[One (M7) General] One Twelve:
Why are you using a cellphone camera for commercial photography purposes ? On an full HD screen you can do a 2x zoom on a 4MP photo. If its not enough then use your feet to move closer to the subject. What are you going to do with the photo you want to take. You need to know this before you click.

You mean to say if its 8MP it suddenly becomes acceptable. Now you can 4x zoom. if 8MP is ok then i have to think that cellphone cameras have advanced a lot for to you consider them fit for this purpose. Let's call 2013 the year that cellphone cameras came of age. They evoke the statement i cannot believe you took this photo with a phone.

HTC is contrarian. They say less MP is better than more. The same camera module was used in the mini & the max.

As far as photo quality is concerend the htc one photo thread is an eye opener. So many people tried their best to show what the HTC can REALLY do as opposed to what people said it cannot. The biggest limitation used to be low light. if you want to do low light then you will take a hit in normal light. Other cameras (koreans) cheat when it comes to low light, they make an HDR image because they are optimised for good light.

HTC thinks speakers in the front is better than at the back. Nobody else wants to do this not even Nokia will dare to do it. I think this is a sad situation that only one company wants to do it. I fear for the day when they stop doing it.

I'd rephrase this to say that htc one auto works better than Z1 auto. Z1 auto does work, with good light and of late i've found people using it even with low light. This is an improvement over the last couple of months.

But frankly you can always do better than auto with any camera if you know the camera and the light it needs. EV comp is a simple example. You don't do that with either Htc one or Z1 in sun light and the shots will be overexposed. Then people say these phones are not good in sunlight (!)

Get to know the camera. Take a 1000 shots. This is like driving. once you drive 10,000 miles driving is something you do without thinking.

In the photo threads i notice the majority of photos are of still subjects. people complain the camera does not work well but these kinds of subjects are the easiest to get. Try to do it with subjects that won't sit still then you will know the difference. Then lower the light and you will see the limitations of the tech. there is a point where it works and a point beyond where the subject must sit still or you will not get the photo you want.

One wierd thing i've noticed is a slight change of camera angle or position can result in a photo with vibrant colour compared to one that is washed out because the light is different. Was looking at a macro photo taken with a k750i, this phone came out in 2004 and another with k850 & Z1. The k750 shot was the best. The light was perfect in that one but the more recent cameras could not reproduce the same colour. This means a 8 year old camera is better ? no, it means the angle changed and the light changed but the guy taking the photo did not realise it.

You do not have to be a pro. You just need to figure out how to get better photos. That starts with understanding the basics of photography. Playing with the camera and going click crazy until you learn its quirks. Every camera has its quirks.

What you just said is an excuse not to learn and just blame the equipment. Its gets repeated very often. It is unhelpful and will not get you closer to what you want.

The gap i find is the people that know about photography hang around cameras, whereas the people who do not know much about photography use phones. All of a sudden you now have this camera in your pocket and it makes usable photos. But how to get that ? If you're a geek then this is just another area to figure out. More photo geeks required.