This takes care of all the exposure options for you and offers only a few selections from the settings screen, including output resolution size. For the record, by default, the camera is set to produce 8-megapixel images rather than the full 20 megapixels — make sure to change this if you want the maximum resolution the sensor can deliver. Touch the intelligent auto icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to bring up the other photographic options that the Z1 offers.

Included here are manual, timeshift burst, picture effect, sweep panorama, AR effect, social life and info-eye. We will touch on each of these options later on. Although the Z1 calls its other shooting mode "manual", it does not provide the level of control you might anticipate from a traditional camera. There is, however, a nifty slider that lets you adjust exposure compensation and the white balance on the fly.

Results are immediately visible on the screen. From within the settings menu, changes to the ISO, metering and focus selection options can be made. The digital image stabiliser can also be found here — yes, that's right, digital stabiliser, not optical, like on phones such as the Nokia Lumia There is no manual focus override for the Z1; however, you can achieve more precise results with the touch-focus option, also found within the settings menu.

Apart from launching the camera app from the menu system in a conventional way, the Z1 also lets you swipe directly into the camera app from the lock screen. With this method, the start-up time is 2. Shutter lag is approximately 0. Other shooting options that are carried across from the Sony range of cameras include features like sweep panorama, which intelligently stitches together photos taken as you move the camera along an axis.

Smile shutter does exactly what it says on the tin, snapping images when it sees a smile enter the frame. Info-eye is an augmented-reality feature that overlays the image on the screen with information about surroundings. Picture effect brings nine filters for creative results, including nostalgic, miniature, vivid, fish-eye and kaleidoscope. Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Instagram or other such photo apps will have an idea of what each of these effects can achieve.

Photographers have long been aware of the benefits that high dynamic-range HDR imaging can bring, including the ability to preserve more detail in shadow and highlight areas when in a tricky lighting condition.

The Z1 boasts both HDR still and video capture, which is a very pleasant surprise. HDR photos can only be captured in the 8-megapixel resolution or lower, not the camera's full megapixel output. Fortunately, the Z1 lets you take HDR video in p mode. Shooting at a lower resolution also opens up a few more image settings, such as scene modes when you are in manual mode. Scene settings include: backlight correction HDR, soft snap, landscape, night portrait, high ISO, gourmet, pet, snow and sports just to name a few.

The offerings are reasonably comprehensive, although we would love to see them available for the megapixel output resolution. Like some other camera phones, the Z1 does not keep any of your previous shooting settings active when closing and reopening the app. For example, when locking the screen and booting back into the camera, even if you were taking photos in manual mode five seconds earlier, the app will load back up into superior auto mode anyway. AR effect is one of the most fun features we've seen yet on a smartphone camera. With this mode activated, users can choose from a number of different effects to appear over the image on the screen in real time.

Calibrate the effect by pointing the camera toward a flat surface and then lift to compose your shot.

Sony Xperia Z1

Magically, dinosaurs, butterflies or disco hair effects appear over images. Move the handset around to see how they change dynamically depending on the content of your shot.

Even though it seems like a novelty, it is a lot of fun to play around with. Watch the video above for more of a demonstration on how this effect works. Timeshift effect is actually a lot more useful than you might first think. Hold the shutter button down to take a burst of thirty frames either side of the button press and then select the best image from a sliding scale.

It's particularly useful for action photography. Inspecting images at full resolution shows that the Z1 still has some niggling issues that plague smartphone photography more broadly.

Don't use waterproof Xperia phones underwater, Sony says | Greenbot

Even though the image sensor is physically larger than those found on some competing smartphones, the image processor shows some over-zealous correcting, especially on areas where there is lots of detail. Images start to look crunchy, even at low ISO levels. The lens is reasonably sharp, with some drop off toward the edges as to be expected. It is, however, susceptible to lens flare because there is nothing to shield the lens.

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Image quality

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Sony Xperia Z1 – Camera Quality

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