Comparison 5

iPhone 5S - 1/1642 f2.2 ISO32HTC One - 1/6410s f2.0 ISO125I was really surprised to see how differently these two snaps came out. Both snaps were ported into my laptop as jpg staright off the photostream without any on the phone manipulation. The snaps were then processed into Aperture, then exported out after the file name and metadata was changed, and borders were added. No change to the levels or exposure was done.

The HTC One actually exposed the for the highlights and the snap was again tainted with a rather harsh overall tone. The iPhone on the other hand produced a more pleasing snap, with some preservation of the shadows. Again not perfect, but in terms of overall tone and palatte, I personally prefered the iPhone.

That being said, I think there was a pattern emerging here. I found that the iPhone coped better in the bright sunlight and outdoors snap, but struggled with underexposure indoors. It rendered skin tone better, but getting the right exposure may need some tweaking.

The HTC One on the other made for an excellent "on the fly" snapper. Street photography came out better on the HTC as there wasn't any shutter lag during snapping. The camera was also chunkier to hold and easier to focus as the screen was a touch bigger.

On a personal level, the jury was still out between these two cameraphones. They were both capable, but at the end of the day, what you can do with the snaps may dictate your preferance. Obviously, the Android took advanatge of its "open source" tag and sharing snaps was more straight forward on the HTC, but it didn't have a good post-processing app such as Camera+ to help with the final output. Snapseed was OK, but the fact that I couldn't even get a proper border out of it frustrated me.

So, the choice is yours, and I would be more than happy to continue to carry these two phones in my pockets.

Comparison 4

iPhone 5S - 1/2160 f2.2 ISO32HTC One - 1/2959s f2.2 ISO125There were a couple of difference between these two snaps right off the bat. Colour temperature and dynamic range. And on both counts, I plumped for the iPhone. The overall tone of the snap was more pleasing with a cooler palate overall, and the sensor did well inpreserving the highlights as well as retaining enough of the shadow to make the overall exposure just about right. Not perfect, but not too far off.

The HTC One on the other hand accentuated the harsh temperature of the sun on this late afternoon snap. As a result, the tone was orange brown, with a tinge of green. If you were looking for the 70s colour film tone, then this would be perfect, but not my cup of tea.

My vote went for the iPhone on this one.

Comparison 3

iPhone 5S - 1/1580s f2.2 ISO32HTC One - 1/486s f2.0 ISO125A clear difference between the two snaps here. The iPhone underexposed in order to preserve the highlight at the expense of overall underexposed scene, while the HTC One prioratised the shadow. I was sure by using the HDR algorithm, the overall snap would look different, but the dynamic range might not look real.

Another limitation here was the fact taht I did not select the specific metering area. I just pressed the shutter and let the camera figure out how it prefer to expose the final snap. The right exposire maybe somewhere in between the two. I was sure the sensors on a dSLR or my X-Pro1 would have coped better.

So, which one do you guys prefer? My vote went to the HTC One on this one.