Hi guys, it's MTG here, and today I'm going to be comparing the cameras found on the OnePlus
5T and the Note 8.
These are two of the best smartphone cameras out right now, so I wanted to see how they
compared head to head.
This is also an interesting camera comparison because, here in the US, the OnePlus 5T is
around $400 cheaper than the Note 8.
I'll be looking at how the cameras compare in various lighting conditions, and I'll also
look at how the video compares on each phone.
Everything was set to automatic.
Let's get right into it.
The OnePlus 5T has a dual camera system.
Both cameras have an aperture of f/1.7.
The main camera is 16 megapixels, whereas the second low-light camera is 20 Megapixels.
By intelligently combining every 4 megapixels into one, the 5T's second low-light camera
is able to reduce noise in very dark scenarios.
This only comes on automatically when it thinks that the scenario is dark enough, and it can't
be turned on manually.
The 5T, heavily utilizing software, can take wide-angle portrait mode pictures.
The main camera can shoot 4K at up to 30 fps and 1080p at up to 60 fps.
It has gyroscope-based electronic image stabilization.
The front camera has an aperture of f/2.0 and is an impressive 16 Megapixels with auto
HDR capabilities.
It can record up to 1080p at 30fps and also has gyro-based EIS.
The front camera on the Note 8 is 8 Megapixels.
It has an f/1.7 aperture, and can shoot video at up to 1440p @30 fps.
On the back, we'll find its dual camera system.
Both cameras are 12 Megapixels.
The wide-angle and telephoto cameras have apertures of f/1.7 and f/2.4 respectively.
The telephoto lens allows for 2x optical zoom and depth effect pictures.
The Note 8 can shoot 4k video at up to 30 fps, 1080p at up to 60 fps, and 720p at up
to 240 fps.
Also, both cameras have optical image stabilization.
When looking at outdoor shots of both cameras, sometimes it's just impossible tell the difference
between the two.
Both main cameras do a terrific job with picking up detail, and both cameras have solid HDR
capabilities.
In good, even lighting, the pictures of both phones come out almost flawless.
In this image, the shadows make the shot a little more challenging, but both pictures
do a great job.
Other than a slight difference in color temperature, the pictures look very close.
Both pictures are really clear and have a lot of detail.
This image shows just how good both phone's cameras are and why we consider them to be
two of the best smartphone cameras out right now.
Both do a great job of keeping the colors how they naturally look, and both don't oversaturate
their images.
This image also shows that the 5T's pictures show more contrast.
Although both phones do a pretty good job of capturing the flowers, the OnePlus 5T does
the better job with the different textures.
Edges are more pronounced on the wood chips and the flowers themselves.
In this shot with direct sunlight, the Note 8 kept the sun to a smaller size and didn't
have any lens flares, but the 5T was able to maintain more of the colors in the trees
in the foreground.
Shifting to indoor shots, I started to notice a trend that the Note 8's images will be brighter,
but the 5T's images tended to show more contrast.
In this image, both show a good amount of detail, but the Note 8's camera is able to
take in more light, making an overall brighter image.
Again, the Note 8's picture looks brighter, overall.
The 5T, on the other hand, shows more contrast.
Ultimately, both pictures are great, and many shots will come down to personal preference
as to which one you prefer.
This shot has light coming in from the window, creating a pretty challenging scenario for
a camera.
Both did pretty well, but the Note 8 was able to better process the incoming light, creating
a brighter foreground.
In this shot, I think the OnePlus 5T did the better job with keeping the colors as is.
Again, there is more contrast in the 5T's shots, but overall, both did a really good
job with picking up the details throughout the image.
Shifting into low-light shots, I will note that the OnePlus 5T never thought the scenario
was dark enough to activate the second, low-light camera.
Again, the second camera cannot be turned on manually.
But I think the pictures still came out great.
In this image, both cameras were able to pick up a lot of detail in the foreground, but
also had minimal noise in the dark sky.
The 5T does sometimes show lens flares, and there is a slight one on the left side of
its image.
But overall, great pictures from both phones.
This next scenario was very complex with lots of lights and a lot going on.
In this image, I think the OnePlus 5T took the better image.
Colors are better preserved, and the lights in the signs aren't as overpowering as they
are in the Note 8's image.
