One of the big gaps in innovation in a smartphone is photography but, while traditional cameras have been able to make the most of technology to refine results, with mobile photography yeah tal. In fact, as my colleague Ricardo Aguilar pointed out: cell phones should learn from camera processing. Because today AI and processing sometimes work wonders and other times wreak havoc.
The problem is not so much in the phone components (I generally use high-end phones, so on paper they have the best), but in the software: it's difficult to achieve a quality and realistic photograph taken with the cell phone. Under the pretext of eliminating noise and increasing contrast, we see photos which, when zoomed in, reveal the disaster in the form of a watercolor effect. Excessive and poor treatment is to blame.
Skins with colors that don't exist in real life, yellows that are too bright, ultra-strong contours… I see this on cheap phones, but also on high-end phones. And in the case of flagships, it's not so much about lens quality as it is about processing. Yes, there are manufacturers that offer professional modes or RAW format so you can adjust the settings yourself, but if the software intervenes to manipulate the photo, it's bad. SO I tried a very simple camera app that shoots bareback.
Zerocam: photography without artifice
Faced with this tendency to show muscle in innovation in photography through software, Zerocam (available for free on the Google Play Store) offers quite the opposite and couldn't be simpler: it claims to take the photo with the sensor without perform any processing or artificial intelligence. Come on, what the image it captures is without artifice. Be careful, this also implies not using HDR.
Left: Google Pixel camera. Right: Zerocam
As you can see by comparing the photos with which I illustrate the article, we obtain much flatter results, without saturation or colors that stand out. In short, a much more natural photo for better or worse. In this article I compared it to Google Pixel camera, one of the software that in my opinion has more precise processing and yet Zerocam is worth it in different scenarios.
But I have to say that in general, I am much happier with the result with Zerocam and the retouching afterwards. As well as are recorded in RAWThis is ideal if what interests you is getting involved in a photo editing program later. Moreover, I observed that photos taken with Zerocam weigh more than standard photos.
Left: Google Pixel camera. Right: Zerocam
Zerocam is simplicity on all four sides: not only photography without additions, but its interface does not require explanations: the image to photograph in the center, a large yellow oval button to take the photo and a 1x which allows you to change the magnifications between 1x and 2x. In the upper right corner we also see a counter showing how many photos we have left to take for free today. You can see a screenshot of the interface in the photo on the cover of this article.
Because Zerocam is paid: 1.99 dollars per month or 10.99 dollars per year, even if We have five free photos per day. Since there is no cloud storage, no processing or additional functions when paying, the great advantage of paying is being able to photograph without thinking too much (like we do now with the cell phone, but not before, when we depended on the film), so using it for free can be enough for testing or for specific and not too complex projects.
Cover | Eva Rodriguez de Luis
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