Samsung M8910 camera-phone |
A couple of years ago, I bought a Nokia
5800: it has been the worst phone I have
ever used, but at least it helped me
understand what I really need in a mobile
phone. For example, I am not interested to
install many applications; I don't care much
about GPS (I prefer to use my old good
TomTom 730), while I am very interested in
good camera capabilities. Why? The reason is
that I always carry the mobile phone with
me, and sometimes it is the only way to take
the photo. For example, many times I have
seen awesome landscapes from the plane, but
it was not possible to grab the reflex...if
I had had a good mobile phone, I'd have some
great photos I have missed. Maybe not the
best image quality, but better than nothing
:-)
So, when I decided to buy a new
mobile phone, I looked mainly to high end
camera phones, and I bought the best of the
bunch: the Samsung M8910. It has a 12
megapixel sensor, 28mm equivalent lens, and
a lot of advanced camera features; other
than that, it has all I may need in a
mobile: large and sharp touch screen, good
video capabilities, music and video player
(with DivX support), internet, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and many other tools. When it was
announced, it was very expensive, but nine
months have passed and in the mobile phone
world this means halved price: I paid it
"just" 320 €!
In this article, I
won't cover the "Smartphone" part - for an
all around review, give a look to
Samsung M8910 review on GSM Arena -
while I'm going to focus on the camera part:
I compared it with my old Nokia 5800 and,
since this is an ambitious phone, even to
the Canon 350D reflex. You will be impressed
by the image quality of the Samsung little
camera!
Camera specifications
(compared with my old Nokia 5800 and with
Canon 350D)
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PHOTO
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Samsung M8910
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Canon 350D
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Nokia 5800
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Resolution
|
12 megapixels (4000 x 3000 px)
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8 megapixels (3456 x 2304 px)
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3.14 megapixels (2048 x 1536 px)
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Sensor size
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5.4x4.0 millimeters (1/2.5")
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16x24 millimeters (APS-C)
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4.6x2.7 millimeters (1/4")
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File format
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JPEG
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JPEG, RAW
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JPEG
|
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Aspect ratio
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4:3
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3:2
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4:3
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Manual ISO
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yes, from 50 to 1600
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yes, from 100 to 1600
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yes, from 100 to 800
|
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Auto ISO
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yes
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yes
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yes
|
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Shutter speeds
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from 1" to 1/1000
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from 30" to 1/4000
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from 1/5 to 1/16000
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Exposure meter
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center weighted, matrix, spot
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center weighted, matrix, semi-spot
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center weighted
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Exposure compensation
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+2/-2 EV in 0.5 EV steps
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+2/-2 EV in 0.3 EV steps
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+2/-2 EV in 0.5 EV steps
|
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White balance
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Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy
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Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy and
others
|
Automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
|
|
Autofocus
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
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Lens
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Samsung 4.6mm f/2.6
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interchangeable
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Carl Zeiss Tessar 3.7mm f/2.8
|
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35mm focal length equiv.
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28mm
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it depends by the lens
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36mm
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Apertures
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f/2.6, f/3.6
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it depends by the lens
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f/2.8
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Image stabilization
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no
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it depends by the lens
|
no
|
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Min. focus distance
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10 cm
|
it depends by the lens
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10 cm
|
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Flash
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yes, xenon
|
yes, xenon
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yes, led
|
VIDEO
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|
|
Samsung M8910
|
Canon 350D
|
Nokia 5800
|
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Resolution
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720 x 480px
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-
|
640 x 480px
|
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Frame rate
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30 FPS
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-
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30 FPS
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File format
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MP4
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-
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MP4
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Bit rate
|
?
|
-
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0.3 megabytes per second
|
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Autofocus
|
yes
|
-
|
no
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Light
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yes
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-
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yes
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|
Image quality:
photo (in
comparison with Nokia 5800 and Canon 350D)
The photos are for sure one of the
strengths of the M8910: I bought this phone
because currently it is the best camera
phone you can get in the European market. I
have compared it to my old Nokia 5800 and to
the Canon 350D (APS-C sensor, 8 megapixel).
