HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

[Ian]

These are my two daughters and my own sister (she's the one in the middle) taken on Sunday (it was Lara's birthday - she is the one on the left) snapped with my new HTC Desire Android smartphone.

I think the image is too dark, contrasty, and lacking in saturation. The highlights are burned out (as you would expect from a camera phone, especially in bright sunshine like this) and the shadows too dark. On the other hand the image does look crisp.

Here is the same shot adjusted in Lightroom 3 beta 2:



Or is this one better?:



Ian

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

These are my two daughters and my own sister (she's the one in the middle) taken on Sunday (it was Lara's birthday - she is the one on the left) snapped with my new HTC Desire Android smartphone.

I think the image is too dark, contrasty, and lacking in saturation. The highlights are burned out (as you would expect from a camera phone, especially in bright sunshine like this) and the shadows too dark. On the other hand the image does look crisp.

Here is the same shot adjusted in Lightroom 3 beta 2:



Or is this one better?:



Ian

Hi Ian

The camera in the HTC smart phone doesn't give Exhibition standard images or as good as a decent modern digital compact, and certainly not as good as a DSLR.
However compared with past phone cameras I have owed the Legend is brilliant (can't talk about others not seen results) I wouldn't have dreamt of using any of my old phone cameras to photograph anything much. This HTC I would use in the event of not having a proper camera of any sort with me, and feel I could work on the image and make something of it if I wasn't to greedy on how big I printed. I think the results you showed demonstrate this.
I have compared the Legends images to some I made using a Minolta compact camera I had a few years ago I they are better buy some distance.
I know the Minolta was old technology and the Legend new, but it is still comparing a proper camera be it a compact with a phone.

Patrick

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

These are my two daughters and my own sister (she's the one in the middle) taken on Sunday (it was Lara's birthday - she is the one on the left) snapped with my new HTC Desire Android smartphone.

I think the image is too dark, contrasty, and lacking in saturation. The highlights are burned out (as you would expect from a camera phone, especially in bright sunshine like this) and the shadows too dark. On the other hand the image does look crisp.

Here is the same shot adjusted in Lightroom 3 beta 2:



Or is this one better?:



Ian

I have just done a comparison between my HTC Legend and my Canon G10.

I find the results very interesting.

They are all the same scene, and shown in no particular order.

One image is from the legend, the other two from the G10 one a JPG the other from RAW.

For anyone interested I would like opinions as to the best interpretation.

Patrick

[devilgas]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

patrick, 1st i think is the raw, 2nd the phone, 3rd the jpg.

the 2nd image has the highest saturation / contrast and at first glance is the one that immediately grabs the eye.

[Stephen]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

Well I'm guessing the first is the camera jpeg, the second is the phone shot and the third is the camera raw file.

I think the phone picture is fairly obvious, there is much less DOF though it is more saturated etc as devilgas said. The third shot just looks slightly less processed to me which suggests it maybe the raw, may be totally wrong though

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

Well I'm guessing the first is the camera jpeg, the second is the phone shot and the third is the camera raw file.

I think the phone picture is fairly obvious, there is much less DOF though it is more saturated etc as devilgas said. The third shot just looks slightly less processed to me which suggests it maybe the raw, may be totally wrong though

Hi Both saying nothing yet waiting to see if there are any more input.

Patrick

[Ian]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

I'm not sure this little exercise does anything but compare rather small web-resolution shots

But anyway; assuming that no cropping has been done, clearly the middle one is the phone as the other two are the same view, while the middle is a longer focal length view.

I prefer the tone of the third, so I assume that's the RAW version (assuming it has been adjusted and is not just a default RAW view).

So the first must be the G10 JPEG.

Did you make any adjustments to the phone image?

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

I'm not sure this little exercise does anything but compare rather small web-resolution shots

But anyway; assuming that no cropping has been done, clearly the middle one is the phone as the other two are the same view, while the middle is a longer focal length view.

I prefer the tone of the third, so I assume that's the RAW version (assuming it has been adjusted and is not just a default RAW view).

So the first must be the G10 JPEG.

Did you make any adjustments to the phone image?

Ian

True there may be little true merit in the exercise as you say, but the results my end are very interesting.

They have all been manipulated to make the best I could of the image file before me. Some cropping was made in an attempt to hide which was the phone you may notice they are not all three identical. The frame formats were different so I scaled then to be the same.

I will give another hour and reveal all.

Patrick

[devilgas]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

manipulated in what way? if the colour / contrast / saturation has been changed from the 'as-shot' then i see no point in the exercise as quality comparisons between the lo-res images cannot be properly made.

[Ian]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

manipulated in what way? if the colour / contrast / saturation has been changed from the 'as-shot' then i see no point in the exercise as quality comparisons between the lo-res images cannot be properly made.

I don't see a problem with this, Patrick is simply making the most of what the images have to offer and then resizing for Web. That does limite the potential of the better files, but it does demonstrate the usability of the camera phone for the Web at least.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

manipulated in what way? if the colour / contrast / saturation has been changed from the 'as-shot' then i see no point in the exercise as quality comparisons between the lo-res images cannot be properly made.

There I must disagree, the point is to make the best of the image we can just as we would do normally, the end result being the most important. I am not trying to prove anything scientific and certainly not a test bed exorcise, I just want to make the best of what there is, after all thats what we routinely do when we make pictures. There has to be the beginnings of quality in the first place to get a quality image.
I used very similar slight levels changes to both the Legend & Canon JPG images the Legend did require a saturation boost. The RAW obviously received its treatment during processing. All three had the very top darkened also the bottom foreground.

Now the result

The first image is from the RAW file, The second is the Canon JPG, the Third the phone camera.

I do have the advantage of seeing the image before resizing and the camera phone has better colour than the Canon JPG that is too Greeeen, the legend a touch warm but to my eye more pleasant. The RAW image stands out better all round.
Of the two JPG's the Canon has more detail at pixel level than the Phone, but at fit screen size I can't see much difference.
The Legend as Ian said about his HTC Desire is a little washed out and requires extra saturation which the file responds to very well.
There is very little noise in the Legacy image but at pixel level there is evidence of noise suppression resulting in minor detail loss.
With both my Canon 40D and my G10 I always use RAW so generally that will mean I shall always try and use a proper Camera.
But if its the only camera with me then unlike by older phones which I should simply not bother I will use the Legend without hesitation knowing i can make something of reasonable quality from it. Most certainly good enough to project or post to the web.

I will report on print quality when I get a new supply of paper, out at the moment.

Patrick

[Stephen]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

D'oh...............I don't believe it

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

D'oh...............I don't believe it

The big give-away is the file numbers on the image the phone being 0008

Patrick

[Stephen]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

The big give-away is the file numbers on the image the phone being 0008

Patrick

But thats the second image Patrick, which is what I said. You said the third was the phone

[Patrick]

Re: HTC Desire smartphone camera still photo quality?

But thats the second image Patrick, which is what I said. You said the third was the phone

I don't know whats gone wrong then, they were entered in the order below and show on my computer in that same order.

0905 is from Canon RAW No 1
0905-2 is from Canon JPG No 2
0008 is the Legend No 3

DP-Now software strikes again

I have to admit I thought it odd you of all people getting it so wrong, your eye is normally very sharp for such things.

Patrick