More black leather than at a Hell's Angels bike meet.... the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA!
In truth, aside from the '6-axis OIS', there's little that sets the KODAK EKTRA apart from a number of other Android phones with decent cameras, but the styling and marketing here hype the EKTRA up, so I wanted to put some pixels and stats into the comparison relative to my no. 1 contender here.
Notes:
- Both smartphone cameras shoot at 16MP in a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I can crop down to 1:1 and there should be no issues with framing, other than minor differences caused by the optics.
- All shots were on full 'auto', apart from manual focussing on some of the macro examples.
- In each case, the overall scene is shown as the Lumia 950 sees it - you'll say this is because this is AAWP and I'm biased, but it's more that the AAWP audience will be very familiar with the Windows 10 Camera image processing, so it's a known starting point. And I steer clear of digital zoom, which is just about the Lumia 950 camera's only weakness, so it's a damn good starting point too...
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Test 1: Sunny scene
My standard suburban shot in weak winter sun. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Not bad from the EKTRA, but its image, when you look closely, is more 'processed' and 'artificial', compared to the Lumia 950's. I put this down to higher quality optics in the Lumia, plus more mature image processing.
Lumia 950: 10 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 9 pts
Test 2: Into the sun: HDR
Forcing HDR on, a shot into a bright sunny sky. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This one's more of a score draw and I wasn't happy with the results from either phone - perhaps I was expecting too much. The 950 XL blew out the brighter parts of the sky too much while the EKTRA's detail again looks too dark and too processed.
Lumia 950: 8 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 8 pts
Test 3: Sunny macro
Taking advantage of a ray of bright sun through the window, a semi-macro of a trainer, which I thought came out nicely as a piece of still life. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This is interesting, the Lumia photo has an artificial pink tint, perhaps influenced by pink elsewhere on the shoe? Either way, even allowing for the warmth of sunlight, the shoe should be whiter than this. The detail in the laces is sumptuous, though. In contrast, the EKTRA's photo nails the colour (i.e. pure white), but the laces are slightly out of focus, the depth of field didn't quite extend that far, though if you grab the full shot then you can see that the front of the shoe, with the logo, was perfect, so we'll write this one down as different focal points on the subject.
Lumia 950: 8 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 10 pts
Test 4: Stark detail and contrast extremes
Still in the low sun, but stark winter detail of a heavily pruned tree. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Interestingly, it's the EKTRA that gets the colours wrong here, with the illuminated trunk not quite golden enough and with the rich blue (patchy) sky reduced to a pale turquoise. In contrast (pun intended), the Lumia 950 nails the scene (to my eyes).
Lumia 950: 9 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 7 pts
Test 5: Low light
In a curtained room, in quite dim light, a picture on the wall. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
As ever, low light picks out the men from the boys when it comes to camera phones. Here, despite the newer OIS, and with the same exposure (1/7s), the Ektra's photo is dramatically noisier - this surely has to be down to immature software, driving the ISO higher and not handling pixel level noise well?
Lumia 950: 10 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 7 pts
Test 6: Flash time
The same picture as above, from the same distance, about 2 metres, but this time with the LED flash units activated. Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
The EKTRA does better with more light, but the result is still slightly noisier than the Lumia's. Then it gets points for greater detail and less over-sharpening on the picture frame, but loses the points again because it gets the wall colour wrong (it's white). A small win for the Lumia 950 here.
Lumia 950: 8 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 7 pts
Test 7: Night time
My standard suburban dead of night scene - as usual, the Lumia makes it look (below) lighter than it was to my eyes! Here's the overall scene, as shot by the Lumia 950:
In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and KODAK EKTRA, click the links to download. And to look at the images in more detail, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This is interesting - the Lumia 950's OIS lets it take (this is all handheld, of course) a 1/3s exposure, and with incredible control over noise - almost night into day. The EKTRA goes for 1/14s exposure - I'm guessing the OIS isn't in the same class as the Lumia 950's - the software certainly doesn't put enough faith behind it - and both units shoot at around ISO2000. Your own eyes tell the story above, in the comparator - it's light and clean and clear versus dark, noisy and murky!
Lumia 950: 10 pts, KODAK EKTRA: 5 pts
Verdict
For the record, from this somewhat small (seven) pool of test photos, the score was:
- Lumia 950: 64/70pts
- KODAK EKTRA: 53/70pts
In short, there's very little evidence of real imaging expertise in the KODAK EKTRA - it's outclassed on the whole by the 16 month old Lumia 950 (and also by most other top camera-toting smartphones from late 2016) - which is a shame, given the hype and pretensions.
I even wonder about the '6 axis OIS' - there's precious little evidence in the results that this is present.
In fairness, you do get a neat retro form factor, free (even more retro) leather pouch, plus a camera interface that rivals Nokia's/Microsoft's, with (again retro) thumbwheel selection of camera modes. But it's not enough until KODAK gets its imaging software in line - maybe this will come with future updates?
In the meantime, the Lumia 950/XL's mantle as perhaps the best overall camera phone remains. Its closest competition as of now is probably from the Google Pixel/XL and iPhone 7 Plus.
(Thanks to Clove for the KODAK EKTRA loan)
See also my older features: