Now that Apple’s latest and greatest phone the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Max have been out in the wild for a few weeks, it is time to revisit the performance of the slow motion video mode of this all-encompassing handset. The iPhone has always been a good slow mo performer but the new cameras and bigger lenses with more advanced processing gave us high hopes for increases in video quality and fewer artifacts.
The slow motion quality should be better across both the 11 and 11 Max since they share essentially the same system of optics and bionic chip. Quality must be identical except for the two or three camera configurations. One thing that separates the iPhone is that you can shoot slow motion in all cameras and not just in the standard wide like Samsung or other Android phones. This is one thing Apple wins in spades and we hope to see other manufacturers adopt as standard.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Today Google unveiled the heavily leaked Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones which have the latest and greatest camera module geared up for computational photography enthusiasts. It brings in the dual camera back design of many competitors and also drops the notch in turn for a thicker bezel which looks in our view better. The phone is sporting the latest Snapdragon 855, 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of fast flash memory.
Sadly the phone is keeping the exact same high frame rate specs of the Pixel 3 of last year. So 240fps is staying at 720p and 120fps at 1080p is the max at that resolution. It is clear Google is not interested in delivering performance in high frame rates like their rivals in the Android space. Even Apple offers a much better 1080p 240fps spec which is offered on the back cameras with little trouble. Even the iPhone 11 bests the Pixel 4 in the Selfie department as it allows up to 120fps 1080p for (Slofies™) which is a prominent feature of the handset.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Huawei has just launched the Mate 30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro 5G Smartphones which sport an impressive camera module with a large sensor array that shoots at 40 Megapixels. We had rumors sent a couple of weeks back but had our reservations due to the less than optimal slow motion in the P20 and other Huawei Smartphones. The phone is now untouched by the competition as it can shoot a half-second at 1920fps 720p or 960fps total which translates to 32 seconds on a 30p timeline.
The headline slow motion feature of 7680fps is not real as it is derived from the 1920fps 720p half-second which the phone then uses AI selection to isolate a 0.12 seconds segment of the capture then finally interpolated by the Kirin 990 Chipset to the full 7680fps. So it does a 4x slow motion on top of it to get the great-looking result.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Ok let’s get the bad news out of the way which is that the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro all have essentially the same 120fps and 240fps of the previous iPhones on their main cameras which depending on the phone is two or three. All at 12MP and all capable of 4k UHD at 60fps and all slow motion capable at 120p and 240p at 1080p. So no new frame rates but a consistent capture across all cameras which seems unique compared to the competition.
The real new thing is the availability of 120fps at 1080p in the TrueDepth or Selfie front camera which allows for “Slofies” as Apple calls them. It would have been more impressive to have the full 240fps on the selfie camera too but they will save it for a future model. 120p is good and lets you shoot funny and compelling content. It is probably the best looking selfie camera image we have seen yet so Apple has an easy head start there.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Sony continues to recycle the same features over their phone lineup with a slightly dumbed down Xperia 1 phone which is their flagship with the same camera arrangement, screen, and main features. The 1080p 960fps mode is still here with a duration of 0.1 seconds and at 720p of 0.2 seconds. The resolution and quality are not real 1080p as we have discussed before and the reduced time makes it nearly unusable.
However, the feature many are calling a bad omen is the disappearance of the 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone is slimmer and smaller than the Xperia 1 but shares the best traits at a lower price. For many, it will not be enough to counter the popularity of other phones that are more full-featured and offer a vast array of video modes.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Galaxy Note 10 is Samsung’s most expensive flagship phone yet and as it should be it is also the most capable. We recently saw some slow motion samples that we wanted to share and why this phone is the best quality slow motion a Samsung phone has ever been able to produce. Sure the quality difference between the Note 10 and the Galaxy S10 is very small but it is there. We see less moire and aliasing than on the S10 and the detail retained is also better.
We were disappointed at first that 720p was still the top resolution for slow motion. But the only 1080p phone alternative the Sony Xperia Series like the Xperia One is only recording 0.1 seconds of slow motion at 960fps 1080p which is next to useless. Furthermore, the supposed 1080p quality looks just a tad better than the Samsung which is not particularly high quality either.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
