> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://birchtree.me/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Low Light Christmas Trees on 2019’s Best Phones (and an iPhone SE) - URL: https://birchtree.me/blog/low-light-christmas-trees-on-2019s-best-phones/ - Published: 2019-12-06T14:12:22.000Z - Updated: 2019-12-06T14:12:22.000Z - Author: Matt Birchler - Tags: iphone, pixel, samsung, #Import 2023-06-01 22:41, #Import 2025-03-29 19:29 We have a little tree my wife and I put up every year and it’s a thing that is kinda hard to take good pictures of. There is quite a bit of dynamic range which typically means photos look overly darkened to compensate for the bright lights. 2019 has been a very good year for smartphone cameras, so I gave a few of them a shot last night to see how they’d do. Samsung Galaxy S10e ![](https://birchtree.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/82670897-D6EB-404A-8E2E-1A83BD38525F-scaled.jpeg) Pixel 4 ![](https://birchtree.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/6FA9BB03-51E4-4BD1-9635-1D2B31722522-scaled.jpeg) iPhone 11 Pro ![](https://birchtree.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/E47ADB0C-00D1-4EA4-BFCB-3E34231D8B5C-scaled.jpeg) And for fun context, the 2016 iPhone SE (with the 2015 iPhone camera) ![](https://birchtree.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FE1695B5-90B7-4A29-95A3-21CD2E54526E-scaled.jpeg) ![](https://birchtree.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/F2C8613A-99B2-4B34-895F-CE3EEC7EC44C-scaled.jpeg) --- Overall, I’m pretty impressed! Especially when you look at what we were using just 3-4 years ago, the differences in color and clarity are striking. Outside of the SE clearly being worse than the newer phones, the Pixel 4 is the outlier here in terms of color; it’s much cooler than the other images and is not an accurate representation of what the tree actually looked like. I think this has to do with Google’s new smart white balancing feature, which usually makes great choices, but [sometimes results in crazy decisions](https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/11/10/pixel-4-white-balance-bad-images/?ref=birchtree.me)[1](#fn-6544-1). --- 1. Supposedly this was fixed in a previous update, so maybe this is a choice and not a bug, but either way I’d say this is not right. [↩](#fnref-6544-1)