HTC says its next phone will have a 'very, very compelling camera experience'

Just a few days ago, Samsung and LG introduced their new Android flagships, and each company placed a big focus on the capabilities of their new phone's camera. Now that that info is out there, though, HTC is feeling pretty confident about the camera on its upcoming flagship.

HTC CFO Chialin Chang said in an interview with CNET that his company's next phone "will have a very, very compelling camera experience." Chang went on to emphasize that that statement is being made after HTC has seen "what's going on in the market." The exec didn't divulge any other features of HTC's next phone, but he did say that it'll be shown off "very soon."

HTC has made news with the cameras on its past three One M flagships. The One M7 introduced an UltraPixel sensor, the One M8 added a second sensor for adjusting a photo's focus after it'd been taken, and the One M9 switched to a more traditional 20-megapixel sensor. Unfortunately for HTC, the One M9's camera was the target of a lot of criticism following the device's launch.

Many folks rely on their smartphone's camera as the only device to capture photos from their lives, so a phone's camera performance is important. HTC seems to recognize this and is touting that its next phone's camera will be solid, so it'll be interesting to put that camera to the test and see how it compares to other flagship phones on the market.

HTC recently teased its One M10 flagship, but it's unknown when the device might be revealed.

Source: HTC says its next phone will have a 'very, very compelling camera experience'

Corephotonics Dual Camera for Smartphones: Hitting One Bird with Two Stones

LG's new premiere smartphone, the G5, has a second rear camera for wide angle shots. But Corephotonics' new smartphone module shoots with its two cameras at once. It then uses the company's proprietary software to merge the two pictures and create a significantly improved single image.

Corephotonics' technology not only leads to sharper images, it also leads to faster autofocus, reduces motion blur and counteracts the Waterloo of smartphone cameras: awful low light images. CNET checked out one of Corephotonics' prototypes at this year's Mobile World Congress:

Corephotonics' method sounds similar to HDR imaging, where a single camera takes multiple low or standard dynamic range photos and merges them to make a photo with, well, a high dynamic range. But as CNET mentions in their video, Corephotonics' setup is more flexible and powerful because it can pair different cameras to adapt to the device's target price or purpose.

The company currently has three modules: one achieves up to 3x optical zoom using a 13MP and an 8MP camera, one gets great low light shots by using a black and white 13MP camera with a colored 13MP camera, and the Hawkeye prototype, the one featured in the video, also uses two 13MP cameras but is capable of up to 5x optical zoom. Corephotonics also said on its website that it can pair a standard camera with a depth sensor, similar to the HTC M8 or motion sensors like the Kinect. Even cameras are going multi-core these days. If only we could do the same with batteries.

[via CNET via PetaPixel]

Source: Corephotonics Dual Camera for Smartphones: Hitting One Bird with Two Stones

Are High-End Smartphones Overtaking Professional DSLRs in Today’s Digital Camera Market?

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Smartphones have slowly been taking over almost every electronic gadget on the market today. At present, a high-end smartphone can replace most of the gadgets we used to rely on such as calculators, MP3 players, recording devices, digital cameras, and even televisions—causing a significant decline in the production and sales of many of these formerly indispensable electronics.

Compact digital cameras and DSLR cameras are still considered essential by professional photographers and hardcore photography enthusiasts. A blog post in Adorama Learning Center notes that DSLRs allow people to experience photography at its best, making them the tool of choice for professional photographers worldwide.

However, these cameras are not as in-demand as they once were. The digital camera market has been hit particularly hard in recent years following the rise of consumer interest in the far more versatile high-end smartphone.

An Overview of Total Camera Production Over the Last Eight Decades

Image Source: Mayflower Concepts

According to a graph created by Mayflower Concepts based on statistical data from Japanese organization CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association), digital camera production experienced an all-time high shortly after a noticeable drop in 2009, which can be attributed to the global recession. This was preceded by a substantial upsurge in the early to mid-2000s, at which overall camera production went up from a little under 40,000 to 100,000 units for compact digital cameras and DSLR cameras. However, production began to decrease in 2011, which incidentally, coincided with the release of the iPhone 4S—the first iPhone model to boast 8 megapixels (significantly higher than its predecessor's 5 megapixels)—and 1080p HD video recording.

If we were to factor in the smartphones, we would probably get a much more accurate picture of what the digital camera market is like now. Taking the same graph by Mayflower Concepts, photographer Sven Skafisk created a new one that included smartphones, using data from Gartner Inc.

Image Source: PetaPixel.com

Interestingly, the average DSLR camera production has not changed much in contrast to compact point-and-shoot cameras. The same can be said for mirrorless cameras, which rose to popularity in 2012.

