[Guide] Samsung Galaxy S3 Camera Usage Guide, Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Part 1:  Hardware and Features

Part 2: User Interface 
Part 3: Limitations

Part 4: Shooting Mode

Part 5: Scene Mode
Part 6: Summary and Conclusion

Updated: 14th June 2012
Update: 19th July 2012 - Tips and Tricks No. 7


Summary 

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with a camera equipped with a 8.0 MP pixel BIS at the back and another 1.9MP BIS for the front facing camera. Both cameras are able to give outstanding image quality when compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S2. The camera in the Galaxy S3 gives vibrant colours, with saturated green colours in particular. Sharpness and details are improved with the sharpness comes mostly from post processing sharpening instead of the lens. However, it still produce very sharp photos especially at low ISO, and I'm very satisfied.

The aperture value of f2.6 may not be the fastest lens around, but is adequate for day to day snap shots. It struggles a bit under low light, which is expected for any phones in the market even for the f2.0 ones as well. The camera focuses beforehand and refreshes every time you move away from the subject or every three seconds. The camera will take a picture as soon as you touch the shutter button, regardless whether the subject is focused or not. Hence, you need to be careful of this and don't assume that the picture is correctly focused just because you love the zero-shutter lag feature.

Features

Samsung packs a lot of new features for the camera, taking advantage of ICS. Burst Mode is one of the best feature available and it is even better with the Best Photo option. It will be one of the most used feature for this phone. Smile Shot also comes in handy where you need a good focus of the face and auto fire when smile is detected, good for portrait shootings. Panorama is a feature that you cannot miss if you travel to places with breath taking scenes.

Share Shot and Buddy Photo Share are more to social networking needs where it facilitates media sharing with ease. Share Shot shares picture directly on the fly through Wifi-Direct connection with your friends, good for events and parties. Buddy Photo Share uses face tagging to detect the people within the photo and show email or MMS options directly on the picture for you to share the picture with ease.

Using Voice Command to take picture is definitely one of the selling point and a great feature for many people. Voice Command can be use extensively when taking a remote picture, avoid hand shake, taking group photos or any combinations that you can think of to utilise this great feature. It can be enabled within the settings under Voice cmd, and should be one of the selling point of this phone.

User Interface

User Interface in the Galaxy S3 camera is more complicated when compared to other phones on the market and it is the typical U.I. you will see for all Samsung Android smartphones and tablets. The icons at the left column can be customised, where you can put your most used setting for quick access convenience.

The settings available within the camera settings are pretty standard for a digitial camera.

Limitations

Every camera has their own limitations when it comes to both hardware and software. Photographers need to work around the limitations to bring out the best picture from your camera. The Galaxy S3 camera has a constant aperture of f2.6, which is its limitation for low light. The shutter is limit at 1 second maximum until 1/10000 second minimum. ISO is limit at ISO-1600 for the maximum and ISO-80 for the minimum, usable frames will be for ISO-800 or below. Manual settings for ISO ranges from ISO-100 to ISO-800 only.

Burst Mode will utilise the phone memory instead of memory card and be prepared for some ram flushing when you spam your shutter up until 20 frames.

Shooting Mode

Shooting Mode basically covers everything mentioned in Features section. In Shooting Mode, you are not able to choose Scene Mode except for Buddy Photo Share. Some other Shooting Mode that I left out above like Beauty and Cartoon are those modes that are not as useful as the other modes. HDR on the other hand is a half half feature because it did not really give much advantage because the HDR effect is not as good as expected.

Scene Mode

When auto mode fails to give you desirable results, then it is time to explore Scene Mode where there is always a setting for the type of scene you are at. Scene mode changes the settings like shutter, white balance or exposure, depending on which mode you chose.

Tips and Tricks

1. The biggest challenge of taking a picture using a phone will be hand shake. Often hand shake will be main factor that destroys your picture. Try hold your phone as stable as possible and try not to tap on the screen too hard when taking picture. Try use any method that you can to reduce handshake like anti shake function, holding phone with both hands, increase ISO (if using manual), hold in horizontal position, use timer or Voice Command, use Best photo mode or tap your finger on the shutter button and lift it only after the photo is taken.
2. Second culprit will be the focus. Focusing is very crucial for a photo because it tells the viewer where to look at in a picture. A sharp and detailed picture is always preferable than a blurred or OOF picture. Always make sure your camera is focused the correct subject before taking picture. Be careful when using manual focus because the Galaxy S3 will revert the focus frame back to the middle after three seconds.
3. Third will be noise in picture. Try to shoot with the lowest ISO possible if you prefer a cleaner picture. You may opt for a longer exposure by using night mode but make sure you are able to hold the phone still as long as 0.5 seconds.
4. Explore all the Shooting Modes and Scene Modes and also to read about the tips for each one if available.
5. You can get bokeh by shooting as near as possible to your subject. This is because the depth of field (DOF) is influenced by focal length, aperture and focus distance, due to the fact that the aperture and focal length is constant, you can only achieve shallow DOF by shooting very near to your subject, coupled with macro mode auto focus.
6. By long tapping on the shutter button without releasing, it will initiate the Auto Focus and then it will lock the focus and exposure value for reframing purpose. This option is common in digital camera or DSLR as focus lock/exposure lock, but seldom appears in phone camera. It's good to know that we have this option.
7. Will add more soon.

Conclusion

The Galaxy S3's camera may not replace your digital camera in terms of quality, especially with all the high end cameras on the market. However, the image quality is very comparable to real cameras at low ISO with the sharpness and details, as well as colour rendering. A phone camera provides the convenience of taking a picture any time any where because a phone is always with you but not your camera. It also provides the convenience of social networking by sharing your pictures directly from your phone instead of the cumbersome process of transferring pictures to the PC then to social media. Even thou my guide is based on thr Galaxy S3's camera, but the general theory behind still applies to any other phones or digital camera. In short, the Galaxy S3 is one of the best phone cameras available in the market now and you will enjoy using it everyday.

Sample Photos