Samsung's Galaxy Was The Best Camera For Me When It Really Mattered Most
When it came time for my son to be born this past week, I had a very important decision to make. Amongst the devices I had on hand – of which there were many – I had to decide which was going to be best to capture photos of my son's birth to share with family members that would not be able to witness it. Before you go any further – don't worry, I'm not going to share any super personal photos in this article, only a few shots captured in the off-moments between doctor's checks and screeching newborn.
I only had a few minutes to think about which device or devices I'd be taking. I expected the birth to be happening a week later – I'd not packed up everything I thought I'd be needing. As such, I had to make a swift decision.
Would I bring a large DSLR to the hospital? No, I would not. With only my wife and I going, and massive amounts of ice on the ground (we live in a wintery area at the moment), I didn't need any more luggage than we'd already had packed.
As such, it was from amongst essentially every major smartphone release over the past year that I'd have to choose from. I review smartphones for a living – as such, I have access to pretty much any device I need to do my job.
As such, I grabbed a Samsung Galaxy S6.
Over the past several months I'd been testing the whole lot, including iPhones and HTC One devices, LG's phones and the OnePlus 2. Even though I'd done blind camera tests which put the OnePlus 2 and the LG G4 up on top of my list of "best" cameras in various lighting conditions, this decision came down to long term trust.
The photos you see here (aside from the one OF the Galaxy S6), were all captured BY the Galaxy S6. The image of the baby blanket is cropped, otherwise you'll find no editing – auto settings and resizing to fit this article are all that's taking place here.
I trusted the results the Samsung Galaxy S6 had given me for all manner of photos over the past several months. Reliability was going to be key, here, and I didn't need to be messing around with decisions between the color-correctness of one device or the other, the ability to shoot in one format or another, or the type of flash LED the devices in question had.
In the heat of the moment, I trusted the Samsung Galaxy S6, and it did not let me down.
Even the bits of photo I'd captured accidentally turned out decent. A photo of a blanket just before I got to hold my son, for example. It's not a perfect photo, but it captures what I wanted to capture and more.
What a great time to be alive, in a time where a camera small enough to fit inside my pocket is able to capture and share an event, and to do so without needing a massive dedication of time. I can take the device out of my pocket, snap a photo or three, and put it back, fully confident I've captured the images I wanted without needing to fiddle with settings – without needing to throw one's whole self into the management of the media.
Well done, Samsung.
FYI: This article was not paid for by any phone manufacturer or 3rd party brand. I personally feel strongly that the position I'm in right this minute provides unique perspective for our readers, and I'd like to express my total satisfaction with the decision I made and the device that carried me through the entire birth process, allowing me to snap photos and capture video where it made sense to, then return to the experience at hand.