Lumia 950/XL still the best Camera in 2018?

[Windows Central Question]

Just wondering what those of you who have tried some of the newer phones think. Personally, from comparison shots by trying newer phones in stores and reading reviews on newer tech out there that the Lumia 950/XL has the best overall image quality.

It's the main (almost only) reason I haven't upgraded yet. I can't justify spending $300+ for myself and my spouse to upgrade to get matching or potentially worse camera performance.

The App gap doesn't bother me as I don't game and since I use Windows 10 on everything at the house along with my Bands 1/2 when working out it's a great setup.

I don't want to reinvest $1000+ per person to get the latest iPhone/Android + Smart Watches for us to upgrade when our Microsoft tech still works flawlessly.

Sorry for the ramble...

 

[Cornelius Hardy]

A two year phone that still competes with the best of them. That's how I see it. I have the 950xl and I'm a photographer. I recently replaced the battery on it and then reset it just because. My camera still opens quickly with the press of the camera button. The shots are also still amazing. I have a galaxy s7 that it still beats. Not to mention the lag on that phone. I spent a lot of $$$ to use 3 apps. In fact I just stream wifi to it from my xl when i need it.

My wife has a iPhone 7 and my kids have iPhone 8. I have plenty of devices to test against in my house and I have to say, I can still consistently get shots that they can't. I thought maybe since I do photography that was the issue but no. I tested my sons phone for a shot he was trying to get that wasn't coming out right. I got it easily on the xl without tweeking settings. The ip8 refused to comply.

There isn't a phone out I would trade my xl for. I use it just as much as my dslr. I don't go off reviews or how new newer tech is.

 

[ACtrip]

I work for a cellphone company so I get to play with all the phones, especially for their cameras. I did choose a 950 for my work phone when they came out and loved the camera but I can easily say the iPhone X has the best camera out there. The Note 8 is very close since this is my current work phone but the selfie on the X is better than a lot of back cameras for midrange phones.

I have a DSLR and the iPhone X is now easily my favorite phone especially because of its camera, previous to that it was my Nokia 925 which I loved. I still play with it time to time but the iPhone X is easily my favorite now

 

[selemja]

I don't know if the Lumia 950 XL camera is the best there is. But it is still superior to the camera in my new iPhone 8 Plus. There is no way I can take pictures, and especially videos with the same quality. Over all it is a very disappointing journey from my beloved 950 XL to this Windows XL looking toy operating system. Almost nothing is better. I really, miss my 950 XL.

 

[mtl_slyr]

i just wanna say i have lumia 950 for almost a year and i'm really satisfied with camera. Ofc it's 2018., cameras got better, but i've payed lumia 280$. There is no phone today with that price that gives mi what lumia does in hardware... except apps.

 

[EspHack]

kind of, depending who you ask, but just barely, if you are into pixel-peeping that is, the sensor and optics are still best in class, but video and other niceties depend heavily on computing power so that fight was long lost already

besides, this topic is always controversial, which is best is dependent on what you value the most, I would say the most important metric of a camera is "capturing the moment" followed by how good(technically) you got that moment, and then lastly by how much that end result pleases your personal expectations

newer phones have the 950's beaten on point 1 and even 3 for most users, the 950 winning point 2 is like a 160mp prototype camera I saw somewhere winning raw picture quality, yeah its technically cool, if that pleases you enough then so be it

btw my hope is that microsoft reuses the same camera module on the folding thing, and considering their heavy focus on "MR" it should provide some outstanding results akin to what the pixel does but with the huge badass hardware part to maximize the result even further, long live pureview

 

[Isaiah Heart]

No, however, it's better than the S6 and note 5. I believe it can compete with the LG G6 and iPhone 7.

 

[Sin Ogaris]

The 950 XL never had the best smartphone camera, it was great, but by no means the best, its low light performance was terrible.

 

[dhugos]

It looks like you pre-empted everyone and answered your own question in this article! But my thought is that after two years, of course, with MS in so-called maintenance mode in the mobile space, other phones catching up to the Lumia 950XL in terms of capabilities is of little surprise. Despite that, and as a photographer myself, I'd say that after a point that what you do with an image is easily as important as the capabilities of the image-taking device. So, all things otherwise being equal, I still use the 950XL because it gives you so much to play with, and the Camera app is so useful. Your preference is what matters.

 

[dhugos]

Thanks. I agree.

 

[Jelmar Andree]

I still love my lumia 930 photoos, in don't know anything about other mobiles photogrsphs. I don't use them.

 

[Vivio vrvly]

