Another low light discussion with large images linked for comparision

[colyn1353]

Could you upload that image to Flickr or another site that doesn't reduce quality?

First off: digital cannot compete against film in the low light catagory. Even my D4 with its minute adjustments still fall short when compared to film.

So the question is which is the best camera/phone for lowlight.. Since I have only used the Galaxy S4 and S5 as well as the iPhone 5S I cannot say whether either is better than any other model.. In my tests though the Galaxy comes out the winner.. The iPhone grossly over-exposes the image which in turn introduces a lot more noise (the same as trying to lighten an image in an image editing program) than is in the Galaxy image. The Galaxy image does have noise but is a lot less than my iPhone image. The Galaxy produces the image more like the human eye sees the scene in fact.. Notice the overexposed shadow areas and the blown out highlights in the iPhone image..

Both cameras were stabilized and the shutter tripped with the selftimer so no camera shake. They were both set to full auto without any modification of the settings in the Galaxy. While both images are showing a lot of noise the S5 faired much better. The shots from the iPhone were over-exposed which as stated introduced a lot more noise...

If you look at the camera data in the lower right you will see that exposure etc were nearly identical..

Images were taken with the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5...

What does this all mean?? Simple....neither is best for lowlight.....

You can click the images to enlarge them...
Galaxy S5
Galaxy S5 test image by colynsfotografs on deviantART

iPhone 5S
iPhone 5S test low light by colynsfotografs on deviantART

 

[dancing-bass]

nice to see a side-by-side comparison. Seems the camera in the S5 is leaps and bounds better then the one from the S4, and low light I'd say better then the 5S (judging by these 2 shots). But as we all know - a phone/computer/camera that fits in your pocket will never compete with a specific-use camera. Of course now I'd be curious to see how your DSLR would stack up, on the same tripod, standard lens, full auto (just like the phones were set up). Not a fair comparison, but it would be interesting.

 

[colyn1353]

I agree.
Camera/phones are more for quick imaging whereas a high end DSLR is designed for serious work.. The phone would never take the place of my Nikons.
Comparing my D4 or D700, D800 against the S5 or 5S would really be pointless since we all know it would outperform but I may try it sometime..

 

[dancing-bass]

Outperform, yes, I would hope so! But it would be interesting to see what a real camera does in low light/difficult light (again, stock lens, set to full auto) and then have it as a reference to the current top-shelf smartphone cameras.