The Canon was in JPEG L and I have used the
18-55 IS lens. Keep in mind that the Samsung
has a 28mm equivalent lens, while the Nokia
5800 has about a 35, so the Samsung has a
much wider angle of view.
I highly recommend to download the
full size photos, the differences between
the cameras are much bigger than what it
seems from the 100% crops!
Bright light test:
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Samsung M8910
[download] |
100%
crop, Samsung M8910 |
| |
|
 |
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| Full
photo, Canon 350D
[download] |
100% crop, Canon 350D |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Nokia 5800
[download] |
100% crop, Nokia 5800 |
|
Here, I have compared the two phones in
bright daylight. Both phones show low
noise and relatively good sharpness, but the Samsung
has clearly a big resolution advantage, it
shows a lot more detail than the N5800 (and
it has even a much wider lens and better
colors).
The
Canon 350D gives sharper images, but in terms of detail, it is
about on par with the Samsung M8910. The
M8910 gives less sharpness but it has a
higher pixel count, so at the end the detail
of the 12mp camera phone is about on par
with the 8 megapixel SLR. In
other words, in "easy" situations (daylight
without strong contrast) the Samsung camera
phone can come close to the image quality of
an entry level reflex! This is an huge
achievement for a cameraphone.
Low light, no flash test:
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Samsung M8910
[download] |
100%
crop, Samsung M8910 |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Canon 350D
[download] |
100%
crop, Canon 350D |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Nokia 5800
[download] |
100% crop, Nokia 5800 |
|
In low light, it is always better to use the
flash when you are shooting with a
camera-phone. That said, sometimes it is not
possible: for example, if you are taking a
landscape photo, the flash won't help. This
is a studio test that replicate similar
conditions: the flash was turned off, and
the ambient light was very low. Both phones
show a strong noise, but the Samsung has
less noise than the 5800, in spite of the
much higher pixel count; it show no banding,
more detail and much better colors.
The Canon 350D has less noise and more
dynamic range than both phones; its white
balance is not very precise, but if you
shoot RAW you can get great colors.
Low light, with flash:
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Samsung M8910
[download] |
100% crop, Samsung M8910 |
| |
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Canon 350D
[download] |
100%
crop, Canon 350D |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
Full photo, Nokia 5800
[download] |
100% crop, Nokia 5800 |
|
Here, I have taken a photo in very low
light, using the flash. There is really no
contest: the xenon flash of the Samsung is
miles above the small leds of the Nokia 5800.
The Nokia photo has tons of noise and a
strong green cast, while the Samsung gives
natural colors, very low noise and a lot of
detail. The Canon 350D of course is the
best, but even the Samsung M8910 does not
look too bad, at least at moderate
distances (1-3 meters) where the smaller
flash of the Samsung can give enough light.
Macro:
|
 |
 |
| Full
photo, Samsung M8910
[download] |
100% crop, Samsung M8910 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
Full photo, Nokia 5800
[download] |
100% crop, Nokia 5800 |
|
Due to its wide angle lens, the Samsung
has a slightly worse magnification when you
look at the entire photo; that said, overall
you have more detail thanks to the higher
pixel count, and if you crop it at the same
resolution of the Nokia you actually have a
little more magnification. The Samsung tends
to give slightly cold colors, but you can
easily fix it with with manual white balance
or with Photoshop.
Image quality: video
(in comparison with Nokia 5800)
There are some phones that
have much more advanced video capabilities
than M8910, but overall the Samsung seems
good on paper: 720x480px at 30 FPS. That
said, even the Nokia 5800 promised 640x480px
at 30 FPS, but in practice it was crap:
so-so in daylight, unusable in low light. It
was even worse than my old Nokia 6120! So, I
was curious to see the results from Samsung.
