Camera: Bucking The Nexus Trend

LG and Google have listened to the criticism that fell on the Nexus 4's camera, and take made some changes in the Nexus v to try and make the device compete with other top-terminate smartphones. An oftentimes-praised Sony Exmor RS sensor has made it into the device, equally has optical image stabilization, with the promise of a meaning improvement on previous Nexus handsets.

On a more than technical note, the Exmor RS sensor used is the new IMX179, which is a 1/3.2" eight-megapixel unit with 1.4 µm pixels: larger than previous Exmor RS sensors, and on-par with the Nokia Lumia 925. It's combined with an f/2.4 lens with autofocus, optical prototype stabilization powered by a two-axis gyroscope, and an LED wink. Complementing the photography package is a 1.3-megapixel forepart-facing photographic camera and 1080p video recording capabilities.

Let's start with the positives. The Nexus 5'south photographic camera is hands the best Nexus camera ever, and it can exist very capable in the right weather. Color reproduction in stiff lighting is fantastic, accurate and reasonably vibrant, and photos appear abrupt fifty-fifty though they're only viii-megapixels large. Occasionally the automated exposure can overexpose your shots, and white residual was infrequently dodgy, merely these issues can exist addressed through transmission controls or a hereafter software update.

Dynamic range from the one/three.ii" sensor is adequate in almost situations, and tin be enhanced through KitKat's new HDR+ mode. HDR+ is one of the better high dynamic range implementations I've seen, correcting almost cases of extreme over/underexposure and notably enhancing the quality of images. In some situations with high contrast between low-cal and night areas, HDR+ struggles to do anything but reduce the image'south exposure, but for the nearly part the fashion is useful and functional.

You tin view several full-resolution photos taken with the Nexus 5 here

Where lighting isn't and so ideal, such as in heavy shadows, cloudy days or indoors, photos from the Nexus 5 are very hit or miss. I either achieved a photo that was better than I was expecting with quality on-par with potent lighting, or at that place were a multitude of problems. Some photos were very done out, some had completely inaccurate white balance and some had unnecessarily high amounts of grain from an inadequate ISO.

With OIS part of the camera associates, in many situations except the most platonic, slow shutter speeds (such as one/8s) are used. Any shakes in your easily during photography are usually compensated for by the stabilization hardware, but information technology still requires a reasonably steady grip to forbid images from getting blurry. The employ of slow shutter speeds means a low ISO can be used in many situations, removing grain, which in many respects is a good affair; however sometimes I needed to accept two or three shots just to ensure I didn't become one that was somewhat blurry.

In low-light, the Nexus v performs okay, only non as bully as other optically stabilized devices such equally the HTC One or Nokia Lumia 925. Compared to the LG G2, which has an Exmor RS sensor with 1.12 µm pixels, an f/2.4 lens and OIS, the Nexus five can collect 25% more light thanks to larger 1.four µm pixels, and on inspection produces improve images. Still the male monarch of low light, the Nokia Lumia 925, has an f/2.0 lens (a one-half-terminate larger) and a more advanced OIS system that allows 1/3s shutter speeds, effectively allowing twice the lite drove at the same ISO. It's no surprise that Nokia'south offering trounces the Nexus 5 in the dark.

Nonetheless for those doing the occasional low-calorie-free photograph work, the Nexus 5'due south setup is better than a standard Exmor RS unit of measurement like is institute on the Galaxy S4. Under automatic settings, nighttime photos taken with the Nexus 5 look brighter than real life, using ISOs effectually 1600. When things start getting really dark you tin can manually button the ISO to 6400 or so using the exposure controls, even so the resultant paradigm becomes unusably grainy, and shutter speeds beneath one/6s aren't used. The LED flash on the dorsum is the usual offering plant in smartphones, which means it's useless over long distances and washes out the subject you're trying to capture, only remains somewhat effective where there simply isn't enough light.

The Nexus five'due south/Android iv.four's camera awarding is underdeveloped and basic compared to the OEM-produced apps on phones such as the LG G2, Sony Xperia Z1 and HTC I. There are few manual controls to be constitute (exposure, white balance, flash, and a few scene selections) and a singled-out lack of shooting modes other than HDR+, panorama and Photo Sphere. While the standard automatic mode is going to satisfy most users, the improver of cool burst modes, moving object erasers, composite photo modes and more tin can be useful and would add together to the Android camera experience.

Similar the Nexus four, Galaxy Nexus and many current-day Android phones, the Nexus 5 has zippo-shutter lag when taking images, allowing instant snapshots of whatever'southward in the virtual viewfinder. However there are several bug with the viewfinder: focusing is tedious and often fails to accurate lock on exactly what you want; and the aspect ratio of the camera preview is completely wrong. For some inexplicable reason, the stock Android photographic camera application'south preview is at a near sixteen:9 (and unchangeable) attribute ratio but takes 4:three images, which means what you come across on the preview is not quite what you get in the final image. The same goes for the video mode, where the onscreen buttons make the preview not quite 16:9 however videos are recorded in 16:9.

The quality of 1080p video from the Nexus 5 is essentially the same as withal shots, with quick exposure changes merely tiresome and sometimes inaccurate autofocus. OIS does a good job of smoothing stationary pans, but does niggling to remove shakes while walking, which is a little disappointing. The handset produces videos at 17 Mbps – slightly less bitrate than other flagship devices, which hit twenty Mbps – but yous do get good quality albeit mono audio. Information technology won't come as a surprise that there are few video shooting modes bated from a time lapse setting, with no HDR video or extra frame charge per unit options.

So the Nexus 5's camera is decidedly better than the Nexus 4'due south, and tin can be quite a capable shooter in the correct lighting, only it's not quite at the same level as other loftier-end devices it's competing with. Piece of work needs to be done in camera firmware to accost wildly inconsistent results in less-than-ideal conditions, focusing is frequently annoyingly slow, and the software itself is lackluster when placed upwardly against other handsets. Google has taken a stride in the right direction with Nexus cameras in this model for sure, just it still remains a step behind the top mobile photography players.