The data shows that something has indeed affected the digital camera market—and the sudden popularity of high-end smartphones had to do with it. Still, judging by the virtually unchanged DSLR camera production levels in the past few years, it seems there is no danger yet of smartphones overtaking the professional side of the digital camera spectrum.

Why is that so? Smartphones that are currently on the market still lack certain features that make them a comparable replacement to a high-quality DSLR camera. In fact, they have a long way to go before they can compete with any DSLR, and this is because for most professional applications—whether it be a magazine photo shoot or a high-quality YouTube video)—people still prefer the powerful advantages of a DSLR camera.

For instance, here are a few key DSLR features that you definitely won't get from a smartphone:

Superior image quality

Wide variety of zoom lenses that allow for shooting from a great distance

More options for shooting in all kinds of low-light situations

Quick shutter speeds for capturing photos at lightning speed

Higher resolution images to help capture even the smallest details

Better color accuracy

Complete artistic control

Not everyone who needs a camera will require all these features, of course, and that's where the smartphones win.

Smartphones Beat Out DSLR Cameras in Flickr's List of Most Used Camera Brands

Image Source: Flickr

With each passing year, smartphone cameras just get better and better. They still are not quite up to par with the image quality of professional camera models, but to most people, they are clearly good enough. Case in point—in Flickr's latest list of most popular camera brands used by the Flickr community, Apple claims the top spot over DSLR giants Canon and Nikon, with Samsung ranking third. Thanks to the impressive quality of most smartphone cameras these days, more and more photography enthusiasts have been using their mobile devices to fulfill their artistic urges—at less cost. Some smartphones do clock in at around the same price as basic DSLR camera models, but if you take into account the fact that your phone also doubles as a video camera, music player, daily planner, watch, and so much more; it is clearly the more cost-effective, not to mention more versatile, option.

Nonetheless, all members of the digital camera family—not just DSLR cameras—that have interchangeable lenses are still strongly in the running despite the rise of smartphone sales. "Digital cameras with a built-in lens have faced fierce competition with the advent of the smartphone," CIPA states in a recent press release.

"Digital cameras with an interchangeable lens, however, provide picture quality that is completely different from that of smartphones and demonstrate an unrestricted expressiveness when combined with highly individualistic exchangeable lenses, which continue to excite camera fans, and demand for these cameras remains firm."

Overall demand for digital cameras in general is still declining, though. CIPA's press release, which details an outlook on the shipment forecast for 2016, predicts a year-on-year decline of 12.4% in total shipments of digital cameras. This is significantly better than that of 2015, which saw a decline of 18.5% from the year before. Total digital camera shipments for 2016 are projected to be at 31 million units—4.4 million units less than the previous year.

The good news is, DSLR cameras and other types of digital cameras with interchangeable lenses are still performing relatively well and are making up for the slack in overall production and sales from regular compact digital cameras with built-in lenses.

"Digital cameras with an interchangeable lens are rapidly accounting for a steadily increasing share of total shipments—27% in 2013, 32% in 2014, and 37% in 2015—and acted as a break on the decline in total shipments," reports CIPA.

Canon Inc. Spokesman Takafumi Hongo even had this to say to bolster the case for digital cameras. "Taking photos with smartphones and editing them with apps is like cooking with cheap ingredients and a lot of artificial flavoring. Using interchangeable (lens) cameras is like food cooked slowly with natural, genuine ingredients."

Therefore, as far as the digital camera market goes, DSLR cameras still maintain a strong foothold in their particular niche. Maybe someday, technology will produce smartphones that can seriously compete with powerful professional digital cameras but, until then, for consumers who have very distinct needs when it comes to their camera equipment, there is nothing on the market that can come close to a professional DSLR camera.

Source: Are High-End Smartphones Overtaking Professional DSLRs in Today's Digital Camera Market?

Why the LG G5 Should be Your Next Phone

Immediately after both Samsung and LG unveiled their next flagship phones this past weekend, the discussion began – which of the three (if any) are you going to buy? We tossed out polls asking not only that question, but why you might be passing on all three as well. You've given your reasons why or why not, so now it's our turn. Tim and I decided to tackle each side of the Korean match-up. As you can tell by the title of this post, I've got LG and he has Samsung.

In the post below, you'll find a handful of reasons why the LG G5 just might be the phone for you, even after Samsung took time out this week to unveil two amazing phones. You see, the G5, at least in my opinion, matches up quite nicely to the new Galaxy S7, maybe even besting it in a few areas.

This is why the LG G5 should be your next phone. 

