Review: Sony Ericsson Satio - part 2: The Camera

[slitchfield]

Following on from the best-selling(!) part 1 of my Sony Ericsson Satio review, here's part 2, looking at its star feature, the 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash. In addition to comments on the interface and photo/video samples, I put the Satio's camera head to head over a variety of photo shoots with the Nokia N86 8MP, the Samsung i8910 HD and the Nokia N96 (for reference). In summary, I'd rate the Satio as having potentially the best camera ever fitted to a phone, though there's obviously still some optimisation needed in its algorithms. Comments welcome!

Read on in the full article.

Impressive for a phone cam. If my norma pictures were close up detail shots I would consider a Satio.

[yade]

I am suprised by these results.

I have been doing comparisons between the N86, Satio and i8910 and the Satio has struggled for excessive noise compared to the N86 and the i8910 has come out on top in outdoor pictures with lots of natural night.
I also found that the dynamic range is very poor on the Satio and often it under exposes the foreground in order for the background to come out well.

Overall I still think I prefer my N82.

It's dissapointing that your review doesn't mention the excellent speed of the Satio's camera interface. Pictures are INSTANTLY saved, even when at 12mp resolution. It's much faster than the N86 in this regard.

[rafiii]

I think he will talk about this in the third review with the rest of the software. The 5th test is quite interesting, the N86 seems to catch much more details ( and no focus problem). Thanks for the review Steve

with respect yade,

since when do 'normal' people have at their disposal a satio, n86 and i8910 for the purposes of comparing camera quality. that's at least £1k of phones you have there!

btw, i have a n82, which is great, but am looking for the next step up cameraphone-wise. so clear, accurate and unbiased insights on current top level models are appreciated.

aidan

[yade]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

with respect yade,

since when do 'normal' people have at their disposal a satio, n86 and i8910 for the purposes of comparing camera quality. that's at least £1k of phones you have there!

btw, i have a n82, which is great, but am looking for the next step up cameraphone-wise. so clear, accurate and unbiased insights on current top level models are appreciated.

aidan

I like you am trying to find the phone to replace my N82 and am struggling. The Satio isn't it, the N86 is close and I love my i8910 despite its problems.

I think for now I will stick with the N82 though.

[UKJeeper]

Please tell us how you managed to get a pink frisbee with the Samsung? I've taken loads of pictures with mine and haven't managed to take one as badly as that yet.

Also, i'd like to see a cropped i8910 picture of the night shot at the same zoom level as the other's. Not saying the Samsung has amazing night abilities, but let's compare apples vs apples. (and, BTW, fix the links to the full size shot's...EG:

I'm sorry we can not find the page you are looking for.

The requested URL (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/revie...io/satio-9.jpg) was not found [404 Error].

)

Or even better, include (working) links to ALL the full size pictures from ALL the phones included in the article.

[Zaqfalcon]

Thank you Steve, nice review.

Just in regard to the last two shots of Sonning Golf Club; it appears that the Satio has overexposed a little, perhaps half a stop as compared to the the N86 shot. This is probably due to the larger quantity of bright sky being exposed for in the N86 shot with its wide angle lens. Can you tell us what aperture and shutter speeds were used for these two shots please? (I'm unable to downlaod the Satio photos at the moment; I keep getting error 404.)

Can you give us a bit more detail regarding the usability of some of the controls please, in particular the accessability of the exposure compensation. This is the control used most often I would have thought, because of the issue encountered as noted above.

Remember cameras are merely tools and hence innately stupid. They do not know what it is that you are photographing or how dark or light you would like it to appear; you may for example have wanted the building to appear in silhouette with the sky and clouds holding detail. Therefore they average out the exposure to appear approximately 17% grey; good for most shots but often incorrect.

[wakabajasi]

Hi Steve!

I was wondering could you compare n82 and satio when taking photos with xenon flash? It would really help a lot of people cause, as I look more on internet,
I find that Satio has a rather weak xenon flash (compared to c905, Pixon 12, etc.)

Thanks!

[rvirga]

I'd rate the Satio as having potentially the best camera ever fitted to a phone

Nope, that title rightfully belongs to the Samsung W880. Pity it's for the korean market only. The Satio is a strong contender for the best camera smartphone, however.

[malerocks]

Steve,
This is the 1st time I have seen you criticize the colour reproducing capabilities of the n86. What happened?

[slitchfield]

>>It's dissapointing that your review doesn't mention the excellent speed of the Satio's camera interface.

Yes, it IS snappy. And yes, will comment more on this in the third party once the software is patched.

>>Please tell us how you managed to get a pink frisbee with the Samsung?

Maybe my i8910 HD is faulty. But it's not the first time it has given me slightly iffy colours..... 8-( Seems to be red that always goes wrong when it does....

>> compare apples vs apples. (and, BTW, fix the links to the full size shot's...EG:

Gah. Fixed. Stupid Internet being case sensitive. You'd have thought someone would have fixed that after 20 years 8-(

>>>shot with its wide angle lens. Can you tell us what aperture and shutter speeds were used for these two shots please? (I'm unable to downlaod the Satio photos at the moment; I keep getting error 404.)

You should be able to grab them now. N86 parameters were 3.2 and 1/149.

>>Can you give us a bit more detail regarding the usability of some of the controls please, in particular the accessability of the exposure compensation. This is the control used most often I would have thought, because of the issue encountered

As stated, I loved the Satio's camera interface. And exposure is one of the main settings, one tap away 8-)

I was wondering could you compare n82 and satio when taking photos with xenon flash? It would really help a lot of people cause, as I look more on internet,
I find that Satio has a rather weak xenon flash (compared to c905, Pixon 12, etc.)

Possibly. It certainly has problems focussing, which ruins half the Xenon shots.

>>This is the 1st time I have seen your criticize the colour reproducing capabilities of the n86. What happened?

No device is perfect, you know. Sadly 8-)

[clonmult]

That is an interesting series of pictures, very illuminating (excuse the pun!).

The N86 seems to display the standard Nokia issue of relatively lousy JPEG processing - details are extremely fuzzy in the 1:1 images.

Satio does indeed look by far and away the best - colours way better, reduced artifacts.

After knocking the Satio so much I'm having to eat the good old humble pie - it does indeed look like its got a well sorted camera.

But as with some others here, I'd like to see a comparison against the N82, which is still looking like my next upgrade as soon as I can find one (currently using an N86!).

[slitchfield]

I'm afraid that the N82, much as I love it, fails for me in late 2009 because:

1) Screen is only 2.4" and too dim - I can't cope with it anymore as a I get older!
2) USB is too slow for file transfers
3) Camera results, though usually pretty good, aren't saturated enough for me, I do like my colours quite vivid. Might be a personal thing
4) T9 still isn't really my thing. Sorry.

N86 also fails at the moment, by the way, because:

1) Firmware is STILL buggy, even at v20, and annoyingly so. Crashes and glitches, surprising for a 3rd Edition FP2 phone, to be honest.
2) T9... yada, see above 8-)

Me, fussy?