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May 11, 2021 05:46
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 20:04 |
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Any recommendations for a midrange cellphone with a decent camera? Also do any besides google's phones save as raw for their composite/hdr/night mode?
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Aug 4, 2021 03:17
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I wound up buying a pixel 4a. I wasn't going to wait for the 6, and the higher priced models didn't seem to have improved main cameras, and the ultra wide lens is cool, but the raw samples didn't really make it seem worth the premium. I had trouble finding good information to make my decision, so I thought I'd share my experience after using the camera for a couple of weeks. The google camera app is pretty sparse on manual control and I was a little worried, but there are 3rd party apps that can shoot raw photos as an alternative. Comparing the first party raw files with ones from a third party app it is pretty clear there is a lot of processing being done to the raw file. Noise reduction for sure, but the colors are also much more saturated, although it might just be the way my editor (darktable) doesn't really handle information embedded in the raw files correctly. Overall I found the camera app mode good shutter speed and iso choices, which along with the stabilization got good results and I did not feel that I was missing the extra control. You do get a exposure comp style adjustment, but the automatic exposure is really protective of the highlights (probably because it HDRs the jpgs to hell and back), so I haven't had to make much use of it either. The base iso of 55 (and whatever noise reduction is baked in) seem to give a usable amount dynamic range for single shots too, not large sensor results, but good enough for the web, even after fixing the heavy vignetting and all the other editing I usually do. White balance is always a little blue, but this might my raw editor, I haven't played with it much on others. One reason for the lack of control might be that it isn't just taking an single exposure even for the regular camera mode. There is some distinctive glitchy noise that happens when the multishot mode fails to handle motion correctly, and this sometimes happens in the regular camera mode raw files. It may of course be the noise reduction mucking things up, but it does seem to happen on moving things typically. With the baked in noise reduction/sharpness loss it is hard to compare it to the 3rd party raw files fairly to see if there is a real difference or not. The lens is much better in terms of contrast, flaring control than other cellphones I've used. I'm not sure how much other correction is baked into the raw files though. The night shot/multishot composite mode (that also produces raw files) is really something else though. I'm not sure it takes a multiple frames and combines them, but maybe builds up the exposure until it has a result it find acceptable, because even with the same settings it can take different lengths of time for the same shot. There is also another adjustment slider for shadows (which does affect the jpgs) that causes it to take much longer and produce more detail in the darker parts of the images (if you set it to maximum shadow brightness). There is a sharpness penalty, more if set to maximum shadow brightness. And there are a number of ways the shots can fail (strange artifacting from motion and in the darkest part of the image), but it can produce usable results even when parts of the scene are moving as it recognizes this and uses a single shot for those parts of the image (which are then noisier). Best to take a couple of tries at a shot just in case as it will sometimes just produce noisier shots sometimes and doesn't always nail focus. The autofocus does pretty well (even without selecting a point, and tracks a point reasonably well if selected), and the depth of field is very wide, but many shots are limited by critical focus (and noise for the single shot mode), including the sample below. I'm really happy with the shots it can produce in low lighting. I've got a couple of decent shots lit by nightlight, and the light from a nintendo switch, although neither without taking a number of shots. The night shot mode raw files also have a very nice quality to them, even large sensor cameras can produce dead looking shots in minimal indoor lighting, but I've really enjoyed the results so far. It is probably worthwhile to use even in good lighting, as even the base iso raw files are not nearly as clean. Here is a sample shot using the night mode, edited from raw but only color noise reduction, and not sharpened:  And as a final point I find the jpgs absolutely horrible, from the HDR to the spatial contrasting to the noise reduction, just really terrible.
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Aug 30, 2021 09:29
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Oct 29, 2021 05:55
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Nov 22, 2021 20:09
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