The Verge:
For the better part of the last decade, one of the biggest demands from people in the market for a premium smartphone was a great camera. These days, though, it’s a feature you should expect. A good smartphone camera is no longer the deciding factor it once was if only because it’s now so common to find one in a high-end (or even mid-range) phone. These three phones are the perfect example of that. Google may have won the race this time around, but Samsung and Apple made it a photo finish.
Another shootout between the three most popular camera phones. Interesting to compare the Verge’s opinions with those of the CNET article I linked to yesterday.
I think these comparisons need to take it up a notch. I stopped when I read: “The Pixel produced slightly crisper images than the S7, which are in turn slightly more crisp than the iPhone 7’s images. I’d like to attribute this to Google and Samsung doing more post-processing on its JPEGS than Apple,”
If you care about image quality, shoot in RAW. However, if the default is to shoot JPEG, then you want to shoot JPEG. So, really, the comparisons need to do both. Shoot JPEG to show what people will get that way, shoot RAW to show what is possible for each camera.
One image I found odd, was the low light image.
The building doesn’t have the plants growing up towards the bottom of the window in the iPhone shot.
I took the image and brought it into Photoshop, marqueed that section of the Pixel image and brought it over so it was positioned the same. No plant. Weird. Makes me wonder if there was some touch up going on?
Basically, like with screens, Apple prefers accuracy, but idiot reviewers prefer fakery.
Or shot on different days?
If that’s the case I hope they double checked the lighting conditions. These “tests” need much more control before they can be taken seriously.
And vibrancy! Greener grass… No professional photographer would want over saturated photos. Certainly not to start with that is.
Little bit.
Another carefully-executed, quality comparison by our friends at The Verge.
One blog comparing the two cameras, it may have been three, you know which. Actually stated that “I could have done better but” but what? DO better then.
Sadly, it’s too often about clicks. Sigh… again.
“My editor needed this piece within two hours. He told me not to sweat the details too much.”