The Phone

They pointed me toward the Acer Go, a no frills phone that has a bit of a punch. Ok the camera isn’t top of the range but with a pretty reasonable 5mp back camera it can produce some decent images. The lens is an 89 degree wide -angle while the battery claim is of 300 hours in standby, 250 hours talk time running Lollipop (Android OS).

On Your Holiday

If you’re thinking of going away this summer this might be the ideal phone to take with you. Buying the phone will cost £50 for pay as you go and with Three’s Feel at Home rates you can use it in 18 different countries at no extra cost. It may not be my, now beloved, LG G4 but I know which I’d rather drop in the sand / sea / off a cliff!

This phone isn’t going to win any awards this year, but I really don’t think that it ever set out to be a trend setter, this is a what you see is what you get handset that does what you need and thats it.

Head over to Three.co.uk for all the rates and more specifications.

Three Little Letters

The first thing on the wish list is to be able to shoot RAW and the G4 allows us to do just that. Saving images as both jpeg and Digital Negative (DNG), an open raw file format.

You can see here that these two images, despite being taken at the same time, are very different in size, the DNG file being almost FIVE times as big, thats five times the data, a far broader range of luminance.

Three Modes

The LG G4 has three camera modes; Simple, Auto and Manual. For those wanting a pretty decent point and shoot the first two will do you just fine, but for those of us that have been dreaming of a smartphone camera that we can alter the setting of, Manual is a gift from heaven!

Diving into Manual

Once in Manual mode a whole host of icons and information is presented to you;

1. Settings menu for flash, camera (front or rear) file type and access to further settings.

2. This is the currant settings, from left to right; Histogram, White Balance, Focus, Exposure, ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.

3. Tapping one of these icons brings up its control (4) In the screenshot above this is setting the Exposure Compensation.

Focus

Here you can see the Manual Focus controls that give amazingly sharp images from approximately 5 cm from the lens.

Exposure Compensation

While in Manual Mode Exposure Compensation becomes available, in the image below I’ve used this to prevent Sian from being in silhouette in front of the bright window.

Shutter Speed

With access to the shutter speed I can shoot at 1/6000 sec to 30 sec. In the following shot I used just a couple of seconds (at 11pm I thought I’d call it a night, but expect long shutter pics to crop up soon!)

Conclusion

The camera on this phone is good but its great in manual. The control is exceptional and a joy to use. I found that shooting on a sunny day was tricky, the screen is very reflective so i ended up putting a cover over me and the phone,not really progress!

For me, the best smartphone camera I’ve tried yet.

Images in this post taken with Honor 6+ and iPhone 6

I’m looking for new things to shoot and I wondered if I’d be able to find a way to take photos underwater. Here’s my solution;

Spaghetti Is The Answer

The problem is, how to get the phone underwater without getting it wet. To do this I went to my local John Lewis and bought a spaghetti jar. I spent some time looking at a couple of models, even putting my phone in them and taking an image.

The distortion of more rounded jars was far too much, so I went for the more square model where the phone could sit flush with the sides.

Pack It In

To make sure the phone stayed flush to the edges while shooting I packed kitchen roll around it. Then packed the top of it with kitchen roll to to catch and spillages or splashes.

Trigger

Obviously I wasn’t able to press the shutter to take the pics, so I used a bluetooth trigger.

Dip In

Dipping the jar in the water and hitting the shutter means its a little hit and miss, but its a lot of fun and rewarding when you get a little something.

I didn’t catch any wildlife but thats not too surprising considering where I was,

Captured with Honor 6+

This technique also meant that I could capture the landscape from water level, something I’ve not done before.

Captured with Honour 6+

Next time I’m at the coast I’m heading straight to the rock-pools!

The Studio Set Up

Planning on doing some more conceptual shoots in the future I thought I’d try out the phone in the studio.

Image from iPhone 6

With a black background I set up two constant lighting stands. One as a Key light the other as a little fill, but mainly Back lighting. Colleague and friend Sian happened by, so she got the job of model.

