Camera (Image) Quality Test : Lumia 920 vs HTC 8X
Two great specked Phones but what about Image / Camera Quality ? How do they compare and Differ in what way ? We are going to find out in this post.
Nokia Made sure that Camera Sensor of 920 to be as rock solid as how they make their phone and in fact they made sure that it can standout in the same line as 808 Pureview and so on. On the other hand, HTC did get a nice Sensor of course but not Homebrewed like Nokia’s but 8X uses QCAM-AA SoC for Camera control.
Artificial Intelligence / Auto Settings
Most of us stay away from the nitty-gritty settings and Stay in the Point and Shoot Auto Modes. So it’s all on the camera to decide what settings its going to apply for the Picture to be well exposed.
HTC 8X has been a very bad let-down in this area. Two things are liable for the same, the Sensor as well as the A.I from HTC 8X. While the A.I tries to Makeup or Push up the settings to get proper photos, the Sensor behaves badly in response.
Loved the way how Lumia 920 is able to handle such situations. Both the Sensor and A.I is far superior to what HTC 8X offers and work in great co-ordination to get the best output. We have some Test Shots here as well as the Description written bellow.
One can easily say that Lumia 920 did a great job capturing the details. Not only was the flash appropriate but also the A.I was perfect (Lumia 920: 1/25 | ISO-800 ) while HTC 8X’s is still underexposed even though the settings were quite high (1/3 | ISO-800 ) .
Low Light Test with Flash Off :
HTC’s 8X Sensor almost gave up in Low Light , not only its hard to see things here but also there are Grains/Noise all over which of course ruins the image. You don’t need me to tell you what Lumia 920 achieved, the Sensor has a Wide range as well as the ability to handle low light environment properly, above shot can be hardly seen even when the HTC 8X Applied (ISO-1126) while ISO-800 did the job for Lumia 920 (Remember Lower ISO number means, lower noise/grains and more clarity).
Outdoor Test:
Here both of them doesn’t disappoint that much , both does a Proper job when left to click in Proper light conditions like outdoors in daylight , while the Image by Lumia 920 may seem more Vibrant than 8X’s Dull Image , it’s the A.I to be blamed, the A.I of Lumia Shoots at such modes to output a Vivid Colored Photo and a bit Warmish Image.
More Wider look into your life:
Kind of self-explanatory stuff the title was, No ? HTC Advertises 8X with a Camera with “Wider Perspective”, and seriously the viewing angle / area of HTC is wider than Lumia.
I wasn’t able to get the actual focal length of the Image (Exif was missing). So It’s hard to prove that technically how wide HTX 8X viewing angle is than Lumia 920, but leave the technical things aside and we can all see just by looking how much area 8X gets when it captures the image , Lumia 920’s Image maybe wider but only in dimension, not in viewing angles .
Aspect Ratio
Weird No ? Ever thought that someone will mention this? Why? Because it matters in this case. Just like the Apple did with their “all new” and “innovative” iPhone 5 and gave you the Extra Space that Extra person in the photo. More area to view your Wide Screen movies, same thing here.
While the HTC Sticks to old Industry Standards of Capturing images at 4:3 Ratio, Nokia wanted to think otherwise, went for much wider Ratio in Lumia 920’s case it was 222:125, you can see the extra wideness in the sample photos given above.
But what good will it do ? Same like I said, more space means, more people in your photo, more hills in your landscape, easy enough to capture your full body photos during vacations on the beach and so on .
Small Stuffs :
HTC’s Metering / Focusing timer is too slow, so you may have to tap a bit more to get just the right point in focus , even with the Quick Flash Focus sometimes it doesn’t still take pictures in proper focus , Lumia does a great job, the A.I is fantastic , did a very good setting to get the dynamic range, it got the proper window light in the above case as well we lit up the internals of the flower to fill light just the thing it needed.
In outdoor test , there was a small Issue with Lumia’s sensor , it had a small issue of Color Aberration or C.A as we call it , but its nothing to be worried about actually, just thought to mention.
In Auto mode, the Lumia again does a fine job of finding out the Right White Balance for the moment you are in, while HTC’s maybe almost correct, but the end image feels dull again.
Verdict :
If you rarely take a photo or click because for the sake of the moment then fine get the HTC , but Lumia is ace of all the aspects considering camera and controls , loved what it presented :)
