HTC One E8 Camera Review, Capture Samples

The HTC One E8 doesn’t have to face much criticism from the users who care more about the numbers and not quality, because HTC has included a 13-megapixel rear camera instead of the 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera that is a part of the flagship HTC One M8. There’s the 1/3.06″ sensor with f/2.2 lens on the back of the One E8 while it is a 1/3″ sensor, f/2.0 lens combination in the M8.

Read: HTC One E8 Hands-on

And as expected, there is some difference in the camera captures as well, where the HTC One E8 actually doesn’t reach to the level of captures from the One M8 camera. But still, the quality is not really bad if you are talking of some broad day-light captures. The f/2.2 module of the E8 camera can capture 1080p Full HD videos at 30/60 fps, and HTC’s own Zoe captures are also possible. For those who don’t know what HTC Zoe is, it is a camera feature that was exclusive to the HTC phones earlier, now available on Play Store, and it is something that captures both video and photos at the same time, and show it live in the gallery bringing some life to the photo gallery.

Now, talking about the camera app, it presents to the user with a very neat interface and some interesting sounds (that are no where close to the standard shutter sounds) when going into the menu, or selecting a mode and while capturing a picture.

The modes are – Selfie (activates the front facing camera), Dual capture, Panorama 360, Video and Zoe camera. The three little dots on left bottom open up the huge list of options, effects to choose from. The manual controls include AWB settings, ISO sensitivity with max ISO 1600.

The effects include normal, distortion, vignette, depth of field, dots, mono, country, vintage, vintage warm, vintage cold, grayscale, sepia, negative, solarize, posterize and aqua.

The resolutions can be selected from the following:

• Large 4:3 – 4224 x 3136 pixels
• Large 16:9 – 4224 x 2368 pixels
• Medium 4:3 – 3264 x 2464 pixels
• Medium 16:9 – 3264 x 1824 pixels
• Small 4:3 – 2592 x 1952 pixels
• Small 16:9 – 2592 x 1472 pixels

There are options for Touch to capture, Shutter sound, Auto smile capture, and the volume button can be used for its original volume function, or can be used for capturing or zooming.

Camera Samples

Selective tap-to-focus captures

Natural and Artificial bright light captures

The color reproduction is decent in both the natural and artificial light source. Just like we notice in several other smartphone cameras, the image tends to show reduced sharpness towards the corners, and it is the best near the center. The areas that are out of focus (bokeh) do not naturally look like blurred, but more like shaky with some noise in them, but that is not a case with every capture, because we noticed that mostly in macro captures and when the object was exceptionally near to the lens.

Low light captures

The HTC One E8’s camera does have some trouble in taking pictures in low light, and even setting the ISO to maximum, there is little it could do to make the captures better. There is noticeable noise in the pictures, and the final pictures turn out to be not so good, because whatever the object, the sharpness and focus is tried on that but the noise still remains there.

Captures with / without LED flash

The single LED flash is a poor downgrade from the Dual-tone flash in the One M8, and that is clear with the samples below, because the light is too bright, taking out all the natural colors when capturing from a near distance.

The camera isn’t the best out there, but in daylight, it does the job that is claims. Low light captures with the One E8 camera is quite dull and not surprising at all. HTC’s camera app is very much interesting, and Zoe is cool. Controlling the options manually too isn’t helping much, because these are over-sensitive and you end up capturing something else than what you desired.