Video in the above post is fixed with a workaround... I apologize for the method of presentation not being optimal.
Lumia Camera Shootout: 928 -vs- 1520 -vs- 830
- Thread starter RumoredNow
- Start date
Re: cam shootout cont. 928/1520/830
Let's Harvest Some Crops:
It is an overcast day, but not too heavy on the cloud cover. A flat, uniform light that makes for pretty easy shots. Everything is well lit without worry about the light source overwhelming the lens. First up is a simple distance shot with a well defined foreground and background. Lumia Camera for the App, hand held with auto-everything except flash forced off. The original size is uploaded with the 5MP oversample for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Easy shots make for hard decisions as to which camera did best... All of these are acceptable and even side by side they are very close. Remember that Lumia 928 has an aperture of f/2.0, L830 is f/2.2 and L1520 is f/2.4. The smaller number is actually a larger hole for light to pass through. It will gather more light, but a smaller hole (higher number) will allow more depth of field (focus). Aperture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This shot helps exemplify the principles of aperture in action and since it is a fixed quantity on the Lumias we need to try and understand what the strengths of the modules are.
By laying the pics out side by side we can see a bit of fuzziness, a softening, on the shot from 928. Alone it looks nice, but scrutinized in the presence of the other examples we also see a weakness in the color capture in the diffuse lighting. The 1520 is the crispest shot and the greens of the grass and the trees pop the most... The middle of the spectrum. The 830 gives up just a touch of sharpness on the image, but gathers more light than 1520 and makes the whole spectrum of color more vivid than either two. Compare the natural greens in the foreground, the orange canopy and the colored signs in the middle ground plaza, or the blue and red of the sign in the background across the main thoroughfare and the green roof on the portico even further back. Then come forward again and look at the junction boxes on the lawn and the browns of the brick and the cedar shake shingles. 830 made the best use of the subject matter in a lot of the finer details and still produced a reasonably crisp image throughout the entire depth.
Let's crop in on the background and look at those cranes... We're using the 8.7MP .jpg from the Lumia 928 and the 10MP .jpg from the L830. With the 1520 I set it for 5MP.jpg + 16MP.jpg and we'll take a crop from each.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520 @ 5MP
Lumia 1520 @ 16MP
Lumia 830
Again, all 3 are acceptable and we have to resort to examining minor differences. 928 is the least sharp with 1520 being the sharpest and 830 not far behind. But here's a surprise. Look at the green of the glass and the blue of the sky (mid-spectrum) of the 1520 compared to the others. On such a tight crop we really need to look at size and the 16MP option of the 1520 wins there as well.
Next we'll take a crop from a little closer in; the front end of the Pontiac in the foreground. This time we only need the 5MP image from Lumia 1520...
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
We have already seen how 928 is at a disadvantage without a specific (manual) focus point being selected. And even though this is almost a greyscale subject with white, grey and black being represented so heavily the 1520 shows a bit of weakness on the user of light and picks up a dullness from the illumination. I feel 830 takes this one. look at the clarity of the numbers on the license plate, the luster on the grey nose of the auto, the shine of light on the headlight lenses and the richness of the black in the grill.
Let's Harvest Some Crops:
It is an overcast day, but not too heavy on the cloud cover. A flat, uniform light that makes for pretty easy shots. Everything is well lit without worry about the light source overwhelming the lens. First up is a simple distance shot with a well defined foreground and background. Lumia Camera for the App, hand held with auto-everything except flash forced off. The original size is uploaded with the 5MP oversample for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Easy shots make for hard decisions as to which camera did best... All of these are acceptable and even side by side they are very close. Remember that Lumia 928 has an aperture of f/2.0, L830 is f/2.2 and L1520 is f/2.4. The smaller number is actually a larger hole for light to pass through. It will gather more light, but a smaller hole (higher number) will allow more depth of field (focus). Aperture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This shot helps exemplify the principles of aperture in action and since it is a fixed quantity on the Lumias we need to try and understand what the strengths of the modules are.
