14 DAY TRIAL // Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the two Microsoft devices that are thrown in the smartphone battle against Samsung Galaxy S6, Note5, and iPhones, so the Redmond-based software firm paid a lot of attention to every single detail in an attempt to offer really good value for the money.
The camera installed on the two phones received particular attention during the development process and Juha Alakarhu, who is a camera developer at Microsoft, revealed on Twitter some of the improvements they made to the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL cameras in order to make them better than those being used by rivals.
First and foremost, it's worth mentioning that both devices come with a 20-megapixel camera with Zeiss optics, which is pretty much the same configuration used in the past on other Lumia devices.
Under the hood
But it's all changed under the hood, Alakarhu explains, because the new Camera features ISO12800, F1.9, natural pixel processing, RGB flash, content aware exposure times, next-generation dynamic exposure and fifth-generation OIS.
The camera can record videos at 60 FPS in 1080p and at 30 FPS in 4K, which according to Alakarhu, makes the camera available on the new Lumia models “the best we ever made.”
The content aware exposure times and the significantly improved dynamic exposure are technologies that should help significantly improve the quality of photos in low-light conditions, with the phone supposed to do the hard job and adjust everything automatically. While you'll be able to control this manually too (although the OS is unlikely to give you this option, but third-party apps could bring advanced photographic controls), Microsoft plans to offer customers a point-and-shoot experience out of the box.
The triple LED flash with RGB support will contribute to better contrast and sharper objects, while natural pixel processing is there to reduce noise to a greater extent.
Microsoft hasn't yet posted any camera samples, but Alakarhu says that more information in this regard will be published online soon in a series of blogs. Most likely, the company's planning to release several blog posts before the two devices go on sale in order to boost customer appeal as much as possible.