It'll probably get faster updates

For many of you, this is reason enough to skip on Samsung's new phones. The LG G5, assuming LG keeps up with what they have done with the G4, will more than likely get the next version of Android (Android N) weeks if not months before the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. Samsung just barely started pushing Android 6.0 Marshmallow to some of its global devices from 2015 and hasn't even sniffed a US carrier-attached phone. LG's G4 saw Marshmallow internationally in Poland back in October and then through Sprint in December before hitting every major US carrier, including Verizon, by early February. Even the 2-year old G3 has received Marshmallow on a handful of carriers. Again, Samsung has failed to push Marshmallow to any of its US devices at this time, including the S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note 5, S5, and Note 4.

Samsung could change how they push updates, but they've never been good at it. LG, which was once terrible at updating phones, has gotten much better in recent years. So if you want Android N within a couple of months of release, the G5 should get you there faster than Samsung will.

Removable battery

While Samsung may have included bigger batteries in the Galaxy S7 (3000mAh) and S7 Edge (3600mAh), LG stuck to what it has done for years and that's going the removable route. The battery capacity weighs in at 2800mAh, so it's not that far off from the regular Galaxy S7, yet should you drop to day-ending levels of juice, you can always swap in a full battery and be on about your day. That means less time on a charger and more time for balling out on the town with your bad-ass metal self.

Oh, and if swappable batteries isn't your thing, the LG G5 also supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0, which means you could grab up to 80% charge in just 35 minutes with a capable charger. The bottom line is that the LG G5 has a big enough battery for most, but it offers the flexibility heavy hitters require.

It's modular, man!

With the G5, LG tried to make a phone that can get even better over time. They built a modular phone that sees expansion and new features via removable battery slot. For now, LG is pushing out a camera grip and a Hi-Fi audio DAC, but should hardware partners see the potential, that list could grow and we could see some really cool innovations around the G5.

Today, the options to expand the functionality of the G5 are geared towards camera enthusiasts and audiophiles. The camera grip turns the G5 into a point-and-shoot style camera, with zoom controls, shutter, and video record button, all while making it much more easy to handle. It also adds an additional 1200mAh of battery. As for the DAC, we're talking about giving G5 users the ultimate audio experience by upscaling audio played to 32-bit. What other phone can do that?

Dual cameras

Because two is always better than one, right? OK, not always, but with the G5, LG tossed in two cameras to give you the opportunity to never miss a shot, or at the very least, know that you can adjust more than anyone else to get the right shot. The G5 has a 16MP standard camera that will take incredible shots on its own, but LG also tossed in an 8MP wide-angle (135-degree) shooter for those tight shots or those that include an area most cameras will struggle to capture. The cameras are aided by laser autofocus and enough manual controls to get even the most advanced photog feeling steamy.

It's not a fingerprint magnet

I spent a solid hour with the Galaxy S7 this week and needed to wipe off the fingerprints more times than I care to remember. While fingerprint issues don't seem like reason enough to skip a phone, some of us would rather own a phone with equally as impressive specs that doesn't require a t-shirt wiping every couple of minutes. The LG G5 sports a full metal body that feels great, looks great, and isn't a smudgefest. It's also likely to be more durable than the S7, which features glass on both the front and back. Sure, it has an arguably ugly dual-camera hump on its backside, but it won't gross out your friends when you hand it to them to take a quick pic of you posing in your latest sneaker pick-up.

Source: Why the LG G5 Should be Your Next Phone

Galaxy S7 Camera: Sony Xperia No Longer The Best Camera Phone?

When the rumors about Galaxy S7 started, there were stories that Samsung is working to bring the best camera to its upcoming flagship. Some believed that Samsung may adopt Sony Xperia's image sensor to deliver high-quality pictures. Then the news came that the company, though working on improving the camera, had actually downgrade the megapixels. Let's us see what has happened with the Galaxy S7 camera:

Sony Xperia is known for its excellent quality camera. Whenever you are looking to buy a smartphone for photography, yo can blindly choose any of the Xperia phones. With so much buzz built around Galaxy S7 camera, I wonder if it has lived up to the expectations. Starting with the megapixels, yes, they have been downgraded to 12 MP. But Samsung has adopted dual-pixel technology for the phone. What is that? Every pixel has two photodiodes on the image sensor, instead of only one. How does that make things better? Your Galaxy S7 camera will focus as accurately and as fast as human eyes.

Galaxy S7 camera has not just focused on still photography, but also on motion pictures. To add action to your shots, Galaxy S7 camera has introduced motion panorama and motion photo on both the latest phones, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. This is how you can capture movements with motion panorama, motion photo lets you "capture the three beautiful seconds that happen before you press the shutter," says Samsung. Then there comes a Spotlight feature that allows you to "highlight certain parts of your face and make your features stand out," writes Samsung on its website. You can find the Spotlight feature in Beauty Mode.

