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The (non existant) ultra low light qualities of the Droid video camera

This was me flying the aircraft with a female pilot in the right seat (the one holding the camera) around the mission beach area at night.

It was set to "night" mode.
As you can see, it's just a mess.

I think the "UFO" is actually my red flashlight in the side pocket - needed for night flying.

YouTube - Night flying over mission bay


Gees. It's a freaking phone. Do you know how many video cameras take bad video in ultra low light.
 
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I'm so tired of explaining this camera issue to ignorant people. Do you want flash photography or mediocre low-light performance? You can't have both on a camera phone until they figure out how pack more moving parts into the camera lens housing to accommodate something other than a fixed iris. The iPhone takes acceptable low-light pictures, but its setup is not made for flash photography, i.e. quick burst of bright light. You can't have both. And also, when you pack 5MP onto a sensor THAT small, you intrinsically introduce problems.

Here is an example of a 5MP point-and-shoot (not a camera phone, just so you can see it may be even worse for a camera phone) (no flash (L) and flash (R)):

200710132014.jpg
 
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mototorch would have ruined my night vision. can't have bright lights in the cockpit. red only.

I guess what I was expecting was a noisy mess with some actual stuff you could see as in the lens only pulled in very little light, but what light there was would have been amplified. that's how most digital cameras work.

What did you expect with a lens the size of a pencil eraser?
 
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Low light photography has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go before we see some of the GREAT technology make it to the cell phones. Nikon's D3s is a huge leap in low light technology which is capable of ISO 102,400!!!! Right now most camera phones show significant grain at about ISO 800. ISO 102,400 is so ridiculously high, it definitely has a lot of noise to it, but the noise is comparable to a camera phone at ISO 800 (if it could be set to that). My first digital camera was a Nikon D70. It showed grain at ISO 400 and above. I switched to the D300 when it came out because of its incredible low light capabilities (ISO 1200 without noise). The D3s is capable of pictures at 12,800 that is as clear as my D300 at ISO 1200. My point is that they keep making a lot of progress in low light capable sensors. Most are full frame sensors, but I think the technology will eventually filter down to cell phone sensors also. Technology doesn't stop, so it will be here someday. Might be several years though.
 
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