Database Develop

Camera performance

now, before you say it im not expecting a phone's camera to compete with a stand alone camera, however for the money i would like it to take some fairly decent photos. I have a couple of questions
-how fast is the shutter speed, i have read its slow , leading to blurry photos unless kept totally still?
- how awkward is the on screen button, require hard or long press? any differenct to dedicated camera shutter key?
- How Dark will it have to get untill there is too much noise (htc claim improved white balance helps compensate for lack of flash, but i dont see how?)
any opinions from diamond 2 owners would be much appreciated!
thanks

153 views, no comments?
didnt think it that bad a question?

For a phone camera, I think it is pretty good, I have some good shots with it, never tried it in low light yet though

toady2k1 said:
153 views, no comments?
didnt think it that bad a question?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't feel bad. I had a post in the Iolite forum that had 253 views and no responses and it was a very basic question.
I'm getting my D2 in a few days and I will answer your questions as soon as I get er set up.

thanking you!

Some pictures...
Here some pictures inside and outside, both with the Diamond and with the Diamond 2. Both with max. quality, all pictures compressed the same.
Obviously the TD2 camera is better...

i'm interested to know too.....thank for sharing your experience!

WoW! The difference is a LOT!

thanks for those, quality looks pretty good.
How do you find the experience of camera / ie load time, shutter times, on screen button?
thanks

toady2k1 said:
thanks for those, quality looks pretty good.
How do you find the experience of camera / ie load time, shutter times, on screen button?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
camera loads very fast (within 2 seconds ready to click), takes pictures about three seconds after click (does autofocus first).
on sreen picture button works fine.
a nice feature is that the camera focusses where you touch the screen!
no zoom, no flash.

i'm perfectly happy with the camera
as long as it's not dark it's really good. I took some snaps yesterday outside in london and they've come out really nicely.
Can't complain especially since the main function of the device is to be a phone...the camera is just an added bonus and the fact it's a good one is great.
load time is fast
the ''only'' problem with it is taking self portraits, it's hard to press the function button when you can't see the screen....bar that, it's good

Camera comparison
I did make a comparison of cameras in D2, D1 and HD, it is in czech but I believe it is crystal clear seeing the difference
It is here http://www.ce4you.cz/articles/detail.asp?a=339
The camera in D2 is amazin, great quality and very fast, nothing to tell you more about it

pdagold said:
I did make a comparison of cameras in D2, D1 and HD, it is in czech but I believe it is crystal clear seeing the difference
It is here http://www.ce4you.cz/articles/detail.asp?a=339
The camera in D2 is amazin, great quality and very fast, nothing to tell you more about it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Thanks a lot for those. That just made the upgrade very justifiable for me as I use my phone a lot for camera shots.

TD2 is way better than the old Diamond, no question about it. However, it appears that the HD still has better dynamic range. Colours are warmer with TD2 as well

Barff1984 said:
i'm perfectly happy with the camera
as long as it's not dark it's really good. I took some snaps yesterday outside in london and they've come out really nicely.
Can't complain especially since the main function of the device is to be a phone...the camera is just an added bonus and the fact it's a good one is great.
load time is fast
the ''only'' problem with it is taking self portraits, it's hard to press the function button when you can't see the screen....bar that, it's good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
u actually can use the front camera to snap self portraits

It does have zoom!
pietrucci said:
camera loads very fast (within 2 seconds ready to click), takes pictures about three seconds after click (does autofocus first).
on sreen picture button works fine.
a nice feature is that the camera focusses where you touch the screen!
no zoom, no flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a true optical zoom, but if you slide your finger up and down the zoom bar, it still works!

pietrucci said:
camera loads very fast (within 2 seconds ready to click), takes pictures about three seconds after click (does autofocus first).
on sreen picture button works fine.
a nice feature is that the camera focusses where you touch the screen!
no zoom, no flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
You can change some reg settings to get the shutter button to react faster. I have set mine to zero milliseconds delay and the picture is then taken almost instantly.
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\Camera\Captparam]
"CapKeyDelayTime"=dword:00000000
"EnableCapKeyDelay"=dword:00000000
Regards,
PK

shutter speed is depending on light
+ memory speed also takes a small part
low light = fail for diamond2
for example
it cannot take pics like:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/429581993_204b4ad7fe.jpg
it would just be all black
http://intlxpatr.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/00entiremparkinglot.jpg
would be quite dark as well
(note these are not from q diamond2, its what i expect from it from using it for so long)

by the way what is burst mode?

