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For the old BlackBerry, a handset’s camera was an ancillary feature. But the new hip BlackBerry is supposed to be tuned into how regular people — not just suits — use their phones. The BlackBerry Z10′s camera has a chance to prove it’s better than the rest. And if our initial low-light camera test is any indication, the camera is a complete failure.
When you’re in a dark pub or out on the town at night making memories with your co-workers/friends/family you want your smartphone camera to take a nice photo without having to use the flash. This is what low-light performance is all about. As we saw the last time we put a series of flagship phones together, handset shooters have come a long way.
To see if the BlackBerry Z10 could keep up with the pack, we tested its low-light performance against the Apple iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, and Samsung Galaxy S III. We put it to a pretty tough test, burying the above novelty statue in the deepest darkest corner of the office. We didn’t use any flash, but if a camera came with built-in night or low-light setting we tried it out to see if it worked better than the automatic setting.
The Z10 didn’t even hold the dimmest, most-pathetic light to the other cameras in our test. Look at that photo above on the left. It is an abject and miserable failure. Because this is a particularly difficult shooting setting, all of the photos have problems with noise, distortion, and detail, but we’ve haven’t seen something so crummy as the Z10 in a long time. The Z10 even has a “night” setting that was completely useless. This is some four-years-ago crap.
We’ve still got some more testing to do with the cameras before we crown a winner — and before we write the Z10 off completely — but this initial test doesn’t bode well.
Galaxy S III
iPhone 5
Z10
Lumia 920
What about exposure settings? Can you change them manually?
WHy is the blackberry shot at a completely different angle to the rest? The picture’s about 4 foot above the others.
You pick up on the strangest things.
That figure is only 24cm high (according to online descriptions of the Assasin’s Creed 3 collector’s edition). It’s possible that they couldn’t see it on the screen well enough to frame the shot well.
I don’t see this phone being a hit, it offers nothing the others don’t already and come the GS4, it’ll be forgotten.
Shocking performance from the Z10. Nice to see the Lumia 920 well and truly blowing the others away again.
Slow clap for blackberry!
Why are you taking the Z10 photo at a completely different angle and pointing about 5 feet higher? – the other 3 are almost indentical. Bizarre ‘comparison’.
The Lumia 920 image is fantastic. The Z10 …not so much!
That’s very generous for the Z10, I would have classified it as crap. I think Z10/Q10 will be forgotten about as quickly as they were announced.
Well, I try to be nice.
All I wanted was a fantastic screen and a fantastic camera. The rest would have come in the fullness of time.
I’m guessing the next two handsets will be budget friendly ones.
Am I the only one around here who doesn’t view a phone as a glorified camera?
Smartphones do so much now when you think about it. You can use one to talk to anyone in the world, text anyone in the world, view any website or look up any information, download anything, play endless amounts of games (even emulators), listen to music, watch videos, use it as an alarm clock, a calendar, a notepad, a TV remote, a skymap for astronomy, a flashlight, a bar code scanner, a remote device to access your PC and files, the list goes on.
But no, the tiny camera and tiny lens is crap. Well it’s never going to be amazing is it?! Not in a thin phone anyway.
The problem is that the competition DOES do it well. I can’t speak for android cameras (I haaaate the unstableness of some of their camera software) but the iPhone 5 and Lumia 920 are phenomenal cameras. I went on holiday and with my iPhone 5 and my girlfriend’s Lumia 920 we filled an entire scrapbook with printed out pictures from both of our phones. In outdoor conditions the quality of these cameras rivals point-and-shooters. Cameras ARE important in phones these days because as the ancient adage goes:
The best camera is the one you have with you.
True, but the Nokia Lumina, with its Carl Zeiss lens, is all about the photos ie. You would buy this phone if photography on a phone was the most important thing to you, rather than speed, screen quality, or a thin form factor, so you’ll be making compromises somewhere along the way.
I admit it’s useful to some people to have a half decent camera on them at all times, if you don’t want a dedicated camera but, for me at least, I prioritise other smartphone functions over the camera quality.
Besides the Z10 give me a flagship device that doesn’t have a camera that’s in the (near) top of its class though. HTC One X, Samsung SIII/Note2, iPhone 5.
Screens, speed, stability are all important features, and for the most part, the camera is included in that washlist of essentials for a top dollar phone.
Fair enough it does seem poor in comparison. However it is a dumb, uncontrolled test. What is important is how well it works when using the flash, as you should be doing, in the dark.
As others have pointed out too, if you actually tried focusing centrally on the figurine instead of the black background behind it you would get a totally different exposure. Are all the phones set to auto focus and exposure? Do any have specific low light options that are turned on or off? Tests need to be fair and controlled. Get back to us when you have done this.
YOU HAD THE CAMERA ON TIME SHIFT MODE! Flash does not go off on Time Shift Mode. Idiot!