[Galaxy S III General] set2374:
wow!

I am very impressed with the quality of the photos on this thread. I love the idea of being able to snap a reasonably sharp picture with fairly accurate color reproduction but with the exception of well lit photos from the iPhone 4S, I have yet to see a phone with a camera that could take worth printing as an 8x10. It looks like camera in the GS3 might have closed the gap between phones and digicams. The photos on this thread are basically on par with the photos taking by a decent mid-range p&s digicam from 2007 or 2008. I mean this as high praise because most phone cameras are barely good enough for posting photos to facebook. The photos here are sharp enough and high enough res, with good color saturation for prints up to 8x10. If you can live without optical zoom (which most people abuse anyway), the GS3 can replace a pocket digicam for most people's purposes. I am also really impressed with the camera's low light performance. The software seems to do a pretty solid job of balancing the exposure--this is a big challenge for these cameras one that companies like Motorola can't seem to get their arms around.

The lens is also pretty bright. I don't know what the specs are, but I am bet it's the same f/2.4 as the iPhone 4s (recent tear downs reported in Android Authority indicate the GS3 has an updated version of the Sony sourced camera used in the iPhone 4S). For the moment, that's the best camera out there--although the one in the HTC One X/S is probably just as good.

Now that I have said the good stuff, there is still significant room for improvement. There's still too much fisheye for my taste on the edges of the photos. That's always going to be a issue with these cameras because of their micro-sized lenses, but there are software solutions that help to minimize the problem. HTC has done a better job with this based on the images I have seen taken the One X and One S. Low light performance from the GS3 is surprisingly good--but could still be better. The rays of light and sunshine is some of the pictures that some people liked is a nice effect when its intended. Here it's not intended, so it's an exposure and/or issue with lens. The colors are more saturated in these photos and not quite as "life-like" than the ones from the One series--that's neither good nor bad, simply a matter of taste. I personally prefer more accurate colors, but most consumers are attracted to higher saturation. To each their own.

Video performance in the samples definitely could stand some improvement. I wish Sammy would allow users to disable the autofocus feature and opt for an fixed focus from 1 foot to infinity. The autofocus is way too slow for shooting quality video footage, which is a shame since the camera is otherwise up to the task. Those of you who have played with (or own) a Sony Bloggy Touch (2011 model) might recall that this same autofocus issue plagued that camera as well. Although that camera had a 12mp sensor, it seems to be a close cousin to the one used in the iPhone 4s and GS3. I am not sure if a fw update could help, but Sony never bothered to fix the problem in the bloggie so my guess is that it won't work here either. There is also some issue with judder. I wonder if dropping to 720p would allow the camera to pick up the framerate from 30fps to somewhere closer to 60fps. Also, youtube isn't the best way to evaluate video quality (judder in particular), so I don't want to jump to conclusions on the judder situation. The sound quality is less than stellar too, which is a shame. It's still serviceable though and I have heard much worse. On the whole though, I want to see how this camera can be tweaked to improve video performance.

I have a Razr Maxx (which may be exchanged soon for a Verizon (US) version of the GS3). Based on what I am seeing here, the camera on the GS3 blows my Maxx's camera out of the water. It's no contest. The GS3 looks to be neck and neck with the iPhone 4S and HTC One X/S in terms of image quality and may actually best them. Video quality is good when it's in focus--but that focus issue is a killer.

Oh, btw, I am an amateur photographer and I still shoot film with circa-1980's Minolta X700 and digitally with with Canon EOS Rebel T3 and as a p&s, a Sony HS9V. I know a lot more about camera than phones so I won't pretend to be an phone authority other than to comment on the things I have real experience with (camera and screen quality). So far, the camera IQ is very impressive for stills. SGS3 camera is a prime example of why smartphones are going to kill low and mid-range digicams.