talknshoot

Hi! Thanks for the comments. Regarding the manual controls, they are a bit limited. You have manual focus, white balance (sunny, incandescent, etc) and E.V. (ranging from -3.0 to +3.0), and all of them can be changed both before and during the recording. There's also a LED toggle. The problem is that there's no lock other than focus lock. It would be great if they at least provided exposure and white balance locking as well. The bit rate is another let-down. Although it seems good the way it is, it's a mere 43 Mbps in 4K and 25 fps. It goes up to 53 if you select 30 fps. On a a nutshell: it's good, but it also got an unexplored potential. I've already contacted Juha (https://twitter.com/jalakarhu - the man in charge of the imaging department at MS) regarding these concerns, but he only replied he'd make note of my suggestions. Here's another one:

Also -3.0 E.V.: Trying different exposure values to match what I actually saw on the scene. The eyes can see a great amount of shadow detail, and I think it's well preserved here. Could've undersposed a bit more and tried to recover detail in PP: -2.3 and -2.7 E.V.: -2.3 E.V.: -2.7:

My other topic got a little flooded, so I will start a fresh one with some random shots I took today with my Lumia 950. No editing at all: Full Colour Range, no Sensor Crop in 4K mode, Directional Audio enabled by default on Windows Mobile 10, tiny tripod or windshield car mount. I'll leave the judgement to you. I will only say that the auto white balance seems to be fairly accurate in almost every situation, and certainly on these ones. I got them all uploaded to YT, so bear in mind that the image quality is not the same as on the original files. I recommend downloading them and watching them on MPC-HC. For comparison purposes (between the original file and the ones uploaded to YT) here there are two frames grabbed from one of the original clips: This first clip was shot at -3.0 E.V. NOTE.: The exposure compensation can be higher or lower depending on the brightness of the focus point you select, unless you select the focus at infinity by default. Lighting: -3.0 E.V. Shot from inside the car, thus the hissing noise (Air-con): -3.0. E.V. More to come...

'That is ugly video.' Your eyes see crushed shadows like these? Well, I feel bad for you, pal. You're right, yours is the video that DOESN'T look ugly. Crushed shadows like these hurt my eyes just as blown highlights. But you know, I AM CLOSED MINDED.

LOL. Unbelievable. First of all, the last video I posted wasn't mine. I've just added it to show that there's a quite flat profile on 950's shots. At the end of the video, the guy seems to try to adjust the exposure, but he/she haven't done it to the best extent. Of course it's always a matter of adjusting the exposure. I would never say the other way round. But the plain fact is that it's not ONLY a matter of exposure. So we get flat profiles in dedicated cameras. FACT. Besides, if you both want to delude yourselves by thinking that adjusting the exposure on such tiny sensors will lead you to have ALL the detail on both highlights AND shadows, go ahead, folks... Perhaps I am really closed minded. ---------------------- As far as the basics go, everybody knows it's always a matter of selecting the best TRADE-OFF on high contrast scenes. ---------------------- You talked about dismissing things: It seems that you both dismiss my first post, which is THE main subject of this thread, when I explore SEVERAL Exposure Values for the first video, even suggesting that one should pick -3.0 to use in low light with the Lumia 950, SO it's more than clear that I take exposure into account very seriously.

Apologies accepted. Dark areas are blown on your videos, just as the highlights are blown on the last 950 video. There are other examples at my first post. And video is not all about exposure.

Thanks for the samples. I would say that the first one is the most interesting since it features more or less the same scene, although with brighter lights. Notice that the contrast seem to be high. We cannot see the pavement. Take this 950's sample as a good comparison:

If you don't get it, I am not the one to explain it to you. The S7 doesn't feel like much of an improvement in low light (not a perfect example, but it says something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8MzRjFLADs). High Speed and focus are not, by any means, related to this discussion. By the way, the topic was to show an impressive result achieved by the Lumia 950 in low light. It's proven, I guess. If you decided to start talking in Parallels, it was entirely up to you. You also seem to be keen on putting a period on discussions with short statements. Sometimes it's good. Mostly when they carry enough arguments in them.

