Beginner Camera sensor size on phones the same size as compact cameras? Whats the difference?

topcat07

topcat07

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Hello ,

I am afraid i can not post links yet.

But the Panasonic has a sensor size of

1/2.3" / 6.17 x 4.55 mm

The samsung s6 has a camera sensor size of

1/2.6"

There does not seem much difference here.

So would the quality be 100 times better or about the same on the tz80? I thought the bigger compact camera would have better quality but can not work it out from the sensor size. Is the only gain the optical zoom of the tz80?

Any help appreciated!
 
you are right nowadays super compact cameras make little sense. Unless you shoot a lot and don't want to drain your phone's battery and/or want an optical zoom.

To get a significantly better image quality go for a camera with 1" sensor. They are not cheap though.
 
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Thought i was going mad or their was a gap in my knowledge!

Thank you for confirming, i might sell my old tz60 not sure there is any point in it apart from the zoom
 
The compact camera lens can still be considerably better and offer optical zoom rather than digital zoom.
This will always be the case since a phone needs to be fairly slim and light so can't realistically carry a complex lens.
Also a phone is not something you'd usually want to attach to a tripod or leave set up for timelapse for example.
 
Of course, not all compacts have the same size sensors, decent ones have at least the so called 1" sensor. Sensor size isn't always indicative of image quality though, not with the smaller sensors at least. There's a lot more to it than that.
 
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4wd said:
The compact camera lens can still be considerably better and offer optical zoom rather than digital zoom.
This will always be the case since a phone needs to be fairly slim and light so can't realistically carry a complex lens.
Also a phone is not something you'd usually want to attach to a tripod or leave set up for timelapse for example.
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Will the Leica lens make the picture by x amount then ?
 
You cant quantify image quality by "X amount" anyway...
 
odd jim said:
Of course, not all compacts have the same size sensors, decent ones have at least the so called 1" sensor. Sensor size isn't always indicative of image quality though, not with the smaller sensors at least. There's a lot more to it than that.
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So will the tz80 produce better quality photos by a large margin compared to a phone such as Samasung S6, Iphone S6 etc ? I am interested to know what else there is to take into consideration

thank you
 
AventureRocks said:
So will the tz80 produce better quality photos by a large margin compared to a phone such as Samasung S6, Iphone S6 etc ? I am interested to know what else there is to take into consideration

thank you
Click to expand...
IIRC the lens is made by Panasonic (who also make selected Leica's) and is just badged as a Leica. I've not used one, but generally speaking something like this will produce better image quality than a phone by virtue of sheer physics (lens / sensor etc) if used properly. I don't think the TZ80 is particularly well rated for overall image quality though?
 
AventureRocks said:
So will the tz80 produce better quality photos by a large margin compared to a phone such as Samasung S6, Iphone S6 etc ? I am interested to know what else there is to take into consideration

thank you
Click to expand...
Probably not, in good light. I am a bit fussy about picture quality and I am quite impressed with shots I get from my Samsung S6 in daylight. I wouldn't choose it for shots over my Canon G7X, however.
 
Goody13 said:
Probably not, in good light. I am a bit fussy about picture quality and I am quite impressed with shots I get from my Samsung S6 in daylight. I wouldn't choose it for shots over my Canon G7X, however.
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It depends if you need to zoom? The TZ80 would have the obvious advantage there over a cropped small sensor image, but again, the TZ80 isn't a good example of what modern compact can achive with sensor and lens quality.

If you want a good IQ compact, look at the Sony RX100 mk1 (the 2, 3, 4 might be above budget), Canon G series, Lumix LX100 etc.
 
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AventureRocks said:
So will the tz80 produce better quality photos by a large margin
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I don't think anyone ever bothered to conduct a formal testing between them. But my answer would be - no it won't.

No matter what labels and X-zooms you put on them, tiny sensors have physical limitations that are (at least for now) impossible to overcome and will therefore produce images of similar quality.

Unless, as was pointed out earlier, you need an optical zoom, in which case keep the camera, because digital zoom will never match it.
 
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AventureRocks said:
I am interested to know what else there is to take into consideration
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The skills and capabilities of the user makes more of a difference to the outcome than the actual device.
 
Alastair said:
The skills and capabilities of the user makes more of a difference to the outcome than the actual device.
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This is true.

Also to the OP - whats your goal here, ie, what do you want to shoot with it etc? We might be able to direct you to something more appropriate.
 
odd jim said:
This is true.

Also to the OP - whats your goal here, ie, what do you want to shoot with it etc? We might be able to direct you to something more appropriate.
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I need a general all round camera for portraits, landscapes, pets, music gigs and travelling. So i might not be able to get near some things and need a little zoom.

Was just about the buy the rx100 on ebay to try for a little bit before someone hit buy now before me.

Too slow :sulk:

Appreciate everyone help!
 
Gigs might be difficult, you need a low light performer there.
 
I've not had the opportunity to do a side by side comparison and never will, but I was commissioned to take 4 series of photographs as part of the launch of the Samsung S7 earlier in the year. I was hugely impressed with it especially its low light ability. I don't know how it compares to the S6 as I don't personally use Samsung phones and had to give it a back at the end of the commission. Certainly on screen the photographs look good, they print well at A4 and you can get away with A3 but only just. If you're just going to be viewing pictures on screen at lower resolutions, they look great, but as you zoom in, you realise that there often isn't that much detail.

I also recently bought a Panasonic TZ60 compact as a travel camera, which is a previous iteration of the TX80. I've only used it once in low light but was surprised how well it coped. Don't get me wrong, it's not in the same league as my D810 and 24-70, but it was more than acceptable, and the files have much more detail than the S7, even at higher ISO's.

Given the choice between the Panasonic and the phone, I'd take the Panasonic any day of the week.
 
I don't shoot much with my phone but my GF shoots with an iPhone and another smart phone (sorry but I'm not remotely interested in phones so I don't know exactly what models they are) and looking at the shots on my pc and comparing them to compact camera shots I'd say that the phones do a good job with close subjects (friends across the table etc...) but I've found that for more distant subjects and scenes the shots seem to fall apart when looking closely and the compact camera shots seem to hold up and look better. Maybe this is down to the quality of the lenses and possibly also something in the JPEG/processing pipeline, I don't know.
 
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gunnar said:
I don't think anyone ever bothered to conduct a formal testing between them. But my answer would be - no it won't.

No matter what labels and X-zooms you put on them, tiny sensors have physical limitations that are (at least for now) impossible to overcome and will therefore produce images of similar quality.

Unless, as was pointed out earlier, you need an optical zoom, in which case keep the camera, because digital zoom will never match it.
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You have to speak as you find and although I'm quite happy with phone shots particularly for shots of people across a dinner table for holiday and day out scenic shots of more distant things I'm yet to see a phone shot that stand up to comparison to a decent compact camera shot if you look closely. Dunno what you've compared (if you have) and as I'm not into phones I'm not exactly sure what I've compared either :D but I see better quality in some situations from the camera and assuming that the sensors are similar or may even be the same I'd expect the lens to make a difference and the processing too.
 
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