
Cerulean said:
Nokia Lumia 1020 can take photos at 1/16,000 of a second, and with flash this really makes a difference and wipes the iPhone off the grid. :D
Click to expand...

Unless you're shooting the mid-day sky with a wide-open aperture you'll almost never be shooting at 1/16,000. Most of the time you'll be at 1/500 or less.
 
Lumia 920 has rather sic shutter speeds too, great for checking out display pwm. :D

IPhone camera app is a joke and made for monkeys. Stock WP8 camera app is just extremely simple even though it has some settings. Nokia Pro Camera is far from being hard to use. I mean, at default you only have to press one damn button.
 
Tup3x said:
Lumia 920 has rather sic shutter speeds too, great for checking out display pwm. :D

IPhone camera app is a joke and made for monkeys. Stock WP8 camera app is just extremely simple even though it has some settings. Nokia Pro Camera is far from being hard to use. I mean, at default you only have to press one damn button.
Click to expand...

Don't underestimate the iPhone -- that "joke" software still gets better photos than a lot of ostensibly more advanced devices. Apple does a particularly good job of autoexposure/autofocus lock.

I have a Lumia 1020, and it's definitely a photo nerd's phone. You can get a lot of good photos without trying too hard, but it isn't as consistent as the iPhone. It excels for specialized shots, though; I just took a long exposure night photo the same way I would with a DSLR.
 
the s4 takes shitty pictures compared to other phones. the lumia 1020 and iphone 5s are pretty much the top cameras now.

the lumia takes great pictures, and offers an amazing digital zoom as well as some advanced settings which give it an edge if you already understand dslr stuff.

the iphone takes great pictures and offers great color tones in low light.

neither should have a focus problem with speed compared to a dslr, but the iphone should be faster with its burst modes, instantaneous hdr, and fewer megapixels to process aimed at not really exceeding the social media expectation.
 
There is a rumor at the moment that the Nexus 5 will address your criteria and then some. I guess we will know for certain though soon.
 
Ocean said:
the s4 takes shitty pictures compared to other phones. the lumia 1020 and iphone 5s are pretty much the top cameras now.
Click to expand...

Nonsense. I can tell you my friends S4 takes very good pictures, ive read all the comparisons the nokia 1020 is the TOP camera phone. Iphone 5s, S4, etc are about the same, any difference in color, tones, etc is easily fixed in post processing anyway. hit your edit button on the phone and adjust color/contrast as you wish -- you however cannot fix detail that the camera is unable to capture, which is why the 1020 is way above the others.
 
Valaire said:
G2 has a better and faster camera, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Yeah, seriously... Don't get an S4 over a G2. G2 is better in every way. I caved and ordered a G2 from Negri the other day myself - going to bring it to Aio wireless. I'm still upset about the stupid closed-driver-mess Qualcomm CPU, but my Galaxy S2 is getting worse and worse every day (needing tons of reboots, awful reception / missing calls/texts because Samsung has terrible modems and I have the Sprint version which was by far the worst) so I needed something NOW. Was gonna get an Xperia Z1, but got tired of waiting for the version with band 17 (AT&T) LTE. I kinda hope the Z1 sells like crap because of how late its release is, because then maybe Sony will learn that waiting this long isn't okay. And why did they not just include band 17 in the world edition instead of making a stupid AT&T edition? Come on. That crap needs to stop. /tangent
 
Last edited:
Pretty much all modern high end smartphones can take pictures instantly nowadays.
 
buttons said:
... hit your edit button on the phone and adjust color/contrast as you wish -- you however cannot fix detail that the camera is unable to capture, which is why the 1020 is way above the others.
Click to expand...


The op has a dslr available for taking really nice pictures. Are you actually trying to make the argument that if he buys a lumia, he needs to fix the extra 33 megapixels (over the iphone's 8MP) of detail on his phone?

Here is a math problem for you. the nokia has a 41MP camera. How many nokia screens of "detail" does the op have to manually edit to insure that the entire picture is correct when displayed at a perceivably complete resolution?
 
Fast cameras were in HTC devices before iPhones, at the very least my HTC evo 4g LTE had a fast camera and every phone I have seen since then has one. So no iPhones have nothing to do with fast cameras. It is a me too feature.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top