Which Android best for photos of moving subjects Please?

sunflowersuffolk

Any advice please, spent ages reading reviews. I want a new Android, need to take photos of cats that won't stay still, for charity ads, sometimes in fairly low light, so need a good camera. Currently got Vodafone Smart V10 which is rubbish camera.

SIM Only, No gaming. Want to keep it at least 3 years, so not too old. Budget ideally £250, possibly recon. considered.  Pixel 7a camera was praised BUT the bad reviews re battery charging, heating etc have put me off. I considered Samsung A23.  Can anyone suggest best for me please?  Thanks

Neil_Jones

If you want a "good" camera you'll be hard pushed to find such a thing on a mobile phone, as the quality of the camera is usually one of the first things that gets sacrificed to meet a price point.  However each generation gets better so your mileage may vary.

Most phone cameras will struggle in low light, so if that's your ultimate aim you'd probably do better with a standard camera.

sunflowersuffolk

Thanks Neil.  When I press button now, the cat has moved by time the photo is taken! I hoped some "better" phones might be better/quicker than mine. The Pixel 7 has awful feedback on battery time. 

forgotmyname

Why not get a proper camera is its for adverts?

I have an ancient 2MP Fuji 2800 camera and even though it's only 2MP the pictures captured rival most 8MP camera's,  I have some newer

Fuji cameras also but they never come out of the cupboard these days.

Fuji 2800,   I took a picture in a pitch black room with the flash on and it came out in PERFECT focus.  Totally amazed, more modern units

should do what you want with ease and not restrict you to choosing a phone.

Emmia

The pixel 7a is cheaper because it's been superseded by the 8 - battery life shouldn't be an issue too if all you're doing is taking photos, not gaming, video conferencing etc. so I'd ignore those reviews.

However if you're just going to be taking photos a camera would be a better option, as it's the right tool for the job. A phone would probably only be better if you wanted to immediately load the pictures onto Instagram or something like that. With a camera you'd have to load them onto a computer first, and then upload them.

Farway

Agree with the camera option, plus loads of very good second hand digicam style pocket sized ones available

MSE_James

I have two phones and I often use the Pixel 7a as a camera in preference to my other much more expensive iPhone, as the photos are so good. 

I would also note that my experience is that recent software updates have vastly improved the battery life, which was previously terrible and is now more than acceptable.

DullGreyGuy

sunflowersuffolk said:

Any advice please, spent ages reading reviews. I want a new Android, need to take photos of cats that won't stay still, for charity ads, sometimes in fairly low light, so need a good camera. 

Even though it's a charity I'd be surprised anyone hiring a photographer to do adverts would be happy if the person whips out an old mobile to start doing the photos rather than a proper camera. Or are you volunteering/working for an animal charity and it's just to take photos of the specific animals that are up for adoption?

Low light is the killer of any small sensor and you can't get much smaller than the ones in a mobile. Most digital cameras will far outperform a mobile in these conditions. If it is just the animals up for adoption why can't you bring them somewhere with more light?

Murmansk

If whichever camera/phone you end up with has a "burst" mode it'll take a series of pictures in rapid succession so you might have more chance of getting a decent photo

liggerz87

MSE_James said:

I have two phones and I often use the Pixel 7a as a camera in preference to my other much more expensive iPhone, as the photos are so good. 

I would also note that my experience is that recent software updates have vastly improved the battery life, which was previously terrible and is now more than acceptable.

James could you check if motion photo is available also might be called top shot takes photo before and after when your press it to take photo and also takes like a 3 second video to I knew it wasn't available on a pixel 4a not sure if it's on the pixel a range it was available on the 6 7 and 8 also pro versions to it was on 

liggerz87

I'd say look into pixel 6 7 or 8 it has a feature called top shot or motion photo samsung also has that on there flagships to could maybe get a samsung s10 but I'd say go pixel route but I'm not sure if thir a range has it