Today almost all phones come with a camera and you even get high resolutions on higher models. For under Rs. 10,000 you can buy a smartphones with at least 5MP primary camera and above.
Is the phone camera as good as the digital cameras?
A digital camera is meant for clicking photographs, whereas the camera on a smartphone is an add-on feature. Do not expect it to perform as good as the digital cameras.
The built in LED flash on the phone camera is also not as powerful as the one found on the digital cameras, and hence the image quality will be rather disappointing in low light conditions or indoors.
I have used many of the high end as well as the low cost handsets. On high end phones the default camera auto modes are really good and you can get going without any manual settings. But on low cost phones like the Micromax A90, A90s and A110, Karbonn A11, Spice etc. and many others, you might want to update the default settings for better output.
The camera features on your mobile phone do come with lot of settings; we have seen this on the A110, A90 and many other phones. Start the camera and use it normally with default settings. For best result try both indoors and outdoors.
When using the camera if the image quality is dull with pink (or any other colour) tint you will need to try different camera settings to fix the issue.
When you are using the camera watch the image quality on the screen and compared it with the real subject. There is no need to click the images, just watch it on the phone screen (camera mode). Try focusing on any red coloured object do you see it as it is or does it look pink. If you see different colours you will need to adjust some of the settings to fix it.
Check out the image below with pink tint and one without it. All that I did was to change the hue, saturation and some other settings from low to medium. As you change the settings you will immediately notice the difference on the phone camera view screen.
Here are some of the settings you can fiddle with
- Sharpness (high).
- Hue (medium).
- Saturation (medium).
- Brightness (medium).
- Contrast (medium).
- Exposure (+ or -) depends.
Once you change these settings you will find a considerable amount of improvement in the picture quality. You can also try using different scene modes like sunset, daylight, night etc instead of auto mode. In video mode you can apply the same settings.
With trial and error you will get an idea about the settings that work best. Outdoor the results will be excellent whereas indoors it may not be that good. Remember the camera flash is not that powerful, for indoor photography light up the environment as much as you can and when using flash be as close to the subject as possible.
Hope these small tip will help you get better clicking next time!