S3 vs iPhone 4S Camera Comparison Shots

xand83 · Sep 21, 2012

Hi all,

I've had my new blue Galaxy S3 for about 3 days now and it is fantastic. Coming from an iPhone 4S, I'm pretty happy with all the doodads that I can fiddle with now to get the phone just right for me. The only thing I was *really* hesitant about was the camera quality. While sitting on the couch last night I took a pic of my dog and the picture came out awful. Just terrible. I almost put the S3 in the box right then to ship it back.

I cooled off today and decided to take some actual comparison shots with both phones. I did a mix of indoor & outdoor. Now, I'm by no means a professional photographer, but I do like my quick shots to look good. The 4S always excelled in that area and, after some side by sides, I'm actually pretty happy with the S3 now. The outdoor colors are punchier on the S3, but the iPhone does a better job of smoothing over indoor images to make them look better. I think the iPhone also does a better job with tap to focus and changing the light exposure depending on where you tap.

I believe I'll be keeping the S3. If you like, I put up the comparison shots on my Flickr page. All the pics were taken with "Auto" everything selected on both cameras (with the exception of 1 macro shot).

Galaxy S III vs. iPhone 4S Camera Comparison - a set on Flickr

jneusch · Sep 21, 2012

Nice comparison. I came from a 4S also and my thoughts have been about the same. IMO all cell phone cameras struggle with indoor shots due to their lens size, but the 4S does do a better job than the GS3.

Tarpit_Carnivore · Sep 21, 2012

jneusch said:
Nice comparison. I came from a 4S also and my thoughts have been about the same. IMO all cell phone cameras struggle with indoor shots due to their lens size, but the 4S does do a better job than the GS3.

This is true. Lowlight, indoor shots will always look bad no matter what.

Also props to the corgi for being such a good model.

Photo_Drew · Sep 21, 2012

Nice comparison. It's hard to do an exact comparison without some kind of tripod and controlled lighting conditions. As a person with some knowledge of digital photography, I can say that the auto modes are hard to do a side by side with. As an example, the brick wall photo, which looks nicer on the IP4. The window is blown out, but you have more interior detail. And with the plant shot, to me the color representation looks better on the IP4 if you look at the mulch. However, because each camera's software has different algorithms to write the JPEG the results we get can be very different. The light also can make a difference on how the camera meters the scene to decide the exposure.

I love the panorama feature on the S3, and it's very snappy. I haven't used it as much as I would prefer, but as far as features go, with all the back and forth between the two companies, the cameras are both excellent compare do all others on the market.

robinthoms2 · Oct 13, 2012

EVERYONE has an opinion...even though I prefer the Android to Apple..(yes I've used both..I find the Android more intuitive..personal choice though).iphone 5 doesnt look much different in design. just looks like a tug of war has been played with a iphone 4s and stretched it out a little and stamped iphone5 on it. I have S3 and happy to have it.One of the most interesting features I found in my new Galaxy S3 was the ability to create your own custom vibration notification.

JWatson4701 · Oct 14, 2012

Did you adjust any settings on either phone? Such as ISO or exposure? Or is this just out of the box settings? Thanks for the comparison.

xand83 · Oct 17, 2012

No changes to ISO or exposure. Both cameras were in their normal automatic mode.

Last week I got a new compact mirrorless camera, the Panasonic GF3, with the standard kit 14-42mm lens. I took it out during my lunch break and snapped a few comparison shots against the Galaxy S3. I'm not going to combine the pics into one image again, but the Galaxy did a really great job. The GF3 has more detail and sometimes the images were a tad brighter, but it's hard to complain about the Galaxy camera. Naturally, the mini-dslr does better with indoor pics, but with bright outdoor shots, it's sometimes hard to see a difference. I'll see if I can insert some pics.