Starting w/ the sort of lackluster M9 camera then moving on to the marvelous Galaxy S6 shooter, it is now time to shift gears to LG. We've taking plenty of photos and videos to get a real feel for it and we're ready to report back our findings for you all.
The shooters on the G3 were already underrated and hard to top but this year LG wanted to make sure they have the crown for the best shooter on Android. The rear camera is equipped w/ a f/1.8 16MP sensor w/ a 2nd-gen OIS, laser-guided auto-focus, a Color Spectrum Sensor, and a single LED flash. LG gave this an even lower aperture than on the S6 for even better low-light performance. Time to see if the sum of all of their parts make for the ultimate Android shooter.
LG improved their shooters on the G4 by crossing the Ts & dotting the Is.
The new shooter on the G4 takes what the G3 did and enhances it. The new bells & whistles work amazing on the G4 shooters. In Auto mode you just point-and-shoot and LG handle the rest. The end results are simply beautiful as you get sharp imagery w/ plenty of detail & accurate colors. That f/1.8 lens simply excels in low-light environments.
The front-facing shooter is now an f/2.0 8MP sensor - making this one of the highest front-facing camera on the market right now. This is one of the cases where the numbers on paper actually match up to produce great real-world results. It utilizes a white border to act as a light for selfies & video chats. Definitely something innovative and works well.
In Manual mode you have to put in a little bit of work within the settings. Only because you have so many settings to choose from. You can adjust the White Balance, ISO, shutter speed, focus mode, exposure value and even the option for a histogram. The first few good shots I got the ISO was too high but other than that, it was very easy to setup shots. The only thing missing is the ability to adjust sharpness & saturation on the photo side of things. For video, I really wish LG included the option for Manual Control as everything records in Auto mode.
As in-depth as the manual settings are, it won't replace your DSLR but it comes pretty damn close though.
Remember when you would cringe at smartphone cameras just a few short years ago and now (depending on what you do) you don't need another camera for on-the-go photos + videos. The G4 is great all-around camera for photos + videos. The only real setback were LG's image rendering software could do a bit less sharpening + noise reduction. This can be fixed w/ a software update. LG took advantage of Lollipop's support for manual camera to create one of the best seen on a smartphone (apps included). Being able to save photos in RAW is a photographer's dream. But not being able to utilize their impressive manual controls for video was a huge misstep. Don't get it twisted, the shooters on this thing are really, really good. Other than some nitpicking, you'll have no major complaints w/ this one. At the end of the day, the LG rivals Samsung for the title of the best shooter in Android.