- Well, if you read it right, I written that if we're going to look at 'Auto Mode'-based reviews, than I guess THIS is the wrong place to discuss them. I don't need to prove that this kind of reviews are bad in a forum like this. I didn't think it would be a matter of discussion. - I am not saying that GSMArena's reviews are different. I only said they were A BIT better than Pocket Now's. But it's clearly, and essentially, all about Auto Mode still. It's not hard to understand that. Or is it? - I do not dismiss everything and everyone else. You're trying to say things I haven't said. Perhaps you have some problems with text comprehension. Regarding your Androidcentral comparison: 'HOW WE SHOOT [...] we left each camera in full automatic mode with automatic HDR enabled.' You cited precisely a kind of review that we all know it's, let's say, kind of useless. You may cite a thousand of those reviews. They won't make your point any better. I am sorry. When I quote GSMArena, it's implicit that I do not dismiss it. Taking it as an example, from the Comparison between the Lumia 950, the iPhone 6S Plus, the Note 5 and the LG V10 http://www.gsmarena.com/iphone_6s_plus_vs_lumia_950_xl_vs_galaxy_note5-review-1365p8.php. Regarding LOW LIGHT VIDEO, which is the subject of this topic: 'Winner: Microsoft Lumia 950 XL. The video came out surprisingly crisp with moderate amounts of noise.' You can further compare that footage to the S7's if you want it to. Anyway, you asked for it, so here we go, a comparison of my own: http://talkandshoot.blogspot.com.br/2016/02/lumia-950-vs-galaxy-s7-raw-test.html - Mind that my ironic reply was due to your monosyllabic statement that the footage was 'soft', without putting it in the right context. You indeed seemed to be the enlightened one when you written that. P.S.: here's the S6's footage, taken with Medium Flat Profile and 200 Mbps (Cinema4K app), in more or less the same conditions as the 950's.

I was afraid to express my thoughts on a pro forum, but now I saw you came with Pocket Now-like reviews I am relieved. Phew! If you seriously belief that reviews like this prove anything, then I feel even more confident about my statement. 'Let's use Auto Mode and see what is the best camera'. I am sorry, but these reviews are simply pathetic. I am uploading a Galaxy S6 footage taken with the Cinema4K app so you can compare with the 950 one. BTW: If you're going to cite these kind of Auto Mode only reviews, take a look at GSMArena's reviews and comparisons regarding the 950's camera. They are a bit better.

Nice! I'm looking forward to your review! Have you noticed this kind of flat profile it enables in low light? Once again, I'm not a pro, but I found it flatter than my FZ1000 in Cinelike D. It also seems to pack more dynamic range than any other smartphone, with spot on contrast and saturation. I think it's a very mature approach.

WOW, how's that for a comment? Take any other SMARTPHONE to that spot and I will bet anything you want that this will be both the sharpest and the cleanest you will get. C'mon. Take a look at the foliage there. Even some dedicated cameras would struggle. I should have anticipated that some enlightened gods of the image quality would come up with such kind of comment. As to the other part of your comment, yes, it's quiet a long time since that review, and the latest .164 update it's pretty much stable now. I had some buggier droids, that's for sure. Also, you should take into account that the universal apps for Windows Mobile 10 may keep it well alive. Yes, I've had a share of bad lenses coming from Zeiss, specially with the Lumia 930. I indeed had to return two just to get one that didn't have strong corner softness. I acknowledge that. The point of this post, in the case you have forgotten, is to demonstrate how good it is in low light compared to other smartphones. I know that this video alone does not prove it directly, but I've tested some in that situation and I can stand up to the statement. I would not agree with you that Lumias are irrelevant. I would even say that this 950 series is the best cameraphone you can buy right now.

I've had many high end cameraphones before, including the 808 PureView. I recently had a Galaxy S6 with the Cinema4K app installed. I must say that the Lumia 950 does a much better job than the Cinema4K app with 1/4 of the bit rate, even considering the Cinema4K has a flat colour profile. The intriguing bit is that I found that the Lumia 950 features a 'hidden' flat colour profile too, and that kicks in every time the light dims. Take a look at this sample I've uploaded to my YT channel: I am not a professional, but I am really impressed by the results. Nevertheless, I found that the E.V. has to be tuned down quite a bit to achieve these great results. On this video, I used -2.3 to -3.0. But I would say that -3.0 is the best option. I am really impressed. Fast panning is tricky due to the slow shutter, but using it on a tripod yields pretty clean (and with great dynamic range) videos for such a small sensor. It even records the full colour range, 0-255. I've never seen that on a smartphone. Download the file and check it for yourselves. It also doesn't feature sensor crop at 4K and doesn't seem to suffer from aliasing artifacts. Full sensor readout? Also notice that it allows for a 1.3x zoom with almost no quality loss. The most intriguing bit is: why Microsoft didn't advertised all of this? It even features Direction Audio recording, which I demonstrate here: P.S.: I am running a blog to comment on mobile cameras. I am not a professional, but I decided to put all my efforts on providing more detailed reviews of mobile cameras. If you're interested, the link to the blog is on the video's page.