LG Spirit – Camera

For taking pictures, the Spirit features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an LED flash and only a 1-megapixel front-facing camera. When it comes to pixel count, this puts the Spirit on a par with the Moto G 2 and Lumia 640 – but there’s more to performance than megapixels.

The camera app is very basic, so don’t expect anything close to the Samsung or Sony-esque modes or even HDR, which can often be the saviour for cheaper phones lacking quality camera hardware. Initially photos won’t look great, because the default resolution is set to the wider ratio 6 megapixels instead of the maximum 8 megapixels.

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There’s no laser focus here, meaning the camera takes a while to jump into action – resulting in a number of out-of-focus images. In bright, well-lit conditions outdoors, the camera is capable of capturing some share-friendly images. Although images show good detail, colours can look a little muted.

Capturing rewarding, macro-style close-ups is more tricky. This is especially true indoors, where colours look washed out and struggle to pick out details – such as the unfortunate crack on our running watch below.

When lighting becomes more challenging, the Spirit fares better outdoors than it does indoors. However, without image stabilisation, results are never going to be outstanding. The images below are a good illustration of this; buildings are basked in darkness. You can make out the Millennium Wheel in the distance, but it’s in the foreground where the Spirit’s camera really shows its weaknesses.

There are the makings of a good image with the sunset shot, below, but the noise in the foreground and lack of detail in the buildings really lets it down.

Indoors, the camera struggles to capture any truly satisfying detail. There’s a lot of light bleed to contend with, and in the foreground it’s again a bit of a blurry mess.

If you’re hoping to take glorious selfies with the Spirit, or enjoy Skype calls in crisp image resolution, you’re out of luck here. The paltry 1-megapixel front-facing camera produces noisy, lacklustre results. The G4-inspired Gesture Shot mode does feature, however: close your fist to start the timer, giving you time to get into your best selfie pose.

Assuming you’re shooting from the main camera, video footage can be filmed at a maximum 1080p HD at 30fps. Although extra modes and features are limited, there’s no horrible lag in the footage and it’s well equipped for sharing on Facebook or Twitter.