How Does Apple Maintain Its Stranglehold On The Best Cellphone Cameras?

[PsychDoc]

Let me be clear, I despise Apple. I wouldn't own an iphoney if you gave me one on a silver platter with Scarlet Johansen thrown in for free (well, maybe, just maybe).

But son of a gun they keep turning out the best cameras in the biz. In good light the Samsungs can give them a run for their money but for straight 'out-of-the-box' consistent quality in good light, low light and flash they have no peer.

The Turbo comes in with 21 MP and.....meh. Mediocre at best. Does Apple have some special alchemy that is simply impossible to copy? Is there some entirely proprietary circuitry that others can't even come close to?

After all this time it's just bizarre to imagine that with their pathetic spec's (8mp IIRC) they are still leading the field by such a ridiculous margin.

 

[dungoyle]

Software and fine tuning? That's the best I can come up with. I'm pretty sure I read recently that their cameras are made by Sony, and yet Sony phones are not better shooters than Apple phones. Kind of a WTF thing, huh?

 

[Eli_C]

Apple is not concerned with the MP race. They have large pixels (1.5um) vs typically much smaller pixels (probably ~1.1um in Turbo) and better optics. Apple puts a focus on developing great cameras, because they realize people want great cameras. Moto doesn't seem to get this. No, it can't be a DSLR, but people's cell phones have replaced point n' shoot camera and are now people primary (often only) camera.

Moto needs better sensors:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/moto-x-2014/376126-dreaming-better-camera-moto-x2.html
and tools for better and faster focusing (laser focus, second camera [ie M8 or Project Tango], phase detection), better optics, and better back end processing.

Maybe with Lenovo's backing Moto will have the money to put together a great camera team...

 

[maverick96]

I agree. Apple still leads the pack in the camera department. I love my Turbo and the camera in certain circumstances is very good but the iPhone 6's camera is overall better. Not to mention the iPhone is WAY FASTER in snapping a pic, and that matters.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[snowpromod]

My needs in a phone are pretty simple: cell reception, battery life, and a camera. . . I was hoping the turbo might cover all of those items, but the poor camera might be the reason to consider returning it.

 

[maverick96]

My needs in a phone are pretty simple: cell reception, battery life, and a camera. . . I was hoping the turbo might cover all of those items, but the poor camera might be the reason to consider returning it.

I've been thinking the same thing. I think the camera is actually decent, is just so damn slow.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jfoofoo]

Software plays a big part, big company like Apple and Samsung can sink in millions to develop.

 

[BlueBlazer60]

After a certain point increasing the MP number does nothing for you unless you are cropping out sections or creating large prints or displays. My guess is the majority of people never see a full size view of a picture taken on their camera. Shutter speed, lens, software, etc are areas that need improving. One reason they go for huge numbers of pixels is when you reduce the picture to show on a smaller screen it hides some of the issues.

 

[PsychDoc]

Software plays a big part, big company like Apple and Samsung can sink in millions to develop.

And yert Samsung's cameras still lag behind Apple's in every area but good light pics. I mean this is not like reinventing the wheel. Can't other manufacturers just buy an iphone tear it down and just copy the internals of the iphone camera?

Sheesh

 

[maverick96]

And yert Samsung's cameras still lag behind Apple's in every area but good light pics. I mean this is not like reinventing the wheel. Can't other manufacturers just buy an iphone tear it down and just copy the internals of the iphone camera?

Sheesh

Haha. Don't see why not. Samsung seems to do a good job copying everything Apple does anyway. Lol.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ryanr509]

Its pretty amazing to me. My gf has the iPhone 6+ and I have the turbo. 6+ has an excellent camera that is extremely fast and takes amazing pictures.

 

[Premium1]

Let me be clear, I despise Apple. I wouldn't own an iphoney if you gave me one on a silver platter with Scarlet Johansen thrown in for free (well, maybe, just maybe).

