Published by Steve Litchfield at 7:17 UTC, December 7th 2015

It's all very well saying that the Lumia 950 and 950 XL camera is the best, across all shots and use cases, that has ever existed in the Windows Phone world , but how does it compare with the best of the competition? The latter is almost unanimously the LG G4, running Android, so I got that in for direct comparison and a fight to the death. At least in terms of still imaging.





Happily the LG G4 and Lumia 950 can both output images at 16MP in 16:9, so doing this particular camera phone comparison doesn't need any special trickery or allowances. Of course, using this resolution means ditching the 950's oversampling, but it's not as great a loss as on the 1020 in previous features. I think a straight out 16MP shootout is the way to go here, so we can compare pixel for pixel and use our comparator.

Notes:

The crops below are all at 1:1 as usual. I've deliberately put in an emphasis on tricky subjects or conditions, to push the camera phones to the limit.

All shots are handheld and all shots are with the Camera applications in fully automatic mode - how most users would use them. Both applications/devices do have fully manual modes too, of course, so each's photos can be tweaked at capture time in a myriad different ways.

Note that the interactive comparator below uses javascript and does need to load each pair of images. Please be patient while this page loads, if you see a pair of images above each other than you've either not waited long enough or your browser isn't capable enough!

Test 1: Landscape, sunny, HDR

My default test across suburban gardens, aiming at a roof with loads of detail and texture, in sunshine. Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

There's not much to choose between these two shots, both of which were taken in auto-HDR/Rich Capture mode by the relevant Camera applications. I prefer the more saturated colours of the Lumia 950 shot, plus there seems to be better dynamic range, but the differences are marginal overall.

Lumia 950: 9pts, LG G4: 8pts

Test 2: Landscape no.2, low winter sun, no HDR

Another suburban test, weak winter sun and moody light, and again looking for colour and detail, this time from a single shot. Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

There's more difference with this shot, the Lumia 950 manages exposure better and as a result the white/bright highlights aren't blown out. Seemingly without a downside - and simply a better photo overall as a result.

Lumia 950: 10pts, LG G4: 8pts

Test 3: Indoor macro, tricky lighting and subject, no flash

Part of a daughter-made wall collage, taken at around 15cm, in weak incandescent light. Here's the overall scene, for context (though see notes below on colours):





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The issues here are to do with the colouring. In reality, the collage is all blue. So dark blue, light blue and blue on a white background (albeit lit incandescently). The Lumia 950 gets much closer to reality, though even it gets the light blue backing slightly wrong. The LG G4's photo is slightly better focussed, something I'll come back to below, but the light blue backing is almost green and the white backdrop has turned yellow. All of which is surprising, since the G4 famously comes with a dedicated 'colour spectrum sensor'. Which didn't help here, interestingly.

Lumia 950: 7pts, LG G4: 6pts

Test 4: Indoor macro, LED flash lit

An original (Yapp) painting, lit almost solely by the phone's LED flash at a distance of around 50cm. Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The brighter (triple) LED flash on the Lumia 950 wins the day here, providing more light (and more accuaretly tuned) in order to bring out colour and detail in the painting. In fact, there's too much light, obviously, since you can see reflections from highlights in the oil paint, but a real life subject wouldn't be this 'flat' to the phone camera. The G4 does well, but everything's duller and less striking. And would do worse if the subject was another metre away.

Lumia 950: 9pts, LG G4: 8pts

Test 6: Dead of night

My standard night shot up my road, with just a couple of street lights, plus plenty of detail to look out for in the darkness (estate agent sign, car, etc.) Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

There's an important difference here - and it's where the LG G4 shines - the laser auto-focus system is amazing at quickly getting focussed, even when there's no natural light around and even when the subject's far way. This is the way all other phone cameras should go. The Lumia 950 shot here was the best of TEN that I attempted, the Camera application just couldn't lock on to anything because the auto-focus system is based on natural light being processed (phase-detection, in this case). The 950 shot above was manually focussed.

In the real world, many people won't be attempting shots this dark, so focussing this way may not be an issue, but the G4's prowess here is certainly worth noting. It's a king in the dark. And look at that noise reduction and impressive detail - note that the G4 is also optically stabilised, and everything here is handheld. The G4 always maxes out at 1/20s exposures, interestingly, perhaps thanks to the large f/1.8 aperture, while the Camera application in Windows 10 Mobile allows up to 1/5s in this sort of situation.

