Camera vs S7. S8 and S9

[nick3young]

Hi all.

I've just recently upgraded to the P20 Pro from my Galaxy S7 Edge.

Overall I'm loving the phone. The camera truly is top quality.

However I'm undecided whether I prefer the 'look' of the photos when compared with my S7 photos.

With both phones on standard settings, the photos on the S7 seem warmer, more vibrant and slightly brighter. The P20 Pro photos feel a little... dare I say... dull. Perhaps a bit too accurate?!

My fiancee also says the same. She described the photos as a little 'dark'.

Does anyone feel the same? I can muck with the settings a little (e.g. enable the 'pro' mode and add more warmth) but I'd rather not be having to do this all the time.

There is an option on standard to change the colour to 'smooth' or 'vivid' but I feel this results in quite a weird, dark look.

I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions...

 

[orangecroc]

The photos are accurate to real life, better that so you can edit them to look different than have them wrong and have to edit them to be normal.

 

[nick3young]

Yeah I get that. And it makes sense.

But I'm not a professional. I don't really want to be mucking around in lightroom or tweaking settings after every photo. I just want to whip my phone out and take a snap. And I appreciate it is personal preference.

I was just curious to see if other people who have owned both phones feel the same as me?

I'd also be curious to know of any 'tweaks' which can be made to make the P20 camera permanently take warmer and more vibrant photos...

 

[Aneres11]

If you look at the photos on a PC, then you'll likely find there will be a huge difference.
Samsung screens are often touted as the best on the market, but I find them to be a neon mess most of the time. Your screen is probably making the photos seem much more vibrant than the photos actually are when viewed on another device.

 

[dov1978]

I get what you mean. I'm using the Mate 10 Pro just now, Note 8 before that and the colours look a bit bland in comparison with a lot of scenes. If my photos need a quick boost of colour I just open it in Google Photos hit 'Auto' in the editor. It usually gives really good results. If I'm wanting to really get the best out of a photo I'll use Snapseed as I find HDR setting really pulls out details when needed.

It's not a permanent setting like you're looking for but it's probably as good as you'll get without using a third party camera app

 

[dov1978]

If you look at the photos on a PC, then you'll likely find there will be a huge difference.
Samsung screens are often touted as the best on the market, but I find them to be a neon mess most of the time. Your screen is probably making the photos seem much more vibrant than the photos actually are when viewed on another device.

Spot on. Editing photos on my Galaxy phones was difficult because of the saturated display. You think you've edited a photo to where you want it, post it online then when you see it on another screen it looked way off.

 

[orangecroc]

There's also an icon above the photo window that let's you select more vivid colours.

 

[nick3young]

There's also an icon above the photo window that let's you select more vivid colours.[/url]

Yep. I mentioned in my original post that I think the 'smooth' and 'vivid' settings make the photo just look a little weird. Do you not think the same?

I'll post some photos on here tonight and see what people think.

 

[orangecroc]

Yep. I mentioned in my original post that I think the 'smooth' and 'vivid' settings make the photo just look a little weird. Do you not think the same?

I'll post some photos on here tonight and see what people think.

I'll be honest, I haven't tried them as I prefer natural looking photos.

 

[orangecroc]

Yeah, vivid and smooth seem to crush the blacks and shadow detail.

 

[dov1978]

The Vivid and Smooth filters are there to give you the 'Leica Look'. It's their signature style kinda thing and are supposed to make the photos look more dramatic. I don't use them because of the shadow you mention. There's definitely a Vignette style going on there but I'd prefer it if they just did what they said and give more punchy colours when required.

 

[nick3young]

Ok... I've taken some photos to help try and make my point. All S7 photos are on the left. Both phones kept on standard 'out of the box' settings (so S7 are slightly larger at 12mp compared the P20 Pro's 10mp). Also forgive me for the rather unimaginative photos!!



I 'think' I prefer the bright red on the coke can and the slightly warmer feel about the lamp in the background on the S7 photo.

 

[nick3young]

I reckon that the owl looks sharper on the P20 photo here but again, I prefer the warmth and colour that I am getting from the S7 photo...

 

[nick3young]

World's most boring photo alert! I call it... 'sat on my sofa'! But even with a photo as boring as this, I feel a bit more vibrancy and warmth coming from the S7 photo....

 

[nick3young]

... and I've saved the most interesting one until the end. On this one... the P20's 'green mode' filter kicked in which is clearly apparent. This is the only one where colour and vibrancy wins on the P20. But does the garden look a little odd with this automatic filter kicking in?

 

[Aneres11]

The P20 photos are clearly much sharper and more detailed than the Samsung ones posted. If you zoom in on the living room shot for instance, and look at the gold circular plate on the table, the S7 loses all the punched hole detail of the bowl.
The P20 retains it all.

Same with the fur on the owl. The garden shot is the biggest quality difference. The S7 shot is pretty awful.

 

[orangecroc]

The reason the S7 photos are warmer, is because the P20 has a better auto white balance. The AI over saturation for greenery is abhorrent to me, but I have a feeling if you had turned it off, the P20 shot would still have been better.

 

[Fred98TJ]

The P20 photos are clearly much sharper and more detailed than the Samsung ones posted. If you zoom in on the living room shot for instance, and look at the gold circular plate on the table, the S7 loses all the punched hole detail of the bowl.
The P20 retains it all.

Same with the fur on the owl. The garden shot is the biggest quality difference. The S7 shot is pretty awful.

Actually the P20 shot of the garden is horrid (neither are particularly good). Too cartoon and garish and it’s all blocked up. The S7 shot clearly has better dynamic range. It isn’t particularly blocked up

In the first two photos (with the Coke can), which is the better representation of the color of the table? The P20 has it cyanish or pinkish. Also what kind of bulb (tungsten, CFL, led etc) is in the lamp?

 

[L0n3N1nja]

As an S7 owner I prefer what the P20 is doing, Samsung has always had too warm of a color tone for me, which forces me to shoot in pro mode.

 

[Fred98TJ]

Here’s the S7 garden shot.
The P20 is almost beyond any reasonable repair.