Camera Test: Action shots and low light: , Nokia Lumia 1020 wins against Xperia Z1, Galaxy S4 and HTC One

Phones4U – a retailer in the UK for phones have a series comparing smartphone cameras since camera performance is becoming a bigger and more important part of consumer choice. In their first episode they compare capturing action. Quite funnily enough, I read from a comment at NokConvs that Nokias were notorious for “slow shutter speeds” which is odd since I’ve enjoyed capturing action shots from the likes of my N82 in sport mode, or N8 at night with that Xenon. Most certainly with the 1020 with uber fast shutter speeds (controllable in manual mode). And Phones4U agrees in their test.

I can understand that there are situations where in low light setting, no flash, the shutter is open longer whilst the OIS reduces hand blur. That’s when you can get blur if the subject moves. Usually though, those kind of subjects are far away (night time scenery) that don’t move anyway. If they’re close enough, I use xenon. So complete FAIL by the comment above that ANYTHING that moves you can forget it. You can try it out yourself. Wave your hand so fast that you can’t see it with your own eyes and then snap a pic with the 1020 and xenon flash. I don’t think any of the competing handsets here can capture that.

Now where you might miss the shot is in that start up time from Nokia Camera. It just needs to be faster please.

Oh, here’s episode 2 where Phones4U compares low light.

They note they can see things in the 1020 that they couldn’t with their eyes. In indoor lighting, it creates a really cinematic image. Blacks superb whilst retaining colour highlight accuracy. Even at 10x crop, noise is at a minimum compared to Z1, One, SGSIV with little motion blur.

Via WMPU

Category: Lumia, Nokia