Are Smartphone Stills Skillz Improving Faster Than Video?
Since the invention of smartphones, from the first iPhone up to the recent Samsung S10, foldable phones, the Huawei P30 and the incoming iPhone 11, the quality of the phone’s camera(s) has been one of it’s main selling features.
When Apple launched their Shot on iPhone campaign in 2015, smartphone photography became a thing. Other smartphone manufacturers realised an increasing need to include top quality photography features in their phones. Since then, the cameras in our phones have jumped from one camera to the point where any phone needs to include at least 2 lenses. Samsung’s new foldable smartphone will ship with 6 inbuilt cameras…
Hence, when companies are marketing their phones there’s a lot of talk about their camera specs. Often new technology, like AI and periscope lens features for example, is key to a phone’s launch. The reviews follow along with that narrative.
The thing is, most of the talk focuses on the stills capability, while the video side of the phone’s camera is usually offered as a short footnote. Check the DxOMark reviews and you’ll find most of the analysis is focused on stills photography. Only about 20% of their reviews cover video (and I would question how knowledgeable they are in that department).
We’re all about filmmaking at MoMo…
…so I try to redress the balance in these blogs by focusing solely on the video features of a phone.
But what’s the reason for this?
One obvious reason is that smartphone owners are in general more interested in stills over video. Therefore, the stills capability of a phone is more of a selling point. Another reason might be that features are easier to implement with stills than with video.
For example, the AI which allows you to put the background out of focus in a selfie would be extremely hard to replicate in video. That’s because a moving image would require the mask created by the AI to track movement – inevitably it will lose the object and the mask will make the video look bad.
Google Night Sight is another example of a feature which is only available for stills. The AI processing required to use this for video is presumably prohibitive (for now).
Dues to the extra memory and processing power required to shoot video, video is always going to be lagging behind stills when it comes to new features. If Google Night Sight becomes available for video in 5 years time, it will no longer have the device selling power it once had. Instead, there will be even more new stills features taking the limelight.
The reality is, video is less important to smartphone buyers than stills photography. Therefore, designers will always be focusing on beefing up existing stills capabilities, or introducing new ones. That’s what sells the phones, in a majority of cases.
Things might change
Younger generations are growing up with a video camera as part of their daily lives. From smartphone use and from social media use. As video becomes more important to people, will smartphone makers focus on improving video specs?
That said, there’re strides being made already it’s just they are a little harder to find out about.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy S10 includes HDR10+ capture, improved optical image stabilization and automatic filtering and retouching.
One issue is that we reaching the limits of basic video quality that can be contained within a device as small as a smartphone. So developments are likely to be embellishments rather than game-changers.
From models like the iPhone 7, Samsung 8, the Google Pixel range (and other phones of the last 2 years) there has been very little improvement. The good news for smartphone filmmakers is you don’t need to spend huge sums of money to get the best video-shooting technology.
A second hand or refurbished iPhone 7, or Samsung Galaxy 8 will shoot great video. Even the original Google Pixel still stands up against phones coming out in 2019. These can all be purchased for well below $500.
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