Where do we stand with cameras on phones in 2016?

[d000hg]

I have a Lumia 1020 which was a game-changer in camera phones 2 years back - more like a real camera squeezed (just) into a phone.

But mine is dying now and I'm wondering which way to go....

So where are we at these days? Does every £100 phone pack as good a camera as the 1020 or is it still leading the pack in pure camera capabilities? Do newer Windows phones improve on the optical zoom or have iPhone and top-level Android phones copied everything good?

Any links and/or personal comments welcome. Things move so fast in the world of phones and most people are happy enough with a half-decent phone camera, so this is a bit of a niche... low-light and optical zoom are key features

[SueEllen]

As long as the phone can take a good selfie who cares?

[DimPrawn]

As long as the phone can take a good selfie who cares?

Post your best selfie.

[DimPrawn]

Here you go Dim.

[d000hg]

As long as the phone can take a good selfie who cares?

Me. That's why I asked this question outside of General.

[WTFH]

Speaking as someone who takes photos...
1. I would expect Sony phones to have the best sensors, since they make most of the sensors used by Nikon in their dSLRs.
2. Sensor size, not pixel count, is still king. The bigger the sensor, the better the image.

Now, after stating those two facts, here's my opinion...
If you're not printing off images bigger than A4
Or
If you're only displaying them on social media
Or
If you're only taking photos in reasonable lighting conditions
Then
Most, if not all, cameras built into phones these days do a perfectly adequate job - and that includes the androids/iPhones.

[d000hg]

Absolutely they all take pretty decent photos - we're spoiled by comparison to a few years back. But the addition of optical zoom and oversampling in the 1020 means low-light photos are suddenly a possibility - I took a photo by star-light on mine - and that you can actually take photos of something more than 10 feet away

So I guess it's the whole package - sensor size, optics and software - which needs to be considered. e.g. the 1020 lets you manually set exposure and focal length, no idea if this is common but it makes such a difference when you want to get a nice photo rather than just snap your mate eating their noodles.

[WTFH]

There's nothing like the Lumia 1020 out there and Microsoft aren't going to do it again. Great idea, but it didn't sell well enough.


Interesting when you read review sites. The phone review sites pretty much all say that the Galaxy S7 is the best and rank the Experia Z5 Compact at fifth or lower. The camera review sites rate the Experia as best and the Galaxy at 3rd or lower, apart from one...
DxOMark Mobile - DxOMark
Now, these guys are very good at producing technically correct testing, but tests that can be of little practical use - certainly when it comes to dSLRs and lenses. But it appears that with phones they are being a bit less technical and probably not taking them apart to measure voltage across a sensor.
They give the HTC10 and the Galaxy S7 Edge the same top score of 88. If you scroll down the page you'll see they have the Lumia 1020 on there with a rating of 74. But you should review the comments section (on all the phones) to see how upset people get with tests that aren't done the way they would like.

[dx4100]

My Sony Xperia Z3 is pretty crap for photos

[d000hg]

There's nothing like the Lumia 1020 out there and Microsoft aren't going to do it again. Great idea, but it didn't sell well enough.

I feared that might be the case. Shame, it's really pretty special.

That is a useful site. Does anyone know of any others which might be useful - especially any which might compare newer phones against the 1020 directly?