Lumia 650 vs Lumia 640 - Main camera shootout

[libra89]

I'm going to start with some general disclaimers before we get into the pictures.
I am a point and shoot kind of gal so that is what I aimed for here. Figured that there's enough of you out here who are curious to know how the two shape up against one another so I tried to match each scene as similarly as I could. With the low light shots, I had inconsistencies with the MS camera so there are only ProShot pictures. Both phones have all the same specs for the main camera. ProShot=ProShot camera app, MS Cam=Microsoft Camera

Let's get into this Lumia 650 vs Lumia 640 shootout! (For reference, Lumia 650 is first/top/left and the Lumia 640 is bottom/last/right. All pictures are labeled as such.)

Scene 1: Outdoors, natural light
Lumia 650 - MS Cam | Lumia 640 - MS Cam


Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Lumia 650 - MS Cam

Scene 2: Indoors, natural light
Lumia 650 - MS Cam | Lumia 640 - MS Cam


Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Lumia 650 - ProShot

Scene 3: Indoors, low light
Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Lumia 650

Scene 4: Indoors, light filtering through the windows, somewhat low light
Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Tie? There's some kind of odd exchange between what has detail here and what doesn't.

Overall winner: Lumia 650, in my opinion.

Share your impressions and thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with the overall winner? I have some additional comments that I will add after someone pops this thread cherry.

Edit: I have attempted to reshoot scene 3 and 4, check out the results here.

 

[RumoredNow]

Scene 1: Outdoors, natural light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650 - MS Cam

I can't disagree with you there. 650 with MS Cam shot a much more balanced picture. Especially the colors and light balance. Check the post in each shot, 640 is doing something weird with the white balance. Except for the "halo" effect around the tree tops where they meet the sky, the 650 MS Cam pic looks very real to life.


Scene 2: Indoors, natural light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650 - ProShot

While the 650 ProShot does have more detail in the wood flooring and sofa, it is at the expense of a much more pronounced graininess overall. The 640 MS Cam looks listless. However, the 640 ProShot wins for me. The picture is not quite as "lively" as both of the 650 shots, but it is also more balanced in depth and detail. In the 640 ProShot sample the graininess is almost entirely absent across the alternate light sources in the background.


Scene 3: Indoors, low light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650

I'm preferring the 640 again. I think we have some wobble in the 650 shot as it is a bit less focused than the 640 pic (see the wall jack). But it is more than the focus. The 650 looks artificially illuminated and the 640 looks more realistic.


Scene 4: Indoors, light filtering through the windows, somewhat low light
libra89 says: Winner: Tie? There's some kind of odd exchange between what has detail here and what doesn't.

The 640 picture shows more "shake" than the 650 effort. But overall the 640 shot is more preferable to me again for the more realistic lighting, less grain and more detail away from the main subject. (Check the floorboards.)


libra89 says: Overall winner: Lumia 650, in my opinion.

I believe 640 wins Indoors (with ProShot, at least) and 650 wins Outdoors.

 

[libra89]

Scene 1: Outdoors, natural light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650 - MS Cam

I can't disagree with you there. 650 with MS Cam shot a much more balanced picture. Especially the colors and light balance. Check the post in each shot, 640 is doing something weird with the white balance. Except for the "halo" effect around the tree tops where they meet the sky, the 650 MS Cam pic looks very real to life.


Scene 2: Indoors, natural light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650 - ProShot

While the 650 ProShot does have more detail in the wood flooring and sofa, it is at the expense of a much more pronounced graininess overall. The 640 MS Cam looks listless. However, the 640 ProShot wins for me. The picture is not quite as "lively" as both of the 650 shots, but it is also more balanced in depth and detail. In the 640 ProShot sample the graininess is almost entirely absent across the alternate light sources in the background.


Scene 3: Indoors, low light
libra89 says: Winner: Lumia 650

I'm preferring the 640 again. I think we have some wobble in the 650 shot as it is a bit less focused than the 640 pic (see the wall jack). But it is more than the focus. The 650 looks artificially illuminated and the 640 looks more realistic.


Scene 4: Indoors, light filtering through the windows, somewhat low light
libra89 says: Winner: Tie? There's some kind of odd exchange between what has detail here and what doesn't.

The 640 picture shows more "shake" than the 650 effort. But overall the 640 shot is more preferable to me again for the more realistic lighting, less grain and more detail away from the main subject. (Check the floorboards.)


libra89 says: Overall winner: Lumia 650, in my opinion.

I believe 640 wins Indoors (with ProShot, at least) and 650 wins Outdoors.

You have fair points on all of your points, I can't disagree with any of them. The slight shake is probably my fault because I didn't review any of the pictures after shooting since I wanted the scenes to be exactly the same. I might see if I can possibly redo those two shots with a bit more patience. Thanks for commenting!

I don't know if this matters but between the two, I noticed that the 650 takes a lot longer to focus over the 640. I was actually kind of annoyed with the time that it took to focus. I don't understand why that is the case. ProShot has interested me here in how it doesn't always "win" in every situation. I was really disappointed with the outdoor ProShot picture of the tree but I'm not sure if my patience was part of the fault for that shot.