By laying the pics out side by side we can see a bit of fuzziness, a softening, on the shot from 928. Alone it looks nice, but scrutinized in the presence of the other examples we also see a weakness in the color capture in the diffuse lighting. The 1520 is the crispest shot and the greens of the grass and the trees pop the most... The middle of the spectrum. The 830 gives up just a touch of sharpness on the image, but gathers more light than 1520 and makes the whole spectrum of color more vivid than either two. Compare the natural greens in the foreground, the orange canopy and the colored signs in the middle ground plaza, or the blue and red of the sign in the background across the main thoroughfare and the green roof on the portico even further back. Then come forward again and look at the junction boxes on the lawn and the browns of the brick and the cedar shake shingles. 830 made the best use of the subject matter in a lot of the finer details and still produced a reasonably crisp image throughout the entire depth.
Let's crop in on the background and look at those cranes... We're using the 8.7MP .jpg from the Lumia 928 and the 10MP .jpg from the L830. With the 1520 I set it for 5MP.jpg + 16MP.jpg and we'll take a crop from each.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520 @ 5MP
Lumia 1520 @ 16MP
Lumia 830
Again, all 3 are acceptable and we have to resort to examining minor differences. 928 is the least sharp with 1520 being the sharpest and 830 not far behind. But here's a surprise. Look at the green of the glass and the blue of the sky (mid-spectrum) of the 1520 compared to the others. On such a tight crop we really need to look at size and the 16MP option of the 1520 wins there as well.
Next we'll take a crop from a little closer in; the front end of the Pontiac in the foreground. This time we only need the 5MP image from Lumia 1520...
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
We have already seen how 928 is at a disadvantage without a specific (manual) focus point being selected. And even though this is almost a greyscale subject with white, grey and black being represented so heavily the 1520 shows a bit of weakness on the user of light and picks up a dullness from the illumination. I feel 830 takes this one. look at the clarity of the numbers on the license plate, the luster on the grey nose of the auto, the shine of light on the headlight lenses and the richness of the black in the grill.
Last edited:
Re: cam shootout cont. 928/1520/830
Continuing on with the "flat light" I have a few more shots taken outdoors as I ran errands and a few inside the local Walmart with the high overhead florescent lighting. Let's take a look...
Easy Shooting:
Here are a few shots I have lined up. The first is very low across an asphalt lot looking at a small piece of lawn and a hedgerow in the background. The overcast was a bit thicker than the above post and the scene is hemmed in by buildings on either side of the perspective just out of the frame, cutting off more light.. Camera360 Sight, hand held shot with flash off and auto everything else. Interestingly, the Lumia 928 (8.7MP) had a larger file size than the 830 (10MP) so I was forced to reduce file size and went with 85% of original for all 3, 1520 using the 5MP oversample.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
It's odd how large the files were on this shot. It may be all that black leading up to a pop of color with the yellow flowers and more light at that far end of the shot. The 830 picture came out very listless and dull for some reason. Note the difference in the rocks embedded in the blacktop as a reference between the three phones. I love the tone of the black SUV in the 928 capture, but that diffused focus works against the lens again. 1520 makes the most balanced use of the subject once more. I think we are shooting into it's strengths here: a long field for the autofocus to interpolate, adequate light and most of the color in the middle of the spectrum.
I will say that creating this thread is teaching me a bit as I go along.
I took some pics outside the local Walmart. By the time I'd gotten there, a small break in the clouds appeared in the west, but not enough to increase the light greatly as it was still about noon with the sun high overhead. I have a pairs on the same shot for each phone. The top one will be Camera360 Sight and the bottom one is Lumia Camera. Hand held on each, flash forced off and auto settings all around. The full sized originals were used with 5MP for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Between each shot of a pair, per phone, there is little difference beside Camera360 Sight being a bit darker... Excepting on 1520 where we also see a larger decrease in cloud detail in Lumia Camera than with Sight when compared to the other two. But look at the way the clouds really pop in detail with the 1520 Sight pic. Magnificent that. And in both the 1520 pics, if you view at 100% and examine the Kohl's signage the 1520 is clearest in both pics and shows the sharpest shadow underneath the letters. I have to give this one to 1520 for overall clarity with the Camera360 Sight winning best picture. 830 for the most consistent pairing in terms of color reproduction and general detail.
