iPhone 8 Plus vs LG V30 & Pixel 2 XL camera test | Last Cam Standing VIII By PCWorld

Apple's iPhone 8 plus just beat the LGG 6 in our latest smartphone camera showdown, but now there are two new challengers, Google's pixel to excel and LG's v30. Let's put these phones to the test in a three way comparison to see whose camera comes out. On top our camera shootout series has been going on for a year now, and this could be the biggest match up to date. As always, it's a winner-take-all showdown and the camera that takes the top spot continues on to battle the next hot smartphone that comes along our current choice for best camera. The iPhone 8 plus delivers a major performance boost compared to last year's iPhone 7 plus, and most of it is thanks to Apple's new proprietary image processor, but Google's pixel 2 improves upon the awesome computational photography that the original pixel gave us last year with modest, off-the-shelf parts, google taps into what it knows, best machine learning in order to make a great photo as for LG, its G 6 held our top spot for a number of camera showdowns until it just barely lost to the iPhone 8 plus, but now LG's V 30 is ready to take back the crown with great camera specs and an amazing camera app. This fight will be broken up into four sections: color clarity, exposure and user experience and all the phones will be tested using the stock camera app in full, auto mode.

The way most people shoot I'll focus mostly on the main camera of each phone, but any extra features will be covered under user experience and now, let's go over the results. First up is color and what's important here is accurate, color, reproduction and white balance in this vivid street scene. Each camera looks to handle white balance effectively, but further inspection of the yellows reveals a wider variation of colors in the pixel and the iPhone. The pixel 2 is a little washed out, not necessarily a bad thing, but the iPhone is a tad more accurate to the eye. This next close up of a plant shows just how well the iPhone handles colors compared to the v30.

Nonetheless, the pixel keeps up, and all three are still fairly accurate when it comes to color temps, but this morning shot stirs things up a bit here. The V 30 is more vibrant, but really goes too far, and the pixel misses the mark on white balance, resulting in a dull sky. The iPhone is easily the most accurate of the three. The same spot at sunset paints a similar picture. The iPhone is accurate and has good saturation low-light.

Shots are hard to nail, especially in mixed lighting environments. The pixel portrays a greenish hue, while the v30 leans into the tungsten, and although the iPhone isn't perfect, it's by far the closest thing to accurate this last shot with plenty of white wall is where the comparison really brings it home. In almost every scenario, the pixel leans towards the cooler side of color temperatures with the iPhone leaning warmer. The v30 comes in last for this category, never really producing consistent results and, yes, I know. The V 30 features a 10 bit sensor with a wider color gamut, but that doesn't mean much if it can't accurately capture those colors.

Color temperature can be a matter of personal preference, but there's no denying that the iPhone has the edge in depth and separation, so the Apple iPhone 8 plus takes our color battle next up, we'll cover clarity. What I'm looking for here is the sharpness of the overall image and how well it stays sharp in different lighting scenarios here at the train tracks, I'm pretty happy with how each perform at full resolution, but zooming in is where the rubber meets the road, and I'm disappointed with the v30. It doesn't really seem to improve upon the g6s sharpness issues. The iPhone is better, but the pixel just blows both out of the water. So much fine detail can be extracted from the pixels image.

I'm very impressed moving to this shot across the bay zooming in on the Oakland docks shows that the iPhone in the fee 30 both lose the necks of some cranes, but the pixel does not. With a higher resolution sensor, I was hoping for more from the V 30, and here we have a brick wall. One of my favorite camera testing tools, zooming in reveals so much about how each camera processes texture the pixel is once again killing it with detail. The iPhone holds up pretty well and the fee 30 is a mess check out. Another wide shot this time with fewer hates punching into the distance, shows a close race between the pixel and the iPhone, but there's more texture in the grass on the pixel and I still have no idea.

What's up with the V 30 switching gears over to some low lighting scenarios, we'll really see how each camera handles longer shutter times. Here I was really hoping. The V 30 would kick some ass with its F 1.6 aperture. But surprisingly, that's not the case, it's not as noisy as the iPhone, but it should have a clear advantage in this shot. The pixel performs very well.

