I don't have to tell you how Android phones suffer on camera SW side, but while the Z1 improved on the Z's problematic image quality, it introduced unexpected issues in optics. The G-lens is a multi-element plastic lens system, and something inside the design and arrangement causes certain areas of the image to lose sharpness, Z1 owners know this. Unfortunately, while Sony's sure to work on image quality improvements, the optics of the Z2 are unchanged, here is a picture analysis.
This is a downsampled Z2 image taken at 8MP (Auto Mode), because it's reduced to 40% of original pixel size, it should be super sharp (and not over-sharpened) at ALL AREAS, cause if this photo is not sharp, how the full 20MP result would look?
http://www.xataka.com/galeria/xperia-z2-muestras-barcelona/2/
1) But anyways, details in the middle are quite good, highly detailed, although you can spot quite a sharpening, but tolerable at this resolution (100% crop)
2) Moving just a bit away from the middle however, and look at how the buildings, trees, construction site are all of the sudden soft and lack of accurate focus
3) The left middle side of the lens is worst, this image would be just as sharp as in the middle on a say Samesong Note 3, LG Pro 2, iPhone 5S, Lumia 1520 whatever. Remind you this is still a crop from an 8MPs image, not 20, full size would have the same amount of detail spread over 2,5 larger area!
4) The left bottom corner is... relatively sharp again? Huh?
Right now Sony has a monumental mountain to climb to make their SW for their great sensor work reliable, cause the Z1 is not, it's not too high on detail either, and is badly over-processed (sharpening, noise reduction). But even if they get it right, optical issues won't go away, something is just wrong with the G-lens that is not addressed on the Z2, which is a pity.
This is a downsampled Z2 image taken at 8MP (Auto Mode), because it's reduced to 40% of original pixel size, it should be super sharp (and not over-sharpened) at ALL AREAS, cause if this photo is not sharp, how the full 20MP result would look?
http://www.xataka.com/galeria/xperia-z2-muestras-barcelona/2/
1) But anyways, details in the middle are quite good, highly detailed, although you can spot quite a sharpening, but tolerable at this resolution (100% crop)
2) Moving just a bit away from the middle however, and look at how the buildings, trees, construction site are all of the sudden soft and lack of accurate focus
3) The left middle side of the lens is worst, this image would be just as sharp as in the middle on a say Samesong Note 3, LG Pro 2, iPhone 5S, Lumia 1520 whatever. Remind you this is still a crop from an 8MPs image, not 20, full size would have the same amount of detail spread over 2,5 larger area!
4) The left bottom corner is... relatively sharp again? Huh?
Right now Sony has a monumental mountain to climb to make their SW for their great sensor work reliable, cause the Z1 is not, it's not too high on detail either, and is badly over-processed (sharpening, noise reduction). But even if they get it right, optical issues won't go away, something is just wrong with the G-lens that is not addressed on the Z2, which is a pity.
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