(Note: I hope readers do know that they can right click any of these pictures and select open in new tab in order to view them full screen and may then zoom them to 100% for finer comparisons. Perhaps I should have said earlier...)
And here is the same scene done in ProShot HDR mode. +/- 3.0ev. Hand held with auto evertything else. Full size originals uploaded.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
I was actually propped against a pickup bed for this scene with all 3 lenses. I wanted to minimize any wobble, especially on the HDR effort. 928's narrow depth of field really betrays it here. Look at the leaves on the trees and the Kohl's signage. The 830 looks really washed out. The smaller aperture of the 1520 helps keep it from oversaturating on the high exposure part of the bracket. 1520 takes the best shot here, but +/-3ev is intentionally overdone for the lighting. I think If I'd gone +/-2 you would barely notice the HDR effect from 1520 and the 830 would not have washed out the sky so poorly.
Continuing on with the "flat light" I have a few more shots taken outdoors as I ran errands and a few inside the local Walmart with the high overhead florescent lighting. Let's take a look...
Easy Shooting:
Here are a few shots I have lined up. The first is very low across an asphalt lot looking at a small piece of lawn and a hedgerow in the background. The overcast was a bit thicker than the above post and the scene is hemmed in by buildings on either side of the perspective just out of the frame, cutting off more light.. Camera360 Sight, hand held shot with flash off and auto everything else. Interestingly, the Lumia 928 (8.7MP) had a larger file size than the 830 (10MP) so I was forced to reduce file size and went with 85% of original for all 3, 1520 using the 5MP oversample.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
It's odd how large the files were on this shot. It may be all that black leading up to a pop of color with the yellow flowers and more light at that far end of the shot. The 830 picture came out very listless and dull for some reason. Note the difference in the rocks embedded in the blacktop as a reference between the three phones. I love the tone of the black SUV in the 928 capture, but that diffused focus works against the lens again. 1520 makes the most balanced use of the subject once more. I think we are shooting into it's strengths here: a long field for the autofocus to interpolate, adequate light and most of the color in the middle of the spectrum.
I will say that creating this thread is teaching me a bit as I go along.
I took some pics outside the local Walmart. By the time I'd gotten there, a small break in the clouds appeared in the west, but not enough to increase the light greatly as it was still about noon with the sun high overhead. I have a pairs on the same shot for each phone. The top one will be Camera360 Sight and the bottom one is Lumia Camera. Hand held on each, flash forced off and auto settings all around. The full sized originals were used with 5MP for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Between each shot of a pair, per phone, there is little difference beside Camera360 Sight being a bit darker... Excepting on 1520 where we also see a larger decrease in cloud detail in Lumia Camera than with Sight when compared to the other two. But look at the way the clouds really pop in detail with the 1520 Sight pic. Magnificent that. And in both the 1520 pics, if you view at 100% and examine the Kohl's signage the 1520 is clearest in both pics and shows the sharpest shadow underneath the letters. I have to give this one to 1520 for overall clarity with the Camera360 Sight winning best picture. 830 for the most consistent pairing in terms of color reproduction and general detail.
(Note: I hope readers do know that they can right click any of these pictures and select open in new tab in order to view them full screen and may then zoom them to 100% for finer comparisons. Perhaps I should have said earlier...)
And here is the same scene done in ProShot HDR mode. +/- 3.0ev. Hand held with auto evertything else. Full size originals uploaded.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
I was actually propped against a pickup bed for this scene with all 3 lenses. I wanted to minimize any wobble, especially on the HDR effort. 928's narrow depth of field really betrays it here. Look at the leaves on the trees and the Kohl's signage. The 830 looks really washed out. The smaller aperture of the 1520 helps keep it from oversaturating on the high exposure part of the bracket. 1520 takes the best shot here, but +/-3ev is intentionally overdone for the lighting. I think If I'd gone +/-2 you would barely notice the HDR effect from 1520 and the 830 would not have washed out the sky so poorly.
