LG V30 could be awesome for low-light photography

Smartphone cameras may have come a long way, but one of their greatest shortcomings is yet to be adequately addressed – their poor low-light performance.

Since smartphone cameras are powered by tiny sensors (at least compared to dedicated cameras), they can get nowhere near the low-light performance and dynamic range of a mirrorless, DSLR—be it crop or full frame—or а film camera. And since manufacturers are not going to start cramming bigger sensors in smartphone cameras anytime soon, for obvious reasons, one way to partially alleviate this issue is to implement wider apertures.

Without going into too much detail, the aperture is basically an opening that lets light travel through the lens of the camera and reach its sensor (or film plane in the case of film cameras). The larger the aperture, the more light can go through it. Aperture sizes are denoted by an “f” number—e.g. f/4.6, f/2.0 etc.—and most flagship smartphones these days have apertures in the range between f/2.0 and f/1.7.

Simply put, a smartphone with a wider aperture, especially if backed by OIS, can take sharper, more detailed shots at night, although the camera software would also need to do its part in the equation in order to reduce noise and apply other enhancements to the final image.

The cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ and the S7/S7+ have f/1.7 apertures which is considered very wide for a smartphone camera, and it's part of the reason why they perform so well in low-light conditions.

But new reports are suggesting that the upcoming LG V30 may have a f/1.6 aperture, which is just massive (for a smartphone). Although it's not that big of a difference when compared to the Galaxies, the wider aperture could potentially allow the V30 to take awesome low-light shots, especially if paired with adequate software and optical image stabilization.

However, only the main camera of the V30 will supposedly be graced by the f/1.6 aperture, while the wide-angle lens next to it will likely have a higher f-stop number, claim sources close to LG cited by Slash Gear.

If this rumor turns out to be true, then the LG V30 will have the widest aperture in a smartphone camera ever, which could potentially turn it in one of the best phones for taking night-time photos with. We are excited already!