So if the Z5's image quality is patchy, maybe it can make up for it with its huge range of effects and features?
Panoramas
The Panorama mode looks a good place to start, and it works in the same way as the iPhone's – you pan across the scene in a single, smooth motion and the camera stitches together a single, seamless panoramic shot.
But the panoramas are a disappointment. Click here for a full size version.
While the process is the same, the results are not. It turns out that the Z5 only captures in HD resolution – i.e. if you pan with the camera held horizontally you'll get a panoramic image 1080 pixels high. Worse, the detail is soft and the joins are often jagged and clumsy. Compared to the iPhone's panoramic mode it's hopelessly crude. The iPhone captures at full resolution and almost always produces invisible joins – the only exception is where objects are moving across the frame as you pan, and even then you have to be unlucky to get a bad shot.
"DP: The sweep panoramas are easy to shoot, but the captured resolution is just 1080 pixels high. Surely a phone with this kind of power could use the sensor's full resolution? Even at this resolution the image appears pixelated with sometimes suspect stitching."
Creative effects
So maybe the Z5's creative effects will be more impressive? They get off to a good start because they're much more varied than the eight pseudo-retro looks you get with the built-in camera app on the iPhone 6S Plus.
Worryingly, though, the Z5 immediately offers a warning that the app may close without notice if the operating temperature becomes too high! What? It didn't happen, but to get a warning like that at all is deeply disconcerting. You might expect something like this in some kind of experimental prototype, but not in mainstream consumer electronics.
We love what the Vivid effect has done with these autumn leaves – unfortunately it's just a 1920 x 1080 image. Click here for the actual size version.
That's not all. In the Creative effect mode, the screen update slows to a crawl. The display is so jerky that you have to keep the Z5 still to give the display half a chance of catching up with what you've pointed it at, and it's really difficult to frame moving subjects or even time the shutter release to capture them in the right position.
"DP: I like the effects – some of them are genuinely interesting and novel – but the screen update rate drops dramatically, which is a shame because the jerky display makes taking photos slow and difficult."
The effects are really nice, though, and you can adjust parameters like color saturation, depending on the effect you've chosen. You don't mind the fact they're baked into the images, unlike the reversible non-destructive filter effects on the iPhone, because they're so attractive.
But here's another feature with a sting in the tail. Like the Z5's panoramic images, these Creative effects are captured at a lower resolution – 1920 x 1080 – that's one-tenth the full resolution of the sensor (2 megapixels rather than 23).
Augmented reality and face-painting
Small children (and more than a few adults) will have a lot of fun with the augmented reality (AR) modes. We particularly enjoyed populating the street outside our fourth-floor offices with late Cretaceous vegetation, a volcano and a rampaging T-Rex. Again, the Z5 warned us it might have to shut down if the temperatures got too high, and it takes a few moments to analyse a scene before adding its prehistoric props, but it does bring a smile to your face.
Talking of faces, the Style Portrait mode is, er, interesting. It swaps to the front camera to capture selfies with a difference. It can render a portrait in black and white and add red lips, for example, which is a striking look for a female face but altogether more disturbing if the user is male. The Movie style goes further, adding eye make-up that makes you look like Cleopatra. We, uh, didn't save those pictures.
We didn't try all of the Sony's creative shooting modes but it's clear there's a good deal of fun to be had, even if it doesn't have an awful lot to do with regular photography.
