Head-to-head-to-head-to-head-to-head
Starting with the oldest smartphone, here's a gourmet selection of images from my lunchtime shoot in the Garden:
The San Francisco Marriott as seen by an iPhone 3G running iPhone Software 2.2.1
Click for a full-resolution image
"Soft" would be a kind way of describing the quality of this image. "Blurry" might be more accurate - especially at the top of the building referred to here in the cool, grey city of love as the "Jukebox Marriott."
The same hotel and the same iPhone 3G, but with updated software 3.0
Click for a full-resolution image
It's the same camera - trust me - but the 3.0 software update has definitely improved the quality of its imaging. Check out the top of the jukebox to see what I mean. Low-light performance has also improved in 3.0, by the way.
This was my most color-accurate Palm Pre shot, and still the sky's a bit purple
Click for a full-resolution image
Images made by the Palm Pre in well-lit situations are quite crisp, but colors are inconsistent. More on this on-again-off-again problem later.
The iPhone 3GS's Marriott is not quite as sharp as the Pre's, but its colors are truer
Click for a full-resolution image
The iPhone 3GS's camera is a great leap over the one in the iPhone 3G - although that's not saying a hell of a lot. I'll have more to say about its exposure and focus controls later on in this article.
A surreal hotel photographed by a real camera: a Nikon D70
Click for a full-resolution image
Five years ago, the Nikon D70 was the new hotness, but now you can find one for around $250 on eBay. Still, this old digifart can produce a far more well-balanced image than can any cameraphone I know of - so much so that any comparison is simply unfair.
Next page: Let's try something tougher
COMMENTS
review failure
8mp camera vs 3mp phone...
I never have my camera when i wanted to take a pic....i always have my phone
Im alway humping around my camera to snap pics that my phone does a perfectly good job at, I have maybe 5 photos that my camera was needed for.
The thing was I only knoticed this when my frien pointed it out the other day.
now I never bother with my camera.
PS why didnt you review the magic...oh you merkins dont get it yet.
oh the speed thing quite pertitant.
Reviewer is an iDiot
Typical Bay Area iTard. Why the hell are you comparing phones that are nowhere near top-of-the-range in terms of camera quality to a DSLR at the opposite end of the scale?
You should be comparing a phone with top-of-the range camera quality to an average point-and-shoot DSC. If, for example, you compared the latest Samsung M8910 Pixon12 or Sony Ericsson Saito, you would see that the quality is near indistinguishable from an average point-and-shoot.
Jimi Hendrix on a 5 stringed wooden spoon > most folk on a £1000 guitar
The person taking the photo is the main variable.
Better cameras don't make it possible for everyone to take better photos.
Better cameras make it easier for some people to take better photos some of the time.
Some of the more stuck up among you probably wake up in a cold sweat after having nightmares about lomography, eh?
Call me daft, but when I'm on my hols, in the pub, or wherever, I want to enjoy the moment, and maybe grab a few quick reminders of it all. That means not having to lug around and nurse a muli-hundred pound piece of kit. Whatever. I use my E71 for all my snaps. Used to have a K770i for all snaps. Sue me. Before that I had a period where I took very few snaps. Because I just couldn't be doing with the hassle of carrying around extra tech.
Notice I used the term snaps? Does that make you feel any better? Knowing that I don't call them photographs?
If you're doing pro or enthusiast photography (where the expectation is completely apart from the accepted capabilities of a cameraphone), then yeah, have a good lurk around at dpreview and enjoy your "proper" camera.
I'll check gsmarena in the meantime, until El Reg can come up with a more meaningful cameraphone comparison than this dead end of an article.
And in other news
Component Hi Fi gives better music reproduction than mobile phone media player. Can this be true? gasps phone owner. Wii and Playstation 3 give better gaming experience than mobile phone. Noooooooo! Screams same phone owner. It couldn't be true.
Radio reception and stereo separation on mobile phone 'poor' compared to 2 grand receiver.
But ....the games you can play on the component hi fi are limited. My phone takes better pictures than my radio does....straw men, man
@Steve Evans
"One day someone will invent a sensor that can handle a range of 12EV or more, until then, we'll have to use a bit of skill to get the shots :-)"
Or to look at it another way: "If you're a really bad photographer, this extended dynamic range is helpful for recovering lost highlights" (Ken Rockwell, reviewing the Fuji S5). :-)
I like film (and vinyl records) but that doesn't stop me from shooting digitally virtually all the time, or listening to MP3's. At least we've got the choice, even if that doesn't include Kodachrome any more.
