So lets talk about that camera....

Br1t

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So I was inspired to make this thread after reading the all the complaints from people who don't own an M8 as to why the M8 is such a bad device.

So as an M8 user what's your thoughts?

For me the obvious minus is the 4mp, doing any kinda zooming is a no no. But I don't think it's that simple using the HTC camera app zoomed out with no flash. There is something quite unique going on with the overlay of the two camera images giving some quality to the final image and the ability to adjust focus and perspective.

I appreciate having no hump in my phone and smaller files. The ffc is good, but just because it has more megapixels I don't find it taking better shots than the duo.

I have a real camera for when needed, as I did with my Lumia 920. That for me only took better shots in extremely low light conditions. All in all I would appreciate more pixels for the rare pic I feel the urge to blow up or heavily crop, but I find the tradeoffs more than acceptable.
 

mark233

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Here's a pic using the M8
HTC.jpg

Same subject with Lumia 830
830.jpg
In my opinion the 830 wins by far. However, the HTC camera isn't a potato at all. The overall smoothness and speed of Windows on the M8 is why I like it. The camera on the M8 is more than adequate for general purpose picture taking on a smartphone (in my opinion).
 

waazzupppp

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It looks like the HTC didn't expose as bright as the 830 and the 830 has a bit more sharpening in the image. What I found with my M8 vs. the 925 was to bump the sharpening up one notch and then check where the image is exposing to by tapping the screen to see which area has the best exposure level.

Overall, great comparison though... The M8 really does have a good camera for sharing images, it just doesn't crop well.
 

jojoe42

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My friend has the One M8 (for Android) and her primary complaint is that sometimes photos come washed out like in the leaf photo above. That said, those ultrapixels pull in way more light than my 1020 (at the expense of megapixels obviously) with a much cleaner shot overall in terms of low-light noise. That 5MP 'selfie' camera on the front ain't bad though
 

mark233

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It looks like the HTC didn't expose as bright as the 830 and the 830 has a bit more sharpening in the image. What I found with my M8 vs. the 925 was to bump the sharpening up one notch and then check where the image is exposing to by tapping the screen to see which area has the best exposure level.
This is what I'm seeing also. I focused on the same leaf in both pics. The pic taken with the HTC also looks a bit too bluish.
 

anon(8648115)

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I personally find the camera spectacular for my needs. My 925 took wonderful, better pictures outside and in direct light but I was afflicted with the horrible yellow tint, so any unnatural light or low-light shots were absolutely unusable. The M8 performs adequately in low-light with less exposure but no tint int he slightest, so I call it a draw. Technically the second duo-camera adds 1 mp so the main 'collective camera' is 5 mp. To remedy cropping issues, I just use a regular crop, as I rarely need to change the point of focus or do anything special with the resulting picture (HTC photo edit only allows you to perform this if the pictures is wide-crop for some reason). The FFC is quite nice, better than my Lumia's in my opinion.

Honestly, camera performance would be on par if OIS was included, as pictures are much more susceptible to motion blur on the M8, where anti-shake mode creates a horrendous picture in an attempt to remedy. HDR tends to generate beautiful pictures of everything except bright colors and humans. Not sure why that is. Overall though, I like the camera. I'm no camerawhore posting thirty pics on facebook and instagram a day but I do like taking social pictures and honestly, it works out perfectly. Selfies came out better around 6 out of 10 times than my friends' iPhone 6.
 

originalstarlite

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That camera shake you note is about poor shutter speed choices being made by the software. Using a "fine camera" it would seldom choose a speed that was guaranteed to create camera shake.

Then of course we have the shutter release being a "tap here" and shake the camera!
 

Kevin Hill2

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Unless you are a camera picture taking junky you will not even notice a difference, How many of you take a picture and compare it to another? My wife has a 1520 and I have a M8 Neither one of us has noticed any difference in picture quality between the two, but then we do not sit around and compare pictures. Most of use just glance at a photo anyway we do not sit there and study it. Now most Tablet photo's you can tell it is bad camera. So I think the deal with the M8's camera is way blown up.
 

waazzupppp

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Unless you are a camera picture taking junky you will not even notice a difference, How many of you take a picture and compare it to another? My wife has a 1520 and I have a M8 Neither one of us has noticed any difference in picture quality between the two, but then we do not sit around and compare pictures. Most of use just glance at a photo anyway we do not sit there and study it. Now most Tablet photo's you can tell it is bad camera. So I think the deal with the M8's camera is way blown up.

When you sit at your kid's ballet class with your wife and you both take a photo and post them on Facebook or Instagram, the differences start to pop up pretty quickly. :)
 

Jas00555

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When you sit at your kid's ballet class with your wife and you both take a photo and post them on Facebook or Instagram, the differences start to pop up pretty quickly. :)


Edit: I don't know why that didn't send, but its too long to type out again.

TL;DR aside from low light situations, you're correct. Blah blah. Refocus is cool though.
 
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mark233

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Another comparison. One taken with HTC Camera version 2.0 ... Lumia 830 taken with Lumia Camera Classic. No filters or anything. Just a straight shot.

HTC M8 camera ver. 2.0
htc.jpg

Lumia 830 Lumia Camera Classic
830.jpg
The M8 shot has more contrast to it. Detail looks great. In this particular shot I prefer the results of the M8 over the Lumia. Both photos show nice detail. I'd give a slight edge to the 830 over detail recorded. Differences in color gamut really show.
 
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pcleland79

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I have the M8. I upgraded from the Lumia 810. My wife has the 925. As far as cropability, the 810 and 925 win out. Now the 925 is supposed to be one of the best low light phones, however I find that the M8, even with its limited 4mp camera, has better color reproduction, and just as sharp pictures all around, and when my wife is trying to take low light pictures, she often asks me to take one with my phone and it usually comes out better. Maybe I'm more familiar with using the various lighting and shutter options, from my experience so far I like the M8 over both nokias all around, being performance, pictures etc. Its missing the hardware camera button which I truly do miss, and I int know about its durability yet, my 810 and the 925 we have both ad new, used without cases since they cane out, and have and continue to take a beating on a daily basis without flinching. I have the Dot View on the M8 and love it, and it does protect it surprisingly well for a case that barely adds anything to tue phone. Overall, if debating on tue M8 and something else, I'd go with the M8. I was very iffy about it in the beginning, but I'm very pleased with it.
 

Edward_g

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What camera app are you using? HTC or Microsoft.
I really like the camera. It's so much faster. Its great not to have that annoying lag when taking a picture. The picture quality looks great to me.
 

anon(8648115)

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Adding to my comment above, I've noticed something a bit peculiar. This only seems to happen taking photos outside with plentiful light, but a sizable portion of the lower left-hand corner of the photo is much lower quality than the rest of the photo. Samples attached for evidence, observed how the quality degraded. Maybe I'm just seeing things? Thoughts? IMAG00017.jpgIMAG00016.jpg
 

thecaringkind

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I must say that the camera is ok. Not great. Just ok. I have a blackberry passport and the 13 mp shooter on that takes much more crisp and naturally saturated color photos. You'd think HTC would have revamped the processing algorithms or something to achieve better results but then again, what do I know😋
 

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