Travelling with the Best Camera Phones
After spending months squirrelling away money and scouring the web to find good deals, your holiday is finally here. Travel is never cheap, but it’s always a worthwhile investment. An investment we want to be able to remember forever and share with our friends. While you shouldn’t be uploading hundreds of snaps onto your social media, there’s nothing wrong with putting up a few of your most stunning snaps.
The thing is, you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a DSLR, and you probably wouldn’t have the space for one in your carry-on anyway. In 2017, though, that isn’t an issue, you can just use your phone. The question is, which phones are the best for immortalizing and sharing our memories?
The top 3
When it comes to the best image quality, there are only three phones that really make the cut in 2017: Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, Google’s Pixel, and Samsung’s Galaxy S8+.
These phones come with a high price tag. Websites like BroadbrandChoices, however, can help you get the best deal on a contract. This could mean getting your phone at a rock bottom price, or even for free following the criteria on how you use your phone!
iPhone 7Plus
iPhones have always been forerunners in the smartphone camera arena. Until recently, they were even considered to be in a league of their own. That isn’t to say that iPhones have slipped up, just that the competition has started to step it up.
The iPhone 7 Plus has not just one amazing camera, but has dual rear-facing cameras coming in at 12MP each. One of the snappers has a wider field of view than the other, giving you tons of options for depth of field shots, landscape shots, and portraits.
Doubling the sensors also means that the iPhone 7 Plus performs exceptionally well in low-light settings. Your night time shots don’t need to look blurry or underexposed anymore!
Google Pixel
The Google Pixel’s performance can be summed up in a single word: detail.
No other phone on the market today can produce shots as sharp as the Pixel can. Perfect for ‘busy’ shots like city street views, garden images, or shots of groups of people.
The automatic white balance, ISO, and exposure settings can also give you a professional looking shot without having to mess with manual controls. Colors will pop even when using it as a simple point-and-shoot.
For those who like to fine tune things, the stock camera app doesn’t allow the user to have too much manual control. However, there are plenty of apps on the Play Store that can help you tweak your settings until they’re just right for the Google Pixel.
Samsung Galaxy S8+
Samsung’s newest flagship is more than just a pretty face. Besides being a total powerhouse of a phone, this device produces some excellent images.
The camera hardware is an incremental upgrade over last year’s Galaxy S7. Though considering how good that camera was, that isn’t a bad thing. While the iPhone excels in low-light, and the Pixel specializes in fine detail, the Galaxy S8+ is a step ahead when it comes to taking photos of people.
Skin tones look vibrant and perfectly exposed. Samsung’s camera app also comes with a selection of Snapchat-esque augmented reality filters to add some whimsy to your shots, as well as a number of Instagram inspired color filters to make your photos perfect from the get go, without needing to edit the photos later. The optical image stabilization makes videos and travel vlogs smooth and jitter-free.
Bonus Tip!
Taking selfies can be a little lackluster when we compare those images to ones we take with our rear cameras. They’re never as sharp, the colors are never as vibrant as we want, and low-light is basically impossible.
In fact, light is actually key issue here. The best selfies are taken when illuminated from the front by a bright source of natural light. Standing by an open window is better than standing outside, as your images won’t end up overexposed.
Brightly lit windows aren’t exactly an infinite commodity. Try using a smartphone ring light to properly illuminate your face, and your selfies are going to look better than ever before. They’re normally pretty cheap too, and can be found on basically every site that sells electronics.