Bust mode; takes several pictures quickly then you can select which ones you like and delet the rest.
On another note, one of the reasons the TD2 gets better pictures compared to the D1 & HD is that the TD2's battery cover doesn't have a clear plastic cover for the Camera lens. With the TD1, remove the battery cover and you will get better pictures.

Will changing radio improve camera?

Hi,
Something I've tried to to find the answer to, but so far have been unable to do so - the camera performance has always been terrible on my tytn2. I've tried a range of different roms, but none have made any difference to the camera.
My understanding is that it is important to have a radio that works with the rom you are using, but can I get better camera performance by using a different radio?
Currently I am using "07/10[Super Ram][CHOME][Manilla] Josh's Kaiser Roms+Kitchen "21929 Hybrid Light" - a great rom, and my radio is 1.65.16.25.
I would really appreciate it if anyone can give me any pointers with this or otherwise help me get better camera performance (the tytn2 is an amazing phone, the camera is the only problem I have with it).
Cheers

Moved as not ROM Development...
The camera is just whack anyway unless in ideal light situations.

Typically the camera will either work or not work at all depending on the Radio, unfortunately the Kaiser's camera (and all cellphone cameras in general) is not the greatest in low light so you are pretty much stuck with what you got.

Thanks for the responses. It's not so much the camera performance in terms of picture quality, but the terrible lag when taking pictures - there is a two second or more delay between pressing the camera button and the picture taking. This always results in pictures that are extremely blurred.

Turn off the full press and also the shutter noise...

I tried everything possible with my tytn to improve camera , however it was all pointless since it could not be done.

Well not quite. In my frustration with a few things which aren't perfect in Shifu's latest ROM (hey, it's pretty darn nice for the most part, even M2D is running well for the first time in my experience of over 20 WM6.5 ROM versions, mostly on the Elfin, 3 on this Kaiser), I did some searching for a camera video frame rate solution. Found one. I've already forgotten the link (since reading it this afternoon), but it's so simple there's no need to go looking. Here's the procedure. Works in any lower light situation, as in not broad daylight. Haven't test it it outside in daylight yet, but it might even work there, will find out tomorrow.
1) Open camera application.
2) Put hand over lens to create a black screen.
3) Turn off power. (This part is a bit of a stumbling block for those with slide to unlock or a password active - have to have those turned off for this to work.)
4) Keep the hand (or whatever, doesn't matter so long as it blocks light) over the lens for at least a second.
5) Take off the hand.
6) Press the power button again.
7) Start shooting when you like.
8) Enjoy what looks like 30fps video, much improved autofocus and shutter response times, and unfortunately, darker images. So still not a great low-light camera, but indoors in average conditions or even somewhat dim light it's not bad at all for a phone camera. Took me a few tries to nail down the procedure and be able to reproduce the effect every time, but five minute's practice at most.
Apparently the vast improvement in frame rate and general responsiveness globally in the camera's operation and settings dialogues is over-ridden if one points the camera at a light source or brighter reflective objects. I find it stays stable during a session even if I point it directly at a 20W halogen light from 6 feet away, but your mileage may vary.
Another tip would be to avoid the double-take of the autofocus algorithm. Bloody thing focuses on a half-press, then focuses all over again, blurring out then returning to sharpness, on full shutter press. So either go to half-press shooting, or use the D-pad centre button to shoot pictures and videos, as this is a single-stage switch.
In my case, running Shifu's latest ROM from December and his recommended radio, and just this evening flashing Kaiser-HardSPL-3.56, I find the video frame rate to be about 2 to 3 frames per second without this trick, and well above 20fps with the trick. Awesome. A little bit irritating too, having to do this silly little button sequence thing, but it's better than having to go hunting for my 'real' camera when a video opportunity presents itself and the Kaiser will take less than 10 seconds to get ready, and getting the proper camera will take over a minute of walking and digging and powering on... As has so often been said in web discussions of phone cameras, it's not so much the quality of your best camera that's important in everyday use, it's whether you have a working camera with you that counts. And this little trick makes the camera I ALWAYS have with me a whole lot more usable.
Now, if only there were a way to get Resco Audio Recorder to make clear 2-sided recordings of my calls. Worked like a dream on the HTC Touch Elfin. All I hear is remote, static-distorted voices with this Kaiser. Seems from discussions that this is a hardware limitation. Hope not. And it'd be nice too if the device weren't cranky about my 8GB microSD. Seems a tad unstable at times. Same for considerable numbers of other users, so maybe another hardware limitation? Hope it's drivers, and that some genius presents an update.

