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The trend of modern smartphones appears to be to amalgamate the Camera and Video recording app into one lovechild, and this is something that we are fans of. Rather than having a switch to change to the video, there are two distinct buttons to hit.
It is, however, possible to switch to a dedicated Video camera via the camera settings. This grants access to settings such as scene modes, video resolution, self timer, photo light/flash, white balance etc. In all, a pretty standard set of video settings.
The video recorder can also have the focus mode changed.This doesn't seem like a lot, but allows the camera to focus on one area, or auto focus to detected faces, making capturing intimate family moments better. HDR recording is also supported.
Video resolution is set as standard to HD, 720p at 30fps. It can however be set as low as 176 x 144 for MMS optimised video recording. We see this being a little obsolete, as most videos are shared on social sites.
Two other features that we are fans of, are the ability to edit zoom levels whilst recording, meaning that you can zoom in and out to capture more/less of the action, and the ability to take photos mid video so you don't miss out on stills of the action because you were filming.
Video captured, although HD, appears grainy and while the Xperia L moves between light and dark areas quickly with high contrast, sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.
