Smartphone
cameras are getting better all the time. Optical zoom lenses aside, it's not
uncommon for a high-end smartphone camera to match or even beat the quality
from a small pocket digital camera.
This rapid
improvement in quality has dovetailed with a broader trend of sharing digital
photography online -- whether it's through Facebook, Instagram,
500px or one of the many other photo sharing sites.
Two of the
hottest smartphones on the market are Apple's iPhone
5and Samsung's Galaxy
SIII. Both sport 8-megapixel cameras and promise
ultra-fast shutter speeds.
So how do
they compare? To find out, Nina Frazier -- Mashable's excellent
photo editor -- and I spent a lot of time doing a good old-fashioned camera
shootout. For good measure, we also included the 8-megapixel camera from
Apple's iPhone 4S, to see how the newer phones compare with the older model.
Our goal
with this camera comparison was to capture as many real-world situations and
opportunities as we could.
A couple of
notes about our tests:
·
We used the default camera app for
the Samsung Galaxy SIII, the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5.
·
Photos were taken directly from the
camera. Aside from crops for this gallery, the photos were untouched and there
was no post-processing of the images.
·
We took the images in the late
afternoon in New York City. There was plenty of light, but because this is New
York, not a lot of direct sun light.
Some iPhone
5 owners -- including our own Charlie White -- have been able to capture a purple
hazewith the iPhone 5's camera -- most likely do to
chromatic aberration -- an issue not uncommon to digital cameras.
Nothing in
our tests indicated that the issue was any more pronounced in the iPhone 5 than
in any other digital camera, but keep this in mind when composing shots. If you
see purple fringing, readjust before tapping the shutter button.
Take a look
at our test shots and then read on for more information on each camera.
Blowing
Bubbles in the Park
The iPhone
5's camera captures extremely vivid colors. You can see the entire spectrum
inside the bubbles much more than with the Galaxy SIII or the iPhone 4S.
iPhone 4S
The iPhone
4S remains a great smartphone
camera. In fact, under the right lighting and in the hands of a skilled
photographer, images produced with the 4S can rival images from some
point-and-shoot cameras.
That said,
the 4S is significantly slower than the Galaxy SIII or the iPhone 5. That
doesn't matter so much for posed shots or landscapes, but it can mean the
difference between catching that fleeting moment or just missing it.
The iPhone
4S is also less adroit at shooting in low light. The flash on the camera is
acceptable for some situations, but be aware that it can often overfill the
frame, washing out the image. That LED flash is bright.
Aside from
low light, the biggest difference between the 4S and the iPhone 5 is color.
I'll discuss this more in the iPhone 5 section, but the newer camera tends to
be much more accurate in terms of color and tonal balance.
Still, it's
hard to be too hard on the iPhone 4S. A year later, it remains one of the best
smartphone cameras on the market.
Samsung
Galaxy SIII
Samsung
deserves high praise for the camera it included on its flagship Galaxy SIII. In
the past, I've had mixed results with Samsung smartphone cameras, but the
Galaxy SIII is a great camera.
To us, image
quality and color looked similar to the iPhone 4S. The biggest difference is
that the Galaxy SIII is considerably faster. Samsung has a burst mode built into
its camera software, but even without it, you can take photos with nearly no
shutter lag.
This means
it's possible to catch every moment as it happens. We should note however, that
while the shutter is essentially lag-free, the auto-focus doesn't always keep
up.
This is most
evident when it comes to motion images. In our test shot of a moving bus, the
bus itself is in focus, but the text on the bus itself is a bit blurred. On the
iPhone 4S -- and especially the iPhone 5 -- the text and bus remain in focus.
One of the
nicest aspects of the Galaxy SIII is its huge 4.8" display. Seriously,
using a screen that large as a viewfinder is a real joy. The camera software is
also easy to target focus points and snap off quick shots.
Color
accuracy on the Galaxy SIII was good -- not iPhone 5 good -- but solid.
Where the
camera did tend to fall down a bit was with backlit photos. In our test, we
loved that the camera software compensated to focus and correctly expose the
denim in my jacket, but were disappointed when it washed out much of the
background.
In low
light, the camera performs well, even in candle light. For us, the low-light
performance was the perfect blend of resolution and contrast, but not too
noisy.
After using
the Galaxy SIII for a bit, it was easy to see why companies such as Nikon and
Samsung are starting to build their own Android-based cameras. Put an optical
zoom and larger sensor on this thing but keep that big display and you've got a great midrange
prosumer camera.
iPhone 5
The real
story of the iPhone 5 is its color accuracy. Nearly every photo we took came
off the camera with accurate and bright colors. Looking at the test shots,
that's where it is most visibly different from the iPhone 4S.
Colors just
pop. Looking at the colors in the bubble demonstration from Madison Square
Park, I was stunned to see that level of detail and clarity without editing.
The white balance on the camera is also remarkable -- easily the best default
white-balance I've seen on a smartphone-based camera.
The iPhone 5
is also incredibly faster than the iPhone 4S. Like the Galaxy SIII, tapping the
shutter button is lag free. There is no built-in burst mode, but I found myself
able to take multiple shots at a clip with negligible lag.
The other
story of the iPhone 5 is its low-light performance. The iPhone 5 is capable of
a much higher ISO than the iPhone 4S -- which results in much better low-light
photography. Of course, the disadvantage of the high ISO is noise.
The iPhone 5
performed best in our backlit test -- perfectly compensating for the lighting
differences.
As nice as
the iPhone 5's screen is, the Galaxy SIII still has an advantage as a
viewfinder, thanks to its sheer size.
To us, Apple
took the already great iPhone 4S camera and made it even better.
Final Thoughts
Regarding
off-the-camera results, we'd have to give the edge to the iPhone 5. Still, the
Galaxy SIII was a joy to use and its large screen functions as a fantastic
viewfinder.
The Galaxy
SIII and the iPhone 5 are both big improvements over the iPhone 4S, not so much
for picture quality, but for speed. It's surprising how much a faster camera
can improve the smartphone photography experience.
Looking
through the photos, what camera do you prefer? Let us know in the comments.
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