Camera comparision between Lumia 920 and iPhone 5

[TK2011]

I think the daytime shots are just about the same. People will have a hard time distingishing between the two in a blind test. So what matters way more in daylight would be shooting and post-processing skills (both technical and artistic). The problem for iphone is that the 920 wipes the floor with it in low light. It seems some people don't have a good grasp of what that means. We are talking a difference between having a picture to show for if you got L920 and nothing (or garbage) to show for if you got iphone. And that's the way camera battles are usually won and lost these days -- low light performance. If you've been around in photography, you would know that just about all DSLR cameras costing anywhere from $400 to $5000 take very good daylight pictures these days. People have a hard time telling any difference in picture quality. It's the low light performance where cheap DSLRs fall short most drastically, just like iphone against the 920. To me, L920 is a no brainer winner here. But if you know you will only shoot in daylight, by all means pick any phone you like and be happy. :grin:

 

[vlad0]

Daytime & bright indoor photos represent 80% of smartphone camera use cases and the iPhone has it covered.

Sure.. and its pretty much useless for those other 20%..

I just want a product that works as it should and unfortunately I'm finding the 920 lacking in many areas. I understand this is a new product and no doubt in a year's time Nokia + WP8 will be in a good place but presently they are not worth the money.

You are right, and I can tell you what happened.. first they should've kept the first pureview phone inside the lab, second.. since that didn't happen, they should have used different marketing for the 920. The "pureview" brand already had set the bar way too high... I don't know who's idea was it to advertise the 920 as a "pureview" phone, but whoever it was.. bad call.

So.. Nokia messed up, which happens quite often acutally..

 

[Fitu Pham]

yeah such awful pictures if compares to DSLR Cam, I love your pics

 

[Fitu Pham]

I don't have an iPhone 5 to compare it with, but here are some of the horrible, terrible, awful, ugly, blurry daytime pics I took with my 920 BEFORE the software update:

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Sorry to subject you guys to these awful daytime pictures from my 920. I know they are so bad I should probably have tagged them as NWS.

Yeah such awful pictures if compares to DSLR Cam, I love your pics

 

[Davidkoh]

There's no "official" data on that it's just how individuals tend to use their cameras mostly. In my case I also use the camera 75% for daytime photos.

The point is, after all the hype of the 920's super duper 5 balls camera, it lacks in one of the most important areas in respect to competition. That's a hard fact despite all the apologists coming up with lines like "you have to use manual settings" or "nokia don't know WP8 as well as they did Symbian". Me as a consumer, I don't care about Nokia's hardships. I just want a product that works as it should and unfortunately I'm finding the 920 lacking in many areas. I understand this is a new product and no doubt in a year's time Nokia + WP8 will be in a good place but presently they are not worth the money.

I can't say that's how I use my camera mostly. I am working during the day, so is most of my friends so when we get together the sun is rarely shining brightly through the window (if we are inside). Are you saying most pictures are taken at work/school?

Judging from everyone I know and what pictures I see them upload to Facebook/Instagram I would say most of their pictures are taken inside with the lights dimmed down (how cozy is it to have a dinner/party with bright lights turned on?).

When I was choosing phone I wanted to choose between Android, iOS and WP8. I'd rather take slightly worse pictures in perfect lighting if that makes my pictures good in low light. Judging from my friends iPhone 4S/5 pictures from dinner parties/restaurants//parties and so on they are useless.

What is wrong with using manual settings to improve the quality further? The auto mode works and is not crap, and as on any decent camera you have the option to improve it with manual settings. What bothers me more is the smartphones that completely lack support for manual settings.

 

[rareohs]

Question for you guys (and gals):

my #1 beef my the camera on my 920 was the soft focusing. that is *definitely* improved with the Portico update. Not to where I'd like it to be, but unquestionably better.

NOW, my #1 beef is how it exposes images. On the iPhone, you press and hold on any part of the image and it not only focuses on that point, it also **adjusts the exposure** for that spot. So if you have an area that's sunny and another that's shady, you get to choose which area is exposed properly.