The Galaxy S7 camera will also give you excellent results in low-light. Insufficient light is the main reason why we miss out on some of the best shots. Samsung seems to have fixed it too. To allow you to click even when there is not enough light indoors, or the sun has set on an outdoor shoot, Galaxy S7 has adopted a "brighter F1.7 lens and larger 1.4µm pixels on the image sensor" so that the phone captures much more light and deliver sharp pictures with excellent details.

When put on paper, this Galaxy S7 camera looks to be the best choice for photo freaks. It not just delivers quality pictures under any circumstance, but will also let you let you do something more than other smartphone photos do. Has it really been able to beat Sony Xperia? You will know once you start using the camera.

Tags:Galaxy S7 cameraGalaxy S7 camera featuresgalaxy S7 edgegalaxy S7 edge cameraSamsungSamsung Galaxy

Source: Galaxy S7 Camera: Sony Xperia No Longer The Best Camera Phone?

5 Great Camera Apps for Android Smartphones

Smartphones play a huge role in helping us keep clean copies of some of the best moments we've had in life. These devices are equipped with top-notch cameras that capture some of the most appealing photos as well as videos.

These devices are equipped with top-notch cameras that capture some of the most appealing photos as well as videos.

While Android smartphones come with a pre-installed camera app, you don't always get the best results from this application. To get the best, here is a list of the 5 best camera apps to download and install on your Android device.

Google Camera

Google has its own camera app and with it, you will get quite a number of manual settings. However, basic things such as ISO, white balance and filters are not present. Nonetheless, the app still comes with other quality features such as Lens Blur, Photo Sphere and Panorama modes. This app has at times been reported to have some issues on some devices, but the cases are very few to be noticed.

Open Camera

Open Camera offers great speed and is lightweight – something most Android users would prefer. The app is free in the Play Store and you will have access to everything you need, be it ISO, manual focus, exposure time for Android Lollipop users and so on.

To make the speed aspect even sweeter, you can have the app's widget added on the home screen such that taking a picture only takes a single press.

A Better Camera

With the A Batter Camera app, you will be having a superior photo app as compared to the many offerings available on the Play Store. The camera app comes with features such as Bestshot for taking a number of photos in succession, then the least blurred and most impressive one is presented to you. Amazing huh!

You will also enjoy post-processing and recording videos with real time HDR when using A Better Camera. Even though this app has some great features on the offer, lots of the best ones must be purchased via in-app purchases.

Manual Camera

Manual Camera app provides Android users with a wide range of settings options you won't find on other photo apps. Things like focus, shutter speed, exposure compensation, white balance and others are available, meaning that controlling every detail of your photo is not a problem when using this app.

Another great feature of Manual Camera is that you will be able to save photos in RAW format. With this format, your photos will be open to further processing whenever new possibilities arise. While this app is one of the best so far, you will have to be using Android 5.0 Lollipop and above in order to enjoy it.

Camera360 Ultimate

One of the Play Store's most popular camera apps, Camera360 Ultimate offers quite a number of pretty features. The app makes use of a lens-filter system which can be employed before taking a picture. In this way, you will save more time as you won't need to take a picture first before checking whether it's fixable via addition of a funny filter. This photo app has many features to play around with, just find out how they can be useful to you.

The Camera360 Ultimate app comes with a clean interface that is easy to use, something that is quite hard to come by as far as other camera apps are concerned.

Source: 5 Great Camera Apps for Android Smartphones

Samsung Galaxy S7 camera superior to iPhone 6s in low-light MWC test

Samsung's latest flagship has debuted, and the camera is a point of interest. The rear-facing camera is a mere 12-megapixel sensor, but it features a big aperture, large pixels, and optical image stabilization. This should make for great low-light photos, and Samsung's own test at Mobile World Conference confirms this.

The above photos were taken together at one time in a very dim room, and the shot from the Galaxy S7 is far brighter than either the iPhone 6s or the Galaxy S6. It's really impressive! However, there are a few variables that might be influencing this test.

First of all, the phone was mounted to a table, so this doesn't show how good the optical image stabilization is, nor does it show how well the phone accounts for blur. The exposure might have also been set higher, but we don't know that. Either way, the camera shows some real potential, but we'll have to test it for ourselves to see how well it really performs.

What do you guys think? Is this amazing camera going to be the defining factor of the Galaxy S7? Would this aspect influence your smartphone buying decision? As a happy owner of a Moto X, I can honestly say I'm being swayed.

Source: Samsung Galaxy S7 camera superior to iPhone 6s in low-light MWC test