It’s not a well-known part of Barcelona, but it’s where I staid during the Mobile World Congress. The second day I got the Sony Xperia Z and after two full days at the Congress (and on the last morning for me) I found it a more attractive alternative to walk around the older L’Hospitallet de Llobregat, which is in fact the area where the MWC took place for the first time this year.
I brought the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Sony Xperia Z :-) The weather wasn’t really great after a while: it became quite cloudy, so sometimes I had to shoot the same picture in shades. I hope to give you a proper comparison, of these two camera’s. Remember the Nokia Lumia 920 has an 8MP sensor, whereas the Xperia Z boasts a 13MP one.
Once again, all settings are on auto. I used no tripod, these are just meant to be the same snapshots most users make (or so I think at least). Why not the Nokia 808 PureView? I just liked to keep that out of the comparison once – just a quick and dirty comparison of the newest camera smartphones. The Nokia 808 is a league of its own, as we all know.
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
Nokia Lumia 920
Sony Xperia Z
I hope you liked wandering around Barcelona with me a bit. I would have loved to be able to bring the HTC One on this trip as well, but… alas. You’ll be your own judge of which shots you like best. All originals on the PureViewClub Photostream on Flickr!
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Is the 920 the first picture in every pair?
Why do you think I made a mistake? Something wrong?
of 920, bad white balance (too yellow) and images too saturated
sony is better
I like the Sony Z’s more living colours.
But the Lumia shows more details.
Nice to have a choice, isn’t it?
Fantastic to have a choice. That’s why I’ll keep comparing :-)
From my brief look at the first 3 images at full resolution, it is clear that both brands process the image differently. Sony has gone for the consumer smooth silky low noise styled image people tend to enjoy, whereas Nokia has decided to leave some grain noise in the image. Sony’s higher resolution sensor shows up the 920′s not so high res sensor in the first image, where clearly the noise has affected the way the bricks have been rendered. On the next two shots though, strangely this advantage is gone, and it seems the extra resolution is not helping resolve any more detail what so ever. Infact I dare say the over zealous use of noise reduction has softened the image to a point, where it starts to look like a water colour picaso. Nokia 920, with it’s far less conservative approach to noise reduction has reaped far more punchy 3d like images, whist retaining alot more detail, abeit mixed in with noise. For some this is perfectly acceptable and in fact adds character to the image.
Colour reproduction, Sony has done well, and everything seems very natural and just right. Nokia, has decided to push the saturation and sharpness up a tad, to the extent I think images have been over sharpened, plus with the additional saturation, all images in this case looks more picturesque, with the possibility of being postcards. While this saturation is a welcome for scenic landscapes and architectural building shots, it may not apply for capturing peoples skin tones, hence why we see Sony leading the way for skin tonality in the previous portrait comparison.
Overall, both camera phones are head to head, I would give the 920 a slight lead over the Xperia Z, purely as I do not like over noise reduced images, and the detail achieved from the 920 is pretty much on par with the higher megapixel Xperia Z
I really love comments like yours – I’m just a fan of camphones, not a pro photographer. Thank you!
thanks marc, i just love tech, especially in digital cameras. I may come down as a little critical, but hey, this is 2013, and if Nokia with the 808 has made it possible to get amazing shots with the 808, then why can’t other competing models like Sony, Samsung, and even the newish nokia 920 get close to this benchmark.
Sony didn’t know how to use megapixles,increase in megapixles doesn’t increase the Quality
You will get a big poster but of a bad quality
That’s why 808 pureview is called a great innovation
920 clearly winner here against xperia Z
it could if the technology allows it. In the case of Sony, they are jumping the gun, and have increases megapixels before technology to make better small pixels has arrived. It is clear the introduction of BSI tech has improved noise to a degree, but it still is no where up to the level when we can use 13mp. In my opinion 8mp is too high hence why 920 to has issues with noise and noise reduction at low isos even. Think HTC has the right idea here, lower mp higher quality
I read here and there the XZ has not the best cam. but as i have a 808 i hate the yellowish tint on the 920 pics, the XZ seems to produce more natural colours , even if its not able to produce the liveliness of the 808 pics from mine. Nokia has a great technique in their 920, why theyre destroying it with so much software changes in the pic. Perfect for everybody would be if the cam captures rawlike material like 808 and then the phone ask: would you like to autooptimize the pic?
when you say “software changes”, do you mean the image has been processed prior to being made into a JPG? The reason why the 808 has so much latitude and malleability is due to the much more expensive and larger sensor. The 920, unfortunately is alot smaller, and alot more processing has to be done to make the image somewhat usable, part of which is the removal of noise and then adding saturation back to make the image “consumer” happy.
Yes, processing was ment with softwarechanges. But noise i thought were only a problem in case you have not enough light. And the long exposure plus ois in 920 is there to make a lot of light, so why they need noise reduction and saturation processing?
the sensor is way too small, so even in good light, noise reduction is required. hence why the htc one tries to reduce mp, to get larger pixels, and hence hopefully less noise reduction. The saturation is like a developing style. It is like a sifnature style for nokia.
That is why i like the 808 as is has pureview and the pixel binning simulates having larger pixelx.
right, i like my 808 for these things to, bu it seems for me that it´s only good for stills pictures (without moving people in it for example),i shoot often with tripod and iso50, even at iso1600 the shutter-lag seems worse than say a galaxy s3. Hopefully Nokia combines in the next WP best of both worlds. 20-30 MP (or 18mp from pixelsize like N8) with a BSI sensor and shorter shutter-lag. OIS would be nice, but best with adjustable exposuretime in expertsettings, so we could make creative 2 minute-exposure pictures too.
I have not noticed shutter lag issues with the 808, although the burst speed is a little slow, ie shot between shot. If you are worried about focus, as long as subject is a good 1.5m away, selecting hyperfocus instead of autofocus reaps, good action results.