GerardSamija,
Yeah that's an old trick but not perfect as tends to dim the light and when hit by a large light flips back to the slow fps another one is to remove the plastic cover on case covering lens.
I gave up using camera unless outside & it's the same issue on Touch Pro even with the built in flash "well light really"
2 Side Voice Recording on Kaiser **WORKS**

Thank you very much for that stylez. I'm reading through the pages of that thread, and while so far the latest CAB there hasn't quite made decent quality two-way recording for my Kaiser, it's considerably improved from what it was yesterday. Nice.
Trying the 'old' camera trick (sorry for re-publishing ancient news - I've only had this Kaiser a few days, so just getting caught up. On testing it this morning I found a number of tries didn't work at all. Not sure why. Then just now I tried it again and it worked fine, though delivering only about 15 to 20fps, not quite smooth. I did back to back tests without and then with the trick, and there was about a tripling of framerate from A to B. Guess I'll just have to keep practicing to get it down solid.
And I probably will remove part of the shielding over the camera lens, carefully. The lens in the body itself has a flat glass cover so no real risk of damage there, as it's recessed behind the battery cover. Occasional cleaning of dust is necessary anyway with a pocketable camera, so this just adds the step of slipping off the battery cover to do that. The phone I have was used for a few months, then left in an office drawer for over a year. Not a lot of wear, but obviously some fine scratching of the coating on the camera lens protective filter. Removing it will improve imaging, and the glass lens cover beneath is about the same as on my old HTC Elfin. That one has held up very well.

I hear windex helps.

ChumleyEX said:
I hear windex helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol ya i gave up using the camera really, i know im just caring around a big brick, with the advantage that its touch screen and has a keyboard... otherwise its not used much for anything else, unfortunately there are a million other phones that would meet this basic need, though im not getting burned by HTC again or any other phone maker...

I'm getting better at the timing with tricking the camera into responding quickly for stills, and getting 15fps and better almost all the time. This afternoon was fairly sunny here, and I shot a few videos of my son at the playground. Checking them later on my Asus 901 they look quite good. And contrary to many comments saying pointing at bright light kills the effect, I was able to shoot almost directly into the sun without losing frame rate.
Oddly, VLC gives an audio codec cannot be found error. Guess I'm off for yet another codec hunt. Windows 7 has mostly been pretty solid in supporting things like that, but I guess VLC stands apart from the OS in terms of codecs.
Windex? Nah, bit of a rub with a shirt end is fine. It's not a camera for making museum grade images. It's convenient, when I don't want to carry a bulky HD camera with proper optics around with me.

[Foto] How To Upgrade Camera Performance

Hello guys. I am new with my milestone here and I have an important question if you have some ideas about it. However my previous phone (google G1) had 3.2 mp camera built in, its photos were quite better than my milestone which has 5 MP with flash light! I am very disapointed with its camera performance. Is this something about software and development or something about its camera lens?
Its photos are full of gren and noise in it and deffintly doesnt seem to be a 5 mpx.

Hi I have the same question. the photos has noise and I think is better my last g1.
any ideas??

Try charge your battery full if using flash.

anthonyuni said:
Hi I have the same question. the photos has noise and I think is better my last g1.
any ideas??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here, I came from X10i (best in camera) and really i feel the difference

bijixda said:
Try charge your battery full if using flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has nothing to do with battery because photos are bad even in full daylight! I hope this is something about firmware and can be fixed with some new software , Unless i will sell this phone.

I have also not'ced that camera flash light of this phone is not working proper when battery goes lower than 30-40 and its a shame when its night time your battery has to be higher than 50 if you want to use flash light.. But there is something weird with this because of this flash light brightes and shines so strong even battery goes low when you half press shutter button for the auto focus. then when you press for taking the photo then it wont flashes up like before. REALLY WEIRD.. I am gonna sell this odd phone. Unless those stupid mistakes wont be fixed by 2.2 upgrade. hopefully soon..

Can I ask to poeple who upgraded their droid to 2.2 is there any difference at camera performance on your droid after update ??

