Phone camera quality

Boozebeard · 26 Feb 2012 at 16:41

I've decided I want a camera for the purpose of taking reference photos and photos to be used for texture work on 3D models. I've also been thinking about getting a new phone so I basically want to know if any of the current high end mobile devices have a decent enough cameras for this kind of use? It would be much more convenient and spontaneous to be able to use a camera phone.

I'd like to get either an android or a windows phone (need to look into that a bit more), would like to stay away from an iphone.

I wasn't sure if I would be best off posting this here or in the phone section.

Vertigo · 26 Feb 2012 at 17:46

The cameras in modern phones are surprisingly good when used in decent conditions, i.e. plenty of light. They're next to useless if light is limited or you want shallow depth of field though.

If you're into Android then check out the Galaxy S2 which has one of the best 8mp cameras of any phone and has a good macro mode which could be useful to you.

Mr.Stu · 26 Feb 2012 at 17:54

It's a shame you are ruling out the iPhone as the camera on the 4s is superb for a phone...

Boozebeard · 26 Feb 2012 at 20:20

Yes, I have heard good things about the camera on 4s but I prefer androids more open access and I already have a fair amount of money invested into the android store via my current phone.

S2 does seem to be the phone of the moment.

D.P. · 27 Feb 2012 at 17:47

http://conversations.nokia.com/2012...lutionary-camera-technology-great-smartphone/

41MP with a relatively large sensor. Down sample that to 12MP and it might be interesting!

Ksanti · 27 Feb 2012 at 18:18

It's stupidly big and runs symbian, better off with an S2 tbh.

Also as for the low light performance, I'll believe it when I see it.

james.miller · 27 Feb 2012 at 18:21

no current camera phone is much cop in low light or for sports photography. Cheap cameras like the Canon ixus 115 run rings around the s2 and iphone 4s.

D.P. · 27 Feb 2012 at 19:37

OF course it is utterly daft but they might have managed to get a reasonable image if they stuck to 10MP for that size of image sensor (it is about about 90% the size of the CX format and the nikon 1 does fine in low light), hence if the image is down-sampled it may be somewhat usable. The limitation is then the lens.

Tee Hee Johnson · 28 Feb 2012 at 01:27

I was surprised with my sgs2 when it took 'this' during the icy weather, I still use a similar one on both my laptop and the phones background!

Zefan · 28 Feb 2012 at 01:42

Really nice picture there for a camera, good work

Rroff · 28 Feb 2012 at 01:53

I would say probably don't get the Galaxy Note (I've done my fair bit of video game development so know a little about textures) tho its a fairly high res camera except under ideal circumstances there is in my opinion way too much noise in the image for texture work.

Jamy · 1 Mar 2012 at 22:30

Rroff said:
I would say probably don't get the Galaxy Note (I've done my fair bit of video game development so know a little about textures) tho its a fairly high res camera except under ideal circumstances there is in my opinion way too much noise in the image for texture work.

I've got this and you are right. For normal everyday photographs it is really crisp. But otherwise it gets quite fuzzy.