Smartphone cameras have gone from being interesting additions to in many cases and for many users to being one of the fundamental parts of the terminal. On a daily basis, many people use their mobile device to take pictures and some even use it in their work to avoid having to carry a camera, which sometimes cannot take better pictures than our mobile terminal.
For all this the cameras of mobile devices have taken on an enormous importance, and manufacturers undoubtedly know it, being used more and more in offering cameras that allow us to take photographs of an enormous quality. However, it is increasingly difficult to know that you must have a camera to be good or not, or it seems to be worth it compared to another.
Today and through this article we are going to make things very easy for you and we are going to show you several fundamental characteristics that the camera of any smartphone must have to be able to tell if we are dealing with a camera of normal quality or a camera of outstanding quality. Of course, be careful because if you search all of them on a mobile device you may find yourself with a final price that is too high for what you were originally thinking of spending.
Megapixels are not everything
To this day there are still many people who value the quality of a smartphone camera by the number of megapixels they have. However, megapixels are not everything and although they are important, they are not fundamental, unlike what many users believe.
For the camera of a mobile device to be up to par, we must pay attention to the lens having 8 or more megapixels, since in this way we will get an image with sufficient resolution. If our intention is to zoom on the images continuously, perhaps we should look for a camera with 13 megapixels that allows us to have a little more resolution.
What certainly does not make much sense is launching ourselves in search of a camera with 41 megapixels, which will result in images with a high resolution, but also with a disproportionate size. The key is to find the ideal for each user, without falling short and without going beyond what is necessary.
Aperture, the key to a bright photo
If a large number of users allow themselves to be guided when assessing the quality of a smartphone camera by the number of megapixels, there are others who put the aperture first to decide whether they are facing a quality camera or not. Of course neither one nor the other gets it right, although we have to say that openness is one of the most important aspects to consider.
And is that the aperture of a camera, reflected with a number behind a lowercase letter f, indicates the amount of light that we can capture. Currently most mobile device cameras use apertures f / 2.2 and f / 2.0, although the Samsung Galaxy S6 offers a brighter one offering f / 1.9.
To assess how a smartphone camera should be, it must have an aperture of at least f / 2.0, although there are variants of this data that can help us get images of enormous quality.
As a point, we should not close this section without telling you that at higher luminosity, we will obtain brighter and clearer photos, but at the same time the depth of field will be reduced, so keep it in mind at all times.
The sensor, a fundamental part
A camera can bring together a lot of interesting features with which to offer us the possibility of taking quality images, however if it does not have a good sensor, we can be talking about how much it tries to do so, it will not be able to offer us quality images.
Today in the market there are not too many manufacturers of camera sensors and Anything out of Sony's IMX family and Samsung's ISOCELLs is not going to be a great idea. For all this, keep a close watch that the camera of your new mobile device has one of these sensors if you want to get images of considerable quality.
The most popular sensor today and with which the results are more than guaranteed is the Sony IMX240 that we can find it in most terminals of the Japanese manufacturer, but also in the main flagships of Samsung. Any sensor in this family will make a great sensor for a mobile device.
Optical stabilizer, a fundamental component
The optical stabilizer is one of the fundamental parts of the camera of any smartphone and yet it goes completely unnoticed by most users. This is in charge of correcting those small movements of our hand when taking the picture or the scene itself. For example the optical stabilizer will play a very important role when taking a picture of a moving object such as a car and it will be essential when it comes to ensuring that the image is sharp and of quality.
Today, acquiring a terminal whose camera does not have an optical stabilizer, is in our opinion something without much sense, and that is that who more or less does not have a perfect pulse and if we acquire a terminal whose camera does not have an OIS will notice it largely when checking the pictures taken.
If you want to zoom in with the camera of your mobile device, make sure that it always has an OIS, better or worse, but that it does.
Without software nothing makes sense
Despite the fact that the camera of our smartphone has an outstanding sensor, a quality lens and an optimal aperture, all this will be useless if the post-processor software is not up to par. And is that In most cases, good software to process the images is so important that the camera itself.
Today most mobile devices incorporate quality software for image processing, but sometimes we find some great ones in this regard, especially in terminals coming from the West at really low prices.
Before launching to acquire a mobile terminal whose camera has 30 megapixels, try the camera if you can and analyze very well all the components and especially the software that it uses to process the images.
Look for a nice interface that you can customize
If you have already managed to find several terminals whose camera complies with all the aspects that we have been reviewing, it is important that you do not decide on one or the other without first knowing if we are facing a pleasant and above all customizable interface.
And is that When taking photographs it is important that the process is simple and that above all you feel comfortable doing it. There are mobile devices on the market that incorporate high quality cameras, but whose interface is too complicated for any user. Taking photographs on these devices becomes little more than mission impossible.
It is also important that we can customize the camera of our smartphone to our liking, in some cases to get more out of it and in others to simply feel more comfortable when using it.
Opinion freely
Perhaps it sounds very obvious to say that the more money we invest in the purchase of a mobile device, the better options we will have in the camera, and although this is not true in all cases, it is in a large majority. Acquiring a terminal of the high-end call brings with it the possibility of enjoying a high-quality camera, which allows us to take very good photographs and that we can also take advantage of at any time and situation.
Sometimes not all of us can buy a high-end smartphone and we must look for other options with a lower price. Fortunately the market has been filled in recent times with mobile devices with high quality cameras and that it has a price that we can all assume with greater or lesser effort.
However, our recommendation is that if what you are looking for is a mobile device with a large camera, that you can use in any situation and that offers you without exception the possibility of taking high quality photographs, it is that you scratch your pocket as much as possible And you go for the purchase of one of the great looking for badges on the market such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, the LG G4 or the iPhone 6S, because its camera will not only leave you totally in love but it will allow you to take photographs of an enormous quality.
What smartphone would you buy in your case if what you wanted is to have a high-quality camera?. You can give us your opinion on this issue or on anything else related to the cameras of mobile devices in the space reserved for comments on this post or through any of the social networks in which we are present.