In this picture, from first glance, the level of detail appears about the same on both phones,
but when taking a closer look at the image, we can see that the Note 8 was able to capture
the words in the base of the statue.
In this picture inside Staple's Center, both phones did a pretty good job capturing their
photos despite the challenging lighting conditions, but if I zoom into these images, you can see
just how much more detail the Note 8's camera is able to pick up.
In other low-light scenarios, the pictures produced by both phones were hard to distinguish
between.
Both cameras do a good job with keeping noise to a minimum, and both cameras also do a pretty
good job with lighting fixtures that are in frame.
Now I will look at the video and microphone quality of both phones.
Both phones were set to their highest settings for back and front video.
Both phones were able to produce some great video.
The 4K quality of both phones were able to pick up a lot of detail in both the foreground
and the background.
The colors in the 5T's video appeared more vibrant, but in my opinion, the colors seemed
to be a little too punchy and oversaturated.
In all of my camera tests, phones with optical image stabilization had smoother, more natural
pans, whereas phones with electronic image stabilization had smoother forward walking.
With this test, that seemed pretty accurate.
The Note 8 had the more natural and smoother pans, whereas the 5T had some extremely smooth
walking.
Some of the Note 8's walking shots look bad when seen side to side with the 5T.
But the 5T's pans also sometimes looked choppy when put next to the Note 8's video.
Overall, both of these cameras take great video.
The video from the front camera of the Note 8 just seems slightly more washed out as that
of the 5T.
Also, the 5T's gyro-based electronic image stabilization is very evident in this video.
The 5T is able to keep the background really smooth as I walk.
The audio from the Note 8's microphone seems more natural, whereas the active-noise cancellation
by the 5T seems to be making my voice sound slightly more tinny.
Portrait mode has become extremely popular over the last couple of years because of that
cool DSLR like depth-effect you get.
So I made sure to include a larger variety of portrait mode pictures in this camera comparison.
Also keep in mind that the OnePlus 5T doesn't have a telephoto lens like the Note 8, so
it will heavily utilize software to create its depth-effect pictures.
The OnePlus 5T has a much wider angle since it doesn't use a telephoto camera for its
portrait mode pictures.
The Note 8 seems to have the much cooler image, The 5T is able to pick up more of the blue
in the background, while the Note 8's image appears brighter.
To get the same framing as the Note 8, I had to step two feet forward with the 5T.
With the wider framing, edges get pretty rough, but for the picture where I stepped forward,
edges look pretty solid.
This portrait mode picture of me shows how great the Note 8 is at taking in light, but
again shows how the background of the image gets washed out.
The 5T was able to maintain the blues in the sky, and was able to pick up a lot of detail
in my jersey, but the picture wasn't nearly as bright.
This image shows how the telephoto lens on the Note 8 helps with defining the edges better
in more complex situations such as these.
The 5T has a hard time distinguishing between the foreground and the background.
Same thing with the flowers here.
The edges of flowers are better defined on the Note 8's image.
Looking at pictures shot on the front cameras of both phones, we can see the large megapixel
count of the 5T picks up a ton of detail in both the foreground and the background, but
the Note 8 didn't wash out my skin tone as much as the 5T did.
Also, the Note 8's front camera has a feature called selective focus, allowing it to have
that depth effect.
With lower lighting, the Note 8 was able to take the brighter image, where the 5T's was
slightly more detailed.
At the end of the day, smartphone cameras have gotten to a certain level where a lot
of these pictures are going to be surprisingly similar.
Both of these phones have extremely high quality cameras and a good amount of the side by sides
will come down to personal preference as to which image you prefer.
Keep in mind that the Note 8 will be able to utilize 2x optical zoom with its 2nd, telephoto
lens, whereas the second, low-light camera on the 5T is rarely utilized because it has
to be extremely dark.
Nonetheless, it is still very cool that such high quality cameras are put on a phone as
inexpensive as the OnePlus 5T.
I have compared most of the cameras of the flagships of 2017 already, so make sure to
checkout those videos out to see more head-to-head camera comparisons and to see more shots of
the OnePlus 5T or the Note 8.
Let me know in the comment section which scenario you're more likely to shoot in and which camera
you preferred overall.
That's all I had to talk about today.
Thanks for watching.
And I will see you in the next video.