Quick Camera Comparison 950XL vs S6 Edge

[Axeelant]

No need to thank me:

Ps: If this is what L930 did to s6, imagine the 950 camera pff

 

[taymur]

1/40 sounds far too long for such a bright store which is why it washed out.

They are both f1.9. Would have been interesting to see an Edge shot for 1/120 to compare the sensor directly with the same exposure and aperture.

Usually shutter speed is used to show movement/ freeze action primarily, bump the exposure secondarily.

ISO what is used to increase exposure in dark situations.

the scene was fairly still, no high speed movement happening, so 1/40 is good, decreasing the shutter speed will allow lower ISO, and better picture overall.



I would say, its better to set the 950 on 1/40, and lower the ISO, than increasing the EDGE to 1/120 and bump up the ISO.
at least thats what i would do. not a professional photographer after all, and not really that good gear to work with either.

 

[worldspy99]

I looked at both the images on two side by side HP Compaq LA2405wg monitors side by side at work. My personal preference is the Lumia 950XL picture. The S6 is a bit too bright IMO. Also the detail is a bit more tangible with the 950XL picture. I think a quick edit of the 950XL picture should actually adjust the lighting correctly.

 

[realwarder]

Usually shutter speed is used to show movement/ freeze action primarily, bump the exposure secondarily.

ISO what is used to increase exposure in dark situations.

the scene was fairly still, no high speed movement happening, so 1/40 is good, decreasing the shutter speed will allow lower ISO, and better picture overall.



I would say, its better to set the 950 on 1/40, and lower the ISO, than increasing the EDGE to 1/120 and bump up the ISO.
at least thats what i would do. not a professional photographer after all, and not really that good gear to work with either.

On a cell phone, where blur due to movement is king, reducing the likelihood for blur by choosing a faster shutter speed is generally a good thing. When using my DSLR I find under 60 runs a risk while under 30 is a high risk for blur.

ISO was 100 on the 950 and 50 on the Edge. The 950 images are a little noisier when zoomed in, so that makes sense.

I'd guess at them being pretty similar really other than the shot settings.

 

[Jakoh]

Both of those pictures look darn good and detailed. I ll be happy with either.
Seems to be a littel more noise in the 950Xl photo.
Colors are definitely saturated in 950xl.
In order to make a good comparison,
S6 Edge: 1/40 f/1.9 4.3mm
950xl: 1/120 f/1.9
I wonder what ISO values.
AHH:

ISO was 100 on the 950 and 50 on the Edge.

 

[Jakoh]

I looked at both the images on two side by side HP Compaq LA2405wg monitors side by side at work. My personal preference is the Lumia 950XL picture. The S6 is a bit too bright IMO. Also the detail is a bit more tangible with the 950XL picture. I think a quick edit of the 950XL picture should actually adjust the lighting correctly.

Hence the new feature, adjustable exposure.

 

[Visa Declined]

Exposure and white balance seems more accurate on the Lumia.

The photo looks yellow, if you think that looks accurate then I don't know what to say.

 

[Krystianpants]

The XL does look more clear to me. The Edge seems to do better with colour accuracy.
If you look at the table to the right of the girl it looks a lot more grainy/sandy on the edge while on the XL it looks a bit better. But yah there was an article that they are still working on camera algorithms and all that jazz. So we can't truly compare till the final product is ready. Hope it's ready for the reviews people will be doing on tech sites.

 

[jdballard]

The first one seems to have more accurate color. My guess is that's the edge.

Looking at the metadata, the first is the S6 Edge.

 

[anthonyng]

but i also noticed this:
Shutter speed used on s6 = 1/40, which is good amount of light.
Shutter speed used on 950xl = 1/120.

if this is all auto, i would say the s6 took the better decision, as this situation is better shot at 1/40, maybe a bit less too, 1/120 is fast, thus would require higher ISO (sense this is a fixed aperture), which then affects the overall quality of color and sharpness..etc., but maybe iso was roughly the same, as it is obvious first picture is brighter, which kinda indicates that the xl did not bump the iso that much.

This one is important, should be shooting at exact same conditions.

The 1.9 lens will always make things a bit soft I believe? I unless software processing can fix it really well.

