Nokia’s big claim for the very big Lumia 1020 is that its camera puts the competition to shame. So I’ve decided to test that out.
Each shot was taken at full auto with flash disabled, and the only change I’ve made otherwise is to shrink them down in the same way in Photoshop.
First of all, a night scene. Here’s the Lumia 1020:
The same shot, taken with an iPhone 5
And then the same shot… sort of… with a Galaxy S4
How about the sky at night (with trees)? Here’s the Lumia 1020
And the iPhone 5
And then the Galaxy S4
For low light work, it’s pretty clear which smartphone camera is leading the pack, although obviously with apps and some semi-manual settings you could modify the end results somewhat. Again; I’m just working in auto, because a lot of smartphone shots are spur of the moment matters.
Heading into actual light, the classic of art classes, still bowl of fruit (with reflections). Here’s it’s a little closer. Here’s the Lumia 1020
The iPhone 5
And the Galaxy S4
Here things are closer than they might seem; the Nokia shot is nice and vibrant, but it’s got a slight colour cast to it that the other two smartphone cameras avoid.
How about shutter times? The one thing which has irritated me for years about phone cameras, and even some low-end dedicated digital cameras, is that there is considerable lag between you pressing the shutter and the photo actually being captured. That’s natural and necessary in very-low-light conditions but at no other time is it really justified. Does the Lumia do better?