When 5 megapixels is better than 8 megapixels

The Nexus One and the Droid Incredible, both HTC devices, seemed to have two major differences. First is the screen. As we learned last week, the Droid Incredible is using a newer screen that better supports multitouch functions. The other is the camera. The Nexus One clocks in at an impressive (for a phone) 5 megapixels. The Droid Incredible, though, takes things to respectable digital camera levels with an 8 megapixel camera. Yet, as Clark from Android and Me demonstrates, the number isn’t everything.

As the icons in the bottom rights indicate, the top photo comes from the Droid Incredible, while the bottom comes from a Nexus One. Clark took pictures with both smartphones in a variety of settings, and for almost all of them the Nexus One took the better shot. Check them out for yourself. There is only one I’d put definitively in the Incredible’s corner. The rest, it appears, were snapped by the lesser camera. What’s the deal, then? Clark attributes it to the megapixel myth, which Ken Rockwell fully explains. The quick version:

the common belief that more megapixels equals a better camera, which isn’t always the case. There are a wealth of other factors in play here, the lens, the flash, the CMOS sensor- all of which can contribute to better overall image quality.

He does note, however, that the Incredible has a much more robust set of camera settings. That’s excellent for a heavy duty camera like the Incredible. But for most cell phone cameras it’s mostly superfluous. I use my Nexus camera mostly to snap pictures of things that immediately strike me. I don’t typically change the settings based on the environment. It’s good to know, though, that used properly the Nexus One can take pictures that stack up to technically superior cameras.