Gadgetory

hello I'm mark welcome to Android Authority two of the latest hottest and most powerful Android smartphones are the Samsung Galaxy s4 and the HTC One as expected these Android Titans come not just with awesome displays and processing power but also with interesting cameras and camera features in this video join me and looking at the Galaxy S Force and HTC One S camera more closely between the two the galaxy s4 seems to have the better camera thanks to its sweet sounding hardware specs by Mir pixel can alone it seems to have a big head start over the HTC One 13 megapixels in all meanwhile don't be too quick to demean the HTC one slow megapixel count just yet HTC takes pride in its new ultra pixel camera a 4 megapixel shooter yeah small right but with larger pixel size for capturing more light both cameras can reach up to 4 times digital magnification and can record 1080p full HD videos the HTC One though has optical image stabilization while the s4 uses digital image stabilization which of the two cameras provide quality photos and videos will answer that question later for now let's first talk briefly about the camera interface and features on both phones the galaxy s4 inherits some of the camera interface elements from the Galaxy camera button layout is similar both also use the camera mode Castle and the shade 4 preset filters there are new buttons menus and filter presets - meanwhile the HTC one's camera UI resembles that of its predecessors only a few changes have been made to the camera UI for instance the toggle button for HTC Zoe is placed prominently along the same side as the flash toggle and the Settings button so what do the two cameras have in store Furze quite a lot actually both cameras offer several filters and effects that you can apply immediately to your photo as you are snapping it the HTC one has a longer list of effects and filters but we've already seen them on HTC phones such as the One X or even the HTC Sensation but that's not a bad thing at all in fact HTC's effects and filters produce really cool looking photos though I personally find the filters and effects on the galaxy s4 more interesting and more fun one thing I like about them is that each filter thumbnail acts as a mini preview of that effect it actually looks cool and I like it a lot aside from camera effects and filters there are also the various shooting modes that make camera use convenient and fun let's look at the galaxy s4 first the galaxy s4 includes shooting modes that first debuted in Samsung's other earlier releases but there are a few new modes and features - drama mode is one new feature it captures several photos of a moving subject and combines them resulting in a dramatic portrayal of an action another new feature is animated photo for capturing a still photo with some of its parts animated it's a cool effect eraser shot is a new handy feature the phone tries to detect moving or unwanted objects in the background of the photo and lets you remove the unwanted objects sound and shot is an interesting concept it captures a still photo and records a few seconds of the background sound at the same time dual shot is also another interesting feature it captures photos and videos using the front and back cameras at the same time lastly there's auto night detection which detects slow lighting and adjusts camera settings to capture clear and well exposed photos without firing the flash those are some of the fun and interesting new features of the galaxy s4 camera what about shooting modes and features on the HTC One on the HTC One you get exactly the same bunch of features from previous HTC releases plus one new and interesting camera mode known as HTC Zoe HTC Zoe reportedly leverages the HTC ultra pixel camera by capturing up to 20 still photos in very quick succession plus a three-second mp4 video the resulting image set and video are collectively known as a Zoe Zoe's in the gallery app appear as animated thumbnails you can playback Zoe's if you like you can even select and export a single frame from a Zoe from out of a Zoe you can also create something similar to the S Force drama mode shots best face shots and eraser mode shots just tap on the retouch button for the drama mode shot choose sequence shots for the best face shot choose always smile and for eraser mode shot choose object remove remember to save your edited work before moving on to comparing actual image samples let me tell you a bit about video recording on the two phones both phones can record 1080p full-hd videos as well as slow motion and fast motion videos the s4 can capture slow-mo in high-definition but the HTC one downsizes the resolution to 768 by 432 both can capture fast motion videos in 1080p full-hd the HTC one though has an advantage it can't capture 1080p full HD videos with high dynamic range or HDR on the s4 HDR is available only for photos via the rich tone shooting mode now let's find the proof in the pudding and compare the output quality of these cameras we took photos in various settings to see how each camera performed the image sets can be divided into four general categories studio shots indoor shots daytime outdoor shots and nighttime outdoor shots first let's begin with a semi controlled environment inside a makeshift studio our goal was to compare image quality of photos captured with the same amount of lighting and across various ISO speed ratings this first set used auto ISO settings the Samsung folio is sharp and vibrant and uses a standard 4 to 3 aspect ratio the HTC photo has somewhat subdued colors with greenish bluish tint uses the 16 to 9 aspect ratio and has a wider field of view here's the second set using ISO 100 the Samsung Photos still captured rich and vibrant colors some parts of the HTC photo are slightly clearer and less washed out than its auto ISO version the differences in this batch are nearly the same as in the previous batch this third set uses ISO 800 which is the maximum setting for the s4 although noise and grain become perceptible on the Samsung photo it still captured rich and vibrant colors the HTC photo was still subdued and has some greenish hue quite similar to its auto ISO version after some fiddling with HTC photos exif data we found that the photo was taken at ISO 1 to 5 instead of ISO 800 we also tried snapping an image at ISO 1600 on the HTC one but the phone continued to insist on using ISO 125 to compare the quality of images