“Don't
give me a fish but teach me how to fish” is a clever logic we often use when
buying some modern tech and electronics, especially when budget plays a key
factor in our selection. For example, you do not need anyone to tell you what
are the best smartphones with a professional camera in 2022, but you want to
know for yourself which phone has the best camera when there are two phones at
the same price in front of you.
You
want to know what are the criteria for choosing a camera phone and which phone
is capable of delivering high-quality photos, right? So, in this topic, we will
take you with us on an interesting tour through which we will learn about the
most important features of the smartphone camera and we will show you how to
determine the quality of the camera and measure its results through its
technical specifications described on its official pages or pages on the
Gsmarena website, and in this way, it will be easy for you to know The best
camera.
1- Megapixels
Most
of us probably already know what a pixel is, a pixel is a very small
"point" size element in an image that the eye may not see without
magnification. And the term Megapixels refers to the number of such small
elements or points in an image in the form of matrices or columns. Look closely
at the picture in the previous example and you will be able to tell what we are
trying to talk about. You should know that the image is made up of a huge
number of pixels, so you will notice that you are unable to clarify the details
of the image when we try to zoom in and zoom out greatly.
For
smartphone cameras, mega-pixel refers to the number of photographs on the image
sensor that is responsible for capturing light information to produce images.
For example, if the image has a resolution of 12 megapixels, it is very likely
that this image was taken with a sensor containing 12 million optical sites.
So, this means that every million pixels equal one megapixel. We call this
result "Resolution" or in Arabic "Resolution". The more
megapixels on the sensor, the more accurate images we get.
Therefore,
when buying a new phone, you always want to look for the most accurate sensor.
If we imagine the Galaxy S21 Ultra, we will find that the primary camera sensor
is 108 megapixels, and since each megapixel equals one million pixels, this
means that the sensor contains 108 million A points to capture the light, which
also means "theoretically" obtaining a high-resolution image. But the
quality of the camera is not only measured by the accuracy of the sensor…
2- camera sensor
In
order to understand the sensor of digital cameras let us imagine a very simple
example. Suppose someone asks you to find something very small in a dark room,
what would you ask them to do before entering the room? Definitely a
flashlight. The bigger the lamp, the better your chance of seeing things in the
room, right?
The
phone's camera sensor is the vital component that plays the most important role
because it is responsible for capturing the light that enters the phone's
camera to produce a digital image. The larger the sensor size, the greater its
ability to receive more light. The higher the amount of light, the better the
image quality. So in simple terms "bigger sensor is better".
Sensor
size is expressed in inches or fractions of an inch and is marked in the
specifications with that mark ("). If you try to search the specifications
of any phone on the GSMArena website, you will not find any sensor larger than
the size and exact size of the primary sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra
camera" 1/1.33 as shown in the previous image.
Remember
the pixel we talked about in the first paragraph and that the more it is, the
more light we get? Now imagine, the size of the sensor also has an effect on
the size of the pixel itself. So, without complication, the larger sensor would
not only be responsible for capturing more pixels but had the ability to
capture larger pixels as well. And all of this plays in favor of better
resolution and clarity of images.
3-Pixel Size
So
we talked about megapixels and sensor size, and now it's time to talk about the
pixel size itself. Do you want to know why Huawei P40 Mate Pro's camera is
better? Simply because if you look at the size of the pixel responsible for
capturing the light on the surface of the sensor, you will immediately know
that it is the largest pixel so far found in any smartphone camera sensor.
Pixel
size is one of the most important things to focus on if you want to take better
photos because it expresses the amount of light that will be captured by the
sensor itself, and is measured in micrometers. Try to compare for yourself the
pixel size of the rear primary camera sensor of the Huawei P40 Pro and the
sensor in the front camera of the same phone and you will know immediately why
the rear primary camera produces better pictures than the front camera. The
first pixel has a size of 1.22um, while the pixel in the front camera sensor is
0.8um, which means that the first is 0.4um larger.
So
although the Galaxy S21 Ultra camera has a 1/1.33" sensor, while the P40
Pro's a 1/1.28" camera sensor, the same pixel size in the Huawei camera
sensor is larger. The larger the pixel sizes, the more light they can capture,
and ultimately, they can produce higher-quality images.
So
if you understand what we are trying to talk about you will be able to answer
the next question! Which is better: if we have a 1/1.24” sensor that has 12
megapixels or if we have a sensor of the same size that has 20 megapixels? The
answer is the first is better. Do you know why? Because a smaller sensor size
means bigger pixels, higher pixels The larger it is, the lighter it is able to
capture, while the sensor with 20 million pixels on its surface will cause more
noise, especially in low light.
4-Aperture
Aperture
is an adjustable hole or aperture between the lens and sensor that controls how
much light should reach the sensor, and how wide or narrow the aperture is
expressed in focal numbers. If you see a lower F-stop, this means a larger
aperture that is able to transmit more light to the sensor.
For
example, the f/1.8 aperture is actually larger and is able to transmit lighter
than the f/2.0 aperture. But note that the aperture of the lens is fixed in a
smartphone camera, unlike a digital camera, where the aperture is adjustable.
Therefore, in a nutshell, the focal number in a smartphone camera expresses the
amount of aperture of the lens, and the lower the number, the better the amount
of light that can be transmitted.
5- Lenses
Focal
length is measured in millimeters and is the distance between the image sensor
and where the light converges and focuses the image inside the lens. But in
order not to get into the maze of how to measure the focal length in smartphone
cameras and digital cameras, let's just say that the focal length that is
measured in millimeters in the camera properties of smartphones expresses the
angle of view of the lens of the light.
