Expensive! From what I've read the point of the Silver Line was to aim for the top end? Not that the Nexus devices aren't high specced and great value, but I guess we will see more luxurious materials etc?
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Nexus 5
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Expensive! From what I've read the point of the Silver Line was to aim for the top end? Not that the Nexus devices aren't high specced and great value, but I guess we will see more luxurious materials etc?
Maybe we will finally have a stock Android phone that doesn't have crap battery life and a crap camera.
Oh yes it does. Just about any camera can take good shots outside. In low light the Nexus 5 really struggles. In fact, OIS does more harm than good.
The way Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) works is that the lens itself is able to move slightly. So by leaving the shutter open longer, you can let OIS compensate for more subtle hand movement. In theory this works well because a longer shutter means more light gets in without having to increase ISO, which would increase image noise. The problem is that OIS is only advantageous when the only thing in motion is the hand. So if you are simply taking images of props sitting still or landscapes in low light, it works out. But if there is any motion that isn't your hand, OIS's attempted compensation leaves the shutter open longer meaning more motion blur. OIS has this disadvantage in and of itself. What makes it worse is Google's camera app thinks OIS is better than it is, so it expects OIS to do a better job than it will. This means on the software side the camera app thinks it can leave the shutter open longer. But OIS isn't as good as Google thinks. This makes images more susceptible to motion blur than just your standard camera with OIS, like for example some point and shoots with OIS.
Also, the Nexus 5's camera is slow to focus, especially in low light. It takes much longer to focus even compared to my fiance's iPhone 5. Accurate color coming through the optics is also questionable. And Google's noise reduction algorithm is far too liberal in low light shots, and this is not user changeable AFAIK. Plus, video mode does not support tap to focus while already recording.
But sure, flower shots in bright daylight don't suck.
I dont know the last time you had one but it isnt as slow now. Its been updated a couple or few weeks now. I think the camera on the N5 is better than the M8.
I've had mine since day one. I am on my third replacement unit BTW. All for backlight bleeding. Camera has been poor on all of them.
Well, that's your opinion, from my experience the Nexus 5 camera is easily as good, if not better than my iPhone 5 was. You sure it's not the photographer as opposed to the camera?
The Nexus 5 is not slow to focus, and reading your comment above you are implying OIS in general is crap, so a £5000 professional camera is useless if it has OIS, or a £10,000 lens is useless if it has OIS?
Nope, Nexus 5 camera I have has performed brilliantly in BOTH high and low lighting conditions.
I even remember when my iPhone 4 camera used to totally over expose part of my dogs face as it couldn't handle his fur, thank goodness we moved on from that!
As a photographer and VFX artist I know when a camera is subpar.
And you statement about OIS clearly shows you did not understand what I said. Maybe go back and read it again.
So do you expect a smartphone camera to match thousands of pounds/ dollars worth of equipment?
And I understood what you said about OIS but in my eye's you are wrong, maybe because I don't work with very expensive camera equipment day in day out then I find the Nexus 5 to be very capable and I have taken great indoor and outdoor photos, in good and bad light. They have worked on the software massively and it focuses very fast now.
So if you take a camera to take action photos you are saying you never use OIS in a lens then because according to you, it doesn't work in those situations?
Photographer's wouldn't be using a phone camera. None of them are great. I think the nexus 5 camera does a nice job though the S5 camera is a lot better.
I'm not a professional photographer so I don't really care why OIS isn't that good on it. If the low light pic isn't that good, I'll turn on the flash.
OIS in and of itself isn't bad. OIS paired with good camera software can make a great camera. Google's camera app just thinks OIS can handle more than it actually can. This was already explained earlier.
Standard argument that a lot of people on this forum continue to use "if you want a good camera then go buy a DSLR."
Using an argument like this is just avoiding the fact that the Nexus 5's camera falls short of other flagships. In regards to the camera on the Nexus 5, you really do get what you pay for.
Not for me. As i said and as at least one other has said, the N5 camera is better than the M8 camera so it isnt falling short there. Im not avoiding anything. I dont think the camera is bad. It isnt up to the S5 quality but it isnt bad either.
Im just saying a professional photographer who is anal about his pictures most likely wouldnt be using a phone camera and you sound kinda anal....and im not saying it to be a jerk. You just seem to like high quality pics and went as far as to tell us why the OIS sucks on the N5.
I think these pics are pretty good myself. Sorry about the size, thats how they upload to Photobucket.
First one is in low light.
Last one is before any updates.
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Took these photos with my Nexus 5.
These ones after the last software update I think:
Then these were taken before the last software update:
And this was taken not long after I got the phone I think, but it must be at least 2 Nexus 5 camera software updates old:
These ones after the last software update I think:
Then these were taken before the last software update:
And this was taken not long after I got the phone I think, but it must be at least 2 Nexus 5 camera software updates old:
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Go back and ready my quote. I said the Nexus 5 falls short of other flagships, not "falls short of all other flagships." Big difference. You yourself even say it falls short of the S5. Well the Nexus 5 camera, IMO, falls short of the iPhone 5s as well. And the G2, Note 3, Z2, Find 7/7a, and from the look of some shots, the OnePlus One as well. The Nexus 5 falls short of a lot of flagships. But like I said earlier, when it comes to the Nexus 5, you get what you pay for. And that has essentially been my argument this entire time.
How do you not see how grainy that first image is? Even after Google's liberal noise reduction algorithm and Photobucket reducing the resolution, image noise is still extremely obvious.
