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Leica's Leitz Phone 3 could revive a beloved Samsung camera feature
Variable aperture is coming back to smartphones, but availability might be a problem
Leica is a well-known and respected name in the smartphone world. The German-based camera manufacturer provides sensors to some giant smartphone producers, including Xiaomi and Huawei. Meanwhile, the brand has a dedicated smartphone lineup you might have never heard of. The Leica smartphones are mainly focused on offering top-notch camera specifications, reflecting the company's traditional field of activity. While there is no data about Leica's smartphone sales, the firm has another product in the pipeline, the Leitz Phone 3.
This frustrating Pixel 8 camera bug may be keeping your photos in the dark
The widely reported issue has been submitted to Google for a fix
If you don’t consider yourself to be a professional when it comes to photography, you’re not alone. Thanks to the advancements in mobile camera technology, most of us no longer have to worry about that — our phones can help us capture moments as beautifully as possible with a single tap. Those who do know a few things about the art, however, will be quick to tell you that light is everything when you’re taking a picture. For this reason, phone manufacturers are continuing to focus on the improvement of technology to account for lighting variation. On a device like the Pixel 8, for example, you can usually tap on your display within the camera viewfinder to adjust to the lighting in your environment. Now, some Pixel 8 owners are finding that this isn’t the case.
The Galaxy S24's Instant Slow-mo is the kind of AI party trick I can get behind
It's imperfect, but the S24's AI-powered slow motion feature has promise
Samsung's Galaxy S24 phones are the kind of minor year-over-year refresh we've come to expect from the world's second-highest selling phone brand. Samsung is leaning hard into AI-powered functionality in selling its new phones: Galaxy AI can, for example, help you write text messages, or generate transcripts of voice recordings, complete with labels for different speakers. It also powers a feature Samsung calls Instant Slow-mo, which, as its name implies, instantly applies a slow motion effect to ordinary videos in the Samsung Gallery app.
AP's top tips and tricks for perfect photos on your new Google Pixel Fold
The bendy form factor has its advantages
The Google Pixel Fold is among the best foldable smartphones you can buy. It brings a distinctive design, top-notch performance, and quality cameras. While the hardware in the Pixel Fold's cameras isn't as good as the latest Pixel 8 Pro, Google's software magic and image processing prowess make for a better camera experience.
Samsung may stick with the Galaxy S23's main camera sensor into 2025
Cost-cutting or letting software take the lead?
We’re only about a month away from the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S24 family, which means that the leaks are only going to get meatier in the coming weeks. While there’s a lot to get pumped about, today’s development could potentially dampen some excitement, especially for those hoping for significant camera upgrades.
What features are in Google's camera app and how do you use them?
Google's camera app has features to help you take the best photo or video for any situation
Google's Pixel phones are some of the best Android phones available and are well-known for their advanced camera technology. With each new release, Google pushed its camera app into new territory. In 2017, Google's computational photography changed how smartphone cameras process images. Since the Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro launch, you have professional levels of control over how images are captured. Let's look at the modes and features Google's camera app offers.
Phone cameras are better than ever, so why don't I care?
Nobody wants to use garbage, but phone cameras often get too much attention
Few things irk me more than sitting down to watch an introduction of a new smartphone only to have 30 minutes of a 45-minute presentation dedicated to cameras. We’ve seen videos shot by Ridley Scott, documentaries on the Sahara, and any number of other over-the-top demonstrations of what a new device’s camera can do. Unfortunately, unless the new phone also comes with tuition for four years of film school, I won’t get anywhere near the same results. However, it’s not the companies that deserve all the blame; consumers are also responsible for this trend.
What is a Time of Flight sensor and what does it do?
A very popular feature used on many modern smartphones
Regarding smartphone photography, these devices continue to impress and produce incredible results as mobile camera technology advances. One of the more challenging aspects of capturing quality images is understanding depth information, which is the distance and how close or far objects are from the lens. This allows even the most affordable Android phones to have improved autofocus, which offers a better camera experience in challenging scenarios. Photography is only one of the many uses a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor can provide a smartphone or mobile device. We cover some other popular examples in the guide below.
Google's Camera app is getting a minor facelift
An updated app icon and reorganized settings are coming soon
We're coming up on the official unveiling of the Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro next month, and Google is getting its Camera app ready for the occasion. Per a report on the reputable Google News Telegram channel, Google Camera v9.0 is on the horizon, and it looks set to bring a bunch of small tweaks to the camera UI, including reorganized settings and a new app icon.
If you have a top budget Android phone and often receive pictures from your friend's iPhone, you may have noticed the .heic file format. While the HEIC file format has been around for a while, its popularity skyrocketed when Apple adopted it with the introduction of iOS 11 in 2017. This image file format packs compressed data, location, date, and more. HEIC is often known as High-Efficiency File Format and offers several advantages over existing file formats like JPEG and PNG.
Moment announces T-Series accessory lenses designed for the future of smartphone cameras
20% larger mount designed to support the larger cameras on Android phones
It has been ten years since Moment launched its original Kickstarter campaign for a pair of accessory smartphone lenses. As phone cameras started to shift to a wider field of view, the original lens mount was replaced with the M-Mount, which became something of an unofficial standard for other lens producers. As it turns out, history was doomed to repeat itself and modern smartphones have outgrown even that design; and today Moment is back with a brand new mount and redesigned lenses aimed at supporting future generations of smartphone cameras.