To be honest there is not a difference in camera performance. That all varies between the lighting and zoom level of the camera. I have noticed the grain side of the photos, however I have had some great clear photos taken with the phone as well. The video quality IMO is superb for the phone. Even before the 2.2 update I did, the pictures turned out great despite some showing a little bit of grain.

The megapixel number means nothing, and actually for a given physical sensor size (IE the ones that fit in phones) a higher MP number will mean ****tier pictures.
The performance is just how it's going to be.

I use 360 Camera Pro with low ISO Speed (100) and High IS Sensitivity. My photos come out looking like this: http://i.imgur.com/U9PAx.jpg

Beako said:
I use 360 Camera Pro with low ISO Speed (100) and High IS Sensitivity. My photos come out looking like this: http://i.imgur.com/U9PAx.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well I tried to take the same photos with both stock camera program and camera 360 program, and my results were not far different from eachother but 360 photos were a bit better. Camera 360 photos were about 3-4 MB, but droids itself photos were 1 MB. I can say the MB difference didnt reflect the picture quality. they were almost same quality. so no need to use 3 times more space for ordinary photos.

I changed my camera application.
I now use the app: Pro Zoom Camera 5X
And that worked for me.
It takes better pictures.
Dont know all the reasons.
But 1 major reason for me is,
With the original, you half press the camera key to focus, then full press to take the picture.
This creates movement when taking the picture.
With the app i'm using,
you press full ones, it then focuses and takes the picture.
but you can also use the volume button, which is an easier key to press full.
or you can just tap the screen.
For me it made a huge difference.
Though,.. still not as good as we want it to be

anheuer said:
I changed my camera application.
I now use the app: Pro Zoom Camera 5X
And that worked for me.
It takes better pictures.
Dont know all the reasons.
But 1 major reason for me is,
With the original, you half press the camera key to focus, then full press to take the picture.
This creates movement when taking the picture.
With the app i'm using,
you press full ones, it then focuses and takes the picture.
but you can also use the volume button, which is an easier key to press full.
or you can just tap the screen.
For me it made a huge difference.
Though,.. still not as good as we want it to be
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure if the only problem was half shutter vibration on the photo problem. it seems more than that. To me It can be fixed with some software improvments but im not sure how much can it be good with new software.. Does anyone know which brand or what kind of lenses does motorola uses for milestone?

Beako said:
I use 360 Camera Pro with low ISO Speed (100) and High IS Sensitivity. My photos come out looking like this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You for sharing this info. I will try it myself.

[Q] Hd7 blurry photos

Hello Evrybody;
I need help about the quality of the phtos? I know that the overall quality of the camera from the HD7 is not very good. But at least i think i don't must have blurry photos.
Did you have any experience about the quality of the photos ?
If someone can tell me if the Hd7 camera is so bad that I can't have sharp photo, it will confirms that i make a bad choice.
BR

Be sure that you barely press the button so that it focuses on your picture, and then click to take it. I've noticed if you take the picture without allowing it to focus it's blurry 99% of the time...

Don't shoot photos in dim light, try to go for bright places. You can also use the "sports" mode under "scenes" ...
Hold the phone with two hands while taking photos, and try to keep it in front of your chest rather than holding it with straight arms, to minimize the hand movement.
Hope these helps.

The light button press, wait and stronger press is the correct way.
A short cut if you take more then one photo, after first photo if it is blurry or if what you see on the screen is blurry just move your hand in front of camera fast.
It will detect movement and re-focuss.

Yeah agree with the others I thought the camera was ****ty, untill I fugured out you had to half press the button to focus and then click full way to take the snap.
Still the camera is not the best, as far away subjects still appear blurish and rubbish in dim light as well.. I wish they update the software or something

Please remember that photo quality will always depend on the size of the lens, the aperture, the CCD sensitivity etc. There is a reason why good quality cameras have big lenses. Have a look at the lense on your phone's camera. See how small it is? How much light do you think actually gets through that tiny hole? And that little pinprick of light is supposed to illuminate the entire sensor array and flood it with enough light to create a picture? Exposure times with such small apertures are horrendous, especially in low lighting, and it's no wonder pictures come out blurry because you are moving the camera the whole time it's taking the picture. Even your breathing moves the camera. That's why people use tripods in low light.
In all seriousness, people need to be more realistic with their expectations of phone cameras. While they remain so small, they will always yield awful pictures, and will only ever be a poor substitute for when you don't have your proper camera to hand.
The best you can do to mitigate the problems is as follows;
1) You're going to have to use the flash in low light
2) Try to get as much ambient lighting on the subject as possible
3) If you can steady the phone on any surface to help keep it stable, do so
4) Remember that half-press to focus on your subject before the full-press to take the photo
5) Try your hardest to keep the phone ABSOLUTELY STILL while taking the photo. Breath out very slowly while depressing the button as softly and imperceptibly as you can
6) Don't use the zoom. It's a digital zoom rather than optical, so all it does is crop the picture, giving you a lower resolution
Remember with a phone you have no control over ISO, Aperture or Shutter Speed so your options are, well, non-existent.
If you really care about taking good photos, try to have your proper camera handy as much as possible.

