Wednesday, July 14, 2010

iPhone 4 versus Samsung Galaxy S photos

Statistically irrelevant no doubt, but even so, here are some photos taken within 30 seconds of each other of approximately the same scenes.

Round 1 - inside, quite close up


Top is Samsung, bottom is iPhone 4.  I know which I think is better.  The original images are available to examine by clicking on the images below.



Round 2 - Outside


We examined these photos "blind" (ie, we didn't know which image was taken by which phone).  We mis-identfied which image was which. Overall, they're pretty similar but the windscreen of the silver car, 3rd back on the left, is better in the Samsung photo. 









3 comments:

Sam94 said...

Interesting. Thanks for doing this. You could debate which photo looks the most accurate. For me the measure of a good photo is how much photoshop's autolevels changes it. I just tried both pics. photoshop changed the samsung one to look very like the iphone one. It hardly changed the iphone one at all.

Sam94 said...

Actually, maybe I've changed my mind. My preferred photo is the Samsung one post editing, so maybe the samsung one actually collects the best info.

Jim McDonnell said...

Hmm. Not a useful test really except for very subjective comments. All I can see is a) the iPhone has a shallower depth of field, and its image processing / white balance produces a 'yellower' result. I can see which phone I think produces a 'better' result as far as I'm concerned but I know nothing about the hardware specs (and can't be arsed to look them up), so I might be expecting something that the cameras aren't up to. Until phonecams start putting high quality lensed optics with real focus and diaphragm aperture, then they'll all be in the same ballpark to me. Current pinhole-type optics and tiny sensors are all equally poor except for screen viewing.