HTC EVO 4G LTE vs HTC One, round 3: Macro camera
The scene is a well lit day, and I’m attempting to pit the HTC EVO 4G LTE vs HTC One in a death match. This round is close-up photography. The score so far is this: the EVO 4G LTE narrowly lost in the overcast photography match, and my beloved EVO was also soundly trumped by the One in the low-light photography match. So today I ventured out to set them against each other in a close-up well lit match up.
My assumption is that the EVO will shine here, because in macro photography it’s all about the megapixels and detail rendering.
All pictures are the EVO 4G LTE on the left, and the One on the right. Unlike previous camera match ups, I could not accomplish most of these photos within five seconds of each other, nor could I see to make sure I had the exact same focus, field, etc., as the sun was generally shining on the screen. Neither of these phones particularly shines when they’re in full sunlight.
Each camera is using the maximum resolution, set to macro mode, and more or less the same position and settings.
All photos should be clickable or downloadable if you want to compare and contrast at full zoom.
It took me a while to find anything to complain about on these, and it comes down to resolution. Zoomed in as far as you can go, on the center penny in front of the $0.50 piece, the penny’s detail is glossed over pretty badly in the One’s picture. The $0.50 piece also shows artifacting and color smoothing done by some sort of software I’m assuming. The EVO also wins if you’re into seeing individual fibers on the carpet.
This particular shot was pretty much a loss for the One on detail, but a win on color matching. The high contrast just blew out the EVO’s ability to compensate. The word “Jabra” is blurry on the One’s photo, along with the carpet looking a bit like oatmeal. A slight winner is the EVO 4G LTE.
In the purple plant pic, I’m looking at the bottom left leaves here. On the EVO they’re crisp; you can see white discoloration at the edges, and not so much in the One’s photo. This seems to be an issue with the One’s software trying to make the picture look good. I’ve seen this a few times with stray hairs that should be visible at most resolutions, but seem to be smoothed away by the One’s software.
One thing to note here, though, is that the One has an incredible depth of field and also includes the background grass and dirt very well. However, the One also loses the detail on the front pointing to 10:00.
Overall though the One’s picture looks better, but for the detail, I have to give it to the EVO.
The flowers photo is pretty mismatched due to the wind, and catching anything remotely similar was hard. So my comparison here starts with the yellow stamens in the top left. This is an example in which resolution absolutely is required. Unfortunately, the flowers just look cheap in the One’s photo. The water beading on the petals in the lower half also looks incredibly good on the EVO.
However, unless my colorblind eyes deceive me, the One more accurately captured the photo. Detail goes to the EVO.
Up to about six inches away, I’m declaring the EVO the winner, but after that however I’m uncertain. It seems like any blade of grass looks better or worse in either photo. Angles were slightly askew here as, once again, I couldn’t always see each phone’s screen in the sun.
On the left, we have a picture of the One as taken by the EVO 4G LTE in full daylight, and on the right we have a picture of the EVO 4G LTE as taken by the One.
On this one, I focused in on the camera lens by tapping the screen on both of them. Each was about eight inches away when the shots were taken. In no number of attempts could I get the One to properly focus on the EVO’s camera, which is why the One’s photo is blurry.
The EVO’s picture is so fine you can see a cat hair on the lens of the One, while the One’s photo only focuses on the top left Android on the case. I do not know why there was such a photo fail here, but no number of attempts would work, even tweaking the angle. This photo remains a mystery to me.
The One is blurry in the bottom fifth of the photo. The EVO starts blurring in the top half of the photo. The EVO worked better for close up, and the One for slightly further away.
Focus was set on the nose on both of these. The One fuzzied up the eyes, smoothed the dust off of the hat, and generally failed. It actually looks like the One focused on the brick just left of the cowboy’s head.
In both of these I attempted to focus on the apple Jolly Rancher. The One seems to have decided to focus up and to the left. However, it provides more depth while the EVO gives more detail, even scaled down. Detail past six or so inches improves drastically on the One, however.
Wrap-up
Macro mode was used for extreme close-up shots. If you take a lot of pictures of products, or really want to document the hairs on a baby’s face, it’s something you need to consider. I had issues with macro on the One. I have issues all the time with the EVO, but I can generally circumvent the close-focus issues by trying a couple of times to focus. I was unable to use any of my tricks to make the One happy.
My belief is, in this particular set of circumstances, the EVO 4G LTE won, as I had two photos the One just would not take. However, unless you’re doing macro photography, overall the HTC One’s camera is more consumer friendly and provides generally more lifelike photos.
If you know what you’re doing with the EVO 4G LTE, you can make better pictures than someone who doesn’t know photography basics with the One, but in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, there’s little question that the One wins overall for most circumstances that aren’t macro photography.
This will be the final of the camera comparisons.
