Gadgetory

we reviewed the HTC one over a month ago but ever since our guided tour of the camera on the Samsung Galaxy s4 viewers like you have been clamoring for us to whip up a similar video for HTC's Android flagship ok I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is your guided tour of the camera on the HTC one much breath has been expended on whether the ones four megapixel primary camera with its oversized or ultra pixels is worth all the hoopla HTC claims but we're not going to get into that conversation again here for more on whether the ultra pixel camera on the one is right for you check out our multiple device reviews and camera comparisons at pocketnow.com and while you're at it follow us on social media so you don't miss future content for now it's enough to say that if you use your smart phone camera principally for casual shots and social media sharing the one will probably offer more than enough functionality for you understanding how to use the ones camera starts with knowing how to open it because it's important a camera app opens quickly when you're trying to get a time-sensitive shot in the most straightforward way is to tap the camera icon in the dock when the phone is in standby and unlike on other devices that also works from the lock screen there's no drag or fancy gesture here just tap it to open it's not quite as handy as a dedicated camera key which we wish every phone had but it works the shortcut is present in most lockscreen modes including photo album which scrolls images from a selected gallery on your lockscreen jumping into the camera you'll notice the first thing the software does is show you how much memory is remaining in terms of minutes of video and number of stills you can capture it that's handy but it does vanish after a second to get out of the way we'll mention here that we are running an older software version on our HTC One due to an update problem the updates haven't changed much in the viewfinder though so this should look similar if not identical to those running updated builds starting on the lower right we see HTC's filters folder some preset overlays you can apply to photos before shooting them these are nothing new if you've played with previous HTC smartphone cameras and other manufacturers have gotten into the filter game too but HTC really has the most useful and fun range of filters for our tastes including some with adjustable intensity depending on how subtle you're feeling we'll also note here that the one offers the standard touch to focus support allowing you to decide where you want the camera to focus in a long shot you'll notice that the camera will also take its exposure level from the area you tap on as well that's typical for HTC and also typical is that this effect is a little exaggerated with Wilder swings compared to other devices on the upper right is a thumbnail of the last photo or video taken which also doubles as a shortcut to the gallery between that and the filter toggle are the two most important buttons on the camera the shutter release for still photos and the record button for video now these are always displayed with no need to switch modes between Stills and video an outstanding time-saver that HTC pioneered in modern Android smartphones the last item on the right hand side is the zoom slider of course there's no optical zoom here even though there is optical image stabilization so digital will have to do but it's a handy slider to have around considering the volume keys don't work as zoom toggles as they do on other devices at least not by default the pinch to zoom is supported as well if you're used to that in the upper left is the flash selector which lets you manually control whether the flash is set to on/off or automatic based on light level in the left-center is the dedicated toggle for Zowie probably one of the most talked about features of the HTC one at first glance zoe's just look like short videos and you wonder what the point is well aside from brightening up the gallery zoe's offer a lot more utility because they're hybrid captures 3.6 seconds of HD video alongside about 20 still frame captures at 6 frames per second a photos that you can scrub after the fact to find the best one you want to keep it's a much more elegant solution than burst shot but that feature is still here found just by holding down the shutter release you can capture up to 20 shots in just a couple seconds and the software can even choose what it thinks is the best shot while discarding the rest sometimes it works well and other times not so much but you always have the option to save or delete all photos you won't notice a front camera selector in the ones camera viewfinder because HTC has made it invisible to shoot a self-portrait you just swipe the screen up from the bottom or down from the to switch to the 2 megapixel wide-angle front-facing shooter it's happening anywhere on the screen then starts a 2 second countdown to a still shot hopefully minimizing jiggle that would otherwise result from a button press jumping into the menu on the bottom left corner we can see the deeper level customizations HTC offers up top is a toggle to switch between main and secondary cameras in case you don't like or don't know about the swipe action the next one down is the scene selector which allows you to optimize the camera for the usual portrait and landscape shooting modes as well as more exotic alternatives like text mode this appears to increase contrast and sharpness to call out letters while backlight does its