Crappy Camera
First of all I have an HTC-HD2 and recently bought an HTC-HD7.
I don't know if it is a software issue but the photos taken by the HD7 camera are really crap. I have a HD2 running android and the photos taken now are really sharp and beautiful. Even under WM 6.5 the photos turned up really nice. I think the HD7 hardware is similar to the HD2 so it must be a software issue. Anyway the resulting photos in the HD7 are pure crap, no matter if you use 3 hands to hold the camera or lightning conditions. This issue makes the HD7 experience a dissapointing one.

gustavoa said:
First of all I have an HTC-HD2 and recently bought an HTC-HD7.
I don't know if it is a software issue but the photos taken by the HD7 camera are really crap. I have a HD2 running android and the photos taken now are really sharp and beautiful. Even under WM 6.5 the photos turned up really nice. I think the HD7 hardware is similar to the HD2 so it must be a software issue. Anyway the resulting photos in the HD7 are pure crap, no matter if you use 3 hands to hold the camera or lightning conditions. This issue makes the HD7 experience a dissapointing one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you half-depressing the camera button to get focus lock first? Then pressing it all the way to take the photo? If not, it's no wonder your photos are blurry. If you are, see my previous post, above.

many thanks
Hello everybody
first I will thank you all for your help
for conclusion I will say that HTC must rework this part from the software. Wonder if they know all the problems that we have.
We will see in the next month if they change something.
bye bye

Noobs...learn about your phone, then complain...

My pictures come out fine just gotta focus, change the settings for appropriate lighting. It would be easier if there was an on-screen button to take the pic

[Q] Sony Z3 Compact camera sucks! HELP!

Hey, i just bought the Z3 Compact The phone itself is very good, EXCEPT The camera! 20 mpx of what? The camera is so blurry and noisy. And you can see the pixels easy. This is so TERRIBLE i have to ask if there is anything wrong with it? I have had Android since it came out. This results are worse than what my HTC Magic did. A phone from 2008-09. I have tried different settings, no luck. Been like this from day one. So is there something wrong, or is this suppose to be the 20mpx camera? ...
Some examples, first pic is taken in daylight. You can see at the second is in darkness (Very noisy!) Front camera is even worse!!
Please get some help! I like the phone, but if the camera is suppose to be like this i'm switching it out immediately!

I'm new to Z3c too, my camera sucks in the first shots as well, but, so did my sister's, until suddenly, it got all well. I don't know how.

Well said about camera suddenly getting good.
My recommendation is don't use superior auto. Launch your camera from a shortcut and set it to manual and from that moment on it will always launch in manual mode, but not when you launch it with shutter key.
Once in manual mode, try my settings:
Exposure: one or two bars below value of 0
WB: auto
Resolution: 15,5 mpx
Focus mode: multiple autofocus (i think that's what it's called in english)
ISO: This is the most important setting. You can set it to 100 or even 50 to avoid noise and artifacts caused by heavy postprocessing by software. But, the lower the iso, darker the image will be. So on a sunny day it can be 50 od 100, On a cloudy day, a bit higher and in night photos 800.
Metering: multiple
Focusing: When you want to take photo, put object you want to take photo of in the middle and half press shutter button. When squares turn blue on places you want focused, keep shutter half pressed and you can then move your phone to left, right, up or down and not losing focus. That way you make your composition. When you think you have your scene set up, finally press the button all the way.
Once you set it up every time you launch camera by a shortcut it will launch in manual mode with settings remembered from last time you used camera so no need to fiddle with settings every time. Camera widget is very useful.
Avoid superior auto unless you're in complete darkness because in that case heavy postprocessing and very high iso that it always uses have to be made.
Superior auto uses very high iso values when not needed. High iso causes much noise on the photos, and sony software removes that noise and does it in a not so good way. That results in artifacts and 'flat' photos.
It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. I have SLR camera experience so it's natural to me. Once you practice half pressing, composition making and then taking photo people will wonder how can you make such photos. It's knowledge that you'll be able to use always in all cameras, phones and whatever.
I hope this helps and let me know if it does. I'm thinking about writing a camera tutorial with samples because not many people use the potential of it.
See my samples, they're only resized:
http://i.imgur.com/YF2fU8l.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0cP9SiO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1EFhzze.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fvWzbg1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ptrBLVu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QbKBrdq.jpg

