Hi guys, its MTG here, and today I'm going to be comparing the cameras found on the Samsung
Galaxy S9 Plus and the Note 8.
I'm actually curious how these two cameras stack up because they are both made by the
same manufacturer.
I'll be comparing the cameras in various lighting conditions, and I'll also check out the video
quality, image stabilization and microphone quality.
In this video, everything was set to automatic.
Let's get right into it.
The S9 plus has a dual-12 megapixel camera setup.
The main, wide-angle camera can automatically vary between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures, whereas
the telephoto camera is a fixed f/2.4.
The second telephoto camera allows for 2x optical zoom, and helps with the depth-effect
pictures.
The S9 plus can shoot 4K and 1080p at 60 fps, and 720p at up to 960 fps.
Both cameras have optical image stabilization.
The front camera is 8 megapixels and has an aperture of f/1.7.
It can record video at up to 1440p at 30 fps.
The front camera on the Note 8 has the same 8 megapixel count, 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 also 12 Megapixels.
The wide-angle and telephoto cameras have fixed apertures of f/1.7 and f/2.4 respectively.
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.
I wanted to start this off by saying both cameras are really good, and a lot of these
shots are hard to even distinguish between, especially when there is great lighting like
this.
Both cameras do a great job with capturing detail while also maintaining colors.
But if we look closely, we can start to see some of the improvements Samsung has implemented
into its latest camera system.
The HDR capabilities have improved with the S9.
If we look at the windows in this building, and the tree at the bottom of the shot, we
can see that the S9 is able to take in more light, and also maintain more of the color.
The HDR improvements are even more obvious with shots like this one where there is light
coming into through a window.
A lot of cameras have issues with these types of scenarios, but the S9 was able to capture
a terrific image.
In the S9's shot we can see how the sky outside is clear while the colors on the door and
door frame are still clear and vibrant.
The Note 8 struggled to do either.
In a similar situation, the S9 does a terrific job at keeping the view through the window
clear while also capturing all of the colors inside of the room.
Granted, if I were looking at the Note 8's image without seeing what the S9 was capable
of, I would've thought that it was pretty good.
In this challenging shot of a hallway, we can see that the S9 has the cooler image and
also manages to maintain the whites of the wall better.
And if we look closer, we can see that the S9's picture is simply more detailed.
Out of the two phones, the Note 8 seemed to have the more saturated pictures.
In terms of saturation, it really does come down to personal preference.
But again, both phones are able to produce some terrific images.
Personally, I think the Note 8 sometimes shows the more visually appealing colors, especially
when we look at images that have the sky in them.
But I also admit that the S9 pictures have a more accurate representation of those colors.
Again, preferences for saturation levels differ between people, and I can see why people may
prefer some of the shots that the Note 8 produced.
I wanted to challenge both smartphone camera systems by taking some shots with the sun
directly in frame.
And again, the S9's improved HDR capabilities became very obvious.
Not only was the sun more contained in the S9's image, but also the building and trees
in the foreground remained bright and had their colors preserved.
And as I compared picture after picture, this trend continued to follow through.
While both the S9 and the Note 8 both did a great job of not letting the sun overpower
the image, the S9 was much better at keeping things bright in the foreground.
Both phones do have their respective depth-effects in both their front and back cameras.
The front cameras will rely solely on software, whereas both rear camera systems can get help
from their telephoto cameras.
The color temperatures of both phones' selfie cameras were actually drastically different
from one another.
And the S9's improved HDR capabilities showed here as well.
Both didn't do too good a job at dealing with my hair, but both have really solid selfie
cameras as a whole.
In terms of rear camera depth-effect pictures, even the S9 doesn't get those really detailed
pictures like the new Pixels can.
Both cameras do an okay job at the pictures and blurring the background, and the level
of blur for both phones can be set after the picture is taken.
In general, the S9 does have those improved HDR capabilities so colors do look better,
and images are more clear.
Also, with the S9, the phone will take both the portrait style picture and a regular wide-angled
picture automatically.
When I took portrait style pictures at night, both phones were able to take decent pictures
granted it was really dark outside.
But the S9 did the much better job at keeping noise to a minimum.
As I shift into more low-light shots, I wanted to mention that the S9 did a great job of
switching to the f/1.5 aperture.
Every night shot, not including those shot in Live Focus mode, was shot with an f/1.5
aperture, and I did not have to turn it on manually.
It did it by itself.
When taking normal pictures in the dark, the Note 8, along with the S9 took very solid
pictures.
Both did not try to artificially light up the sky like a Pixel might, and both kept
noise to a minimum.
But if we look closer into other shots taken like this one on the Harvard Bridge, we can
see that the S9 does do a better job handling noise in complex night shots.
Looking at the Boston Skyline, again, we can see that the S9 does the better job at practically
eliminating all noise in the sky without making it look artificial.
This image of the campus map shows the benefits of opening up the aperture.
The S9 receives more information because it's able to take in more light, and it's clear
with the amount of color that shows in the S9's image.
In general, both phones do a great job of not letting light sources take control of
the images, which is a big issue on other phones.
Now I'll look at video shot on both phones.
Both phones' rear cameras were set to 4K at 30 fps because that is what this video is
uploaded at.
But know that the S9 Plus is capable of shooting 4K at 60 frames per second.
The Note 8 has always had pretty good video quality, but a big knock on the Note 8's videos
were that the image stabilization was just not good at all.
Finally, with the S9, it seems as if Samsung has figured out how to implement solid optical
image stabilization on their phones.
And if we look at the videos side-by-side, we can also see that the S9's camera was able
to capture a lot more of the colors.
I admit that it might be a little oversaturated in the S9's image, but again that aspect comes
down to personal preference.
But in general, I think Samsung improved drastically in terms of video quality from the Note 8
to the S9 in both image stabilization and
image processing.
Looking at the front cameras' videos from both phones, I noticed that the image stabilization
on both phones were about the same.
The microphone qualities of both phones also seemed to be almost identical.
But there was a major difference in terms of the colors of both.
Again, the colors will come down to personal preference, but especially when the sun was
behind me, my face looked less washed out on the S9's image than on the Note 8's.
I like doing camera comparisons between phones made by the same manufacturer because as consumers,
we sometimes wonder why there haven't been any improvements when we see the "same" 12
megapixel cameras year after year.
And although I don't think the S9 completely blew the Note 8 out of the water, I do think
that the S9's and especially the S9 Plus have made a respectable upgrade from the Note 8.
The Note 8 is still capable of taking amazing shots in whatever lighting condition, don't
get me wrong.
But on the S9, the HDR capabilities were improved, the f/1.5 aperture allows the S9 to consistently
do extremely well in low light, and video quality improved significantly.
Tomorrow I'll post a camera comparison between the S9 Plus and the Pixel 2 XL, so make sure
to subscribe and hit the notification bell for that.
As always, thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next video.