Night pictures with the smartphone camera: three boys, one mountain, ten smartphones
22.8.2017
Translation: machine translated
During one night, we tested the ten best, newest and most interesting smartphones for their ability to take photos at night.
15.00: Together with Dario - Product Manager for mobiles and Andrej - Senior Account Manager for business customers, I set off for beautiful central Switzerland. More precisely, to the Glattalp near the rustic Muotathal. Where there are more Subarus on the road than anywhere else.
What we want up there
The aim is to test the cameras on our mobile phones in poor lighting conditions. Are our mobiles up to it? Is it really enough to have a mobile phone in your trousers to to take creative photos? Or do you have to own an expensive SLR camera? As we all know, smartphones are often useless in the dark. We wanted to prove the opposite. So we grabbed the ten best camera smartphones currently available and a 5D Mark III from Canon as a reference.
What we need to realise our plans
To take photos in the dark, you need a camera with which parameters such as ISO and exposure time can be set manually. The ISO value should be kept as low as possible, especially on smartphones, to prevent image noise. The exposure time needs to be played with a little. In most cases, we were best served with the longest possible exposure time of 30 seconds. Unfortunately, it was not possible to switch to manual mode on every smartphone we tested. You can also see this in the pictures.
In addition to a smartphone on which the parameters can be set manually or a DSLR, I recommend the following hardware:
The night
The ascent to Berggasthaus Glattalp was a little longer and more arduous than we had imagined. The cable car was out of order the morning we arrived. So we simply hauled our equipment up ourselves and, as a nice side effect, we were able to enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings a little more intensely.
After dark, it was time to put on our head torches. We looked for a suitable spot for the first photo session. The inn in the dark with a wonderful mountain backdrop was the first motif.
The aim of our comparison test was not to select the best possible sections and take the perfect photo, but rather to find out what the smartphones are capable of and which ones are best suited to the situation. Unfortunately, with some devices we didn't even have the option of changing the exposure time. In addition, all smartphones are equipped with different focal lengths. Thanks to a wide-angle lens, the LG G6 can capture many more images than most other devices. Such a lens can work wonders for nature shots in particular.
Steel wool
Andrej showed me some photos from his collection before our short trip. One in particular interested me. With steel wool, a whisk and some rope, it is possible to produce sparkling works of art. What could be better than the mirror-smooth Glattalpsee?
We filled the whisk with steel wool, attached the handle to some rope and then lit it and swung it. But watch out! Hot and dangerous! The vibration causes small, glowing pieces of steel wool to fly around and create shapes in the air.
Here it was relatively clear which smartphones have the longest exposure time. The iPhone couldn't even capture a full rotation. Only a circle three quarters full could be seen in the photo
Unfortunately, we had brought a demo device from Apple, which deletes all saved data after every restart. Therefore, there are no photos of the Apple device from our test. However, it would hardly have been possible to recognise anything on it anyway, as Apple does not install a manual mode as standard. As with the Google Pixel, Blackberry Keyone or Sony XZ Premium, the photos were far too dark to recognise anything. Mobile phones that allow longer exposure times have a clear advantage here again.
The differences between the lenses are clearly recognisable in the following series of images. Some are more wide-angle, others less so. Here, the LG G6 with its wide-angle lens again had a clear advantage. Thanks to this, practically the entire scattering range of the steel wool was visible. This was not the case with all the other smartphones. Either Andrej would have had to stand in deeper water or Dario and I would have had to move the cameras back a few metres.
The devices at a glance
So that you have an overview of the technologically relevant data for this task, I'll quickly summarise it for you.
Canon 5D with a 16-35 f2.8 lens
- Infinitely long exposure possible in bulb mode
- Lossless zoom
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 10 seconds
LG G6
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 30 seconds
HTC U11
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 32 seconds
Honour 9
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 30 seconds
One Plus 5
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 30 seconds
Huawei P10
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time: 30 seconds
Blackberry Keyone
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time at 0.5 seconds
Google Pixel
- No manual mode
- Maximum exposure time at 1/14 second
Sony XZ Premium
- Parameters freely adjustable
- Maximum exposure time at 1 second
iPhone 7 Plus
- No manual mode
The LG G6, the One Plus 5 and the HTC U11 convinced me the most. The LG in particular with its wide-angle lens is fantastic. But the Honor 9, the cheapest device tested, doesn't have to hide from the others either. With a little more patience and time, this device can also produce very nice photos thanks to the manual mode.
If you want to see the photos shown here for yourself, you can download them in full resolution and, if available, as RAW files.
Manuel Wenk
Communications Manager
Manuel.Wenk@digitecgalaxus.chAs a Multimedia Producer, preparing multimedia content and knowing about cutting-edge technology is my business. My main focus at digitec is producing videos. I can’t wait to try out new products such as cameras, drones or smartphones as soon as they’re launched. This is where being at the source comes in rather handy. When I’m not working, I’m probably skiing, biking or hiking – the mountains are my place to be.
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