Hi all.
I have had both the new Lumia 550 and a Lumia 640 in my possession for a couple of days, so I decided to do a quick comparison of the cameras.
The comparison compares two shots in daylight, and one shot at dusk. All shots were taken on Automatic with Rich Capture and Flash turned off. The Lumia 640 is running WP8.1 Update 2 with Lumia Camera 5. The Lumia 550 is using W10M 10586.63 with the latest version (as of 13/01/16) of Windows Camera.
First Shot - Garden plant pots - full daylight:
The Lumia 640 has slightly more detail thanks to it's higher resolution 8MP sensor, but not enough to make a difference. The Lumia 640 image is slightly softer than the Lumia 550, probably due to less sharpening.
The colours on the Lumia 640 are incorrect. There is a pink cast to the image which makes the brickwork and pots look a shade of pink. This is a characteristic of the Lumia 640 camera which I have had issues with in the past in daylight (tested across multiple hardware samples).
The Lumia 550 captures the colours with more accuracy, the terracotta pots are the correct shade of orange, and the brickwork has lost the pink cast. The 550 had also judged the exposure more accurately. The Lumia 640 is (very) slightly more over-exposed in the bright areas.
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
Second Shot - Garden path - full daylight - bright winter sun in front of lens (to the right):
It's a similar story for the second shot. Both cameras cope well with the bright winter sun shining in the top right of the frame. Again, the Lumia 640 is softer than the Lumia 550 which features more sharpening. It's difficult to say whether the Lumia 640 actually contains more detail compared to the Lumia 550 - both are evenly matched IMO when it comes to detail captured, despite the difference in resolution. The Lumia 640 captures a slightly wider frame than the Lumia 550, which seems slightly zoomed-in by comparison.
The colours on the Lumia 640 suffer from the pink cast again, which makes the scene look far too warm, and to be honest, slightly alien in appearance (the image just looks odd to me, as I am familiar with how the scene looks in real life). The Lumia 550 once again judges the colours more accurately, and again the Lumia 640 is slightly more over-exposed in the brighter areas compared to the Lumia 550 (there is more detail, and more tree branches visible in the same areas on the Lumia 550 shot).
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
Third Shot - Garden at dusk - 10-15 minutes prior to sunset. Low light:
This is where the Lumia 640 really pulls ahead. In low light situations it's a far better camera than the Lumia 550.
There is more detail in the 640 shot, whereas the Lumia 550 is very soft and lacking detail, especially in the darker areas. Noise reduction has been taken to the extreme, which has ruined the shot. Arguably this is a situation where the older Nokia low-light algorithms would have worked well in comparison to the dodgy Windows 10 algorithms.
The pink cast problem on the 640 is not present in low light shots. Colours are accurately judged and are similar on both handsets.
The Lumia 550 fails to create a usable image at this light level.
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
It might only be a quick comparison, but I think it shows that the 550 is very capable in daylight situations. I would actually choose both of the 550 daylight shots over the 640 shots, just because the 640 makes a mess of the colours far too often. This is something I have come across multiple times - see my comparison of the Lumia 640 (not the same hardware as in this thread) against other Lumia's here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/de...d-range-lumia-shootout-535-640-735-830-a.html
It's a very different situation in low light images though. The Lumia 550 is not a great low-light performer.
Obviously there are other things to consider as well. The software experience on the Lumia 640 is currently (with 8.1) vastly better than the mess that is the Windows 10 Camera app. Also video recording is better on the 640 as a full 1080p can be captured vs. 720p on the 550.
I have had both the new Lumia 550 and a Lumia 640 in my possession for a couple of days, so I decided to do a quick comparison of the cameras.
The comparison compares two shots in daylight, and one shot at dusk. All shots were taken on Automatic with Rich Capture and Flash turned off. The Lumia 640 is running WP8.1 Update 2 with Lumia Camera 5. The Lumia 550 is using W10M 10586.63 with the latest version (as of 13/01/16) of Windows Camera.
First Shot - Garden plant pots - full daylight:
The Lumia 640 has slightly more detail thanks to it's higher resolution 8MP sensor, but not enough to make a difference. The Lumia 640 image is slightly softer than the Lumia 550, probably due to less sharpening.
The colours on the Lumia 640 are incorrect. There is a pink cast to the image which makes the brickwork and pots look a shade of pink. This is a characteristic of the Lumia 640 camera which I have had issues with in the past in daylight (tested across multiple hardware samples).
The Lumia 550 captures the colours with more accuracy, the terracotta pots are the correct shade of orange, and the brickwork has lost the pink cast. The 550 had also judged the exposure more accurately. The Lumia 640 is (very) slightly more over-exposed in the bright areas.
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
Second Shot - Garden path - full daylight - bright winter sun in front of lens (to the right):
It's a similar story for the second shot. Both cameras cope well with the bright winter sun shining in the top right of the frame. Again, the Lumia 640 is softer than the Lumia 550 which features more sharpening. It's difficult to say whether the Lumia 640 actually contains more detail compared to the Lumia 550 - both are evenly matched IMO when it comes to detail captured, despite the difference in resolution. The Lumia 640 captures a slightly wider frame than the Lumia 550, which seems slightly zoomed-in by comparison.
The colours on the Lumia 640 suffer from the pink cast again, which makes the scene look far too warm, and to be honest, slightly alien in appearance (the image just looks odd to me, as I am familiar with how the scene looks in real life). The Lumia 550 once again judges the colours more accurately, and again the Lumia 640 is slightly more over-exposed in the brighter areas compared to the Lumia 550 (there is more detail, and more tree branches visible in the same areas on the Lumia 550 shot).
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
Third Shot - Garden at dusk - 10-15 minutes prior to sunset. Low light:
This is where the Lumia 640 really pulls ahead. In low light situations it's a far better camera than the Lumia 550.
There is more detail in the 640 shot, whereas the Lumia 550 is very soft and lacking detail, especially in the darker areas. Noise reduction has been taken to the extreme, which has ruined the shot. Arguably this is a situation where the older Nokia low-light algorithms would have worked well in comparison to the dodgy Windows 10 algorithms.
The pink cast problem on the 640 is not present in low light shots. Colours are accurately judged and are similar on both handsets.
The Lumia 550 fails to create a usable image at this light level.
Lumia 550:
Lumia 640:
It might only be a quick comparison, but I think it shows that the 550 is very capable in daylight situations. I would actually choose both of the 550 daylight shots over the 640 shots, just because the 640 makes a mess of the colours far too often. This is something I have come across multiple times - see my comparison of the Lumia 640 (not the same hardware as in this thread) against other Lumia's here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/de...d-range-lumia-shootout-535-640-735-830-a.html
It's a very different situation in low light images though. The Lumia 550 is not a great low-light performer.
Obviously there are other things to consider as well. The software experience on the Lumia 640 is currently (with 8.1) vastly better than the mess that is the Windows 10 Camera app. Also video recording is better on the 640 as a full 1080p can be captured vs. 720p on the 550.
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