iPhone 15 vs Galaxy S24 vs Pixel 8: Camera Shootout

Spec sheets list megapixel counts, but they rarely predict which phone actually produces photos worth keeping. The iPhone 15, Galaxy S24, and Pixel 8 take three distinct approaches to mobile photography, and after shooting the same scenes on all three review units side by side, the differences show up far more in specific situations than in any single spec sheet number. This guide skips the general flagship comparison covered in our full three-way comparison and focuses entirely on the camera systems: daylight detail, low light, zoom, video, selfies, and the AI editing tools each company now builds around its sensors.

Daylight photos: detail versus color science

All three phones capture excellent daylight photos, but they disagree on what a "good" photo looks like straight out of the camera app. The iPhone 15's 48MP main sensor bins down to 24MP files by default, producing images with neutral, slightly cooler color temperatures and a flatter dynamic range that leaves more room for editing later. The Galaxy S24's 50MP sensor leans the opposite direction: Samsung's processing punches up saturation and contrast automatically, which looks more striking on the phone's own AMOLED screen but can read as slightly oversaturated when viewed elsewhere. The Pixel 8's 50MP main sensor sits in between, with Google's decade of computational photography tuning producing the most consistently "true to life" exposures of the three, particularly in mixed lighting like a room lit by both a window and indoor lamps.

Low light and night mode

This is where the gap between the three widens the most. The Pixel 8's Night Sight mode remains the benchmark other manufacturers are still chasing: it recovers visible detail and accurate color in near-total darkness without the smeared, over-brightened look that plagues weaker night modes. The Galaxy S24 is a close second, producing sharper night shots than the iPhone 15 thanks to more aggressive multi-frame stacking, though shadows occasionally show visible noise reduction artifacts up close. The iPhone 15's Night mode is genuinely solid and a clear step up from the iPhone 14, but it is the most conservative of the three, prioritizing natural-looking results over maximum brightness, which some buyers will actually prefer.

Zoom and portraits

Here the Galaxy S24 has a real hardware advantage: its dedicated 10MP telephoto lens delivers a genuine 3x optical zoom, while both the iPhone 15 and Pixel 8 rely entirely on cropping into their high-resolution main sensors for anything beyond 1x. In practice this means the S24 holds detail noticeably better at 3x-5x zoom ranges, the kind of distance you'd use for a school play or a concert stage. For portraits, all three produce convincing background blur with reasonably accurate edge detection around hair and glasses, though the Pixel 8's Portrait mode still edges ahead in tricky cases like curly hair or pets, where cheaper implementations tend to produce visible haloing.

Video recording

Apple's video pipeline remains the most technically capable of the three: the iPhone 15 shoots 4K at up to 60fps with noticeably better stabilization during walking shots, and Cinematic mode's rack-focus effect, while still gimmicky for most users, works more reliably than Samsung's or Google's equivalent modes. The Galaxy S24 records sharp 4K footage but shows more visible exposure hunting when moving between light and shadow. The Pixel 8 is the weakest video performer of the three in stabilization terms, though its audio recording and Night Sight-adjacent low-light video mode are genuine strengths for anyone filming indoors after dark.

Selfies and video calls

The Pixel 8's 10.5MP front camera produces the most naturally lit selfies of the group, avoiding the slightly over-smoothed skin processing that both Samsung and Apple apply by default (though both let you dial that back in settings). For video calls, all three handle typical laptop-adjacent lighting well, but the Galaxy S24's wider front lens fits more people into a frame, a small but genuinely useful difference for group calls or filming yourself with a friend.

AI editing tools compared

This is where the three companies' philosophies diverge most visibly. Google's Magic Eraser and Best Take, which merges several nearly-identical group shots to get everyone smiling at once, remain the most genuinely useful AI photo editing tools on any phone in this comparison, and they work directly in the default Google Photos app rather than a separate tool. Samsung's Galaxy AI suite includes a comparable Generative Edit feature for moving or removing objects, plus an object-eraser tool, both of which work well but slightly less convincingly at object boundaries than Google's equivalent. Apple takes the most conservative approach: there is no generative object removal at all in iOS 17's native tools, reflecting Apple's more cautious stance on AI-manipulated photos, though third-party apps can fill the gap if you need it.

Manual controls and RAW shooting

Casual shooters will never touch these settings, but if you like adjusting exposure, focus, and white balance manually, the three phones differ here too. The iPhone 15's native Camera app still offers the least manual control of the three, though ProRAW capture is available at the full 48MP resolution if you enable it in Settings, giving editors far more latitude in Lightroom or Photoshop than the default HEIC files. The Galaxy S24's Pro mode exposes ISO, shutter speed, and focus sliders directly in the stock camera app, alongside RAW capture, making it the most flexible out-of-the-box experience for anyone who wants some manual control without installing a third-party app. The Pixel 8 sits at the other extreme: Google's camera app is intentionally simple, with RAW capture available but manual exposure control buried deeper in the interface than on the Galaxy S24, reflecting Google's overall bet that computational processing should replace manual tweaking rather than merely supplement it.

Which camera should you actually buy?

If you photograph distant subjects regularly — kids' sports, concerts, wildlife on a hike — the Galaxy S24's optical zoom is a genuine, daily-use advantage, not a marketing checkbox, and it is our pick for that use case. If low light and computational consistency matter most, especially indoor evening photos and casual group shots, the Pixel 8 remains the strongest all-around performer of the three despite its simpler two-lens hardware. And if you shoot mostly video, or you're already inside Apple's ecosystem and value the most reliable stabilization and color consistency across a mix of shooting conditions, the iPhone 15 is the safer choice. None of the three is a bad camera phone in 2024; the differences described here are the kind that show up only when you shoot the same scene three times in a row, which is exactly what we did for this comparison.

For the full hardware, performance, and battery breakdown beyond the camera, see our reviews of the iPhone 15, Galaxy S24, and Pixel 8 individually.