While at knowsley with my trusty Canon DSLR I had a little play with the SGS too. Took some really nice shots but I thought I would do a comparison with them both side by side. I wont see them until I look at what I have just posted so here goes.

Top will be Canon 400D DSLR camera with standard lens 10MP (forgot to lower it)
Bottom will be Samsung Galaxy 5 macro setting 5MP

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx265/Ccaptivate/Canon400D.jpg
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx265/Ccaptivate/SGS.jpg

Now after seeing those side by side. I am very surprised, its obvious the DSLR would win hands down in every way, it can get closer, the lens is dedicated to going closer, the ISO can be processed better, if you look on exif data Canon is 400 iso and SGS only 50. Oh and the phone can not really gain a depth of field to get a true macro shot BUT it does its job.

But The SGS does really really good macro shots.

It's OK for a phone. Damn that top shot looks nice though... Of course you can't really compare them.

Next, try composing an SMS on your Canon. :p

lol. Exactly. I had to do this because I have a friend who asked why a camera on a phone is so important to people when they have dslr's. I tried to explain that alot of people are not into photography enough to folk out on a dslr and want it all on one system for text, calls, emails and snap shots. She still doesnt understand but then shes blond and wears pink.

It's OK for a phone. Damn that top shot looks nice though...

No offence Clare, but I actually like the second shot better, at least I'm sure that some things are in focus, in the top one all looks more or less blurry :)

Decided to compare shots as well, they will explain why even basic dslr is so expensive :)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QBdvfRBtR3w/TIzP3WVtTfI/AAAAAAAAIQY/XCOQasBUEAA/s912/galaxycomp1.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QBdvfRBtR3w/TIzMcsp6ERI/AAAAAAAAIQQ/ARPKZi-b-N8/s912/2010-09-12%2013.49.15.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QBdvfRBtR3w/TIzP34Fd49I/AAAAAAAAIQc/d5sDtCKO7ik/s1024/galaxycomp2.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QBdvfRBtR3w/TIzNG-hwkzI/AAAAAAAAIQU/21XPcxiLoSQ/s912/2010-09-12%2013.51.31.jpg

Of course these are extreme conditions (high contrast and low-light), when we take photo outside in nice sunny day sometimes it is hard to tell a difference betwen compact and DSLR shots :)

Really nice examples, Piterski!

No offence Clare, but I actually like the second shot better, at least I'm sure that some things are in focus, in the top one all looks more or less blurry :)


Everything is blurry except the petals. Setting was auto macro which is not as good as manual macro. Its the depth of field which makes things blurry and the phone tries to get it and just about does so you can see the pure focus is the flower.

Love your comparison shots. I still think its a dam shame the sgs has no flash.

Everything is blurry except the petals.
Love your comparison shots. I still think its a dam shame the sgs has no flash.

Well the petals are so small it is hard to say if they are in focus on such a small image :) As for flash I almost never use it (certainly not for this shots), so I do not miss it at all. But that is very personal, depends what you shoot :)

I have a camera on my phone for snap shots really. Alot of the time indoors as my dslr goes everywhere with me.

I was doing a wedding at the weekend as thats what type of photography I do the most and soo many people have the sgs and taking photos its amazing how much they have taken over the iphone in my area. I think alot is the billboards with them and on and the sgs is all over the fronts of the phone shops. The advert is also on the tv at least 5 times a day when I have been watching the box.

The camera is very very good in high light I have to say that but compared to my old old phone before last Nokia N95 the camera is not too good without the flash.

good comparison

Clareriley,

Last weekend I took some macro shots of little blooms with the SGS much like those in your pix. I was careful to let the touch-to-focus (or whatever it's called) do its thing and the blooms are surprisingly crisp. But why wouldn't they with the bird's eye lens? Yes, it has good glass and is properly positioned from the censor. I've done serious SLR photography since the early 1980s and that's why I chose the SGS over all the other android phones. Gotta love the display! It is great that they put a flash on the SGS, albeit the falloff rapid: it won't make the trip across the den and back. Anyway, you're right. Hands down, there is no contest with a large aperture, fast lens that can narrow the depth of field to near nothing when doing macro. My second reason for posting here is to brag on your choice of aperture, unless you got lucky with auto settings, lol. The blooms are perfectly isolated from the background without the background blurred beyond recognition for the comparison. Kudos for good work.

You're correct about the advancement of the SGS over Mac's reign in the iGadget market. Maybe the book publishers will learn not everybody picks from the Apple tree. I'm tired of going to Books-a-Million or the like and finding one book on the Droid X, two on the Blackberry and a dozen on the iPhone. Granted, Apple pays the piper well when he flutes the praises of iProducts in the media. I'm hoping the ad blitz for the Galaxy S and all the euphoria over its cam abilities and knock-'em-dead display will cause the Dummies publishers, etc. to publish about the SGS. This forum seems to be the next best thing, if not somewhat better because we can get catered responses to questions.

Thanks for your comparison images.