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The LG G8 ThinQ camera flaunts extra tricks for the next-level social photog

By LG

Updated: Apr 21, 2019, 12:57 PM

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Advertorial by LG: the opinions expressed in this story may not reflect the positions of PhoneArena!

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It all started there, tells the doc video above, when Philippe Kahn mounted a phone and a digital camera to record the birth of his daughter, then sent the footage around. The modern way of sharing was born more than 20 years ago, and now every kid wants to be an Instagramer, YouTuber or even TikToker, all from the comfort of their handsets.

Phones made all that possible and are getting better at it with every passing generation. As one of the most affordable premium phones equipped with Quad HD display, Snapdragon 855 processor and 128GB storage, the only thing you have to ask about the LG G8 before you pull the trigger is "How good is the dual camera set?"

On paper, the main one sports the widest smartphone aperture and a large sensor, promising crisp and enlightened shots. It is also joined by an ultra wide-angle sidekick for those landscape and group shots you may otherwise miss. That's not all there is to the LG G8 camera, though, as the company has outfitted both front and back snap kits with a ton of neat photography tricks to unleash your inner Ansel Adams when the situation calls for it.

A mighty phone for Instagram and Snapchat

New video depth control puts your focusing skills a step ahead

Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, TikTok - we live in the world of live streaming, and LG equipped the G8 with the tools to go it alone and inexperienced yet get results close to using professional gear. In the square world of Instagram, for instance, focus is everything, and the G8 snaps it into place with the Dual Field of View option that lets you adjust how much of the focus should be on the object you want to emphasize, even while recording video.

The magically refocusing footage itself goes under the name Video Depth Control and allows you to rescue your heretofore blurry recordings of fast-moving subjects like kids, pets or race cars. Think of it like video bokeh of sorts that keeps the focus where you want it.

In addition, LG has made sharing those clips inherently easy straight from the camera app interface with a drop down strip of social network and chat app shortcuts to post directly.

Wide-angle and Night View go where other Instagrammers stumble

And justice for all

On top of the adjustable focus come two more tricks to spice up your Instalife - a wide-angle lens from the first name-brand manufacturer that equipped their flagships with one, and a Night View mode to shine a light on your evening out.

The extra-wide 107-degree view of the 16MP sidekick can fit the whole of your posse in the frame with a certainty that the main camera lacks, and you can easily toggle to it with a tap when you have to get as much of the scene in front of you as possible.

That's all fine and dandy but such wide-angle lens are notorious for distorting the edges of the frame, so LG has to apply a different approach in the G8's lens-making equipment to make sure barrel distortion remains a thing of the past.

A wide angle to fit them all, the LG constitution

The Night View mode is an odd bird but a pretty bird. It's the only moment LG actually emphasizes the AI algorithms it applies to churn out the best possible shot from a difficult circumstance. The "multi-frame low light HDR technology" analyzes numerous consecutive frames with evened-out highlights and shadows to match them against the actual lighting available and spit a shot that gives you night vision yet keeps it real with a low-light impression still.

Night View and symmetry

While not suitable for fast-moving objects, you can capture perfect stills of a city skyline, the neon lights in the bar district, or a number of other night scenes where the regular shot would come out dark, noisy and incomprehensible. The LG G8 cuts through the noise by applying the machine learning algorithms like a hot knife through butter in such a balanced manner that the phone now occupies the top in the camera expert rankings over at VCX for the best all-around mobile camera in all lighting conditions.

Portrait modes, ToF to the rescue

Artsy, front and back

Selfie portrait

A good portrait mode is all the square rage on Instagram these days, and, let's face it, we want our selfies to look just as good and the background just as blurred as those of other folks we shoot. The bokeh shots are incredibly pretty in close-ups, too, but most often we want our face to be selectively sharpened and in focus in a manner fitting to the person we love the most.

The LG G8 delivers those rear camera portraits, but also turns its undivided attention to your Instaselfie, providing a time-of-flight (ToF) camera at the front that maps the contours of your face, hair, and accessories, separating them skillfully from the background in order to place you in stark contrast with the surrounding.

Since the front-facing camera in the LG G8 ThinQ is of the rare breed equipped with a ToF sensor, it can measure the distance between the subject and the camera in millimeters to introduce up to 256 levels of background blur for selfies with added aesthetics. What's more, the image sensor of the front camera itself is with larger than usual 1.22 micron pixels, so the LG G8 soaks much more light in for a cleaner image produced faster thanks to the autofocus selfie camera, again a rare feature for the front snapper.

Portraits

Spotlight

Turn yourself into a true Selfinator

The wonders of LG's so-called Z camera invention are applied to the selfie camera of the G8 as well. You can shine a light on various parts of your face, or even the background, with a selective Spotlight mode that can make you look studio-artsy with the tap of a finger. The downside - all those zits and blackheads are in full display thanks to the high-end autofocusing camera at the front, but you can apply a vast array of beauty modes to deal with those pre- or post-shot as well.

The LG G8 ThinQ camera flaunts extra tricks for the next-level social photog

Look, Ma, finally a flagship without a camera bump!

Free-flowing design adds to a versatile camera hardware

In a nutshell, the LG G8 is fusing an excellent social camera experience in an aesthetically pleasing design that makes do without unsightly camera bumps to distract from the uninterrupted flow of the phone.

Score one for a minimalistic, unobstructed exterior that visually adds to the thin and compact phone feel in the hand. In an age where every flagship camera kit on the back shouts "Look at me!", the G8 delivers the same high-end hardware in a subtle, style-conscious design choice.

LG raced to make the G8 a great camera to deliver phone calls, but without the typical visible bump of today's flagships

Camera flush with the glass back because... aesthetics

Step up your influencing game on Instagram, or fool around with your posse on TikTok - the G8 is there for you providing artsy video blur, Spotlight selfies and distortion-free group shots that are made to be broadcast.