Can anyone help me with Mobile Phone cameras?

[miffy]

Ok so I have a HTC One, Galaxy S4 and a Nokia 808 and I'm trying to compare low light and I know these pictures I'm going to use are crap, however it was the only dark place in the house.

I know nothing about cameras, I've been reading for about 12 hours straight trying to understand and get behind the marketing to decide what has the best low light camera. From everything I've read, it hasn't helped, I just have a headache lol.

What I think I've learnt at least is the larger the aperture the more light it allows in quicker, which allows for faster shots and less motion blur. However what I don't understand is so why aren't all apertures just large then?

The Focal Length just determines the FoV? So what are the benefits between different FoVs if you have a zoom? Like why would you ever pick anything other that 28mm for example? I can understand on camera phones with fixed FoVs but not proper cameras.

The other thing I don't understand is pixel pitch/size and what are the benefits to having smaller or bigger pixels on a lens that is the same size? I'm just guessing bigger pixels allow more light in but smaller pixels allow more resolution? So why can't you just use smaller pixels and then for low light shots, just combine smaller pixels into one effective big pixel and take the resolution hit?

Anyways....

One: Focal = 28mm aperture = 2.0 and the pixels are like 2.0um
GS4: focal = 31mm aperture = 2.2 and pixels are 1.3
808 Focal = 28/26mm depending on aspect ratio aperture = 2.4 and pixels are 1.4

The One and GS4 have the same sensor size of 1/3, the 808 is 1/1.2


So I'm told by HTC that the One is the new thing in town and how larger pixels beat smaller pixels. What I get in low light all the time though is this...

GS4: http://s9.postimg.org/5w1fk9ixq/20130502_121732.jpg
One: http://s9.postimg.org/9r4tmu23i/IMAG0013.jpg
808: http://s9.postimg.org/rjqdupjby/2013_05_02_0343.jpg

The 808 really struggles to focus on anything without lamp assist, I dunno why. Also all images have been shrunk to the lowest resolution which was offered by the One.


What I find in pictures constantly is the One has this pink hot spot in the middle, the light is really uneven. The Galaxy S4 is nice and even and true to life, it's the most realistic to what I see light wise. The 808 just captures crazy amounts of light and looks a lot brighter than it should. To me though the GS4 looks better than the One, it's much truer to life, has more detail but it also has more noise.

Now I dunno what software each company has running in the background, however I tried to keep the settings as close as possible and all pictures are taken with ISO set to 200.

The One offers 4MP but the GS4 offers 13MP and the 808 here is in 33MP 16:9 mode. So I was wondering is there a point where the resolution is too low like the HTC One, to where the higher resolution of the GS4 can just out do it in quality even if the pixels are 0.7 bigger?


So I was wondering if there were any experts out there that could help me with my questions?

Thanx.


Oh and three more things...

- Can Focal Length impact how much light the sensor gets?
- Does pixel size matter with different Focal Lengths? For example, would it be better to have smaller pixels on the sensor when capturing something at a smaller focal length and vice versa?
- When ISO goes up to 1600 on both the One and the 808 (the GS4 doesn't support the option) I get these massive areas of noise in certain spots. I've searched and searched and the only thing I can find is amp glow, I was wondering why this happens and if it is possible to reduce? It makes low light stuff really bad.

Thanx.




Edit: I'll just add that in daylight I get this and I'll crop them to 100% so you can get the idea of the resolution differences.

808: http://s23.postimg.org/5iowazs3e/image.jpg
GS4: http://s23.postimg.org/gh05t6gor/image.jpg
One: http://s23.postimg.org/65nt0iozf/image.jpg


But the 808 really out classes the GS4 which is much better than the One, these were 100% crops as well...

808: http://s18.postimg.org/x2qkzh98p/Untitled2.jpg
GS4: http://s18.postimg.org/wop8zvp55/Untitled.jpg

Whenever I view an image at the same size of the other two with the One I get this (this is the tree again but trying to view it to the size of the others)...

One: http://s21.postimg.org/kd8wbfc9z/Untitled.jpg

 

[ghoti]

Woah. A lot of stuff in there. I'll have a go at answering the first couple of questions, then I need to go to bed.

Disclaimer: I am an absolute amateur.

What I think I've learnt at least is the larger the aperture the more light it allows in quicker, which allows for faster shots and less motion blur. However what I don't understand is so why aren't all apertures just large then?

Larger apertures are expensive. Also, you sacrifice sharpness and contrast with larger apertures (and smaller apertures, to be fair; middling apertures tend to give the sharpest results). Also, loads of light isn't always a good thing. Think of shooting on a really sunny day. A big aperture might demand impossibly high shutter speed for a reasonable exposure.

The Focal Length just determines the FoV? So what are the benefits between different FoVs if you have a zoom? Like why would you ever pick anything other that 28mm for example?

Firstly, focal length can add a creative aspect to the image. Long focal lengths produce foreshortening, which can be employed creatively. Short focal lengths increase apparent distance between objects, which can also be employed creatively.
Secondly, I think you're getting confused about how zoom works. "Digital" zoom just crops the image, so you sacrifice resolution. Often, a lot of resolution. Real, or "optical" zoom is an effect of having a longer focal length. It actually increases the apparent size of subjects being offered to the sensor and loses minimal contrast or resolution (it loses a bit, depending on the size of your aperture and other things, but you don't need to worry about that hugely unless you're an astronomer).

 

[ernesto]

They all have pretty small sensors so are not going to handle noise well at high ISO which is why they have a largish max aperture to reduce the need for high ISO.
The focal lengths are are 30mm (35 eqv) because that is a good all round field of view.

 

[miffy]

I'm just trying to understand the differences between the phones, it seems like sensor size is the real limiting factor. Larger pixels as they claim and different lenses doesn't seem to make as much of an impact other than the FoV and shutter speed. Like the Ones low light pictures seem less noisy but 4mp just isn't enough, it seems to just cancel out the efforts of larger pixels and the resolution of the GS4 seems to level it out a bit.

Really though the only things I can see on the One giving it the edge is the OIS which is probably why they have a setting of 1600 ISO. The GS4 only goes up to 800 but 1600 on the One is so noisy that it isn't worth using anyways. Night time mode of the GS4 seems to make it brighter, but that could just be some software effect in the background rather than bypassing the 800 ISO cap as the shot takes ages to show after you've taken it. The 808 out classes them both and the only thing I see doing that is the sensor size being much bigger...

I was wondering if you could theoretically lower the resolution of the GS4 so you have the smaller pixels effectively at as bigger ones to improve noise in low light?

In the daylight though the GS4 just outclasses the One by miles. The reviews say the one does a good job, but it doesn't the pictures are so noisy in the day and everything lacks detail other than Macro shots.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

I'm just trying to understand the differences between the phones

I would first and foremost compare sound quality, build quality, durability, software and general usability of the phones. 'camera' is a nice addon when you need to snap some text or something similar. Even a cheap and horrible compact will be better camera due to relatively larger sensor size (i.e. lots more light coming in)

 

[pingu666]

there's a new nokia due very soon to add to your woes :-(
I think the sofftware plays a big part, and how much you enjoy using that system

I like the shutter button on the nokias