snapped under dim lighting we took indoor photos a little natural outdoor light was available through a nearby window but no house light was on the galaxy s4 image size was set to 13 megapixels with a 4 to 3 aspect ratio at HTC one to 4 megapixels with 16 to 9 aspect ratio here's the first batch of indoor photos shot in normal or auto mode the HTC once photo came out brighter and less noisy but observe the textured background more closely it looks smooth and out on HTC one but seems sharper and more detailed on the s4 photo onto the next batch of indoor shots this time using flash here's the HTC one photo it shows some yellowish tinge but the colors are preserved and appear realistic and this one's from the s4 it has some bluish tint because of the flash here's the last set of indoor shots these were shot in night mode night mode surely helped the s4 snap a clearer and brighter photo of the HTC One night mode seems to negatively affect quality as it produced a grainy photo with subdued colors Photography is all about lighting that's why the time outdoor photos often turn out awesome but even under bright lighting some cameras just produce more awesome than others which of these phones gives more awesome here our daytime outdoor photos shot in Auto mode both phones used the highest image resolution using a 16 to 9 aspect ratio this means 9 megapixels on s4 and 4 megapixels on HTC One as expected both images came out sharp crisp and well lit the HTC ones image came out a little bit overexposed and washed out though it had a wider field of view we also tested the digital zoom capability of the two phones here's the s4 photo of a subject zoomed to maximum and here's the one from the HTC One samsung photo caught more details than the HTC one thanks to a higher megapixel count many people love photographing objects up close so we took some sample close-up and macro shots first the results the one on the left is from the s4 the one on the right is from the HTC One the HTC photo has sharper contrast resulting in a clearer view of the subject but also making the colors too vivid it was also able to blur out the background a bit the samsung photo seems to have struck a nice balance of contrast and sharpness resulting in a clear and realistic image take note that the galaxy s4 doesn't have macro mode we also recorded some sample Clips to check the quality of outdoor video recording interestingly in these sample Clips the s4 s digital image stabilization seems to perform much better than the HTC ones optical image stabilization the s4 video appears more stable and shows less shake and less jitter colors on the s4 video also seem to be more realistic compared to the contrast and colors on the HTC video we stumbled upon this refreshing side of water spreading and gushing upwards then cascading down into a pool we took some photos just to see how well the phone's captured photos of moving subjects both images came out while Expo crisp but I like the galaxy s4's image better because it appeared crunchy err sharper and realistically coloured it also maintained focus the HTC photo appeared washed out and slightly overexposed it also lost some focus on some part of the image and we also grabbed the chance to test the two cameras slow-motion recording the HTC One can do slow-mo only at 768 by 432 pixels but the Galaxy s4 can do up to 1280 by 720 High Definition most users avoid taking pictures at night because the photos tend to be noisy and darker that's because of the lack of adequate lighting but are things two phones able to produce night photos with acceptable quality here's a set of outdoor images taken at night the cameras were a normal or Auto mode trying to brighten up the images the s4 and HTC one ramped up their ISO levels result bright yet noisy images as shown by the overpowering bright lights from street lamps and nearby buildings in this set the background lights drown out the tree outlines on the HTC photo but such outlines are perceptible on the samsung photo here's a second set using night mode night mode helped brighten up the photos a bit but didn't solve the noise issue the background lights on the HTC photo appeared to intensify and finally a third set using HDR mode on both cameras the bright background lights on the s4 photo seemed to mellow down a bit but noise is still present the s4 image actually seems to have balanced the lighting levels quite better than the HTC one did the HTC photo became noisier and had some eerie glow for the background lights so far I've shown you sample photos of scenery shot at night what about closer shots of objects here are some sample close-ups of an object this first set used auto or normal mode the HTC photo appears dimmer and darker the s4 photo captured more light and more detail we enabled flash thinking that it could help with the lighting deficiency both photos still came out dim but the flash did throw in some extra light to make the subject more visible and clearer the Samsung photo came out with a bluish tint and a bit overexposed the HTC photo came out dimmer but the subject was definitely visible and clear and not too much of the light from the flash bounced off the subjects body finally we checked how well the two phones can record videos at night the galaxy s4 produced a darker noisier and softer video than the video from the HTC One in terms of image stabilization though I find the galaxy s4 clip smoother the HTC clip has more jitter and looks more shaky many people buy Android phones not just for the phone features but also for multimedia features such as photo and video capturing the galaxy s4 is 13 megapixel camera offers a good balance among Hardware camera features and output quality it became my personal choice after we did the photo and video tests yet the HTC ones 4 megapixel ultra pixel camera is not to be easily dismissed either it does perform well in many of the test settings that we tried it seems to perform quite well in low-light environments and HTC Zoe is quite an intriguing new feature offering flexibility though I find it a bit too roundabout what about you on the basis of camera power which is your preferred Android phone the Samsung Galaxy s4 or the HTC one let us know in the comments for more Android guides news and reviews visit android authority comm remember to subscribe to our youtube channel i'm mark thank you for watching until next time and remember the power of Android is yours