The
short focal length is best for capturing landscapes because it gives you a wide
angle of view to capture more details in scenes. But the higher the focal
length, the larger the subject and the smaller the scene in the image, which is
required for portrait photography, where the focus is on the person in the
photo and not the scene behind him.
6- Image Stabilization
Image
stabilization refers to the way or how a mobile camera shake is reduced to
avoid blurring of the image due to movement and shaking during shooting. Image
stabilization can be achieved mechanically with OIS, digital with EIS, or a
combination of both with AIS technology.
OIS
is a mechanical function in the camera that counters movement and slight camera
vibrations by moving the image sensor or lens using the gyroscope.
Electronic
or digital EIS stabilization is an additional post-processing effect that
depends on the software itself rather than a mechanical function, and because
of the way or how the EIS stabilization technology works it is the best and
most suitable for capturing videos with a mobile camera
AIS
is a feature that combines both of them present in Huawei phones, which means
the stability of artificial intelligence, and in fact, it is not much different
from EIS because both are dependent on post-processing.
7- Optical Zoom
For
a long time, smartphone cameras depended on digital optical zoom, which was
causing image noise because it relied on cropping the image, zooming the center
of the image and digitally expanding it to fit the frame, increasing the number
of pixels and distortion of detail. Therefore, smartphone companies found that
there is a possibility to provide mechanical optical zoom if there is more than
one camera, and this is what prompted them to provide multiple cameras in
phones.
Optical
zoom is much better than digital zoom because it uses the same lens for zooming
and zooming, thus preserving image quality and essential details. Therefore,
phones with a single camera cannot use optical zoom, but rather rely only on
digital zoom. If you try to divide the focal length of the telephoto lens by
the focal length of the prime lens, you immediately get the level of optical
telephoto.
Most
smartphone cameras have 2x optical zoom because the telephoto lenses in the
camera usually have a focal length of 50mm, but some lenses are capable of 3x
optical zoom and this is because the focal length of the telephoto lens is
three times the focal length of the primary lens. But if you look at the focal
length of the telephoto lens on the Galaxy S21 Ultra you will find that it is
240mm, while the focal length of the primary camera is 24mm, which means you
have a camera with a 10x optical zoom level.
8- High Dynamic Range HDR
Most
of us are probably familiar with HDR technology. When HDR is enabled, the
camera takes multiple photos at different exposure levels, all of which are
combined into a final image with balanced shades. Auto-HDR means that the
camera is able to balance shadows, analyze the scene on its own and see if
there are areas in the image that are too bright or too dark and faded without
having to enable HDR in the imaging software used.
Therefore,
if the word HDR appears in the phone's specifications, this means that you have
to activate HDR during your shooting process. If the word Auto-HDR appears, it
means that the camera is able to adjust the dynamic range on its own. But note
that some companies may call it different names such as HDR+ or SmartHDR.
9- Flashlight
We
are nearing the end of the journey that we started, but before concluding we
want to shed light on the flash in the phone camera and its importance in
photography. First of all, the most common types of flashlights used in
smartphone cameras are LEDs, which are dual light-emitting dots that provide
continuous illumination and are energy efficient. While some smartphones may
have Xenon flashlights, they do not provide continuous lighting and consume
more energy.
Some
phones may have a single, dual, or even quad-LED flash, and the more it is, the
more the phone's camera software can detect a better balance in warm and cool
color temperatures to give a flash that better suits the ambient light. In the
end, it is a good solution for shooting in low lights, but it is completely
different from that found in professional digital cameras, so it is better not
to rely on it except in rare cases only because it can spoil the good image
with its lighting in the image.
in conclusion
Well,
these are the most prominent specifications that we see that need to be
clarified in the part about the specifications and characteristics of the phone
camera on the gsmarena website. But we want to point out a very important
point: through the paragraphs of this topic, you will be able to understand the
characteristics of any camera in any smartphone, but in fact, to be honest with
you, you will not always know whether it is the best camera or not because
there are too many standards and companies Different in the manufacture of cameras
on which phone factories depend.
Therefore,
if you have difficulty deciding whether your phone’s camera is good or not, you
should look at third-party reviews (foreign websites) and see for yourself the
results of shooting video day and night, the look of the photos in natural and
artificial lighting, the resolution of the photos when using the maximum zoom
and the level of clarity Its details, analysis of the stability of the camera
when creating different scenes, the functions of the software used in the
shooting, its sophistication, and ease of dependability. All these points are
made clear by the reviews.
If
you want an easier solution and a quick answer, you can go directly to DXOMARK, a site that
specializes only in analyzing and reviewing cameras and audio for modern
digital devices and evaluating each phone with a number of points it deserves
based on the performance of its cameras in photography. For example, you will
find in the statistics that a phone like the Vivo X70 Pro is the best phone in
the world currently, with a score of 126 points, while a phone like the Apple
iPhone 13 with a score of 125 points, and so forth.
Unfortunately,
you may only find high-end phones there. Therefore, however, we will leave you
with some recommendations that we think are actually worth looking at and
thinking about while buying….
1- A cheap phone with a really good camera: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
Pro
2- A phone that offers a very precisely compatible camera with
the selling price: Mi Note 10 Pro
3- A phone with the best selfie camera, regardless of its price:
Mi 10 Ultra
4- The best phone that offers you an amazing video shooting
experience: iPhone 12 Pro
5. The best smartphone camera in the world: Vivo X70 Pro
Fortunately, nowadays all phone companies are interested in the camera more than any other component of the phone, and with a little sacrifice and access to a mid-range phone, you will get a great camera that produces exactly the photos you wish to see and share with your friends. So, in the end, make sure that all modern phones have a good camera, and you don't have to worry that you will get a bad camera even if the specifications and how to understand them are complicated for you.