Thanks to @HiroEX for doing the test!

 

[anon(5841099)]

The photo looks yellow, if you think that looks accurate then I don't know what to say.

Warmer white balance does not equal a wrong white balance. The warmer tone seems to fit the lighting situation that I have seen in stores like these, but once again... You can say very little from these two quick snapshots and a lot will depend on personal taste as well. Either way, if you don't like the warm tone, take the RAW file and set the white balance a bit cooler, problem solved.

I will wait for the proper reviews, especially the one from GSM Arena, they always seem to do a good job. DPReview Connect will also be interesting.

 

[Kissanviikset]

I believe Lumia has more accurate white balance but is slightly under exposed. S6 is quite bit overexposed and looks bleached and bland but have way better details. Lumia shot have same watercolourish processing which 920 suffered at initial launch, where edges bleed on high contras areas, like white text on that blue background. Samsung have much better processing.

Hopefully that isn't final software or i'm hugely disappointed. There's nothing on that photo that no other highend smartphone can achieve.

 

[Jazmac]

The first one seems to have more accurate color. My guess is that's the edge. His shirt looks more green in the second pic.. Well teal.

I think the Lumia's pics look warmer and more finished. The S6 ain't bad either but my preference is a more warm tone.

 

[7a2eer]

You couldn't hold the S6 edge steady?
The exposure time looks to be longer on the S6.

Overall their stills look good. RIP Nokia 808

 

[falconrap]

The thing with detail, is the 950XL looked to be focused on the middle of the photo area. Look at the store across the mall and its sign marquee is very sharp and detailed. You really need both cameras to be set to the same settings and manually focused on specific areas to see how they do. But it does look like the 950XL's auto produces a more pleasing photo; i.e. no harsh blow-out of the lighting like the Edge had.

When it comes down to it, the 950XL has the better sensor, optics, and OIS. The rest is software and the 950XL's isn't final yet, so we have to wait and see the end results in a real comparison.

 

[Shobin Drogan]

Both look pretty similar, 950 has a deeper contrast, but really I wouldn't go out of my way just to get either one based on camera quality alone. Pretty disappointing, but not surprising, a small part of me did wanted the 950 to blow everything away on image quality but the image here clearly says that's definitely not the case.

 

[Jazmac]

Both look pretty similar, 950 has a deeper contrast, but really I wouldn't go out of my way just to get either one based on camera quality alone. Pretty disappointing, but not surprising, a small part of me did wanted the 950 to blow everything away on image quality but the image here clearly says that's definitely not the case.

You mean, "to you". And that's OK.
I don't know of a camera phone today that's a bad picture anymore. Some are noticeably better but none I've seen in the last couple years at least, are not what I would describe as a bad shot. There are good shots, really good shots and great ones and IMHO, the 950XL in this case and in the hands of this amateur photog, took a really great shot. I don't know what you call blown out of the water type shots but I still think that honor belongs to an SLR camera in the hands of a professional photog.

 

[HiroEX]

Hey I just added some raws, and a couple more pics to the original post.
One thing I thought I'd throw out there. I'm positive you could get amazing shots with either of these phones. The 950xl seems like a very solid device, and if I wasn't so early in my contract with my s6, and it was available on verizon, I would probably get the 950 or 950xl. They seem to have done a great job improving their shot to shot performance, and WP is just a really nice OS. These camera's across the board seem to be hitting a plateau, and I think until some device manufacturer decides to think a bit more outside the box, we are all stuck with surprisingly good cameras in our phones no matter which device you get.

 

[Iain_S]

both take good pictures, but my icon takes better pictures than my s6 edge. I would imagine when all the software and algorithms are done the 950's will be much better than most.

 

[TK2011]

They are very close. While I personally like the exposure level and color saturation of the 950XL here, auto exposure and white balance variations are normal and we can't say one is better than the other just looking at this set. Also, Lumia here has less ISO noise while its noise reduction seems to mess up some details here and there. Or it could be due to the Rich Capture like someone said earlier? Hard to tell. Anyway, I would say it's too close to call and both seem to be very good. Note that the Edge camera is rated among the very best (better than iPhone 6S), so it's a pretty good start for a beta software.