Tell you what: 950XL wipes the floor with every flagship. Right not in every situation, its not without some lag, colors are not so true to reality as in new ones, daylight 4K is worse than Some flagships, it don't capture so much detail and got slow focus. Sound not good? Wait....
For DSLR and camera enthusiast, it heavenly good. If you see camera results in detail, no matter what situation(day, night,photo,video) 950/XL wins in: details without noise, warm colors, 3D audio & up to 145dB. One looking at shot/video won't see how much different it is from true colors or how much detail it capture, he will see if its noisy, if also colors are good to look at.
To be detailed: Stills daylight: less detail but also less visible noise, but not in everything, less resolution means sometimes you get output less real than from higher resolution sensor(ex. stripes and other patterns), also after zooming in you see noise, thank Microsoft for that as processing is so great, that even if there is noise, it seems natural.
Stills low light: Way less detail than in others, but also Less noise. Colors pop so you see nice noiseless colory picture, even if with less details than the others. Forget action shots, but after stabilizing and using manual shutter, 20mp results should be better than any camera(again awesome processing).
Video daylight: Again, less sharp and color accurate, but output is warm and noiseless, just try see detail of one frame.
Video low light: Losing in captured detail big way But, again, details are less noisy and surprise - not like 90' movie but colorful as rainbow. Again thank Microsoft. For me it feels like watching old web movie(other phones) then using vlc' gamma&saturation boost to make it watchable. Seriously even stills feel like went though gamma boost - just compare them to raws captured.
Not sure about high iso And long exposure in other phones, but visible purple glow(also thx to gamma boost) can be erased by capturing another shot with really covered lens, so you can subtract that noise(hot pixels).
Would the Microsoft used stacking of shots like the others, nobody would come close in stills.
Now to another part of video - audio in it, ex. pixels use Mono, some stereo, 2 I think 3D using 4 mics, 2 3D using 3 mics. All about to max 135dB. Meaning: with 950/XL loud concert and whatever else can you enjoy as if there (stereo 3D) And without ugly distortion that you will get even in newest phones. Actually That no distortion you won't find in any other brand is actually reason I got mine 950XL. I'm just laughing at premium brands because they sell phones that record mono or devices that record audio sounding like some insect.
Example on tube here( name: Lumia 950 XL ,by some jose carlos).

 

[Vivio vrvly]

As rivals for 950/XL I see only Pixel 2, U11+, possibly next premium xperia.
Rest is bad, even those 999 priced.

 

[Bruno Coutinho1]

Is it me or the Lumia 950 is much worse than the 950 XL. It's not even the same camera at all, right?

 

[Mike Buckhurst]

I have a S8+ for work and my trusty 950XL, plus calibrated monitors and a Canon EOS 80D to compare against.

The 950XL produces colours far closer to that from the EOS, but the levels of detail between the two are roughly similar. The colours on the S8+ are simply way over the top, which I'm guessing is intentional. Personally I prefer the 950XL photos, but not enough to take it with me except when needed.

The 950XL is a lot slower when taking photos, but it's a lot quicker to get to the camera in the first place.

I loved my 950XL but it I needed the apps on Android for work, so had to let them give me an S8+

mike

 

[Blomsternisse]

The 950XL is a lot slower when taking photos, but it's a lot quicker to get to the camera in the first place.

mike

Just double press the power button to start the camera. It's faster than the dedicated camera button (because the S8+ is faster in CPU and storage).

 

[sardelich]

ok so,after all the brains here...are we talking about the camera? sensor capabilities or jpeg procesing? how pictures look on phone,facebook or 24" lcd? so far only phone that beats 950 is huawei with leica setup.on par with new iphone.galaxies,notes,older iphones are all behind the pure image quality.especially in low light...but its just me...oh and the camera on new nokia 8 is crap...

 

[sardelich]

so 2 press is faster than one....

 

[donaldvc]

I have an iPhone 7, Oneplus 5T and 950XL - the latter is still significantly ahead of the iPhone and 5T in detail, depth, colour balance and low-light performance. As an example, of identically posed portrait photos submitted online to the UK Passport Agency, it was only the 950XL image which was acceptable for passport use; the iPhone and 5T images were ruled unsuitable for digital identification purposes.

I'm not suggesting that the 950XL is better than the current top camera phones and am happy to concede that the Pixel 2 and iPhone X have overtaken it, but my passport test suggests that its underlying optics and the raw images it produces may have an edge for some use cases.

As an aside, I'm really impressed by the 5T as an all-round phone even though its image processing may not match the Pixel, S8 or latest iPhones.

 

[farhanaxiq]

Its not the best cameraphone, but considering its age, it held up pretty well. With resolution to play with. And a good glass (zeiss).

Good
Great zeiss optic
Powerful flash
Cool hdr software, tell me if there is any other android phone where you can dynamically adjust the flash.
Resolution
Great audio recording


Drawback
The white balance is sometime a little off and its quite sluggish after taking a bunch of photo
Glitchy camera
Unreliable ½ the time.

 

[Krystianpants]

It's a great camera. The camera wars are really silly in my opinion. Cameras have gotten so good on smartphones that people literally have to do insane side by side comparisons and crazy tests to prove one is better than another. If you're doing that, it means they are both great. No one will notice a huge difference, especially since they are used for things like instagram/facebook etc.. Professionals who want to have something that will allow them to catch the best version of a picture when they don't have a professional camera may be the only ones who benefit from it. Even then they would likely be using the Raw images and feeding them into their app of choice. I do know some pro photographers and while the camera on the phone is important to them, they typically don't get the phone just because of the best camera. They get the phone that best suits them as a personal computing device. They don't update their phone right away because of a better camera either. They prefer putting money on professional equipment. This of course is only my own anecdotal experiece so it may not reflect real world stats.

950XL is a great camera but I do notice that the finishing touches often ruin images. So if you want the best you should be taking raw photos.

All about windows phone is extremely biased. It's nice to have your phone still seem like it's great so feeding into his biases makes people feel better. However, go to other comparison sites that aren't even comparing 950xl just different phones in general. The phones usually have way better shots on other sites. It's as if he subconciously takes bad shots with those cameras to make the 950 seem better. Remember biases are often in the back of the mind not something you are aware of.

I love my 950xl, it definitely isn't showing its age other than the OS. If MS had been releasing flagships on a regular basis maybe the camera would be top on newer models but that's not in their best interest.