Well said ... The tutrial is good ... N m setting up these setting. It would be better to open a thread with tutrial about the camera setting n people help each other how we could get the good pictures. Thanks very much. :thumbup:
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app

saab90095 said:
[original post]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you unlock your bootloader?

degraaff said:
Did you unlock your bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lstic said:
Well said about camera suddenly getting good.
My recommendation is don't use superior auto. Launch your camera from a shortcut and set it to manual and from that moment on it will always launch in manual mode, but not when you launch it with shutter key.
Once in manual mode, try my settings:
Exposure: one or two bars below value of 0
WB: auto
Resolution: 15,5 mpx
Focus mode: multiple autofocus (i think that's what it's called in english)
ISO: This is the most important setting. You can set it to 100 or even 50 to avoid noise and artifacts caused by heavy postprocessing by software. But, the lower the iso, darker the image will be. So on a sunny day it can be 50 od 100, On a cloudy day, a bit higher and in night photos 800.
Metering: multiple
Focusing: When you want to take photo, put object you want to take photo of in the middle and half press shutter button. When squares turn blue on places you want focused, keep shutter half pressed and you can then move your phone to left, right, up or down and not losing focus. That way you make your composition. When you think you have your scene set up, finally press the button all the way.
Once you set it up every time you launch camera by a shortcut it will launch in manual mode with settings remembered from last time you used camera so no need to fiddle with settings every time. Camera widget is very useful.
Avoid superior auto unless you're in complete darkness because in that case heavy postprocessing and very high iso that it always uses have to be made.
Superior auto uses very high iso values when not needed. High iso causes much noise on the photos, and sony software removes that noise and does it in a not so good way. That results in artifacts and 'flat' photos.
It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. I have SLR camera experience so it's natural to me. Once you practice half pressing, composition making and then taking photo people will wonder how can you make such photos. It's knowledge that you'll be able to use always in all cameras, phones and whatever.
I hope this helps and let me know if it does. I'm thinking about writing a camera tutorial with samples because not many people use the potential of it.
See my samples, they're only resized:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for a good answer. Some of the shots is amazing! Still, i can see them getting a little blurry. Also i think that if you can't choose auto and take decent photo when you are in a hurry it's actually a struggle. If you always have to set your ISO etc. Then i would rather bring my DSLR with me instead! Here are some examples from my previous phone. The S3. I set HDR on. Nothing more! Nice and easy.
I'm not saying this shots is amazing, but i just found it to be better overall than the Compact. This also have 12mpx less! Newer Samsungs have a pretty decent camera! So my questions is now, what other phone would you guys recommend? I was quite happy with my Samsung til it got slow and the battery drained out easily. I'm also happy with Sony, apart from the camera.

It's not unlocked.

Have you tried to use Google Camera? I think these crappy denoising algorithms won't be used in it. It lacks advanced options but if you just want to make nice photos with 'auto' i think it might be good enough.

Manual mode, much better photos than superior auto.

saab90095 said:
Thank you for a good answer. Some of the shots is amazing! Still, i can see them getting a little blurry. Also i think that if you can't choose auto and take decent photo when you are in a hurry it's actually a struggle. If you always have to set your ISO etc. Then i would rather bring my DSLR with me instead! Here are some examples from my previous phone. The S3. I set HDR on. Nothing more! Nice and easy.
I'm not saying this shots is amazing, but i just found it to be better overall than the Compact. This also have 12mpx less! Newer Samsungs have a pretty decent camera! So my questions is now, what other phone would you guys recommend? I was quite happy with my Samsung til it got slow and the battery drained out easily. I'm also happy with Sony, apart from the camera.
Click to expand...
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Well, it's true that auto mode is not good. I had an Xperia P before this one and never had any issues with the camera. It had 8 mpx of amazing quality camera on the daylight at least.
But as I said, once you set your manual mode, you almost never have to fiddle around with it. At least I don't. I set iso to 100 and when it's daylight i start camera by shortcut, and on night time i start it by shutter key.
Anyway, I keep my fingers crossed that lollipop will fix all that, because it's software issue only if you ask me.

