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HTC ONE: The Ultrapixel Camera

By Sami Mughal
HTC went the unorthodox route by going down on the MegaPixel front. While all other camera phones are growing bigger and bigger on numbers, HTC went the other way and came up with a new sensor technology called UltraPixel. Now a lot is not know about it, but the shocking number was that this camera came with only 4 Ultrapixels worth.
Now anybody who has done any kind of photography knows that the number of pixels you get only mean so much. It is all about how good your sensors are. That is why a 10MP DSLR can totally kick your 16MP point and shoot camera’s ass.
So, when we tried out the HTC ONE, the camera was one of our main focus. This is what we saw:

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My favourite photo so far. I just love the amount of detail that has been captured here, along with the depth of field. I have tried similar shots with other cameras and phones, and nothing comes close. I even had people asking me how I had managed to do this, and the answer was pure and simple, I just hit click on AUTO mode. The camera and the software did all the intelligent work.

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Not everything went okay though. This was a shot taken in the sunshine, and somehow I got two different shades there. An HDR shot, this obviously went wrong while being taken.
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A place where most cameras suffer is dark places. Indoor lighting is never good to test a mobile phone camera (or very good, depending how you see it), and I tried to take a few shots. The one above shows just how good it can process dark and light together. This was  taken at the Glee club in Oxford. Very impressed!
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Of course then there are the Post Card shots, walking along the river in Oxford. A good sunny day helps, but once again the detail captured as well as the true colours gives us a great result.
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This one captured with Zoe, which takes a load of photos over a 3 second period and you can pick your best one later. Great results for people running by. This was also taken while I was moving the camera following them. Probably why you can see a couple of them staring at me. Not only is the camera taking good photos, but the HTC ONE camera also comes with Image Stabilization built in. This not only bodes well for moving shots, but also videos, as many Youtube videos covering have featured.
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Of course, then there are the effects. Love the effects. Got to love the effects.
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A true test of the camera’s ability is how it deals with the sun. As you can see, it does fairly okay.

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And just a cute shot to end it all!
Verdict
I have tried all the big names already. HTC ONE, Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4. The Xperia Z is quite good, but as far as ease of taking pictures, the speed, and the quality it gives you with little processing time, the HTC ONE clearly stands out. The camera captures good detail, and despite the 4MP packed in there, it is one hell of a camera.
Of course, there is always need to have great accessories for your phone, and as always we’d recommend our good friends over at MobileFun who have a whole range of accessories for the HTC ONE.
Personally I’d recommend the iStabilizer Mobile Tripod or the Universal Mobile Phone Telescope to enhance your camera experience even further:
And not to forget, we have already covered the Veho rotating mount in the past:

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