We love our phones’ cameras, even more so nowadays, what with smartphones having separate apps like Instagram to make the snaps look even better. Be it the front facing camera for making video calls or taking self shots to make sure we look good, or the rear camera for finer photography experience, our phones are increasingly becoming our perfect travel companions by helping us capture memorable moments. iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One x are the hottest smartphones available in the market today, and we’re taking a look at which of them works best from a camera perspective. Rear camera: This is where the competition among these 3 phones gets really tight. All of them have a 8MP backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor. What this technology does is allow more light to touch the photo diodes, ensuring that even photos clicked in low light settings are reproduced effectively. Even though the camera resolutions are identical, the aperture of the lenses in these 3 phones varies. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has an f2.627mm lens, while the iPhone 5’s lens has an aperture of f2.433mm and the HTC One X has an f2.28mm lens. A brighter lens lets in more light, which means that even at higher ISO sensitivities, the images don’t have too much noise affecting the details in the images captured. What we don’t like much about the iPhone 5 camera, however, is the strictly auto settings. You can’t play around too much with ISO or white balance settings, but probably to compensate for this, Apple has included new HDR and panorama capture modes in the camera. The Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X camera, on the other hand, are quite generous with scene modes and more adjustment capabilities, making sure that we don’t miss our point-and-shoot digicams wherever we go. What’s more, both these phones’ cameras also have HDR and panorama shooting modes as well. Front-facing camera: Thanks to 3G (and now 4G) connectivity and WiFi capabilities, we can use our smartphones to Skype and make video calls with our friends and family. As this new fad catches on, we need better front-facing cameras for that extra clarity, and these 3 phones do not disappoint. The iPhone 5 is equipped with a small iSight camera above the screen, while the Galaxy S3 has a 1.9MP camera for this purpose. Lagging behind in this regards is the HTC One X with a 1.3MP resolution front camera.