I thought that this shootout would help me decide which one to keep but it hasn't.

 

[Abhijeet Tambare]

Lumia 650 has this focusing problem for a long time now. I expected it to be solved after the firmware update that was released few months ago. I use Camscanner app to scan my assignments. But since it takes very long to focus, the app takes a pic before it even focuses resulting in a blurry picture. It is very very annoying.

 

[RumoredNow]

Scene 4 may also be influenced by the tilt of the lens. The 650 is more raised and therefore taking the light from behind the curtains more directly.

I've noticed from my own pics that a bit of tilt away from the light can make a big difference. I see it on screen when composing and in the actual pictures when I take several of the same subject in a row.

 

[libra89]

Lumia 650 has this focusing problem for a long time now. I expected it to be solved after the firmware update that was released few months ago. I use Camscanner app to scan my assignments. But since it takes very long to focus, the app takes a pic before it even focuses resulting in a blurry picture. It is very very annoying.

That sounds very annoying. Wow. I hope that it would be fixed soon too. I can't imagine how it is for this camera to shoot a moving object/human/pet.

Scene 4 may also be influenced by the tilt of the lens. The 650 is more raised and therefore taking the light from behind the curtains more directly.

I've noticed from my own pics that a bit of tilt away from the light can make a big difference. I see it on screen when composing and in the actual pictures when I take several of the same subject in a row.

Interesting observation. I had no idea that can make a difference. It makes me curious to attempt those pictures another time and try to make sure I can make my shots as similar as possible.

 

[worldspy99]

I haven't used the 650 at all. I am happy with the 950 right now but man the 640 took some stellar shots. Pretty much everything on my Instagram feed is from the 640. Thanks for sharing the photos and the excellent write up.

 

[libra89]

I haven't used the 650 at all. I am happy with the 950 right now but man the 640 took some stellar shots. Pretty much everything on my Instagram feed is from the 640. Thanks for sharing the photos and the excellent write up.

Thank you! Very cool that you got some great shots from the 640 and that you're liking the 950.

 

[libra89]

Because I like you all so much, I did a reshoot of the last two low light scenes. It is not the same time of the day as the originals but low light nonetheless. I did my best to make them as similar as one another and I also was more patient as well this time, haha. Thoughts are welcome!

Scene 3 (reshoot): Indoors, low light
Lumia 650 - MS Cam | Lumia 640 - MS Cam


Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Lumia 650 - ProShot

Scene 4 (reshoot): Indoors, low light with direct overhead light
Lumia 650 - MS Cam | Lumia 640 - MS Cam


Lumia 650 - ProShot | Lumia 640 - ProShot


Winner: Lumia 640 - ProShot

 

[Tejas Javery]

I am with you libra, on the results. Although the flowers... Not really sure if they were white or green. 640 shows them whiter while 650 shows them greener. Over all, i prefer 650. Also, no matter what you say, it is newer phone. I would give it first priority. And hell, it has better design than 950. XD

 

[libra89]

I am with you libra, on the results. Although the flowers... Not really sure if they were white or green. 640 shows them whiter while 650 shows them greener. Over all, i prefer 650. Also, no matter what you say, it is newer phone. I would give it first priority. And hell, it has better design than 950. XD

Thank you for your feedback! The flowers are white in real life, or more white anyway.

 

[Mr_Jangles]

I'm not sure about the last shot, when zoomed in the 640 Proshot version seems to be less grainy but the 650 MS Cam version seems to have much better colour. One thing that bothers me about the camera on my 640 is that colours always go faded/washed out in low light and in good light photos seem to have a pinkish cast to them.

 

[libra89]

I'm not sure about the last shot, when zoomed in the 640 Proshot version seems to be less grainy but the 650 MS Cam version seems to have much better colour. One thing that bothers me about the camera on my 640 is that colours always go faded/washed out in low light and in good light photos seem to have a pinkish cast to them.

That's a fair point, I do agree with you on that. It was kind of hard to decide here because of what you said about more colors appearing in the 650. For some reason, the post processing ("finishing touches") ruins the result. I have found that ProShot can save that or not make much of a difference.

 

[darrell reimer]

Lumia 650 has this focusing problem for a long time now. I expected it to be solved after the firmware update that was released few months ago. I use Camscanner app to scan my assignments. But since it takes very long to focus, the app takes a pic before it even focuses resulting in a blurry picture. It is very very annoying.

I'm having the same focus problems with the 650. The phone really struggles to focus before taking a shot; and...while i'm shooting video, the focus often goes in and out; very annoying!

 

[donna88]

I just tossed my old Samsung and got myself a used Lumia 650 Dual Sim. I have been using it a few days now and I'm really happy with it. First of all it looks extremely good and is very light. I love the OLED display and the camera take greats pictures as well. It also operates intuitively.
I had no issues on retrieving the data from my old phone like the address book, pictures and videos. So, I guess, it was definitely the right choice!