The LG G2 is new on the scene and, although it shoots at a maximum of 13 megapixels, has a standard 1/3" class sensor, albeit (nominally) optically stabilised. The OIS itself, at least in my steady hands, will come into play more in the second part of this shootout, when I tackle video capture, but LG does seem to have a fairly good handle on image processing, with some stunning results from what is (relative to the monsters in the Nokia Lumia 1020 and 808) quite a small sensor, as you'll see.
Methodology notes
- My aim here was to capture my subject in the best way possible using each phone camera. Although I didn't tamper with settings, i.e. things were on 'auto', I varied the level of PureView or other digital zoom if appropriate. Add in a mix of different original resolutions (5MP/8MP/10MP - the latter from the G2 in 16:9 mode) and you'll see why the crop framing doesn't quite match up below. Hopefully you'll still get a good idea of the quality of output that each phone is capable of.
- The degree of crop also varies from test case to case, depending on how large the subject/detail was in the original frame. If you want to do your own crops then the original JPGs are also mostly available, linked in each case, should you not agree with my own assessments!
- I cannot emphasise enough that my intention here was not to denigrate the Lumia 920 camera - it's simply standing in for the 'everyman' camera phone, and is up against three devices for which the camera is a major selling point. But hopefully the 920's inclusion will provide a sense of perspective of how good the other three devices actually are.
- I've scored each photo from each device, partly for fun, to look at the total at the end, out of 90. Yes, my scores are completely subjective. I can't help that!
PLEASE NOTE: scoring any roundup like this depends hugely on the subjects and conditions. What is depicted below is a selection of subjects that span the gamut of challenging real world photo-taking situations.
Test 1: Sunny landscape
Down at the local ford in sunshine, the handy depth board at the other side provides a good reference point for detail. Here's the overall scene:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
This first shot really sets out the Lumia 1020's mission of taking the naturalistic shots from the 808's sensor and sharpening and saturating them - the end result is impressive though, always staying just the right side of over-processing. The G2 struggles to compete here, with blown out highlights and evidence of too much image processing, making the end result look somewhart artificial when examined in detail.
Nokia 808: 8 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 10 pts; LG G2: 6 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Test 2: Partially sunny landscape, digital zoom
Again with a degree of zoom, this time on all four devices, simply to get me closer to the (horse) subject. Here's the overall scene:
Not withstanding that the horse moved (naturally) while taking the photos(!), here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (again, click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
Again, the Lumia 1020 knocks it out of the park, with a zoomed image that's incredibly clear and detailed. Again, just the right side of over-sharpened. The 808's image is probably closer to what's being registered on the sensor, but it's somehow not quite as satisfying to the eye. The G2 doesn't claim to have lossless zoom, but its native resolution is high enough that I thought I could risk playing with zoom anyway - judging from the blotchy result here, I think I was wrong to try zooming at all? Ditto the Lumia 920, of course.
Nokia 808: 8 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 9 pts; LG G2: 5 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Test 3: Zooming to the max
Having had mixed results with a degree of zoom above, I thought I'd try again, but at full PureView zoom on the two Nokias (2.5x), and this time with a static subject that wasn't going to go around munching grass between shots! Here's the overall scene, shot across the house-tops in bright overcast conditions:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
There is nothing like brickwork and regular detail to cause systems with heavy image processing to come a cropper, and this is true here. The Nokia 808's shot here is nigh on perfect, with no image processing at all - look at the brickwork beside the window. Then look at the brickwork in the 1020 version (over-sharpening causes speckles/noise, purely artificial detail that's not really there) and in the G2 version (such heavy noise reduction that many of the cement rectangles get lost altogether). Look also at the detail in the white window frame - the 808 shows perfect white and detail, while the 1020 starts introducing noise and the G2 fails to resolve detail in the frame altogether.
In fairness, the G2 and 920 don't make any claims in terms of digital zoom (let alone 'lossless', as with the Nokia PureView twins), but I'd expect a 2013 smartphone camera with a zoom control to not mess things up too much... However, I'll back off the zoom tests for most of the rest of this feature.
Nokia 808: 10 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; LG G2: 5 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Test 4: Sunny macro
Let's step towards the typical comfort zone of an Android-powered smartphone camera - macros. Here's the overall scene, sunshine and water on an ivy leaf:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
In truth, all four phone cameras do a decent enough job here, though the snaps from the 808 and 920 are a little blown out, in terms of handling the sunshine reflections. The Lumia 1020 and G2 both do very well indeed, but I'll give this to the G2 by a nose because the greens in the photo look slightly more realistic.