On the 920, when you press and hold on any part of the image, it adjusts ONLY the focus to that point. To adjust the exposure, you have to do it for the entire scene by adjusting in the settings menu, which is a HUGE pain in the you know what. (if I am a complete idiot and I'm missing something here, by all means fill me in!!!)

I have to say, while I LOVE my 920, I'm disappointed in the camera. I used iPhone > iPhone 3 > iPhone 4; so between 2007 and late 2012 I knew nothing but iPhone cameras, and perhaps I just got used to the way that iOS manages and processes images, and now that's my standard (not to say that one is good and the other bad, it's just what i've been used to for so long.) I just know that when I point my wife's iPhone 4S at something, I'm much more likely to get the image that I'm picturing in my head, as compared to using my 920.

 

[conanheath]

Am I the only person who has "glowing eyes" in almost all indoor and low light photos? Only way I have found to get rid of it is have everybody turn around and get a picture of their backside. Or post edit. I can decrease exposure time and help but then pics are dark. Auto settings are crap. I can get great pics of landscape as well. But I can't get a descent indoor people picture to save my life. Outdoor is ok, but indoor or low light sucks. I get 1 in 10 worth keeping. I had plenty of time over holidays to take pics with family and I spent all my time deleting or editing to get pics worth keeping. This is why the camera is worthless for me. I want point, click and done. If I wanted to spend all my time with settings and post editing I would get a camera. My moms 4s took great pics the whole time and I got a bunch of useless pics.

 

[TK2011]

Check out this previous thread on a real photo comparison between iphone 5 vs Lumia 920. You do NOT want iphone 5 when shooting in low light.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-920/209568-can-you-pick-picture-taken-920-a.html

 

[TK2011]

Question for you guys (and gals):

my #1 beef my the camera on my 920 was the soft focusing. that is *definitely* improved with the Portico update. Not to where I'd like it to be, but unquestionably better.

NOW, my #1 beef is how it exposes images. On the iPhone, you press and hold on any part of the image and it not only focuses on that point, it also **adjusts the exposure** for that spot. So if you have an area that's sunny and another that's shady, you get to choose which area is exposed properly.

On the 920, when you press and hold on any part of the image, it adjusts ONLY the focus to that point. To adjust the exposure, you have to do it for the entire scene by adjusting in the settings menu, which is a HUGE pain in the you know what. (if I am a complete idiot and I'm missing something here, by all means fill me in!!!)

I have to say, while I LOVE my 920, I'm disappointed in the camera. I used iPhone > iPhone 3 > iPhone 4; so between 2007 and late 2012 I knew nothing but iPhone cameras, and perhaps I just got used to the way that iOS manages and processes images, and now that's my standard (not to say that one is good and the other bad, it's just what i've been used to for so long.) I just know that when I point my wife's iPhone 4S at something, I'm much more likely to get the image that I'm picturing in my head, as compared to using my 920.

920 has an excellent AE. In fact, better than my D7000. Just make sure your composition is reasonable and it exposes very accurately. Like all cameras, AE is not a perfect science. Sometimes you need to use EV adjustment a bit. Pros do it all the time on their $3000 cameras.

If you MUST use "spot metering" technique, CameraPro let you do that by allowing exposure lock.

 

[Davidkoh]

Am I the only person who has "glowing eyes" in almost all indoor and low light photos? Only way I have found to get rid of it is have everybody turn around and get a picture of their backside. Or post edit. I can decrease exposure time and help but then pics are dark. Auto settings are crap. I can get great pics of landscape as well. But I can't get a descent indoor people picture to save my life. Outdoor is ok, but indoor or low light sucks. I get 1 in 10 worth keeping. I had plenty of time over holidays to take pics with family and I spent all my time deleting or editing to get pics worth keeping. This is why the camera is worthless for me. I want point, click and done. If I wanted to spend all my time with settings and post editing I would get a camera. My moms 4s took great pics the whole time and I got a bunch of useless pics.