lstic said:
Well, it's true that auto mode is not good. I had an Xperia P before this one and never had any issues with the camera. It had 8 mpx of amazing quality camera on the daylight at least.
But as I said, once you set your manual mode, you almost never have to fiddle around with it. At least I don't. I set iso to 100 and when it's daylight i start camera by shortcut, and on night time i start it by shutter key.
Anyway, I keep my fingers crossed that lollipop will fix all that, because it's software issue only if you ask me.
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Tried today with your settings. Works better, so thanks! Still very blurry, but not as bad like it was. Why haven't anyone mentioned something about the camera before? Since allot of you are experiencing it? Hope Sony will release an update soon because this isn't OK at all! The colors and details are pretty decent. It just becomes blurry and not sharp enough. and why can't we turn on HDR?

Everybody has mentioned it. It's the third most talked about thing with this phone after root and battery.
Apart from the low light algorithms the camera is pretty ****.
Like the others I hope L will fix it. Until then i just use camera fv5. It even uses the hardware button so it's cool. And much better pics

HDR only works in 8MPx mode. Can't turn in on in 15.5/20MPx mode. And it's not THAT great actually. Wise exposure helps more than the HDR.
Also, you could maybe try the Camera FV-5, which has a ton of settings and also RAW capturing abilities, if you'd like to postprocess the images on your own. But I doubt anyone is doing this and taking it somehow seriously.
You have to play around a lot with the camera, bringing down exposure as suggested is a great start. I left the size at 8MPx, and also played around with some scenes (useful in the night) or lowlight, you sacrify motion blur from long exposure time for more noise, but that's how it works in photography.
The camera is not bad, you just need to be patient with it, if you'd like to quickly snap perfect shots, this may not be the perfect device, however, if you use the camera wisely, it can deliver stunning photos for large prints.

saab90095 said:
Tried today with your settings. Works better, so thanks! Still very blurry, but not as bad like it was. Why haven't anyone mentioned something about the camera before? Since allot of you are experiencing it? Hope Sony will release an update soon because this isn't OK at all! The colors and details are pretty decent. It just becomes blurry and not sharp enough. and why can't we turn on HDR?
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The pictures you posted before from the S3 really aren't better then the Z3C. Why no mentioned anything about the camera before? I'd relay the question back at you, why haven't you looked up the forum, because there are really PLENTY of topics regarding the camera. So the only thing I can conclude is that you didn't even check the forum. Even the blurry pictures have been mentioned before. Like someone above mentioned, try Camera FV-5 or any other ap. I use Camera FV-5 myself and I'm really happy with it, even with an unlocked BL. Check out the topic I created (in my signature) and you'll find plenty of pictures from the phone. It can really make some great pictures, but as you said before when you don't have a lot of time to make a picture, to change settings it can really be a bich to work with.

wayne_sk said:
HDR only works in 8MPx mode. Can't turn in on in 15.5/20MPx mode. And it's not THAT great actually. Wise exposure helps more than the HDR.
Also, you could maybe try the Camera FV-5, which has a ton of settings and also RAW capturing abilities, if you'd like to postprocess the images on your own. But I doubt anyone is doing this and taking it somehow seriously.
You have to play around a lot with the camera, bringing down exposure as suggested is a great start. I left the size at 8MPx, and also played around with some scenes (useful in the night) or lowlight, you sacrify motion blur from long exposure time for more noise, but that's how it works in photography.
The camera is not bad, you just need to be patient with it, if you'd like to quickly snap perfect shots, this may not be the perfect device, however, if you use the camera wisely, it can deliver stunning photos for large prints.
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Ok, i actually just want something nice and easy. When i take pictures with my phone i don't want to try a bunch of settings for the camera to take a decent shot. and doing this in sunlight for example when you can't see the screen at all? Instead of just pressing the camera button..Actually the superior Auto is so bad i can't even describe it. I got some OK settings now, but far from good. Of course if you play around with the settings any camera can be good, the thing that you have to do that tells me it's rubbish! Then what's the point? I could rather bring my DSLR. I would be able to take better pictures, without a hassle. For me a good camera is very important, that's one of the reason i brought it. And can you really defend a 20mpx camera from 2014 that can't even take a clear shot on a sunny day with perfect light in Auto mode?