Daylight:
Still frame from video, Samsung M8910
Still frame from video, Nokia 5800
Even in daylight, the Samsung show more
detail, more resolution and less compression
artefacts.
Low light, no video
light:
Still frame from video, Samsung M8910
Still frame from video, Nokia 5800
In low light, there is no contest. The
Nokia is unusable, the Samsung is quite good
considering it is not a video-oriented
phone.
Low light, with video light:
Still frame from video, Samsung M8910
Still frame from video, Samsung M8910
When you use the video
light, the difference is even more
noticeable. The Samsung has a very powerful
led, while the Nokia has two very, very weak
led. The result is that the Samsung is
pretty good, while the Nokia is, again,
unusable.
In conclusion, the Samsung
M8910 video capabilities are light years
better than the Nokia 5800: more detail,
more resolution, a lot less noise and a much
more advanced video camera (the Nokia 5800
had fixed focus during video, while the
Samsung has AF even during video recording).
There are some phones that have better video
capabilities, but the M8910 is at least
usable in every condition.
Conclusions
In terms of resolution, we have reached
all the resolution you may need in a camera
phone. Actually, it is even too much: with a
sharper lens and better image processing, it
would be possible to get the same detail
with just 10 or 8 megapixels, as the
comparison with the Canon 350D has shown.
That said, I have been positively impressed
by the improvement in dynamic range and
noise: in spite of the very high pixel
count, the Samsung has lower noise and a
little more dynamic range than the Nokia
5800, and overall it has the best image
quality than every camera phone currently on
the market (April 2010). In future, I hope
to see even lower noise and more dynamic
range!
The 4.6mm f/2.6 lens is pretty good, but
in future I hope to see even brighter
lenses. Camera phones have very limited high
ISO capabilities, so a lens with a wide
aperture helps a lot; a f/2.0 or f/1.4 would
be awesome. Depth of field is not an issue
because the very small sensor gives much
more depth of field than APS-C or FF. What I
really, really miss on the Samsung M8910 is
a lens cover; the M8910 has a kind of
internal shutter, but no real cover, so you
have to pay attention to avoid finger
smudges and scratches. (this is not a silly
thing - in some mobile phones I have used
the image quality has got much worse with
time due to scratched lens)
An optical zoom would be nice (the
Samsung W880, available only on Korean
market, has already a 3x optical zoom,
6.3-18.9mm f/3.0-5.6), but nowadays the
priority is aperture, so I prefer a prime
lens with wide aperture rather than a zoom,
that would result in smaller apertures and
lower image quality due to the necessity of
higher ISO sensitivities.
Video is light years better than the
Nokia 5800, but it is not the best in the
market; it has very good detail, pleasing
colors, good quality in low light, but the
frame rate is much lower than the claimed
30FPS; I'd estimate that the actual frame
rate is something between 10 and 15 FPS, so
the videos are not very smooth, even though
overall they are not bad for a camera phone.
Remember that the M8910 is focused on
photography; if you want a phone with great
video capabilities, there are various phones
with 1280x720px (HD ready) resolution at
24/30 FPS, or 720x480 at true 30 FPS.
The phone overall is great; the user
interface is easy to understand and
responsive, it has all the features I need
and an affordable price.
What's next?
The Samsung M8910 will travel with me
around the world, and from time to time I'll
add to the galleries some photos taken with
this great camera phone. Other than that, I
plan to publish some other articles while I
explore its camera capabilities.
As of today, April 2010, it is the best
camera phone on the worldwide market; the
Nokia N8 may be even better, but it has just
been announced and we will have to wait
several months until it is available.
I hope
to keep it al least a couple of years, until
something with even higher photo and video
quality reaches the market at a reasonable
price (after being bitten with the Nokia
5800, I don't buy phones as soon as they are
announced, the initial price is exaggerate
and after few months it gets much, much
lower).
Do you have
comments or questions?
If you have comments or questions about
this article, feel free to ask in the
Juza
Nature Photography Discussion Forum!
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