best to compensate for those occasions when the Sun is behind your subject macro is of course for close-up shots and while we generally find performance to be just fine an automatic mode for close-ups macro is useful in extreme situations below the scene submenu are a couple modes HTC thinks you might use more often night mode improves on the ones already excellent low-light performance not by illuminating more of the scene but by reducing noise levels on what is captured it seems and of course there's our old favorite HDR for high dynamic range photos taking multiple photos at multiple exposures stitched together to create one nicely balanced image usually and the last option in the photo capture mode submenu is sweep panorama which offers the nice inclusion of an artificial horizon to keep you steady while you take your shot we've talked about the ones video performance in other contexts and we're focused mainly on photos in this tour but the ones camcorder does offer several modes for high and low speed filming in addition to video HD are further down our simple settings like the self-timer duration just in case you've got a smartphone tripod with you and you want a self-portrait as well as a cropping selector for square or rectangular shots the default setting is wide on our unit then for some reason there's a video quality selector not really sure why this isn't paired with video capture settings above and routing out the simple stuff is review duration which lets you choose how long after you snap a shot you want to see the photo you just took diving a little deeper we opened the image adjustments category to find well sliders for exposure contrast saturation and sharpness we're used to seeing exposure control and viewfinders but seeing individual adjustments for the other three it's pretty rare it's also rare that most folks will use these as these tweaks can be made with photo editing software after the fact even right on the device as we explained in our galaxy s4 camera tour ISO refers to the sensitivity of the image sensor the lower the number the less sensitive the sensor and the finer the grain you can force the ISO manually higher to capture more light in darker situations about the picture will be much noisier and the ones low-light performance is so good anyway that most folks will probably want to leave ISO in automatic white balance refers to the desire to keep objects that are white looking white and it allows you to compensate for lighting that might affect that like incandescent or fluorescent bulbs and even direct or cloudy sunlight continuous shooting governs settings for the burst mode we Illustrated before including the option to disable the 20 photo limit face detection will set focus to prefer faces the camera detects and auto smile capture allows the one to withhold shooting until it detects that a subject is smiling a fun if gimmicky feature there's also support here for geo tagging as well shutter options contain a feature that to some is the Holy Grail the ability to disable the shutter sound when snapping a photo there's also an option here to replicate a feature from Windows Phone enabling it allows you not just to tap in focus but tap focus and shoot all with one action at this point in the menu we start to wonder why HTC decided against a tabbed approach but not to worry we're near the bottom another way word video option here allows us to lock focus when shooting disabling the autofocus mode we prefer below that is the toggle for the photographers grid assisting with rule of third type composition and below that the ability to auto upload photos but sadly the sole option offered is flicker which we don't use but if you do pray thankfully other apps like Google+ offer similar functionality lastly of course just in case you've messed everything up and want the nuclear option is the option to reset the camera software back to its defaults this is your Hall Pass to experiment with settings as much as you like so do it once you get the hang of which ones to fiddle with and which ones to leave alone these settings all lead to photos which hopefully come out balanced and looking just the way you intended if not you can use the ones powerful on device editing suite to apply filters add frames and even retouch photos by removing redeye and face shine adjusting lighting and cropping flipping and rotating to your heart's content it's a very in-depth editor and it will eliminate the need for most folks to look to third-party apps to tweak their photos it's a very nice piece of software to have onboard the finished shots end up in a gallery that thanks to an innovative but intuitive layout and features like Zowie is much more alive and much more fun than other manufacturers gallery apps we've covered this gallery along with HTC's video highlights and HTC share in an earlier video go check that out in the interim we hope we've shown you that as on the galaxy s4 the real story isn't in what the raw camera hardware can do but the fun the camera software lets you have and on the HTC one that's a lot of fun plenty for the mythical average consumer that's going to do it for your guided tour of the HTC One camera if there's something we missed leave us a comment below if you enjoyed the video throw us a like and pay nearly 300,000 subscribers can't be wrong subscribe to our channel if you don't want to miss our future content also follow us on our social media outlets and stay tuned for a lot more from pocket now thanks for watching we'll see you next time you you