Dsteppa said:
The pictures you posted before from the S3 really aren't better then the Z3C. Why no mentioned anything about the camera before? I'd relay the question back at you, why haven't you looked up the forum, because there are really PLENTY of topics regarding the camera. So the only thing I can conclude is that you didn't even check the forum. Even the blurry pictures have been mentioned before. Like someone above mentioned, try Camera FV-5 or any other ap. I use Camera FV-5 myself and I'm really happy with it, even with an unlocked BL. Check out the topic I created (in my signature) and you'll find plenty of pictures from the phone. It can really make some great pictures, but as you said before when you don't have a lot of time to make a picture, to change settings it can really be a bich to work with.
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I have actually seen your photos, i did go through allot of camera samples before i brought it. Little did i know that the camera was useless in auto mode. I know the shots with my Samsung isn't that good but still, this is shot in Auto mode. The first picture has HDR but nothing more. If you compare that to what i did with my Sony it's WAY better. Because as i said, if i want to take some amazing shots i will use my DSLR instead. And when i'm not having it on me i want a decent photo, but i just can't get that with the Compact.
And the S3 has 8mpx, the Compact got 20.
I changed the settings on my Compact, still blurry and un-sharp.

saab90095 said:
I have actually seen your photos, i did go through allot of camera samples before i brought it. Little did i know that the camera was useless in auto mode. I know the shots with my Samsung isn't that good but still, this is shot in Auto mode. The first picture has HDR but nothing more. If you compare that to what i did with my Sony it's WAY better. Because as i said, if i want to take some amazing shots i will use my DSLR instead. And when i'm not having it on me i want a decent photo, but i just can't get that with the Compact.
And the S3 has 8mpx, the Compact got 20.
I changed the settings on my Compact, still blurry and un-sharp.
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Sorry to say, but you've most obviously been too lazy to use the search function and you have even ignored the automatic search results while writing the title of this thread. Having said that, in the beginning you wrote about picture noise and that they come out blurred. Ok, but now you claim they're even unsharp. Sorry, that's definitely not a problem of the phone, at least you'd have the first sample with such an issue...
Regardless, please refrain from cluttering the forum by opening threads on topics that are already being *extensively* discussed. Thanks.
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app

wayne_sk said:
The camera is not bad, you just need to be patient with it, if you'd like to quickly snap perfect shots, this may not be the perfect device, however, if you use the camera wisely, it can deliver stunning photos for large prints.
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Definitely depends what you are photographing. At 20MP I've taken some impressive photos, for sure, but under closer scrutiny on a large monitor they don't look quite as good, and they fall apart almost instantly when post-processed. Sony's sharpening algorithms are far too aggressive so any high-contrast edges look almost posterized. Other aspects of jpeg processing also leave a lot to be desired, even at low ISO. In other words, Sony took a decent sensor and only lets us get mediocre results.
And, yes, auto mode is an absolute joke. I estimate about one in ten photos I've taken in auto are useable (many of them only after slapping on Instagram filters). I just wish I could start in manual using the shutter button. Still, I'm not expecting output from a camera phone to come anywhere close to a good compact camera let alone a DSLR, so in that sense I'm a little less miffed. But reliable auto mode is essential IMO since that's always gonna be the most used mode for quick Facebook/Twitter/Instagram update snaps, which is how 99% of people use camera phones. Epic fail from Sony on that count.
I am most annoyed at all the clueless tech reviewers who last fall declared this to be the best phone camera, on a par or better than the iPhone and S5. It's not. Not even close.

pipspeak said:
I am most annoyed at all the clueless tech reviewers who last fall declared this to be the best phone camera, on a par or better than the iPhone and S5. It's not. Not even close.
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This. A million times this. How on earth did initial reviewers rave about the camera? My experience of its performance closely mirrors your own. Only a small percentage of all photos come out looking ok, even though I've messed around with wb, iso settings etc.

Same here, got my z3c yesterday and I am quite disappointed with camery quality. Images become really blurry, especially on a front facing camera. It is clear to me, that it's a software issue, because when I look at the screenm picture looks OK. But when the photo is shot, it becames blurry after pocessing. I used to have iPhone 5s before and it did amazing photos compared to sony's device.
And I also agree with an opinion that most people don't want to mess with camera settings on a mobile phone. We just want to quickly take a decent photo in an auto mode...