Hi all, I have had the HTC One for a week now and thought I would post some pics and my thoughts on the camera. Since I shoot as a profession, my views on this camera might be a little different than other. First off, If I am shooting with a $5,000 Canon or a $500 point and shoot, I am not expecting to capture the final look of the shot right from the camera. I always do a little post processing to bring the finishing touches to a shot. That is what drew me to the HTC ONE, that extra camera that measured distance so I could in post create some neat shots for my personal use. I never found shooting with anything other than a DSLR fun because I would always think man this shot would look great if i was shooting with my DSLR instead of my iphone. Until now that is.
Shooting with the M8 is just fun. Here are a few shots then afterwards I will give my thoughts
Waiting in line at Bevmo. Added the ufocus, sharpness, contrast and saturation
A model at the beach in a wedding dress. This was right before we made her go in the water for the main shoot.
One of the models just hanging. Added some sharpness and contrast
I glanced over and saw her, whipped out the Phone and told her to smile
Saw this and thought it might make a cool background for the One
Wanted to see how the ufocus would look trying to replicate a nice prime lens. Thought is came out nice except for the harsh shadows on the face. However in all fairness, we were using fill flashes with the main cameras for the shoot.
As others have stated, the biggest drawback to this camera is the dynamic range. IE If you have have very bright and very dark areas in the same shot, It is hard to expose for the bright areas and not have the dark area way under exposed. What I do alot is just tap my finger around the screen a few times telling it where to expose until I find something I like. On the other hand for mostly evenly lit shots, this camera does a great job. I have tried the HDR a few times in both dark and bright pics and have never found that it produces a better shot. Hopefully the dynamic range is a software issue and not a hardware one and they can push a update to help this.
As far as the 4 mega pixels, I am not a pixel peeper so as long as I get a good shot for the intended purpose I don't care.Things I have found that can really make this camera shine. In post, increase the sharpness a little and also add a tad of contrast. For me, apply these 2 thing especially after a ufocus shot will really make the photo pop.
All in all I find this camera really fun to use and the software is fun as well to the point I don't feel compelled to bring it light room and do it. Before this I had a iphone 5 and hardly ever did photos. Now I always have this thing out playing and trying to create something with it. The Ufocus is just to cool.
From my point of view there are better cameras out there spec wise but that is the case with everything. Specs always get better. But for me the user experience of the M8 is where this camera shines. It makes taking photos fun. I will take a camera that I get excited about and actually use over a camera with better specs and is not as fun to use or overly complicated any day.
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