But son of a gun they keep turning out the best cameras in the biz. In good light the Samsungs can give them a run for their money but for straight 'out-of-the-box' consistent quality in good light, low light and flash they have no peer.

The Turbo comes in with 21 MP and.....meh. Mediocre at best. Does Apple have some special alchemy that is simply impossible to copy? Is there some entirely proprietary circuitry that others can't even come close to?

After all this time it's just bizarre to imagine that with their pathetic spec's (8mp IIRC) they are still leading the field by such a ridiculous margin.

Its not the cameras per say, it is the software, which moto severely lacks on. They all use very similar sensors, and often times the same sensors, it all comes down to the backend. Not sure why moto struggles so much with this.

 

[camachinist]

Probably goes way back, 20+ years, to Apple and Adobe and Macromedia. Apple has focused on imaging and graphics since the first Macintosh in 1984. I've been using Macs for about 23 years now, daily, and for many years they were light years beyond Wintel stuff in the realm of imaging for consumer computing products. I saw a number of internet technology reviewers take the iPhone 6 to task against some of the other flagship cell phones and, while the results were mixed, I was pretty impressed how well it did for the apparent specs. That was pretty familiar, based on long experience with their computing products. Specs and real world performance can be different realms of experience.

Still, I took a hard look at the iPhones and purchased away from Apple for the first time in 23 years and went with the company which has given me superlative phone products for over 15 years, Motorola. For my work in heavy industrial, it's a perfect phone and its camera does just fine taking pictures and videos of machinery. So far, I haven't found the shutter actuation to be an issue but that's use-specific. I'm not taking spontaneous action photographs, in general. A half-second isn't that big of a deal in my use.

 

[Firedogee]

I've been thinking the same thing. I think the camera is actually decent, is just so damn slow.

Posted via the Android Central App

Read yesterday that when HDR is on the camera captures immediately when you press screen... The delay is the HDR processing. So shoot away with confidence.

PS. I really like the camera so far!

Sent Turbo-fast from my bulletproof 64GB Droid Turbo

 

[maverick96]

Read yesterday that when HDR is on the camera captures immediately when you press screen... The delay is the HDR processing. So shoot away with confidence.

PS. I really like the camera so far!

Sent Turbo-fast from my bulletproof 64GB Droid Turbo

Interesting. Thank you! Going to try that now. Hope they fix it for regular camera shots

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[maverick96]

Read yesterday that when HDR is on the camera captures immediately when you press screen... The delay is the HDR processing. So shoot away with confidence.

PS. I really like the camera so far!

Sent Turbo-fast from my bulletproof 64GB Droid Turbo

Unfortunately this isn't true. Just tried it with multiple shots. No such luck.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jfoofoo]

And yert Samsung's cameras still lag behind Apple's in every area but good light pics. I mean this is not like reinventing the wheel. Can't other manufacturers just buy an iphone tear it down and just copy the internals of the iphone camera?

Sheesh

It's the post processing software that apple has that is much better than anyone else's right now. Hardware is not the issue as I understand.

 

[chickweedblur]

I really think alot is the software too. You would think that would be fixable. On my HTC M8, it has a rather low mp count but if you check out a thread on XDA where people post pictures done mostly in fully manual mode, there are amazing results. Even just limiting ISO to no more than 400 and metering light at one of the brighter areas of your scene improves basic pictures 100x. That suggests a better auto mode or multiple semi-auto modes would make a big difference.

 

[Firedogee]

Unfortunately this isn't true. Just tried it with multiple shots. No such luck.

Posted via the Android Central App

This was from a professional reviewer on a popular Web magazine. It's true on my Turbo, but I've got the special Unicorn Tears version.

Sent Turbo-fast from my bulletproof 64GB Droid Turbo

 

[rodofdisaster]

I don't hate Apple but one thing they've done right is photography. It's not the megapixels. That's a common stat that everyone throws around. It has to do with the density of the pixels as well as the size of the pixels. Fewer pixels can also lead to less noise, especially in low light situations. The glass has something to do with it too. The post processing software will give you a few changes as well.