[Xperia Z1 General] Luinwethion:
Nice ones!

So, not long ago in a spanish forum, people were complaining about the quality of the Superior auto mode, and they also said that is was not acceptable for the user to have to learn how to use the manual mode to get great pictures.

Of course you won't expect for a normal user to know everything about photography, but a basic knowledge would help...

But it's important to learn how to deal with your camera to take good pictures.

Just a little basics to understand the results of the pictures I took.

Aperture: Well in mobile phones the aperture is fixed, to be simple, aperture is the size of the hole in a camera lens... the bigger the hole the lighter the picture can be... Of course it will affect other things like distortion and etc etc... No need to understand it now.

Shutter speed: Is just the amount of time that the sensor captures light, the slower the shutter speed is the brighter the picture, BUT if the camera or any object moves during this process, the picture will be blurry, that is how those beautiful highways pictures are taken, the camera is steady and the cars are moving, with a very low shutter speed you can capture those kind of pictures.

ISO: In old film cameras we had films with different sensibility for light, the higher the sensibility the lighter the picture will be, in digital camera you can choose the ISO per shot, so the sensor will be more or less sensible.

And then you think, well, just select a higher ISO and then we have the perfect night picture, well, no, in higher ISO you will also get more noise, this grain effect on the picture.

Why I'm I telling all this nonsense just to "defend" Superior Auto?

Well, when taking pictures in automatic is your phone that do the math to select the ISO and Shutter speed... but superior auto does even more, it analyses the live view feed to select the best scene, where other cameras only match the good combination for a good light, Superior Auto will analyse the picture, so if it thinks that the picture is a portrait, it will select the portrait option, if you focus on a moving object, it will try to take the picture with a faster shutter speed to avoid blurry... And so it goes.

But Superior Auto also tries to compensate another factors, like a "shaky hand", if the phone isn't steady, Superior Auto will again try to avoid blurry pictures. How? Well, faster shutter speed, and higher ISO... And the result is? Yes more image noise.

Also to calculate the scene Superior Auto needs a second or two, just to get thing right. So don't press the shutter button before the camera is even open, give it a second.

And now the interesting part, pictures!!!

Just remember:

Lower ISO = Less noise and less light

Higher ISO = More noise and more light

Lower shutter speed = More light and a bigger chance to get blurry pictures

Higher shutter speed = Less light and a lower chance to get blurry pictures

A good balance between those two = The perfect picture

Here a few examples, the only thing I did was turn the flash off, the first pictures is made holding the phone with one hand and using the other hand to take the picture with the hardware camera button.

The second pictures are taking using the on screen button and trying to hold the phone steady, in some cases placing it somewhere.

See the difference in ISO and shutterspeed.

1/32 sec

ISO 500

1/20 sec

ISO 400

1/32 sec

ISO 1600

1/16 sec

ISO 500

1/25 sec

ISO 1250

1/16 sec

ISO 800

1/125 sec

ISO 2000

1/64 sec

ISO 800

1/125 sec

ISO 2500

1/64

ISO 1000

1/32 sec

ISO 1250

1/16 sec

ISO 400

1/100 sec

ISO 2000

1/32 sec

ISO 800

1/25 sec

ISO 1600

1/16 sec

ISO 640

As you see there is a big difference in ISO in some pictures, but why?

Well, the first pictures ware taken while I was holding the phone with one hand and using the hardware camera key, so the phone wasn't steady. and it needed to take the picture with a higher shutter speed and ISO to avoid blurry images.

The lesson is:

Don't use the hardware camera key, use the on screen shutter button, hold the phone with your 2 hands, don't stretch your arms, keep it close to your body, hold you breath, if needed lean om somewhere or someone...

It may sounds crazy, but when I'm taking pictures at night, I try to place my phone somewhere and gently press the screen to take the picture.