Mobile Technology

3 Features to Look for in a Smartphone Camera

Digital Camera

One of the most important invention in 21st century was the development of mobile phones that can take pictures on just one click. Suddenly, customers could take candid pictures on-the-go without having to carry delicate and bulky cameras around with them everywhere. Pictures can now be shot anywhere. Even holidaymakers and tourists started preferring this medium over carrying a camera with them. Today, many of us use our smart phones for taking selfie more than attending calls. Slowly, camera phones got better, with higher resolutions and advanced features such as macro shots and panorama shots. With the emergence of affordable 3G & 4G data plans, usage of smartphones have grown which has led to the eventual increase in the use of inbuilt cameras in smartphones. There is no doubt that sales of individual cameras have reduced so much that only professional & photography enthusiasts are seen with SLR cameras in hand.

Digital Camera
Photo by Unsplash, CC0 1.0

Nowadays many people are giving a significant amount of importance to camera quality while buying a new smartphone. If your old phone camera is broken or otherwise damaged, you can sell it here to get some extra bucks before buying a new phone. However, not many are aware of specifications to look for to ensure that they get their money’s worth in phone cameras; here we explore some of these specifications.

1.    Megapixel Count

It is widely known that the higher the megapixels count the better the camera. A good primary camera should have at least 8 megapixels. If the phone has a front (secondary) camera as well for all the selfie lovers, the megapixels are usually less than the primary camera but expensive smartphones can even have 13 megapixel front cameras, as in the HTC Desire Eye. Higher megapixel count always leads to a better resolution i.e. better sharpness and clarity, though quality pictures also depend on the lighting, camera angles etc.

2.    Zoom

If you’re looking to zoom in to the subject without moving from your place and wish for a shot that does not pixelate and remains crystal clear then you need to check how many times you can zoom in or zoom out the camera before the image starts to become blurry. If the phone has its own inbuilt zoom lens as in the new Samsung Galaxy K Zoom then it is good for photographing distance pictures.

3.    Manual Settings

Today, most smartphones has built-in features that allow to manually change settings, allowing complete control over your shots. Features like manual ISO adjusting, aperture setting, filters helps to take shots at times when auto settings isn’t clicking the right shot. This is one main feature for photography enthusiast as they can learn to take proper shot at their convenience.

Nowadays we use phone cameras to take most of the pictures which we can conveniently share with friends and on social media. Having a good camera is a must in our smartphones; who would want a SLR camera which would require you to first copy the image to your laptop or phone and then share. This is nothing less than a very basic and important feature of smartphone and we should not compromise with a poor quality camera. An image speaks thousands and a crisp image speaks millions of words.