[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
A little camera history courtesy of GSMArena for laughs. I'll leave it to you guys to find the themes.

Desire

Generally, image quality of the HTC Desire camera is nice and definitely better than the Legend. But back to the HTC Desire camera, as we look at the samples there's a decent amount of resolved detail and the contrast is good. Noise levels however have remained relatively high (though tolerable) and you can easily see a pinkish spot in the center of the frame (like the one on HTC HD2).

Sensation

Unfortunately, image quality is a traditional weak spot for HTC phones and the Sensation is no exception. Despite its 8MP resolution, the captured detail isn't all that much - noise reduction is trying too hard at times to offset a noisy image sensor - and although contrast is good, the colors are oftentimes way off. And oversharpening is present throughout all samples. On the other hand if you don't need the full 8MP resolution (and let's be honest - most of us don't) then the results are quite acceptable. And the HTC Sensation probably has the best camera we've seen come from HTC. Most other 8 megapixel smartphones, however, are better than it. The Sensation comes close to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, but the Galaxy S II and the Optimus 2X are better in still pics.

One X

Image quality is not quite the best in the 8 MP league - the One X produces rather noisy, if nicely detailed photos. Colors are nice, but tend to be a bit over-saturated at times. Sharpening algorithm is a tad too aggressive, too, resulting in occasional artifacts. The first two charts play to the One X strengths and shows it as a good shooter, though still not the best in the 8MP game. The third chart shows good too, but also some artifacts due to the sub-optimal processing of the One X.

One

When used in good lighting condition, the low resolution really takes its toll and while the per-pixel detail level is impressive the total resolving power is quite limited. Overall, the gamble HTC took with the ultrapixels certainly doesn't pay off when in good lighting conditions. Just about every other high-end smartphone will produce better stills in that scenario. Colors are quite decent and images generally look pretty nice when zoomed at 100%, but we were surprised to see that a lot of noise is present. There is some purple fringing, too, so it's not perfect. The HTC One has made its way to our photo quality comparison tool. HTC's low-megapixel sensor suddenly doesn't feel very comfortable in the controlled environment of our studio and the fact that we had to use the 4:3 mode and waste precious pixels is only part of the reason why. It's just that the first two charts were specifically designed to test absolute resolving power and that's certainly not the low-res sensor's element.

i9000

The image quality however is not the best in the 5MP league. There’s a fair amount of noise in the photos and even though the image processing algorithms suppress it, they also smear out the fine detail. Images are also slightly underexposed but at least there are no highlights and clipping in the shadows.

i9100

The images captured with the 8MP camera of the Galaxy S II are very good – there's low noise, plenty of fine detail and the color and contrast are good too. Colors are a smidge oversaturated while the white balance is a bit too cool for our liking.

i9300

Photos from the Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III are sharp and with very low levels of noise and plenty of detail. Color reproduction is okay, though greens seem slightly more saturated than reds and blues. The dynamic range is very good, too adding up to what is certainly one of the best 8MP shooters around. The Galaxy S III does a better job at finding the right white balance than its predecessor, even indoors under artificial lighting. The fine detail in the chart also pegs the Galaxy S III camera as one of the sharpest around.

i9500

Photos have a lot of fine detail and very little noise. Pixel peepers will notice oversharpening halos, but it's nothing drastic. Colors are accurate if slightly oversaturated and white balance is somewhere between neutral and cold (typical for Samsung phone cameras). The S4 preserves detail in the shadows, sometimes at the cost of detail in the highlights. You can use the HDR mode to remedy this.