finally, a “what to buy” article that says “don’t buy”

  • Séimhe (sé / é)@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I still have an iPhone and I prefer the pictures my Fuji Finepix took back in the 2000s. It didn’t put that weird fisheye effect on landscapes that make background objects look like they’re a kilometre away when they were only a few meters away. I’m still surprised by how good those pictures are, and the way the lens automatically extends and retracts is just joyful. I never think that of my iPhone.

    The pictures are more grainy, and have other shortcomings. But they look like what I saw with my eyes.

    • Dultas@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Probably has to do with focal length. There’s only so much you can do when the distance from the lens to sensor is only a few mm. So you’re going to end up with some perspective distortion. I think some phones might try to alleviate it with software.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        Yes, barrel distortion correction has been a basic software feature for decades.

      • Séimhe (sé / é)@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Most people I’ve mentioned it to don’t seem to notice. A more obvious example is distant objects like mountains, or the moon, looking absolutely tiny. But it happens with objects just a few meters away.

        • Zarobi@aussie.zone
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          1 day ago

          I’ve noticed this. Phones take really distinctly “strange” photos. They’re mostly good for everyday use, but struggle to make something look really nice

          • Séimhe (sé / é)@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            They seem a little unnatural to me too. It’s like they force a certain perspective. The algorithmic “enhancements” don’t help either, especially at night time. It’s almost impossible to get a good photo at night with the iPhone, by comparison.

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I had a fuji finepix around 2010. It was probably user error, but I could not get action shots. Anytime with movement was always blurry, even when I set it for action. For more still shots, the pictures were great, but I wasn’t sad to stop using it with better phone cameras.

      • Séimhe (sé / é)@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        We did some amount of joking around with the camera and I don’t remember getting a blur, but I was able to change settings to achieve it and get some nice effects like when car lights leave long red streaks behind them. I was lucky though, I had someone explain the main settings to me like ISO and shutter speed.

        • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I had decent resources, and even the auto settings should have helped out in some situations, but rare success. I do think there’s a real possibility I had a faulty product, but I never bothered to dig further. Within a year or two phone cameras took the reigns, so I moved on