I don't think I like my Galaxy S4 anymore
The camera is shit for a start
Yet another phone thread
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scottishtv
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Thu 01 Apr, 2004 15.36
- Location: Edinburgh
Well, the Nexus 5 came out today but according to some reviews the camera is nothing special so might not be your cup of tea.
Looking forward to getting the new Android KitKat on my Nexus 4 soon though.
Looking forward to getting the new Android KitKat on my Nexus 4 soon though.
The HTC One's isn't particularly great either - I've some truly poor night shots. I think android cameras are still poorer than iPhone ones, overall. Bizarre when you think about it as it's such an obvious feature to sort out.Pete wrote:I don't think I like my Galaxy S4 anymore
The camera is shit for a start
Knight knight
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Ebeneezer Scrooge
- Posts: 326
- Joined: Tue 23 Sep, 2003 13.53
- Location: Scrooge Towers
HTC's problem is generally down to the fact that they choose to use a perspex lens on the outside of the case. It doesn't matter how many megapixels you have in your camera, point it through a scratchy lens and it'll always look crap.
I've never been massively impressed with any phone camera, generally they do ok as a compromise, but it will always be a compromise when you try and squeeze a camera into a device that small alongside everything else.
I've never been massively impressed with any phone camera, generally they do ok as a compromise, but it will always be a compromise when you try and squeeze a camera into a device that small alongside everything else.
Snarky
Really? I love my S4 to bits. I'm glad that I did plump for it in the end rather than looking at an S3. I still really, really miss the fingerprint unlock that my Motorola Atrix had, but since it seems Apple (as they often do) have decided to pretend that they invented it with the 5S I've had to accept that it's gone and will doubtless have to wait a couple more years for another flagship Android handset to re-introduce functionality which I already had in 2011.Pete wrote:I don't think I like my Galaxy S4 anymore
The camera is shit for a start
When it comes to the camera, you have a point, but I don't think it's fair to level it against the S4 specifically. I will admit that every time I look at pictures that look stunning on the phones own screen I die a little inside when I transfer them to a PC, look at them at full res and see that yet again I have a phone which reduces big pictures to noisy mush despite it having all the megapixels and photo enhancements in the world.
I believe half the problem is that all phones pretty much universally will still only store photos in JPEG format with compression racked up to maximum and little (or usually no) control over it - if everything you see has been subject to lossey compression then image quality is being crippled before it even comes down to how good the optics on the handset are - in this day and age when you can plug in tens of gigabytes of storage with a memory card I don't understand why manufacturers still provide no support at all for storing images in an uncompressed format so that you can see what the phone's camera is truly capable of delivering.
It is also questionable over whether we should even have large megapixels sensors in phones as more pixels just mean less light hitting the sensor - sticking with 5MP and working with improving the quality on that would have probably made for better pictures rather than sticking in 13MP cameras just to win a numbers game.
All that said though if I was a serious photographer (or even a slightly dicking around one) I'd have some sort of real camera. There will always be limits to what you can do with a small fixed lens. I very much doubt David Bailey would be seen dead taking pictures with any camera phone, regardless of how good that camera claims to be.
The update to 4.3 today has given a nice little speed boost, however the issue I tend to have is "low light" and by "low" i mean "anything that wasn't taken within 10m of the surface of the sun generating far too much noise on the photo.
The audio ISO settings are woeful, the night mode needs a ridiculous level of stillness and even with anti-shake on i find half the photos blurry
I also miss the iPhone's HDR mode.
Might try some apps, camera+ and other such nonsense, to see if I can get around it with software.
The audio ISO settings are woeful, the night mode needs a ridiculous level of stillness and even with anti-shake on i find half the photos blurry
I also miss the iPhone's HDR mode.
Might try some apps, camera+ and other such nonsense, to see if I can get around it with software.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
As I may have mentioned somewhere (here?) before, I like my Nexus 4's camera, but it requires quite a steady hand when the HDR mode is on, otherwise you tend to end up with a picture of your feet. I see that KitKat has yet more camera app enhancements, so maybe that'll make things a bit better.
I am a little disappointed they've not come up with a souped up Nexus 4 though - if they came up with LTE and a better battery life or better camera or something, I'd be all over that - a 5" screen is just getting a bit on the large size.
Meanwhile, her indoors has a Galaxy Nexus, but also continues to boycott Nestlé, so will probably be quite pleased when I tell her that her phone won't be getting a 4.4 upgrade.
I am a little disappointed they've not come up with a souped up Nexus 4 though - if they came up with LTE and a better battery life or better camera or something, I'd be all over that - a 5" screen is just getting a bit on the large size.
Meanwhile, her indoors has a Galaxy Nexus, but also continues to boycott Nestlé, so will probably be quite pleased when I tell her that her phone won't be getting a 4.4 upgrade.
Nexus 4: 4.7 inchesthegeek wrote:I am a little disappointed they've not come up with a souped up Nexus 4 though - if they came up with LTE and a better battery life or better camera or something, I'd be all over that - a 5" screen is just getting a bit on the large size.
Nexus 5: 4.95 inches
I've just switched away from O2 - and other than the longish wait on hold to get through to the disconnections department, was quite impressed with their efficiency. When I said I was moving for a SIM-only deal elsewhere, the guy's response was "so Tesco or Virgin, then?" and didn't try a hard sell for a deal with a pitiful amount of data.
The PAC code arrived within the hour, and when I was on the tube about an hour after my number transferred away, my access to the free WiFi had been revoked. I'm still on the classic O2 broadband (ie owned by Sky but still on the old network), but the next day had an email to say that the O2 customer discount would disappear on my next bill.
I'm going to see how well I get on without the tube WiFi (I commute by bike these days so I'm not missing it too much so far), but if it gets annoying then I might get to see how easy it is to transfer away from Tesco to Orange PAYG.
The PAC code arrived within the hour, and when I was on the tube about an hour after my number transferred away, my access to the free WiFi had been revoked. I'm still on the classic O2 broadband (ie owned by Sky but still on the old network), but the next day had an email to say that the O2 customer discount would disappear on my next bill.
I'm going to see how well I get on without the tube WiFi (I commute by bike these days so I'm not missing it too much so far), but if it gets annoying then I might get to see how easy it is to transfer away from Tesco to Orange PAYG.