Last edited:
Putu Oka
New member
i dont like to use third party app like camera360sight because they lack in HQ picture. better to use original lumia camera and edit it in photoshop express.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. On 928, 1520 and 830 Camera360 Sight shoots at the same resolution as Lumia Camera does. All my file sizes are comparable. It is the same number of pixels when I check the properties. On1520, Sight can be toggled between 5MP or 16MP or 18MP jpg (High Res depends on aspect ratio). ProShot is the same; native size on 928 and 830. ProShot on 1520 has an amazing range of capture options as you toggle through the settings by aspect Ratio and depending on that aspect you may then select between 0.3, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 16 or 19MP. Camera360 allows me to shoot with some real time filters and has even more filter effects and a powerful editor built in. ProShot allowed me to shoot HDR long before Lumia Camera's Rich Capture and still has a more selectable bracketing value for finer and broader options. ProShot also has real time filters and a very nice editor.
They are tools to have in your toolkit. Each tool has certain tasks they are better at. Some like (Microsoft) Camera for speed. Some like Sketch Camera for fun.
Each user finds the tools they prefer. I'm trying to examine differences between the camera modules and am sticking to three of the most commonly used Apps to do my comparisons with.
If you have a system that works for you (Lumia Camera + Photoshop Express) great!!! I just can't agree that other Apps besides Lumia Camera "lack in HQ picture" and I think the captures I've shown here so far illustrate that your statement is not accurate. Personally, I'm happy to have alternate lenses on my phones and am very engaged with trying to discover their best use scenarios...
Update:
So I feel pretty dumb. I even tried again and the result was the same... Remember this pic?
Turns out I had Lavender Filter turned on and completely forgot. I found it going through settings for the above post. ProShot remembers my setup better than I do. LOL.
So I feel pretty dumb. I even tried again and the result was the same... Remember this pic?
Turns out I had Lavender Filter turned on and completely forgot. I found it going through settings for the above post. ProShot remembers my setup better than I do. LOL.
Re: cam shootout cont. 928/1520/830
How about a few more of those outside shots in the flat light?
Three in a Row:
Here's a little scene shot hand held in Lumia Camera, no flash and auto everywhere else. Original sizes, 5MP for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
And another looking at the cell tower most Walmart stores seem to host. Hand held, Camera360 Sight with no flash and automagical settings. Original sizes.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Finally a quick hand held Lumia Camera sans flash, but auto settings. Original sizes uploaded and the 1520 uses 5MP again. Here the overcast sun is shining almost directly down the wall behind the flowers...
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
I'll cut to the chase here. IMHO, Lumia 830 did the best job on all 3 shots; the most balanced representation of light source, focus, color reproduction, clarity and presentation of subject while preserving extraneous detail.
The problem with these very general shots for 928 and 1520 are related to aperture, or so I imagine. The 928 sacrifices too much depth of focus and 1520 sacrifices light gathering. The 830's aperture is exactly midway between the other two and f/2.2 seems a happy medium.
Of note most particularly for fault on the 928 is the general fuzziness in the background of the shopping cart pic and the lack of blue in the sky. For a 1520 fail just look at the overblown greenery in the flower pic against the washed out wall.
How about a few more of those outside shots in the flat light?
Three in a Row:
Here's a little scene shot hand held in Lumia Camera, no flash and auto everywhere else. Original sizes, 5MP for 1520.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
And another looking at the cell tower most Walmart stores seem to host. Hand held, Camera360 Sight with no flash and automagical settings. Original sizes.
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
Finally a quick hand held Lumia Camera sans flash, but auto settings. Original sizes uploaded and the 1520 uses 5MP again. Here the overcast sun is shining almost directly down the wall behind the flowers...
Lumia 928
Lumia 1520
Lumia 830
I'll cut to the chase here. IMHO, Lumia 830 did the best job on all 3 shots; the most balanced representation of light source, focus, color reproduction, clarity and presentation of subject while preserving extraneous detail.
