The Good...
I picked up a Sony Z1 Compact the other day, and am so far absolutely in love woth it. The speed and responsiveness are fantastic, the build quality rivals that of the iPhone, and the size is just perfection.
The Bad...
But... I am VERY dissappointed with the camera and its poor performance. 80% of the photos I take with my phone are while on a night out with friends, usually in bars or other more dimly lit places than broad daylight. In Auto mode, photos taken in the average pub lightning are unuseable,m and look so artifical as to completely destroy any detail in the faces of the people I snap. I have also experimented with manual settings, but still the quakity is just plain poor. In fact, mny Samsung Galaxy S III blows it out of the water in this regard, images in similar conditions are much superior.
The Ugly...
So why is this camera, a camera that uses what is theoretically a high-quality imaging unit used by point and shoot cameras, so bad in everything except broad daylight?
The answer according to not only my observations, but the observations of many professional websites who reviewed the Z1 series, is seems to be that Sony are purposefully and inexplicably messing with the final images by forcing huge amounts of processing on them. This takes a natural image, messes with the colours and tone, and then proceeds to crush any detail.
Here are some samples of what I mean, taken with Superior Auto:
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Sample 1: Z1 Compact
A close-up portrait shot...
Look at how artificial that image looks... it's like someone applied a strange kind of gaussian blur tool in photoshop.
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Sample 2 - Z1 Compact
A group photo...
Here again, in what was one of the better photos that I took, we see the find detail is very poor.. at full size it looks horrible pixellated, and the colours severely washed out. The blacks are also severely crushed.
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Sample 3 - Z1 Compact
Here is a shot that should in theory be detailed and natural looking. A guy near a wall in better light, with the camera held perfectly still.
Again, a horrible image... bad detail, visible artifacting, washed out colours.
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Sample 4 - Z1 Compact
In addition, using the flash causes severe light pollution on the final image, so much so that the bottom half of the photo I take has a very noticeable purpley bluish haze on it.
Look at the level of bleed entering the scene from the flash below the lens. And look at the dreadful overall image quality... the detail is simply shockingly bad. Like a camera phone from years ago.
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Samsung Galaxy S III Comparisons...
And here we have some comparison photos with a Samsung SIII, also taken in a dimply lit pub:
Sample 1 - Samsung Galaxy S III
Look at the difference... detail is preserved, the image appears natural, and colour tones are reasonably natural. It's a great shot.
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Sample 2 - Samsung Galaxy S III
Again, here we see that the photo is much cleaner... flash lights up the subjkects as well as can be expected considering the size and power, and the colours and detail are preserved, including in the surrounding environment where the coloured lights at the top are also visible.
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Sample 3 . Samsung Galaxy S III
And finally, a close-up portrai-style shot...
Again, not the easiest of conditions for a phont, but overall detail is good, the face is clearly visible, and the photo looks clean and detailed as you could hope for in the circumstances.
WINNER: SAMSUNG GALAXY S III
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Conclusion...
Sorry Sony, but this level of imaging is just not acceptable on a premium device with such a high spec sensor in it. I have had better results fron devices that are 2-3 years old. Oh yes, and that's including the video camera mode which has no 24p or 60p options... come on Sony, there is a Snapdragon 800 SOC in this phone, use it.
I really hope you are going to take a serious look at this and fix it.
rickard
i was/am about to order a brand new simfree zc1 direct from sony here in the uk. should i wait for your update before ordering? i really don't want a 'duff' unit to arrive only to have to return it and be without a device. hope you understand 
@alphabetagaga, unfortunately professional reviews are not always known for picking up on issues, as they are often sent the best and cherry-picked examples of the phones they are reviewing. Many tech products are reviewed well, and often it is only afterwards, when many devices are sold, that we see the real user reports where the bugs and deficiencies are found.
A good review of one device is not, and rarely has ever been, a definitive sign that the retail products will have no issues.
Hi, I tried taping the cover near the lens:
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