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Camera samples and comparisons

I don't own any other camera than my smartphone, so the nicer the camera the better.

However, I'm not a photographer either so as long as it performs at least average when compared with the other flagships of the day I'm happy

Agreed, my phone(s) out do my last point and shoot so I'm happy. Would be nice the front facing cameras would go up on MP tho. 1.3MP still?? really??? lol
 
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I don't own any other camera than my smartphone, so the nicer the camera the better.

However, I'm not a photographer either so as long as it performs at least average when compared with the other flagships of the day I'm happy

I won't complain if I get a good camera on a phone, but it's not exactly a feature high on my list of wants/needs.
 
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It will be interesting to see how this camera (combination of better night shots and image stabilization) will be complemented with auto awesome. I'll likely wait until shots are uploaded before sending them even through MMS.

I believe making the camera good enough to stand on its own without the on-board processing trying to get every shot just right is a good step because then you can constantly work to improve the centralized processing through Google+ and not have to update the firmware on each device.

I think it is interesting how computing started with a centralized focus using terminals connected to a mainframe to do the grunt work. From there it moved to a decentralized focus and now thanks to bandwidth improvements, we're right back to the old model, just in a different way.
 
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I've not played with the camera much on my Nexus 5 as only had it a couple of days, but so far it's good, not excellent though. Like with any camera, if the light is good and your object is still, you can't fail, but trying to take pics of my 11 month old baby indoors is just producing blurry images wherever she's moving. When we took her out to a well-lit place, snap, snap, snap, all good pics. If your object and focus point is the same you can snap consecutively fairly quickly, but not as fast as I'd hoped, there is no burst mode either (you can't hold the button down for burst shots).

I know the HDR+ feature takes several shots at once and combines them for one ultimate image, I haven't had time to practice with this however.

So in summary I wish it took consecutive shots faster but otherwise it's a good camera. After reviewing the 100 various photos I took on my PC, the colours are good and vibrant and the images overall are crisp.
 
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I've seen quite a few samples by now and I guess I would consider the camera capable enough.

The thing with those samples though is their nature. They're pictures chosen to give an idea of what kind of pictures you *could* achieve.

While that's nice, I'm interested in what kind of pictures your average joe would end up in real life situations. If you're taking a picture of a building, it just stands there waiting for you. But what kind picture I should expect if I was to take out the phone and try to snap something quickly? Would I lost the pic entirely because the phone doesn't focus quick enough? Would it be blurry?

More importantly, would those pictures be a result of the hardware or the stock camera app being what it is? Has anyone tried some other camera apps to find out?
 
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Please make sure any comparisons are mounted, and take the pic from the same static image at the same angle and height. I've only seen two comparison photos between the iPhone 5s and the Nexus 5, and in both situations, it seems that the units were handheld. In the first, a picture of a coffee cup came with the Nexus as the clear winner, with clearer text everywhere and a better lit picture (and approximately the same level of digital noise). In the other, a picture of an indoor building with windows opening to an atrium, the iPhone definitely beat the Nexus looking into the Atrium, at the cost of a darker indoor environment. However, that appears to be a difference in metering between the two phones, as the iPhone seemed to be strongly center-weighted, while the Nexus to more of a matrix approach that lit the indoors to actual viewable levels.
 
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So I'm going to be pulling the trigger and grabbing a nexus 5 when things calm down and all, but I peeped a few reviews today that have said the camera is not good at all, namely the Verge review...Which honestly they're reviews are pretty accurate for the most part. Josh went on to say that the camera leaves a lot to be desired, and that the moto x may even best it in the camera dept. Thats not good news for me since yes...I do use my phone to take pics on a daily basis.

Well have any forum members received they're nexus 5's and taken any pics yet? Post em up if you have and lets hopefully either prove those reviewers wrong :p or sadly have to deal with another nexus with a not so good shooter:(
 
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Here's a closeup of some leaves I took on the ground walking to class. I think it looks damn good!

MBe7dYo.jpg
 
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Got mine today, overall not to impressed at all with the device, boxed up and waiting on RMA email now for shipping back.

Overall summary of device IMO...lag. Just everything i did on it just seemed to be slow. Didn't even take the camera outside after comparing indoors to my 5s.

I know all the tricks for Android regarding fixing stuff and such as i had have had pretty much every flag ship from all brands over the last 2yrs now but i didn't even bother. Shouldn't have to be doing that stuff out of the box. The phone did apply the latest update once i powered it on. I did not restore any apps or anything from backups.