Images

Honor 6+ Image – Click to see full size

Click to Enlarge

iPhone Comparison

iPhone image – Click to enlarge

Selfie

Taking a selfie with the honor 6+ is much the same as any other phone, but what is a nice feature is the countdown it gives you.

Honor+ Front Facing Camera

First impressions

As test shots I’m very impressed with the camera on the Honor 6+ but I was throwing as much light at Sian as I could. Focussing was very quick and the results sharp and very clear.

An unexpected result was that, due to the shiny casing Sian could see herself in the back of the camera. I’m not sure how some people might react to this, but it helped Sian visualise the shot I was taking… and sort out her fringe.

With more features of the camera to explore expect a few more shots in the very near future!

This device is exclusive to Three and available from May 1st 2015. Running the Android OS it feels familiar and its size and weight fit comfortably in the hand. On the back of the camera is what makes this smartphone stand out, two 8MP camera lenses.

Why Two Lenses?

By taking two images and combining them the theory is that the image will be sharper and will give superior low light photography (I didn’t get a chance to test it that far however), it also means the lenses aren’t so big so they sit flush with the casing.

Set on Wide Aperture Effects the Honour 6+ takes two images simultaneously, then one can choose the point of focus from either plane, sliding a finger up and down the screen to alter the aperture setting for the ‘defocussed’ part.

Here’s a little video I shot using the phone, its a little shaky but you get the idea;

Availability

The Honour 6+ is available from Three from May 1st and as with all Three smartphones can be part of their All You Can Eat (AYCE) data plan, something I’ve come to rely on quite a bit!

Other Noteworthy Specs;

5.5 Inch 1080×1920 HD Display

1.8 Hz Octa-Core Kirin 925 Chipset

3 GB RAM

32 GB Internal Storage

3600mAh Battery (Appx 2 days on moderate use)

The External Charger

External chargers have been around for a while, often bulky and heavy and a pain to carry around, but for avid phoneographers or videographers they’re a must have. In my experience these chargers have been nothing more than a rechargeable battery with a USB port or two.

Juice Weekender

The Juice Weekender is a little different and I have to say that these little changes make a lot of difference. Within the packaging is everything you need! So often I’ve had to go scrabbling through a draw looking for a lead to power a battery pack. The Weekender has one enclosed, first annoyance over.

Next there’s the need to take a USB wire with you when you go out, not with the Weekender however. This charger comes with the connectors built in! Made from durable (I hope) rubber the connectors for iPhone 6, iPad and Android phones flip out of the casing. When you’re done they fit snuggly away again.

Indicators

On the front of the pack there’s four lights that illuminate during charging that show charging progress. Interestingly the light go out when the pack is fully charged. When using the pack and you’d like to see what charge remains simply shake it to illuminate the indicators.

Charges

The manufacturer claims a fully charged Weekender will charge an iPhone more than four times and a Galaxy S5 twice, just enough for a day or two out playing.

Conclusion

Compared with other chargers I’ve used this is a tidy little unit. It’s rubber feel coating is reassuring but I can’t confirm how robust it actually is at present. I love that its a complete unit and I don’t need my USB lead with me too, a great charger to keep handy!

Find more details at the Juice website

No Pixels Were Harmed….

When viewing an image you can access the editor by tapping on Edit in the top right corner. If you’re image was taken with your iOS device then the editor will open, however if you added an image from another source as I have here, then you’re given the option to duplicate the image and then edit.

Either way, your original image remains unharmed.

Simple Controls

In the editor you’re given just a few simple controls, and for many tweaks this may be all you require.

I’m looking to make this image Black and white and there’s three options to do this in the Filters section. Noir is somewhat close to what I’m after, but not exactly.

Drilling Down..

The dial icon next to the filters will reveal three menu options; Light, Color and Black and as luck would have it White.

Tapping Black and White opens another choice, this time in the form of a slider.

This article continues here at PhotoFocus

Image captured with Sony Z3   :::  Edited on iPhone 6 

Thanks to Three.co.uk for their support of this article.