No problem. I usually use Auto, if it has really much trouble I usually do a few manual changes in 2 seconds and get a good picture. Are you using the flash to get the glowing eyes?

 

[rareohs]

If you MUST use "spot metering" technique, CameraPro let you do that by allowing exposure lock.

awesome, appreciate that tip. I often want to expose certain areas rather than just letting the camera decide. I find my 920 almost always chooses the brightest area to exposure properly, leaving the darker ares totally dark... and sometimes i want the same composition but those areas exposed! guess i need to try CameraPro!

 

[TK2011]

awesome, appreciate that tip. I often want to expose certain areas rather than just letting the camera decide. I find my 920 almost always chooses the brightest area to exposure properly, leaving the darker ares totally dark... and sometimes i want the same composition but those areas exposed! guess i need to try CameraPro!

Yeah i know what you mean. Samsung Focus has an option for spot metering. L920 doesn't. With CameraPro you can point your camera at the subject, lock the exposure and recompose. It's a bit different than straight spot metering but it does the same job. I think Fhotoroom has a direct spot metering option where you have indepedent control of AF and AE areas. But I'm not sure it works very well though.

 

[arni99]

Sold my Lumia 920 last week and still have an iPhone 5 and a Nokia Pureview 808 which was used for the late night pic of a glas of beer...not very creative I know but I'm sure many of you can post a pic like that with the Lumia 920 or the iPhone or any other smartphone for comparing detail, sharpness and whatnot.

Nokia Pureview 808 beer-pic
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/48914841/2013-01-07-0068.jpg

 

[vlad0]

Sold my Lumia 920 last week and still have an iPhone 5 and a Nokia Pureview 808 which was used for the late night pic of a glas of beer...not very creative I know but I'm sure many of you can post a pic like that with the Lumia 920 and the iPhone and other smartphones for comparing detail, sharpness and whatnot.

Nokia Pureview 808 beer-pic
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/48914841/2013-01-07-0068.jpg

Same setup here.. the iPhone 5 is mostly used for gaming, the 808 is the main "daily driver" or whatever the modern term for that is. As far as the camera.. the phase 1 phone is in a league of its own. The flash performance is aided by a powerful xenon flash, and pixel oversampling.. so you get a bright, low noise picture.. and you can freeze motion really easy. Here is one from the dance floor.. everyone moving, including myself.. but everything is frozen, detail, color.. it does as well as most p&s.

http://s019.radikal.ru/i603/1301/51/09bca02a3ff7.jpg

The iphone 5 can't even get to .. 20% of this kind of performance.. as soon as the sun goes down, the camera is pretty much useless.

 

[sanders2232]

808 for sure is the best camera phone out there! I would say in my opinion Lumia 920 would be 2nd.

 

[sanders2232]

wow that is with 808?

 

[arni99]

wow that is with 808?

here are more 808 night shots
nokia 808 night - Flickr: Search

 

[conanheath]

No problem. I usually use Auto, if it has really much trouble I usually do a few manual changes in 2 seconds and get a good picture. Are you using the flash to get the glowing eyes?

Yes, its indoor low light situation. I can't tell my nieces to stand perfectly still for half a second to get a good photo without flash and extending exposure time. Never had a problem with any other camera phone in this situation. Am I the only person who actually takes pics of people?

 

[ohgood]

another video recording comparison..


Google Nexus 4, Nokia Lumia 920 und iPhone 5: Videoaufnahmen im Vergleich - YouTube

very good demo. I'm curious as to why the Nokia video is so spherical at slow rotation shots. seems the software is faulting? the image stabilization mostly looks odd, opposed to obvious shocks from walking in the iPhone clip.

I'd rally like to see all three cameras on a steady rig , to really show off the capabilities. it might show more problems in image quality though I'm afraid.

 

[sanders2232]

And this is more proof 808 is #1 camera phone in the world!!! I still love my 920 and I love that Nokia makes both so you know just gonna keep getting better.