The best smartphones for photography

The boom of smartphones in recent years comes packed with several features that make these devices almost an essential in our day to day almost unlimited connectivity, enough power to run all kinds of applications and games and great networking boom social as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, among others, that prompt the user to share a good deal of personal information, with the photograph one of the most attractive claims.

So, we went from carry around a digital camera and a separate mobile to enjoy, since not many years ago, from smartphones capable of capturing images with a high quality, every time, with better sensors and more megapixels. But as is natural, the industry is progressing with conformist character to overcome over and over again, by offering products that until very recently seemed unthinkable to most.

And this is where we come to the latest models of smartphones able to match or surpass the image quality of most digital cameras in the market, we never enter the field of professional cameras or semi-professional-terminals with spectacular photographic features outperform cameras just a few months ago. So much so that with the advent of models like the Nokia Lumia 1020, Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom or Sony Xperia Z1, and there has been a technological leap in camera smartphones, tens of megapixel, large sensor or optical zooms are just some of the pleasant surprises in store for us the new terminal Android and Windows Phone, but not forget iOS and novelties of the chamber of the new iPhone 5S. Then we approached one selection of the best smartphones dedicated to photography.

Nokia Lumia 1020

Today, the Lumia 1020 is the king of photography in smartphones, Nokia surprised everyone with the specifications of its new Lumia terminal. Up to 41 megapixel PureView technology accompanied with a very similar design to its smartphone high end, the Lumia 925. But what really catches the eye model at hand are impressive figures devoted to photography with a large sensor and other features like a 3X digital zoom or xenon + LED flash . But do not forget that we are dealing smartphones last generation, so its hardware not far behind, in the case of the Lumia 1020, Nokia has opted for a Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and up to 32 GB of internal memory -64 GB exclusively for Movistar, yes, no possibility to expand, a minor setback for a terminal of its kind.

Its screen is 4.5 inch AMOLED ClearBlack PureMotion HD + High sensitivity, almost anything with Gorilla Glass protection 3 and to a resolution of “only” 1.280×768 pixels, being at a disadvantage to other terminals with 1080p resolution. The set comes complete with USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi, with a 2,000 mAh battery, all, of course, under the operating system Windows Phone, the standard Nokia handsets. But here is the real protagonist of the Lumia 1020: the PureView camera.

Thus, the sensor reaches 41 megapixel 1/1.5 inch size and backlight. The signature lens Zeiss and is composed of six elements with a brightness of f2.2 and is capable of recording video at 1080p at 30 fps with zoom of four increases, reaching six increases recording at 720p. The xenon flash is and allows you to capture images in motion with a great quality, while resorting to double LED in the video capture, all with optical stabilization or second generation.

In addition to the Nokia Smart Camera Mode, the function opens Lumia 1020 Nokia Pro Camera, a very useful application to take advantage of all the technology that incorporates the terminal level photography as greater control of white balance, ISO sensitivity, and the speed or shutter opening. We can also purchase a special housing that incorporates a handle to better manage smartphone as if it were a camera with dedicated buttons and the ability to attach a tripod also incorporates a extra battery of 1,020 mAh. With three colors-yellow, black-white, the Lumia 1020 is available at a price of about 700 euros, today, the best option to level smartphones for photo lovers.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

The S4 Galaxy of Samsung is breaking sales records worldwide, further expanding its offer with all kinds of versions: S4 Galaxy Mini for the base model is too large, Galaxy S4 Active for lovers of adventure sports or the present one, the Galaxy S4 Zoom, a version specially prepared for photography, half smartphone half compact camera. And it offers unique features in its category as a spectacular zoom up to 10x, making a hybrid between an Android phone and its own Galaxy Camera. Thus, the Galaxy S4 Zoom falls below the Galaxy S4 thanks to hardware more modest-close to the Galaxy S3, with 4.3-inch SuperAMOLED display and 960×540 pixel resolution and dual core processor ARM Cortex A9 1, 5 GHz . Perhaps for this reason, and because of the nature of the device, Samsung has focused its most playful, incorporating all kinds of characteristics of compact cameras.

Its front design is based on the Galaxy S4 though once in our hands we discovered a very different back panel, closer to the look of the Galaxy Camera with a considerable thickness and a relief that functions handle , and the real star the set: A 10X zoom lens and aperture f / 1:3.1 – f / 1:6.3 with xenon flash , and is adept excel goal can reach up to 6 inches at the highest magnification, something to note if you consider its thickness of 15.4 millimeters, something big and heavy for a smartphone but more interesting for a camera. The set comes complete with 1.5 GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory expandable to 64 GB via microSD card, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC 2,330 mAh battery, all under the operating system Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

The sensor is larger than that mounted smartphones traditional 1/2.3 inch, up to 80% larger-allowing you to capture more light and come to a resolution of 16 megapixels and optical stabilization backlit pictures. Although the most relevant feature is its spectacular S4 Zoom 10X optical zoom, superior to any other similar model, achieving superior image quality over long distances even allows manually configure photographic, with the level of models like the Olympus VH-520 or the Nikon Coolpix S800c, yes, with the benefits of a smartphone today and its editing capabilities and connectivity. It is available at a price of 499 euros with a large collection of programs and applications dedicated to photography.

Author:
Joyesh Chakma