By: Tech News Staff
More and more people are now using their smartphones to take pictures. Since 2011, smartphones are slowly overtaking the use of not only point and shoot cameras but digital cameras in general, just look around and you would see that more people are using smartphones than people using digital cameras to take pictures. Just a few years ago, the quality of output of smartphones could not match that of a dedicated digital camera. Fast forward to 2013, the technology of smartphone cameras has improved by leaps and bounds that consumers could no longer recognize whether the output is from a digital camera or from a smartphone. As of September 2013, below are the three smartphones available in the market with highest megapixel count, excellent lens and new photo enhancement software that could make any amateur look like professionals.
Sony Xperia Z1
A blend of all that is best, that is Sony’s promise for the Xperia Z1 of that iconic OmniBalance design. Z1 stands out because of its advanced camera features — G Lens with 27mm wide angle and bright F2.0 aperture, 1 /2.3-type 20.7 megapixel “Exmor RS for mobile” CMOS image sensor and “BIONZ for mobile” image processing engine. Z1’s camera is built with the very same components as Sony’s compact digital cameras.
The Z1 features camera applications like Social live which allows the users to easily broadcast live from the smartphone to Facebook. Another one is the Info-eye, a search function that provides information on items or landmarks captured by the camera.
Timeshift Burst, with a single shot, Xperia Z1 can take 61 images in 2 seconds. Users can scroll back and forth on those 61 images until a perfect image is found. AR effect, this allows users to overlay fun animations using Sony’s SmartARTM augmented reality technology.
Samsung outdid itself again with the release of the Galaxy S4 Zoom. What sets the S4 Zoom apart from its older siblings is its build and design. It is, at first look, a 4.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen phone in front and a no-nonsense camera device from the other side.
The camera works well both under the sun and low-light conditions and have a number of features and manual shooting modes. Its camera can also record 1080p and 720p videos at 30 and 60 frames per second (fps), respectively. The 10x zoom lens and the video quality give off a satisfying result. Captured images were crisp and clear while the videos are in good fluid motion especially videos shot in 720p at 60 fps. The subject can be zoomed in closer than the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Oh, and by the way, the Samsung Galaxy S4 sports a whopping 16-megapixel camera…phone.
The Lumia 1020 is Nokia’s latest Windows Phone 8 device, sporting a 4.5-inch 1280×720 touchscreen, 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB RAM, 32- and 64GB internal storage, and a massive 41MP rear camera. Those are nifty specs that can give quite the performance. And as a Windows Phone device, access to a full Microsoft Office and a 7GB SkyDrive is a hot deal for a lot of people.
If you’re familiar with last year’s PureView 808, then the 1020’s 41MP is nothing to drool about. The images captured are very impressive: crisp, bright, and highly detailed even when zooming in. It’s not the faster shooter in the house, because of the large files, it takes some time to process and save photos, losing a second or two of critical moments.
The Windows Store isn’t overly saturated with apps yet, but Microsoft has already released a number of photo editing applications to keep some Windows Phone users happy. It has a default Nokia Pro Cam includes exposure adjustments, focus, shutter speed, plus Nokia Lenses for filter effects.