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Google Pixel 6 Pro camera guide: What you need to know about telephoto quirks, sensor size, and ‘macro' mode
Everything you need to know about the Pixel 6 Pro's cameras, including telephoto quirks, sensor size, and 'macro' mode, and more
Although we're all about the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro these days, both phones build on the legacy laid out by their predecessors. Just like on Google's 2022 flagships, the periscope telephoto lens was one of the main differentiators between the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, forcing photo bugs to spend an additional $300 for the additional sensor.
Xiaomi built this wild concept phone designed to tantalize serious photographers
Sony’s best 1-inch sensor is paired with Leica’s M-series lenses
Smartphones have been slowly encroaching on the territory of dedicated cameras for the last decade. The combination of rapidly improving camera sensors and very clever software has broken many of the long-held rules of digital imaging. However, the larger sensors and interchangeable lenses have allowed dedicated cameras to retain the lead in image quality. Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is experimenting with building the first smartphone to truly support interchangeable lenses, and it looks pretty incredible — even if you'll probably never get to buy it.
Will the Google Pixel 7 do a better job with pet photography?
With all the recent camera improvements I'm not sure why this is so difficult
I'm not a professional photographer, but I love taking photos of my pets. If they are doing something funny or weird or look particularly cute, I snap a photo. A consistent problem I have is that I can't get a good photo of my black-haired pets. Neither dog nor cat, in good or bad lighting, during the day or at night, no phone has captured them in a life-like way. Even a Google Pixel 6 Pro, can't get the job done. It's 2022, and with all the smartphone camera software and hardware improvements over the last few years, this should be a non-issue. Let's hope new phones, like the Google Pixel 7 series, will do better.
Samsung Galaxy S21 camera upgrades are coming, but don't expect this Galaxy S22 feature
You can blame the S21’s relatively poorer Neural Processing Unit performance
Android Police’s Mobile Photography Week is now behind us, but Samsung’s reputation for regular software updates has a reason for us to remain excited about cameras. With every new Galaxy device launch, a few new model-exclusive features trickle down to older Galaxy phones, including software-enabled camera smarts and social media app integration. However, we have learned that a Galaxy S22 series-exclusive camera feature, called Detail Enhancer, may not make it to the Galaxy S21 models, and that isn’t entirely a bad thing.
What does 2030's best camera phone look like?
You will see a lot more computational photography and some hardware advances
Mobile photography has come a long way. Look back 10 years to 2012, when smartphones were the norm, but many people relied on trusty point-and-shoot cameras during vacation. Sure, some great camera phones back then made above-average photos. But we couldn't imagine the multi-camera monsters with protruding lenses and computational photography prowess that makes all of our top-rated smartphones almost full-fledged DSLR replacements for many folks.
When and how to shoot in RAW on your phone
Does anyone really know what RAW photography is? Yes, we do and we're going to explain it for you
Mobile photography has become impressive over the last decade. From pixilated images on your Motorola Razr to shots that rival professional photography, the meteoric rise of smartphone camera technology has given way to a bounty of amateur enthusiasts that want to get the most out of their images. And while the basics of how smartphone cameras work are straightforward, tools like RAW image files are a bit more complicated. Still, if you know how and when to shoot in RAW, you can take your mobile photography game to another level with devices like the Google Pixel 6 Pro or the Samsung S22 Ultra.
Ring Indoor Camera review: A great addition to your Alexa-powered smart home
Ring offers good performance and great Alexa integration for just $60
Amazon has been a driving force behind the proliferation of smart home technology in recent years. While we’ve found that Google Assistant is largely the better virtual assistant, Alexa provides similar functionality when it comes to smart home integrations. It’s not all about Alexa, though. Other companies under the Amazon umbrella, like Ring have built out the ecosystem into a serious powerhouse for smart home technology.
Samsung is doing a better job than Google at supporting Google's own camera standards
Kudos to Samsung, but it might also be a bad omen for camera support in third-party apps
Third-party camera applications on Android are complicated. Google's Camera2 API and the CameraX Jetpack support library exist in order to streamline support for your phone's camera hardware inside third-party apps, but both require support from OEMs—which isn't mandatory. You'd think Google's own phones would support those standards and libraries, but it looks like that's not something you can expect out of the company that develops and maintains the Android operating system. Instead, it looks like Samsung is beating Google at its own game.
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Google Pixel 6a vs. Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Pro camera showdown: All winners
Software matters more than hardware, even if hardware ultimately wins here
Google's a-series phones have to cut a few corners to hit their value-forward pricing, and one thing it doesn't have that the bigger Pixel 6 and 6 Pro do is the upgraded camera system. While all three phones share their ultra-wide camera specs, the primary sensors differ, and the Pixel 6a doesn't have the 6 Pro's telephoto. So how does this hardware difference actually compare in terms of real-world examples? In short: The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro conclusively have a better camera, but if you aren't picky, you might not even care or notice; the differences can be so slight in some situations. In fact, there are even ways that the Pixel 6a beats the more expensive phones.