Natural light is coming in on all your other shots. And its low light shots that have been my topic of discussion.
All of those are in outdoor lighting. Even an iPhone 4 can take good shots in those conditions.
The update made the N5 camera less slow than it was originally, but it's still slow. And now it's much more likely to take a picture before it's done focusing. Still waiting for the the android update that was talked about recently which is supposed to have another camera update.
Mine is, and from what I've read online that seems typical for the phone.
Those are all objects just sitting there perfectly still. The problem is taking pictures of people and other moving objects. The camera isn't terrible but it's slow and often fails to focus under some conditions.
N5 camera serves the purpose well enough. Take a quick snap on the go.
Sure it's not better than all the other phone cameras, but I find the images quality is on par with my wife's iPhone 5s. That's pretty good consider the phone costs half of the iPhone and other big brand androids.
If I want and care about image quality I would bring my D800 for the serious shooting. generally the N5 is capable enough for everyday snaps.
Sure it's not better than all the other phone cameras, but I find the images quality is on par with my wife's iPhone 5s. That's pretty good consider the phone costs half of the iPhone and other big brand androids.
If I want and care about image quality I would bring my D800 for the serious shooting. generally the N5 is capable enough for everyday snaps.
Even after updates the Nexus 5 struggles to focus quickly. Quick snaps on the go don't turn out well in low light. And quality certainly is not on par with the 5s.
OK, then dont buy one and if you have one, get something else that is to your liking. The S5 camera i think is great but i think my N5 is fine for what i use it for and the overall phone id much rather have than a tiny 5s while the cameras are on par imo.
Im not one to have 100 pics on my phone. I have like 30 and will be deleting some of them because i used it to take pics of something i put on eBay.
I agree, if you find the 5S to have a better camera then sell you Nexus 5 and buy an iPhone 5S. Its not rocket science.
But he would need to sell two N5s to get the iPhone or the S5.
Performance relates to budget. The reason why they can offer the N5 at such low prices because they are not using top end components on some parts of the phone. The N5 camera performance is reasonable at it's price point.
It's like comparing the BMW 328 is not as fast as the M3. But dude, the M3 costs twice as much as the 328.
For $300, I found the N5 is totally capable of everyday quick snaps and the image quality is on par with the iPhone and many other high end phones, IMO.
If you can't get the low light shots right with the N5, I think it's more of the photographer problem than the focus problem. Sure it's not the fastest lens out there but it's not to the point where you can't get low light shots right. FYI, the HDR+ mode gives me great result especially on back-lit subjects. If that doesn't work, the flash is meant to be used.
I find it funny that people care about phone camera quality so much. If you are serious with image quality you should not be shooting with a phone in the first place. Mirrorless with cropped sensor cameras are pretty compact nowadays.
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Well at least one person understands being on a budget.
To everyone else:
The Nexus 5 is a good phone for the price. But with the Nexus 5, you get the camera and battery life of just about every other $350 phone out on the market. If you remember, which you probably don't since people here typically just go on off-topic rants, I originally stated that with Google's silver line being rumored, we might finally have a solid bloat-free stock Android phone with a good camera and good battery life and isn't crippled by Google making compromises to stay on budget.
But you can all ignore my original statement and avoid the fact that the Nexus 5 makes compromises to meet its price point. Fine by me.
Not arguing but the Nexus 5 has the best camera by far from all other Nexus devices by a wide margin.
None of the others had great specs and the Nexus devices were never meant to have great specs since it was always a developer phone. Now, im sure those developers are complaining that they are being discontinued and wont be as cheap. I remember at XDA they never wanted the Nexus phones to be popular.
Those Silver devices may be better quality but they also wont be cheap as they have been either. I read the price is most likely going to go up. If they are as much as the others, it wont matter since you can just buy any of them you want since the price will be about the same.
There goes your "budget".
1. That was never the argument.
2. It wasn't hard to beat the Nexus 4.
That was true until the Galaxy Nexus. It was the first Nexus that started moving over into flagship territory. The Nexus 4 was the first and most obvious. 2GB RAM, high PPI screen (for the time), and the fastest CPU out. All of these combined were only on a couple other phones, all of which costed nearly double the price. Same principle for the Nexus 5.
But again, whether or not the Nexus line is a flagship isn't the argument.
Ok cool.
That was never something I debated. In fact, the price going up is a good thing for camera quality and battery capacity. It means they are more likely to be better. Now you are finally understanding what I was meaning in my very first comment.
I don't understand your reasoning. You understand that N5 made compromises to meet it's price point yet you are complaining that Google crippled it. The compromises aren't even that bad. The camera performance and battery life are decent for normal usage. Both categories are greatly improved from the N4.
Sure they can use all top performance parts for the phone but it wouldn't cost $350. At $350 it's already packing a nice 1080P display, LTE and the fastest processor at the time along with 2gb RAM. You will not get the best phone in every single aspect for $350. There's always trade off.
IMO the $350 N5 makes the other $600 high end phones look bad, to the point that I think no phones worth more than $400 if the N5 level phone could be had for $350.
You should go back to my original post that started this ridiculous debate from people who never read. My comment was in response to the rumors of higher end "Silver" phones from Google. Higher end phones will likely cost more, but will likely have better battery life and a better camera. Apparently stating what I consider to be fairly obvious causes every stereotypical android fan on this side of the forums to flip at the slightest hint of negativity towards their precious Google.