Camera quality 830 vs 640 (vs 735)

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Hi! I'm looking for difference in camera features and picture quality between the two (+ the one without Glance) Lumias. I'm assuming that future can be forecasted by looking at current tech preview and Microsoft camera and comparing to WP8.1 and Lumia Camera.

What (I think) I know so far: 830 has better lens, OIS and camera button. 735 has best selfie camera of the lot. All of them have similar horse power. 640 is only one of them widely available, others can be found in some stores. 830 has more internal storage. 550 likely too low-end, 930 and 950 too premium. "750" not in sight and "Surface phone" - no interest. 640XL should be too large. In GSMArena photo comparison tool images look pretty much the same, 640 was not bad in Anandtech.

What I don't know: does OIS on 830 give more camera features or make existing features (living images, rich capture) work better? Were there differences in Lumia Camera on WP8.1? Which one takes best pictures in practice? Is the live part in living images longer in W10?

Price-wise 640 and 735 are about the same. 830 costs over 100? more. Worth it? Have you had both in your hands? What do you think?

BR, Kimmo

 

[rollindice]

830 is definitely worth it, i'm a lumia 1020 user, purchased 830 for my gf and 640 for mom, lumia 830 definitely makes living images, rich capture work better, you can get unlocked black lumia 830 for $236 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3261860

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

The strangest thing popped into my mind while watching a document about Nordic noir - can 820 with tech preview and latest MS Camera it take living images & rich capture?

 

[libra89]

There's a great thread with samples: http://forums.windowscentral.com/de...d-range-lumia-shootout-535-640-735-830-a.html

They used the front camera, and back camera with samples. You can check this thread out, it'll probably help you make a decision.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

I took a look at the photos in that thread mainly comparing 640 to 830 (obvious win for 830).
After getting my hands on 640 at a store, I took another look at the photos comparing 640 to 735. Although 735 photos are more bright, they have more noise and less details than 640 in every situation, very much so in pictures taken in dark (IMO clear win for 640).

One thing I'm still interested in, is length of the living images. 950/XL videos and samples (there should be button or touch/click action to re-run animation instead of having to go to next/prev picture and back) show quite long animation, while 640/WP8.1 at the store took only quite short animation. How is it in W10M? And when you hit the capture button (assume focus already set) does it start recording animation or capture the main picture at that point?

Unless there will be much advance in MS Camera and/or firmware update for L820, no advanced camera magic there.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Black Friday and 89€ 640LTE (SIM-free, including taxes) made it a no-brainer. One for me (to replace 820) and one for my wife (to replace 625)

There was an article somewhere pointing to GSM Arena photo comparison between 950, Apple iPhone and some late Samsung or reference camera. Does Apple capture only 6 bits per channel? The beads in abacus look really bad in pixel level, and the beard & faces in notes... Way to go 950 (and XL)!

Then I switched to old tests and 640 vs Apple vs reference camera... The comparison is in good light, where almost every camera can (but not always will) take good pictures. Still, comparing 640 and iPhone 6S, well, there is a bit more detail in 6S (12MP) but otherwise only color tint makes difference between them. I hope they re-shoot 640 with the new test setup.

 

[Alexander Long]

Lumia 830 should be a better device for photo shoting, besides the lens and OIS , it has a camera button, which L640 lack of.
And in Win10M , you can just use the built in camera with all the function of the Pureview version of Lumia Camera in WP8.1, including living image and rich capture. And one more thing I just found out recently, you can share living image as a short video to social media including vine and Instagram.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Short status update. No image comparison between 820 and 640, sorry
My 640 was on WP8.1 for a few days. Lumia Camera is good, but living images on/off setting is stuffed in settings - stupid place. If I want to take still image, I don't want living part in each and every capture showing my wobbly aiming If living is off, the situation will be well over before the setting is changed to on...

When the 10586.29 came out I jumped "back" to preview (as I was running W10M on my 820). WP8.1 just was not going to rock me anymore... But the Windows Camera is even worse. Living images toggle is still in settings BUT the camera may decide to take just single still image - and I have no way to know what will be taken! Moving kid - 2 out of 6. Waves - no. Family + playing with wide and fish-eye lens - 1 out of 4. Macro from eye (opening) or laptop LCD (no movement) - yes. It's like the camera is out of it's mind. Rich capture - most of the time amount of the flash can be adjusted afterwards, "HDR" very seldom: hitting "Select best lighting" is ignored. What is even worse, camera allows screen to lock when in preview... So far it seems best to keep all fancy featues off unless there is plenty of time to tinker and re-shoot.

I hope they'll get the camera right,
Don't know where, don't know when,
But I know it'll be right, some sunny day.

I've been studying a bit if it would be possible to make living images the right way: hit finger on camera button -> acquire focus and exposure lock + start buffering preview frames (5 frames / s for 3-4 seconds = 15-20 frames); lift finger -> capture and save still image. Then create mp4 video clip from buffered preview frames (e.g. align them, create 200ms clip from each frame and create final clip by combining - using imaging/media SDK) and rename it to mp4.thm. Mission accomplished. I have no idea if I will ever have enough free time and good nerves to try it out, but it doesn't look like rocket science.
Another "fun" project could be "Full-all glance" - show lock screen (using notification or something else to turn display on) when display is off and proximity sensor detects close->far change.
Both ideas are free to implement