Lumia 950: 5pts, LG G4: 10pts

Test 7: Night again, but (tricky) light aplenty

So, we've established that the G4's laser auto-focus wins out when there's little light around to trigger the 950's phase-detection auto-focus, but what about when there's distant light to focus on? In this case a really tricky evening shot of distant cinema lights. Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Now, I want to be clear - within the bounds of the automatic mode being tested, I tried tapping on various bright spots in the G4 viewfinder, I took five shots, and the images came out much the same, like this one, with too much light being gathered, sufficient to blow out the main signs. It's absolutely true that the G4's manual mode easily allows the nudging down of exposure and this would fix things, but the average user would snap this scene and not find out that exposure was too high until later, when they looked in detail at the photo on a large monitor. Which is exactly what happened to me. Viewing the crop above on my Mac desktop, I then kicked myself for not trying another, manual, shot at the time.

In contrast, the Lumia 950-captured scene, on full auto and at the first attempt, is ASTONISHING. If you do nothing else in this feature, grab the JPG for it, examine it in depth and then you tell me with a straight face that the Lumia 950 (and XL) isn't the best camera phone ever made. Look closely and you can almost make out which movies were playing by their posters, peoples' haircuts and more. Incredible detail at 16MP.

Lumia 950: 10pts, LG G4: 8pts

Test 8: Almost pitch darkness, close-up

OK, here I'm just playing, but I wanted to eliminate focussing issues and concentrate on raw sensor light gathering performance. I was about 50cm from a print in a glass frame in a room that was very poorly lit, by daylight creeping around the corner of a curtain. Here's the overall scene, for context:





In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 950 and LG G4, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Quite a dramatic difference again, but in the other direction. The exposure times are the same as before, with the 950 allowing twice as long (1/5s), but even the G4's larger aperture can't save it here. Although there's noise in the 950 shot, quite understandably, at least you can see what the painting is/was and can read the title at the bottom left.

You can grab the originals if you want to assess all this in the light of the ISO chosen by each application/device, but I'm more interested in the exposure times, since we're also evaluating the effectiveness of the OIS here too.

Lumia 950: 8pts, LG G4: 3pts

Test 9: Party mock-up time!

OK, ok, by popular demand I've added my traditional 'laughing' party mock-up, a typical moving person shot in low light. Here's the overall scene, for context:





Here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

What you're seeing here is the difference between triple LED and single LED flash. It's down to light levels at the end of the day, and the Lumia 950 does get awfully close to the sort of results I used to demand from Xenon flash on the Lumia 1020 - we live in interesting times!

Lumia 950: 9pts, LG G4: 4pts

Verdict

Adding up the point scores gives us a rough idea of the raw imaging abilities of the two smartphone cameras:

Lumia 950 - 67 pts LG G4 - 55 pts

Of course, there's far more to a smartphone camera than just raw image quality though, for many people like me, this is a huge factor. Speed of camera launching, speed of focus, speed of capture, speed of review, four vital statistics which define smartphone photography for many people. And, despite the innate quality, this is one area where the Lumia 950 and 950 XL camera does fall down slightly. Windows 10 Camera launches quickly and shot to shot times are quick, but I'd highlight two big caveats:

focussing is slower than on the G4 and DSLRs, thanks to using optical means to focus rather than using laser/infrared range finding techniques. This isn't an issue much of the time, but arty low light shots can go spectacularly wrong - or right. It's a bit of a lottery though.

reviewing shots immediately is a no-no. Even without 'Rich Capture' on, tapping on the top-left thumbnail to see what you've just snapped enforces a second's delay while 'finishing touches' are applied. With Rich Capture on (auto) and working, you're looking at up to ten seconds for 16MP photos, even on these fast-chipped phones. So, in practice, you snap your new baby niece playing with a toy and tap back to see the result and then you wait, and wait and eventually realise that she had her eyes closed, so you lift the 950 again and... she's moved on. In practice, you just take half a dozen shots and hope for the best (and leave all the processing to happen as and when the phone gets round to it) or you shoot 4K video and hope that you can grab suitable 8MP frames from it.

So... we have a phone camera that's unbelievable most of the time but has two noteworthy Achilles heels. Do these knock the Lumia 950 and 950 XL back into the G4's clutches? Arguably yes, though - as ever, with these features - it utterly depends on what you want to photograph! For me, the big takeaway here is that Microsoft (and the ex-Nokia engineers) have crafted a smartphone camera that's evidently a successor to those in the Lumia 1020 and 930, and a competitor to the industry-leading LG G4 - and then some.

Your comments welcome.

PS. I'll have a full device head-to-head with the G4 shortly, plus my 'review part 2' for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL.