Grand 5 mega pixel shootout: The usual suspects

w've finally managed to finish up our grandest of camera shootouts including the most popular 5 megapixel cameraphones that are currently on sale. We've put Sony Ericsson K850, Nokia N95 8GB, LG KU990 Viewty, and Samsung G600 in a head-to-head collision course in order to find out who's best when it comes to pure camera-centric performance. We'll also be including a guest star - the Nokia N82, for one of our tests - as it produces the same shots as the Nokia N95 8GB, the only difference being the xenon flash.

Lens quality

When low quality (read: cheaper) lens are used in any camera, that can bring a host of troubles such as barreling or pin cushioning, lens flare when shooting against the a strong light source, purple fringing along the edges of fine elements such as tree or bush branches, and finally corner softness, which is a case of uneven corner-to-corner sharpness along the photo.

Well, we are satisfied with the results here - none of the tested cameraphones exhibited significant amount of corner softness. We only saw some heavy cases of purple fringing with the Sony Ericsson K850 and the LG Viewty.

Flash

As we promised, we bring on Nokia N82 for this test. As you see it outperforms the rest of the phones in this test by a wide margin. It features a stronger flash and this is clearly seen - it doesn't need to boost the sensitivity (and add noise along it) to produce the well lit pictures.

Comparison here is somewhat tricky. Two of our contenders (Samsung G600 and Nokia N95 8GB) have LED lights, while the rest feature xenon flash units. The xenon lights are a lot stronger, but they can only produce impulses (typical speed is 1/1000 sec). The LED flash are a lot weaker, but they can still deliver significant amount of light by staying on for a lot longer, for example 1/5 sec.

Video

When it comes to video recording capabilities, it's a rather easy fight. The Sony Ericsson K850 offers only QVGA@30fps, Samsung G600 VGA@15fps or QVGA@30fps, while the Nokia N95 and LG Viewty - VGA 30fps.

Viewty uses more advanced compression (DIVX) and has a unique 120fps shooting mode, so it was a clear cut winner from the very start.

Samsung G600: 4/10 • LG Viewty: 10/10 • Nokia N95 8GB: 8/10 • Sony Ericsson K850: 2/10

Performance speed

In terms of speed, it's again hard to choose a clear winner as times vary according to the scenario. It seems that the fastest camera to boot up is the one of Samsung G600. Then it's the Nokia N95 camera that's the quickest to show the image preview right after the shot has been taken. If you are to take a picture right after you've seen the preview, the LG Viewty camera is the fastest one to take you there.

As an overall performer the LG Viewty again seems to be the fastest one of the bunch, while the Sony Ericsson K850 is at the bottom of the ladder. The difference though is not that serious.

Speed perfromance	Start-up time	Shoot-to-preview	Preview-to-standby
Samsung G600	2.7 sec	4 sec	2.4 sec
LG Viewty	3 sec	4 sec	0.2 sec
Sony Ericsson K850	4 sec	4.5 sec	1.5 sec
Nokia N95 8GB	3.3 sec	3.4 sec	2 sec

Samsung G600: 6/10 • LG Viewty: 8/10 • Nokia N95 8GB: 7/10 • Sony Ericsson K850: 5/10

Conclusion

Well that's it, the grand 5 megapixel camera shootout is drawing to an end. We will not present any final results - probably contrary to what you've been expecting. If you want to choose your next mobile and it has to be one of these, we suggest that you sum up only the results for the tests that are important to you.

And just in a quick attempt to summarize things, if you want the most universal performer this will surely be the Nokia N95 8GB. With the Nokia N82 you even have a xenon flash and exactly the same camera performance, so you might as well go that way too. Our observations are that the Nokia N82 handles all photo situations as the Nokia N95 and produces the same results.

Then if your top priority is well thought and capable interface you may chose Sony Ericsson K850. It delivers a superior user experience and feels like a real digital camera at times.

If you are into video recordings and macro shots, then your choice should be the LG KU990 Viewty. The widescreen touch screen display also counts as it's a unique feature among the contenders.

And finally if you are looking for the best-bang-for-the-buck and reliable performance you might as well go with the Samsung G600. While it's not a fully-fledged cameraphone, it does have its strong points and we shouldn't also forget that it's the most affordable of the bunch.