With Fotolia’s Instant app everything you need to take, edit, tag and upload an image is right there for you even a model release form! Its completely free so there’s no outlay.

I found the app incredibly easy to use and quite intuitive. Uploading an image was easy both with images taken with the app and those I had on my Camera Roll (and had been run through Snapseed)

Once you’ve uploaded your image, its held in a queue to be authorised, once done it gets added to the Fotolia Instant collection and, if you’re lucky, sold.

The Fotolia Instant app is available for both iOS and Android systems, good luck!

Links

Fotolia – The Stock Image Community
Fotolia Instant official Site

Image taken with Sony Z3

A tripod is an essential part of a photographer’s and this stands true for phoneographer’s too, researching my options it wasn’t long before I found exactly what I was looking for.

I’ve used a Gorillapod in the past for supporting a DSLR but hadn’t realised that there was a version for mobile phones. I ordered mine from eBay and it was delivered in very good time.

Why A GorillaPod?

The main selling point of the GripTight is its flexible legs, with ten segments to each leg you’re able to wrap it around an object, making your phone stable in mass of different situations. When using it recently I was very impressed by the way the legs gripped a vertical post. I had thought that I would have to use one of the legs to support the phone’s weight, but this wasn’t the case.

The Grip Head

The head that holds the phone is a sturdy spring loaded claw that is detachable from the main tripod. With a standard screw fix the claw can be swapped onto any other standard tripod, a handy feature.

I’ve found I use the Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand for more than just my phonepography now, when I watch a movie, time lapse or even type out his post!

I love phoneography because the ‘kit’ is so portable and this fits perfectly in my makeshift kit bag. It weighs just 65g and goes with me on every phoneography walk.

You can find more details at the Joby site here

The Sony Z3 and iPhone 6 phones featured in this post can be found at Three.com

Set up : Image shot with Sony Z3

The set up.

Each phone was placed on the tripod
Cameras were triggered remotely to avoid shake.
The phones were tilted slightly to get the subject, the church, centre frame in each shot.
No editing was applied to the images prior to this post

iPhone 6 : Click to Enlarge

Sony z3 : Click to Enlarge

On uploading the images I was surprised by the colour temperature differences between the two images. The other obvious difference is the wide angle lens on the Sony capturing a great deal more of the scene.

On Closer Inspection…

Again, no adjustments have been made apart from the crop. The branches on the Z3 image are sharper and more defined and the shadpws in the front larger window have a little more definition, as too does the brickwork.

Image Size

No surprise that there’s more detail really, the Z3 is packing a tidy 23megapixel camera while the iPhone 6 sports an 8 megapixel iSight camera.

Sony : 5248 pixels x 3936pixels — iPhone 6 : 3264 pixels x 244 pixels

Sony Z3 and iPhone 6

Bells and Whistles

The Sony comes with bespoke apps for it’s camera, some of them I love (see Background Blur With Sony Z3) but the wealth of great iOS apps drowns them out. Then there’s the working eco-system. Switching to an Android phone was a struggle, working as I do with a Macbook Pro and iPad.  So, its decision time…

What I’m faced with is a choice of a better camera (in my opinion) with the Z3 or the workflow ease of the iPhone. There are some compromises, Sony Bridge supports iPhoto, iTunes and the mac workspace but it is a compromise and isn’t as fluid as I would like, or have been used to.

So, my choice?

My day to day phone has become the iPhone 6 but the Z3 remains with me as part of my phoneography kit. If I had to ditch 1, I hate to say it, the iPhone would go. I’d sacrifice the workflow for that camera, and the 4K video camera… or would I? Yes… no… arrrhhhh maybe… dammit!!

While I was Out

When I went to take the comparison photos my son came with me, he happens to have an iPhone 5s. In my phoneography kit was an iPhone 4S, so we popped them on the tripod to compare too. Not very scientific, these phones have been through the mill a little, but for fun, here’s the results;

(Unlike the main images above, these images have been reduced in size for quicker loading)

iPhone 4S

iPhone 5S

Huge thanks the Three for making this post possible!