Smartphone Camera Reviews Are Useless
But they can be better.
Lately, my phone has started to get on my nerves a little bit more than usual. The battery is starting to show its age. The ghost touches are getting a little too annoying. Sometimes I even feel like throwing my phone at the wall but luckily I am not actually crazy enough to do so. Perhaps, it is time to get a new phone. So, in order to decide which phone to buy I headed to YouTube to do some research.
One of the criteria's for my phone is that it has to have good cameras. For some context, I am not a photography nerd. It just bugs me if my phone doesn’t have decent levels of camera performance.
The reviews on YouTube do show off camera performance but they are kind of useless. Let me explain.
The problem with these reviews is that they tend to use the camera outdoors where the lighting conditions are perfect. When plenty of light is available, the camera sensor is able to decrease its light sensitivity also known as ISO. When you reduce the ISO you tend to get photos with less grain and noise. The photos look great. I am not disputing that but I don’t see the point. In good lighting conditions, even a potato camera from a couple of years ago will take photos that are just as good as the current flagship.
Instead of maximizing photo quality, I would appreciate it if the YouTubers challenged the camera a little bit more. To push these camera’s to their limits. I think it’s better for viewers to understand the limits of these cameras rather than showing viewers pretty photos with no utility.
I would love it if there are more indoor photo samples. Maybe throw in some artificial lighting for good measure. That would be useful. A lot of people just take casual indoor photos with their phones. I know because I did a survey. With a sample size of one. But I think it’s still sorta credible.
In the real world, the subject doesn’t always stand still. Kids and pets run around in seemingly random fashion all the time. So I think photo samples of moving subjects are also great inclusions as well.
On a side note, smartphone cameras are getting really good now. You don’t need to spend a lot to get a phone with great cameras. We may even be approaching the limits of smartphone cameras. Maybe that is why we are seeing heavy diminished returns in camera performance as we go up in price. But then again I may be wrong. I sure hope I am.
By the way, I am very curious if Google is able to push mobile photography forward with the Pixel 6. Do you guys want my take on the Pixel 6?
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