Weekly poll results: Detail levels the key to a great camera

The polls have closed, it’s time to count the votes. This week we asked you to share your favorite way of photo processing and the responses are quite interesting indeed.

The most important aspect it turns out is fine detail. So using the smartphone’s camera only for social media purposes (where compression takes away most of the detail anyway) isn’t as prevalent as it may seem.

The second most popular option was low noise levels - unfortunately processing is mostly about finding the balance between detail and noise reduction so those two rarely work together that well. Still, monochrome secondary cameras and modes such as the HDR+ on the Pixel phones have made vast progress in those areas. And we can only hope we’ll some day get these two different solutions to the problem working together and delivering even more impressive results.

In terms of color rendering realistic beat oversaturated by a three-to-one margin. The days of overly colorful shots that have little to do with the actual scene captured are seemingly behind us. Or is just that everyone prefers to apply their own filters after that.

Finally, wider dynamic range ended up more important than great contrast.

Given these results, it’s no surprise that the comments section brought fond memories of the Nokia 808 PureView. We are probably unlikely to see a true successor to the large-sensor beasts in a market overly obsessed with slim and sleek phones, but there might be a niche for it if someone does make one.