Cheap and ultra-wide 4K60?

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duronboy

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Forum seems slow on this topic, but back in the day I did receive a recommendation for my favorite phone, ever, here, the LG V20. Which I still use because it does the thing. But it doesn't have the right 4G bands or the right VoLTE, so its days are numbered as far as being able to function as a communication device.

Top contender for replacement was a Galaxy S10 as it was cheap, had a triple camera setup, and an advertised 60, 120, 240, 960!!! FPS. Found out the hard way that only one camera is worth anything on that device, if you want manual control or 60+FPS. Colors were over-saturated on both the display and camera. Display essentially had two options; over-saturated, or too low of a CCT. Kind of bizarre. You just couldn't have a natural-looking appearance to anything the phone looked at on the screen or camera. They included sliders for each color, but they literally did nothing at all. Just little toy sliders lol!

V60 is what I'm looking at now, as it appears to offer manual control with both cameras(no tele, unfortunately). But, the module they used for the ultra-wide only supports 60FPS at 1080P. Geeze louise. First world problems, amirite? Fantastic battery, though.

The V40 is cheap and appears to offer 4K60 ultrawide, but it's getting a bit old and didn't receive a good battery life. Also, USB 2.0. Curious. Card-slot, though. Might go with it just for the price and 4K ultra-wide 60fps.
 
Based on your list of phones, I doubt this recommendation will mean anything for you, but all "basic" (non-Pro) iPhones since the 11 have a "regular" lens (which photographers and videographer's would still consider to be wide angle) at 26mm full frame equivalent and an ultra-wide lens at 13mm. They all also since that time have been capable of 4k 60fps.
Apple is also known for better video and better video processing than Android competitors.

Alternatively if you don't mind doing it, Moment makes aftermarket lenses for phones, with an ultra-wide angle adapter - useful if you want to use phones' "best camera", usually the "standard" lens and get an ultra-wide view. I also get the impression here though that you don't want any additional add-ons though.

Otherwise I think you're generally looking at something more modern. I would tend to look at something like the Pixel 6 Pro (specifically the Pro model for 4k/60p) if I was on the Android side. Should drop like a rock pricing wise after the 7 officially drops - and of course the used market will have even better discounts.
The Pixel 5 also some-what fits, but it's ultra-wide isn't as wide as either the iPhone or Pixel 6 Pro's and it's image quality isn't going to match something like an iPhone or Galaxy S20. It does support 4k/60 though. On Swappa these are pretty cheap - but I'd likely go through some reviews to see if they're still holding up as general usage phones in 2022.
 
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V40 has usb2 lol? Wtf. My V30 is usbC and exceeds usb2 rates, so go figure. Battery life is excellent when you don't have the eternal google tracking on, plus one of the best DACs in a phone to date too. Does 4k60 and has beaten iPhone something new version In some weird tests I have done with scanned light outputs. LG camera implementation is pretty good and very adjustable, like v20 but more.

Good luck, I am staying v30 as long as I can (read: years). They are so cheap too.
 
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Add-on leneses have gotten good. Don't usually carry them, though. One thing I liked about the S10 cams was at least in auto, you could seamlessly switch between the camera modules and it looked pretty sweet.

Yeah the S20 is potentially my next, NEXT phone when they're dirt cheap. Still has a card slot, but that was the one they dropped the headphone jack, which is something I thought I'd gotten over because my V20 jack broke years ago. Until I plugged my Beyerdynamics into the S10. I tested recording my sound system earlier and when I pressed play on one of the tests I immediately jumped up to turn off the amp because for a split second I thought that's where the sound was coming from! I was shocked the soundstage was that good. Kinda miss that in a phone.

Yeah the V30 is such a great value right now. There are some tempting offers. Actually got an offer from a seller in the upper 30s!! So effing cheap. I was leaning toward the V40 though since it has 50% more RAM and, even though it's not accessible in manual, the telephoto is a nice feature. Almost worthless in low light, however.

I wasn't aware the V30 offered 4K60? I read it was an 835 chipset limitation. 1080p60, but no 4K60. Yeah USB2 is weird, but at least I can take the card out and use my USB3 reader. Lot of phones you can't even do that.
 
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Well I picked up a V40. Hopefully the battery will be in good shape. If not, finding a battery that is even within 80% of advertised capacity will be fun. I tried 5 V20 batteries before I found one that offered close to its rating.

So if I decide to switch to Verizon I could upgrade to a V50 for a better battery life. I think the V60 was a sign LG had already given up the ghost. But it does offer a nice battery.

Or, if anyone knows if the Galaxy S20 offers manual control of all the cameras as well as 60FPS on more than just one module? Hopefully it's not like the S10 in that regard.
 
Another question for all you Apple lovers out there; have you tried those OTG USB reach-around sticks? Does the official camera app let you record directly to those? I was thinking that could be a way to get around Apple's unbearably slow USB 2 speeds on their "lightning" connection. If the USB stick was USB3, then that could be the next best thing to having USB3 on the actual phone.
 
Eeek sorry you're right it is 4k30, I checked both but not same time. Honestly you're better off buying a new batt DIY or get a shop to install. Keep tracking off unless needed.
 
Not sure I'll actually look fwd to editing 4K60 footage on my 2600K from 2011, which I notice you have, too! I've been running at stock frequencies for years, now. But it'll be nice to have 4K60, regardless. I'm thinking it could be a cheap alternative to a 4K60 dashcam that's actually worth calling 4K. Issues being power delivery and cooling, but I have some ideas about that.

Luckily I have an external battery/PSU tester so that'll save some time if I need to replace the cell. I'll have to figure out how to interface with the weird little connector it will have, though.
 
Head-scratching quirk of the V40 is it will not change camera modules once video recording starts. Even the V20 could do that. It was a sudden, jarring transition, but it would do the thing. I wonder if the V50 fixed this.
 
V40 and V50 are a bit handicapped at 4K; they have 6-10 minute recording limits(6 for 60FPS 10 for 30FPS) because of massive heat issues. I don't think I've had a phone that had a time limit since the LG G3(2014!) as it had a 5 minute limit for 4K. I've shot hundreds of hours of long, continuous 4K30 videos with the V20 and no heat issues that I'm aware of. Similar sized sensors. Maybe it's about to burn up! lol
 
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