The next shot has similar results, but reveals a weakness of the pixel, the autofocus and low-light. Just isn't as good as what's on the iPhone, when the pixel nails focus it's great, but when it doesn't, it's a lost shot. The V 30 isn't too bad in this shot. So that's nice, but the LG love doesn't last long since I can't even compare how clear the images are in this super dark shot between the pixel and the iPhone. The pixel has way more definition on the fire extinguisher.

So despite its hiccups in low-light, the pixel still takes the clarity category. The third category is exposure, and here we'll go over how each camera exposes for a scene and just how much exposure information each camera retains I'm, including histograms, on each of the images. So you can see the results as well. This first shot is basic, but helps me bring home a point. The pixel is flatter, which looks washed out, and the iPhone cranks up the contrast, providing more punch without editing and the fie 30 is somewhere in the middle, but, like I said in previous shootouts, this comes down to a matter of preference.

Do you want an image with punch or do you want the freedom of a flatter image? So you can add more punch later. Each phone deals with most lighting scenarios very well, but where breaks down is in high contrast scenarios like this hotel, the pixel is a bit underexposed compared to the iPhone, but Google's HDR is super aggressive and holds on to highlights way better than the iPhone and the b30, but is it at the expense of the shadows? No I was able to recover more from the shadows on the pixel than the blown out highlights on the iPhone in b30. The same thing happens on this street scene and there's so much more information to work with on the pixel. The iPhone has way more punch, but in extreme situations like these I'd rather have the dynamic range to work with in editing. The v30 does a good job as well, but it doesn't hold as much information as the pixel and this last dynamic shot hits home the point the V 30s HDR just doesn't do enough to keep the shadows usable, and the iPhone has to overexpose in order to hold the shadows, resulting in some blown out bricks.

The pixel has the perfect balance of holding dynamic information, but also delivering a punchy photo before head. It's a close contest, as each camera performs great, but I'm, going to give a slight edge to the Google Pixel to the last category is user experience, and here we look at all. The factors that go into using a camera daily apple gives you a simple and straightforward user experience and snappy operation. The iPhones autofocus system is also a huge advantage. It's fast and reliable, but the iPhone 8 plus does have some glaring problems first off compared to the other phones.

It just takes too long to unlock the camera app from a sleeping phone. Second, why the hell can't I get to the settings from inside the camera app that makes no damn sense. I've also been holding out hope for a manual mode, but Apple must think I can't handle it and I doubt it's coming on the Google side, the pixel twos camera unlock speed is super. Quick and I've been loving, Google's version of portrait mode. Both implementations have their shortcomings, but there are plenty of situations where the pixel is as good, if not better than the iPhone in this department.

This year, Google also included optical image stabilization in addition to electronic image stabilization, but it's not as powerful in photo mode as it is in video and Google like Apple, didn't include a full manual mode. They did take a few steps in the right direction, with features like exposure, locking and if you know me, you know how much I love LG stock camera app. It has plenty of fun features to play with and also has a powerful manual mode. That includes a real-time histogram. I also found way more use for the super wide angle, camera on the V 30, as opposed to iPhones telephoto lens.

This is the third generation of the super wide angle lens that LG has worked on, and it's the best yet and even though I'm focusing on the photo features here, I have to give a shout-out to some huge improvements LG did on the video side from custom color profiles to zoom control to deeper editing options. There is plenty to keep you busy, but the camera launch speed on the V 30 was inconsistent, which is a change from the g6 and overall I ran into way more interface hitches on the V 30 than I'm. Happy with that said, I'm still a huge fan of LG's experience, so the V 30 is taking this category. So now, we've gone over all the testing. It's time.

To crown a champion overall I was very disappointed with the photo results from the b30. It's a solid camera with great usability features, but LG isn't keeping pace on the processing side. The iPhone 8 plus takes amazing photos, and if you need a camera, that's reliable and has a great kick without editing. You will be very happy with it, but with great color accuracy, top-notch clarity, stunning exposures and a solid camera app the Google Pixel to Excel is our new champ. What Google has been able to do with computational photography is a huge achievement that is going to be a big part of photography going into the future.

They have a solid base to work with and if they decide to lean into custom hardware to complement the software, Google will be unstoppable and whether you pick up the smaller pixel 2 or the larger pixel 2 XL, you know you have the best camera around. So what do you think of the results? Do you think the iPhone 10 can get the crown back for Apple? Tell me about your experiences with the pixel 2 and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube. So you don't miss the next camera fight.

Source : PCWorld