Nokia 808: 7 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020 9 pts; LG G2: 10 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 6 pts
Test 5: Sunny greenery
An acid test for any camera's image processing is how it handles greenery - masses of detail with very similar colour. Think grass or, as here, a tree, shot over my garden fence (and with a little PureView zoom used on the 808 and 1020, to get 'past' the fence and to better frame the subject). Here's the overall scene:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
As you might expect, the Nokia 808's photo looks utterly natural, with perfect detail and colouring, there's no image processing at all going on here (apart from the usual PureView oversampling) - this is how it should be done. The Lumia 1020 rather changes the colouring in favour of brighter, more saturated greens (to my eye, the 808 nailed the colour) and you can see how the sharpening is just starting to damage the image quality. However, this is nothing compared to the mess the G2's photo turns out to be. Cropping into the 10MP photo reveals a blotchy, noisy mess in completely the wrong colour, with even the venerable Lumia 920 producing a much more realistic image.
Nokia 808: 10 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020 8 pts; LG G2: 4 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 6 pts
Test 6: Good light, indoor macro
Another macro, hoping to get the G2 back into its comfort zone, this time in good light of a wristband of my daughter's. Here's the overall scene:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
Focussing this close is tricky for the two Nokia PureViews, since there's a much larger minimum focussing distance (a consequence of the optics used), so in each case I had to hold the phone slightly further away and then use some PureView zoom back 'in'. The LG G2 absolutely nails the shot, with perfect colour (the lettering really is gold-flecked and not silver) and detail. Stunning. The 808 gets close in terms of detail but messes up the colour, while the 1020 gets close in terms of colour but clearly has trouble focussing perfectly at this distance. Curiously, so does the 920, so maybe it's an issue with (or limitation of) Nokia Pro Camera, the application used on both devices?
Nokia 808: 6 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; LG G2: 10 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Test 7: Low light indoors, static subject
It's a typical moody indoor shot, naturally lit (so no flash), with the focus being on the radio. Here's the overall scene:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
Now, with low light comes the supremacy of Nokia's larger sensors in the 808 and 1020, in theory. The 808 achieves an almost perfect photo here, with very low levels of noise, good detail and fairly accurate colours. The 1020's algorithms cause the image to descend into a slightly noisy, dithered mess, if you look closely enough, plus the fascia of the radio is really silver. The G2's photo is also slightly mis-coloured, with a slight red tint, though LG's image processing does make a good fist of managing the noise, especially for such a relatively small sensor. The 920 nails the colour (perhaps overly so, it looks like daylight!), but is again quite noisy.
Nokia 808: 8 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 6 pts; LG G2: 7 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 5 pts
Test 8: Party beer!
It's my archetypal mock-up of the typical party/pub/event shot - a moving subject in artificial light. Here's the overall scene:
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
Ah yes, moving human beings indoors. It's the realm of Xenon flash and the scourge of LED-equipped Android and iOS phones across the globe. As expected, the G2 produces a blurry, unusable mess, while the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 manage to freeze the moment. I'd give the nod to the 808 here, with more natural skin tones, while the Lumia 1020's 'party' shots all tend to have a slight yellow cast, but there's really not much in it. The 920 only manages to catch my face because it wasn't moving quite as much as in the other shots, but you can see from the beer can that there's significant motion blur here too.
Nokia 808: 9 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 9 pts; LG G2: 3 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Test 9: Night shot
The ultimate test of sensor, optics and OIS is to try an extreme low light photo. Here's the overall scene (note that I had to set focus to infinity in the three Nokias, while the G2 managed to get a reliable focus lock, which was impressive; in addition, I had to increase the ISO manually on the 808 to get its photo comparable to the other three):
And here are central crops of the salient detail from (going clockwise from top-left) the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 920 (click the device names for the original JPG images, if you want to do comparisons yourself):
The photo that looks closest to reality is the Lumia 1020's, with good colouration and with the OIS producing a wonderfully crisp scene, even though I was shooting handheld. The G2, also with OIS, gets close in terms of detail, but adds a reddish tint again - the effect isn't unpleasant, but it's not how the scene looked to me. The 808, without OIS, suffers from the effects of a 1/3s exposure when handheld and there's a slight blurring of the shot due to hand wobble.
Nokia 808: 6 pts; Nokia Lumia 1020: 10 pts; LG G2: 8 pts; Nokia Lumia 920: 4 pts
Verdict
Adding up the points gives us:
- Nokia Lumia 1020: 75
- Nokia 808 PureView: 72
- LG G2: 58
- Nokia Lumia 920: 37
Which is a very fair summary of my impressions after taking so many shots and scenes with all four smartphone cameras. The Nokia 808 flies the flag for ultra-natural photography very well, but is starting to fall behind in not having OIS, plus there's the not inconsiderable issue of the underlying platform and the continuing withdrawal of support by Nokia. The LG G2, the newest challenger, does wonders with a standard sized sensor in most light conditions, but falls badly behind when light gets low, especially for living subjects, while the reference device here, the more humble Lumia 920, even with its fixed up camera software, simply can't capture good enough photos when tested at this level.
Leaving the Nokia Lumia 1020, performing well in almost every test above and (leaving aside the no-longer-produced 808) head and shoulders above the 2013 smartphone competition when it comes to still photography.