You see, every review that says the iPhone camera is superior is flooded with comments of people that remark it's lack of HDR+ and that they actually prefer the Nexus 5 photos or the Lumia(!) cause they look prettier, or simply that can't be bothered with "too clean" iPhone photos and the "need" for post-processing.
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| (shot from a moving car) |
Well, if you are from Mars and are homesick, or for some other reason were looking for a redish looking photo instead of a truthful photographic depiction of a place and a moment, then by all means take the Nexus 5 or the HTC One (lovely machine, "ultra" crap camera). But the iPhone has always had and still has the best camera. As a camera. You know, something used to capture a moment as truthfully as possible. With things like shadows for instance.
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| (this would make a great HDR, but was shot from a moving car) |
But besides the moronic fanboy blind preferences, there have been some pretty good points made.
People nowadays prefer to shoot auto-enhanced photos and share them immediately (or as soon as they have WiFi). They do not want a truthful photographic instrument, they want Instagram material, and they want it instantly. They do not want to go around fiddling with filters and/or post-processing apps.
Other like to do so (post-process) and don't care about truthful or not, and may actually prefer an already "prettier" photo to start with.
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| (back lit castle) |
Discussing the merits of an iPhone camera then loses all context when most of the target users don't really care about truthful photography, they want pretty images, even or especially if the truth they are shooting isn't that pretty (above).
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| (created with 3rd party HDR app) |
So what Google will allow with this RAW format support is good. Because "it's better", they can say "we have it", yet another big-name, "killer feature" and subsequent fanboy ammunition and marketing BS. It will allow much deeper photo edition and some proper photo editing, not just enhancing. And maybe finally have some vendors provide proper camera sensors, even external cameras, and get some proper photography be done by an Android device. Maybe.
Of course, RAW doesn't simply look better, what it provides is a much deeper field to play with photo corrections, adjustments, touch ups and enhancements.
But why not? I see no reason not to be happy about it, especially if you have a brilliant device (like my favorite, the HTC One) that is not exactly a properly truthful photographic instrument. At least you'll have the possibility to make a lot more improvements on a RAW than on a JPEG.
Who knows, you may even be able to salvage some of them for you family album, without being mistaken in the future for little green immigrants, or be believed to have lived in some crazy polluted time with this strange "red mist" in the air all the time...
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| (night, indoor, no flash or HDR) |
Well, I've been delaying this post so I could get my hands on an iPhone 5S and shoot a couple proper pics. But I've been too busy and haven't really had the opportunity to shoot anything with intention. So, all previous photos were taken on the run, and are all from a demo iPhone 5S.
Trust me, there is no phone in the world even near the raw quality of this camera. Hopefully I'll be using and taking proper photos with an iPhone 5S soon (you you'll be able to follow that on my Flickr if you like).
But by all means Google, keep putting out "killer camera features" like burst mode or RAW. It will delight most users, and at the very least keep photo fans entertained while waiting for the promised "insanely great cameras".
"We are committed to making Nexus phones insanely great cameras. Just you wait and see."