The problem with these very general shots for 928 and 1520 are related to aperture, or so I imagine. The 928 sacrifices too much depth of focus and 1520 sacrifices light gathering. The 830's aperture is exactly midway between the other two and f/2.2 seems a happy medium.
Of note most particularly for fault on the 928 is the general fuzziness in the background of the shopping cart pic and the lack of blue in the sky. For a 1520 fail just look at the overblown greenery in the flower pic against the washed out wall.
Re: cam shootout cont. 928/1520/830
Same Story:
Moving inside the Walmart I have another series of three shots from each phone. All of them are taken under florescent light...
I'll give my verdict before hand. 830 wins by a slight margin over the other two. 928 lacks depth of field and 1520 concentrates too much on the middle of the spectrum - YGB - and drops out too much RO and IV (ROYGBIV). There are no major miscues from 928 or 1520... 830 just balances all aspects better, IMHO, during these easy indoors shots with more than adequate light and simple subject matter.
What do you think?
Camera360 Sight, hand held, flash off , automatic, original sizes uploaded...
928
1520
830
Sight again, hand held, auto, no flash, original sizes.
928
1520
830
Lastly: Lumia Camera on auto, no flash, hand held. I used the original sizes with 1520 @ 5MP.
928
1520
830
We'll take a longer break here. I've uploaded 120 examples + some extras for various sidebars. Also, I have a 3 day trip starting tomorrow.
There are some short videos in the can and I'd like to get some video comparisons done before coming back to pictures again. Yes we need more pictures especially outdoors night time with and without flash... I'm not sure just how much call there is for me to go on though. I'd like some more feedback other than the couple of regular commenters, mark233 and HaibaneReki, in order to help me decide if I sink any more time into this project. I'll be honest, it is very time consuming and somewhat exhausting...
I'll certainly appreciate any feedback as the thread goes on hiatus for a little while.
Same Story:
Moving inside the Walmart I have another series of three shots from each phone. All of them are taken under florescent light...
I'll give my verdict before hand. 830 wins by a slight margin over the other two. 928 lacks depth of field and 1520 concentrates too much on the middle of the spectrum - YGB - and drops out too much RO and IV (ROYGBIV). There are no major miscues from 928 or 1520... 830 just balances all aspects better, IMHO, during these easy indoors shots with more than adequate light and simple subject matter.
What do you think?
Camera360 Sight, hand held, flash off , automatic, original sizes uploaded...
928
1520
830
Sight again, hand held, auto, no flash, original sizes.
928
1520
830
Lastly: Lumia Camera on auto, no flash, hand held. I used the original sizes with 1520 @ 5MP.
928
1520
830
We'll take a longer break here. I've uploaded 120 examples + some extras for various sidebars. Also, I have a 3 day trip starting tomorrow.
There are some short videos in the can and I'd like to get some video comparisons done before coming back to pictures again. Yes we need more pictures especially outdoors night time with and without flash... I'm not sure just how much call there is for me to go on though. I'd like some more feedback other than the couple of regular commenters, mark233 and HaibaneReki, in order to help me decide if I sink any more time into this project. I'll be honest, it is very time consuming and somewhat exhausting...
I'll certainly appreciate any feedback as the thread goes on hiatus for a little while.
HaibaneReki
New member
Honestly I think You should tip the WP Central team and make the headlines with this seriously in-depth comparison. Or at least to get stickied in the forums. Thanks for the shout out, however I don't think I've contributed much, really.
Anyway, looking forward to the night shots, for me it's the holy grail of mobile photography - shots like these (my deceased hero 920)
really produce the *wowsers!* effect. I think that's where ProShot will shine and I'm curious whether You'll face the same issues I did with Lumia Camera 5.
Kudos to You for Your work.
Anyway, looking forward to the night shots, for me it's the holy grail of mobile photography - shots like these (my deceased hero 920)
really produce the *wowsers!* effect.
I think that's where ProShot will shine and I'm curious whether You'll face the same issues I did with Lumia Camera 5.Kudos to You for Your work.
Ferdie Barba
New member
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