Cell phone with a good camera?

[DisneyBabies]

DH and I are eligible for an upgrade on our smart phones in November. I'm honestly not sure where to start looking to research new ones. I know cells don't have great cameras, but we'd like ones that have "pretty good" ones at least. It doesn't have to do a lot of "stuff"; mostly texting, a few games, pictures, phone calls ... I won't be using it to type up a research paper or anything.

We have Nokia 928's right now and Verizon is our carrier if that makes any difference.

Any advice?

 

[5kidsmommy]

My son has a Sony Xperia Z3V, the camera is amazing, so amazing that I told him I want to borrow it for my upcoming Disney trip.
Edit: We are on verizon too.

 

[sunshinehighway]

By November there might be some new options. Many cell phones are very good cameras. You should wait until it's time to upgrade and look into it then.

 

[bcla]

Apple has a series of ads showing photos that were taken by customers using an iPhone 6.

https://www.apple.com/iphone/world-gallery/

 

[DisneyBabies]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to take a look at the ones you recommended and see what DH thinks.

I'm sure there will be another 100 phones that come out by the time November rolls around and that's part of the reason I'm starting to research now. I don't care about having the newest phone, I want one that takes good pics. I don't want to get the "newest" thing only to find out later that there was a phone out six months before that was better.

 

[Poohforyou]

I love my galaxy 5s.

 

[wenrob]

iPhone 6 has a great camera IMO and I use a full frame DSLR with some pretty fancy lenses. It does a great job in all sorts of conditions and has a fairly quick reaction time for a phone camera.

I finally nailed this shot with iPhone 6 after years of failed attempts with far better equipment. It's a very hard shot to get! (Auto HDR, burst and a lot of luck, lol)

 

[sunshinehighway]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to take a look at the ones you recommended and see what DH thinks.

I'm sure there will be another 100 phones that come out by the time November rolls around and that's part of the reason I'm starting to research now. I don't care about having the newest phone, I want one that takes good pics. I don't want to get the "newest" thing only to find out later that there was a phone out six months before that was better.

as a general rule of thumb, the phones that are the newest, flagship type devices are the ones with the best cameras. Everything gets improved with each new model, including the camera.
You probably aren't going to get the newest phone and find out an older model had a better camera.

 

[mom2rtk]

I love my galaxy 5s.

I just got a 5s and have not been too excited with the results. I suppose I've just gotten too used to my full frame DSLR!

Perhaps I need to stop trying to use it in low light situations.

 

[mom2rtk]

iPhone 6 has a great camera IMO and I use a full frame DSLR with some pretty fancy lenses. It does a great job in all sorts of conditions and has a fairly quick reaction time for a phone camera.

I finally nailed this shot with iPhone 6 after years of failed attempts with far better equipment. It's a very hard shot to get! (Auto HDR, burst and a lot of luck, lol)

View attachment 113499

That's pretty remarkable. I missed that shot at 25K ISO on our last trip!

 

[wenrob]

That's pretty remarkable. I missed that shot at 25K ISO on our last trip!

You know, I nailed the old man in the cabin with my D750 finally but that particular shot had eluded me with the D90, D700 and the D750. I couldn't believe when I finally got it with the iPhone 6. Mostly he is about timing when the light hits him. I think it's cause I had more freedom to move with the phone.

 

[disney world dreamer]

your current phone has an 8.7mp main camera with a 1.2mp front facing camera.
personally if you want a better camera i'd go with a samsung galaxy 5s. it has a 16mp main camera and 2.0mp front camera.

 

[bcla]

your current phone has an 8.7mp main camera with a 1.2mp front facing camera.
personally if you want a better camera i'd go with a samsung galaxy 5s. it has a 16mp main camera and 2.0mp front camera.

I don't generally think in terms of megapixels. The light gathering ability and accuracy of the lens and sensor is what makes a good photo. A friend is a part-time freelance photographer, and his Canon 1D (circa 2001) will blow away pretty much any camera phone. It's only 4 MP, but it's ability to gather light is ridiculous. He could still use it today and get great web ready photos.

 

[lsyorke]

Samsung s6 has an awesome camera!

 

[wenrob]

your current phone has an 8.7mp main camera with a 1.2mp front facing camera.
personally if you want a better camera i'd go with a samsung galaxy 5s. it has a 16mp main camera and 2.0mp front camera.

Megapixels does not a camera make. Too many megapixels on a very tiny censor can be detrimental to the quality of the photo. It'll pick up much more camera shake and actually show more noise. What matters is the quality of the censor and lens, the light gathering capabilities that bcla points out.

I don't generally think in terms of megapixels. The light gathering ability and accuracy of the lens and sensor is what makes a good photo. A friend is a part-time freelance photographer, and his Canon 1D (circa 2001) will blow away pretty much any camera phone. It's only 4 MP, but it's ability to gather light is ridiculous. He could still use it today and get great web ready photos.

 

[mombrontrent]

Me and my DH both have an iPhone 6 and are very happy with the quality of the pictures.

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

Samsung s6 has an awesome camera!

I was just coming here to post the same. Unreal camera, highly recommend. That being said, the phone is very expensive so I wouldn't just go buy the phone for the camera unless you actually need a new phone as well.

 

[sunshinehighway]

I was just coming here to post the same. Unreal camera, highly recommend. That being said, the phone is very expensive so I wouldn't just go buy the phone for the camera unless you actually need a new phone as well.

The s6 camera is really great. It blows my s5 away and I like my s5 camera.

 

[LJSquishy]

Basically all phones these days have great cameras...it's a matter of practicing and learning how to use the settings on them. Most people just take a photo without changing settings and they will turn out okay but you can take amazing shots with fiddling with settings.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I just got a 5s and have not been too excited with the results. I suppose I've just gotten too used to my full frame DSLR!

Perhaps I need to stop trying to use it in low light situations.

I've found that if you set the S5 camera on Auto, it does a lot better in low light situations than it does with manual settings. I took some pictures in low light with my S5 that wouldn't have come out any other way.

I love my S5 camera, and love even more the fact that I can put a micro SD card into the phone and store my pictures on that rather than the camera drive. Much more space! I didn't like the fact that they got rid of this feature on the S6, so stuck with the S5.