Kinda sad about it, i think this is the final round with me trying Android out :( If the Nexus 5 didn't do it for me none of them will.
 
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Got mine today, overall not to impressed at all with the device, boxed up and waiting on RMA email now for shipping back.

Overall summary of device IMO...lag. Just everything i did on it just seemed to be slow. Didn't even take the camera outside after comparing indoors to my 5s.

I know all the tricks for Android regarding fixing stuff and such as i had have had pretty much every flag ship from all brands over the last 2yrs now but i didn't even bother. Shouldn't have to be doing that stuff out of the box. The phone did apply the latest update once i powered it on. I did not restore any apps or anything from backups.

Kinda sad about it, i think this is the final round with me trying Android out :( If the Nexus 5 didn't do it for me none of them will.
Mine flies, sounds like you got a dud. It happens, no matter what the device or who manufactures it.

Hopefully the return goes well for you.
 
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Got mine today, overall not to impressed at all with the device, boxed up and waiting on RMA email now for shipping back.

Overall summary of device IMO...lag. Just everything i did on it just seemed to be slow. Didn't even take the camera outside after comparing indoors to my 5s.

I know all the tricks for Android regarding fixing stuff and such as i had have had pretty much every flag ship from all brands over the last 2yrs now but i didn't even bother. Shouldn't have to be doing that stuff out of the box. The phone did apply the latest update once i powered it on. I did not restore any apps or anything from backups.

Kinda sad about it, i think this is the final round with me trying Android out :( If the Nexus 5 didn't do it for me none of them will.


I have a 5s and honestly it's extremely hard to compare any other phone on the market to the speed of the 5s. When it comes to basic speed and all that coupled together with the shooter that the 5s has it's a real tough fight. And this is coming from someone who is very much involved in using both platforms. I'm not looking for my Android phone to dethrone my iphone, I'm just looking for pretty much an extremely capable android phone that does exactly what I need it to do, which is not have any lag because in these days of processors no phone should have any lag, and of course have a very capable shooter. If the nexus 5 can't do the job I'll find a phone that can, there are lots of choices these days, I just happen to enjoy vanilla android very much. Moto x will be my second choice at the moment.
 
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I have a 5s and honestly it's extremely hard to compare any other phone on the market to the speed of the 5s. When it comes to basic speed and all that coupled together with the shooter that the 5s has it's a real tough fight. And this is coming from someone who is very much involved in using both platforms. I'm not looking for my Android phone to dethrone my iphone, I'm just looking for pretty much an extremely capable android phone that does exactly what I need it to do, which is not have any lag because in these days of processors no phone should have any lag, and of course have a very capable shooter. If the nexus 5 can't do the job I'll find a phone that can, there are lots of choices these days, I just happen to enjoy vanilla android very much. Moto x will be my second choice at the moment.

Honestly I feel as though the 5s was kind of a let down, not slow by any means but I think ios7 is just slower in general.
 
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I have a 5s and honestly it's extremely hard to compare any other phone on the market to the speed of the 5s. When it comes to basic speed and all that coupled together with the shooter that the 5s has it's a real tough fight. And this is coming from someone who is very much involved in using both platforms. I'm not looking for my Android phone to dethrone my iphone, I'm just looking for pretty much an extremely capable android phone that does exactly what I need it to do, which is not have any lag because in these days of processors no phone should have any lag, and of course have a very capable shooter. If the nexus 5 can't do the job I'll find a phone that can, there are lots of choices these days, I just happen to enjoy vanilla android very much. Moto x will be my second choice at the moment.


Same here, I am not apple fanboy at all. I have been trying for 2 years to get away from them but no android has ever done it for me. I did just switch back to AT&T after two years with Verizon. A huge part of that decision was the amount of phones I can choose from on AT&T/GSM compared to Verizon. I have always loved windows phones but there has been nothing on Verizon worth get. Now with AT&T it opens up a whole new platform that I really like.

Anyway, another thing I failed to mention earlier about the N5 was the screen. I would have put a $100 bet down that I was going to love the screen. It just looks really dull to me. I have loved the IPS LCD's iPhones have used mainly because of how gray they are outside compared to amoled. I think this experience taught me that amoled is the better choice when you get to larger screened devices which I thought I would never say until now.

Oh well, it was worth a shot anyway. Good luck with your phones.
 
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