Odd camera quirks - Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General

I've just come back from holiday where I found myself taking quite a few snaps with the Diamond's camera rather than my usual camera simply because it was more convenient.
I don't normally bother with PDA cameras as they're pretty much rubbish but for quick snaps the Diamond's camera is not too shabby. However, I noticed some very strange quirks:-
1. It seems to try and detect the orientation of the camera using the G-sensor and rotates the image automatically. Most of the time it gets it wrong - is there any way to stop it from doing this so I can rotate my images manually? it really messes things up in Album!
2. In really bright light (such as shooting directly towards the sun) everything goes dark blue and grainy. It's actually quite nice (I have a Holga camera so quite into that sort of thing) but I can't think of an explanation for such behaviour!
See attached for an example.
Cheers
Dave

I got a very blueish picture on a bright day (though not against sunlight) too... Though taking a picture inside then yeilded fine colors (well, average quality). Dont know what cause it, must be a flaw in the color metering.
I really wouldnt use the camera for anything other than snapshots or when you dont have a camera around. Even at 3.2mpx like my old Canon A510 (a budget entry camera, hardly anything high end), the Canon beat the living snot out of it. I wont even begin to compare it with my F40fd (again, a budget cam).
Though I must say its much, much better than my old 1.3mpx K600i phone camera, lol.

I've certainly heard that overexposure can lead to a blueish tinge. So you might want to try manually cranking down the exposure and see if that helps next time.
In this case its more than a tint though, there is pretty much no red or green in the image and the contrast is off the charts. Interesting and fun pictures though.

The Diamond camera needs a UV filter as the chip is too sensitive to the high side of the spectrum. Mine is not as bad as yours- and I was taking photographs similar to yours, perhaps there are different back covers that provide filtering- I have the original Diamond cover.

i also had blue pics when taking pics against the sun but with my 4 megapicsel casio camera. last time it happened there where also ppl, (blue) in the pic lol. so, maybe it is not a diamond related problem.
have you tried using the inbuilt setups for exposure?
if i have no other choice an have to use the diamond as a camera i am always take out the back cover. another thing to try

Thanks all for the responses. I actually quite like the blue pictures, and since the behaviour is at least predictable I'm not too bothered. Instant Holga effect
With regards to the G-sensor guessing camera orientation however that is really bugging me. And also I've noticed that the camera on-screen controls don' t flip to portrait mode either.
Cheers
Dave

davew said:
Thanks all for the responses. I actually quite like the blue pictures, and since the behaviour is at least predictable I'm not too bothered. Instant Holga effect
With regards to the G-sensor guessing camera orientation however that is really bugging me. And also I've noticed that the camera on-screen controls don' t flip to portrait mode either.
Cheers
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, also i am bugged of this. I've take a shoot of a contact image with the PDA in Landscape (the photo was right in this position).
Now i have my friend photo ALWAYS rotated of 90° and, if i rotate the pda, the photo rotate itself and it's NEVER aligned.
Now i can't assign the photo until i don't rotate it by the PC

Exactly - you take the shot and then try to view it in Album. Then you end up wiggling the Diamond around to get the orientation right. In slideshows the orientation is all wrong too.
The only way to fix it that I've seen is to go into the MS "Pictures & Videos" application after taking your shots and rotate each image manually.
Most digital cameras I have ever seen just leave the image alone

Mine is also very blueish (MDA Compact IV here) and it also auto-rotates for me
Hopefully we can find a way to at least turn off the auto-rotation, with some tweaks or new camera software!

The blue-ish tinge in a normal situation is probably just the white balance being off (or overexposure as another poster pointed out).
To get those mad blue shots I had to stand in the surf at the beach and shoot directly at the sun. When I tried the same shot at sunset I got normal colours (though still some vingette effect at the edges).
Attached is a shot from the same day, same place just at sunset.

Related

AT&T Tilt Camera White Color Problem (Way too bright)

Hello guys!
I have the phone for 3-4 months now, and I used the camera only 3 times.
I noticed that the white color is very bright, and the photo becomes bad (please look at the photos attached). Can you tell me if your camera is having the same problem, or it's only me ?
If it's only me - do you have idea how can I try to fix it ?
Notes:
I changed the ROM 3 times /No difference
I changed the brightness/contrast in the settings, but there is no big difference ( the photo becomes better if I use brightness+contrast = max, but still the white is very bright)
both of these images are backlit... this is very hard for the camera to do, because the foreground is a low light situation... try to adjust the angle of the shot to avoid this situation. In the attached photos I have demonstrated what I am trying to say. These are pics of my 20 year old Cocker Spaniel, Sheeba. Notice in pic 01.jpg, her face is blown out. But in the second it is actually better, and in the third (as I move further around her) her face is now clearly visible.
Remember this is a Pocket PC, with a camera chip. Not a camera with a Pocket PC attached. With that in mind, this camera does a phenomenal job!
Hope this helps!
Also it looks like your lens is dirty, and make sure that the blue plastic is pulled off inside the battery cover...
For the picture of the child tilting the camera down more would have helped the light metering compensate better, see all of the area above his head, that is where most of the metering is taking place.
here is another example
You can also try lowering the brightness down to -1.5 or to your liking. It might help a little bit (it does to me)
Thanks a lot for the tips guys!
From what I'm seeing here the Tilt has just bad camera...
My wife has Samsung U600(with 3MP camera) and the pictures are way better than the Tilt ones.I guess I'll just use her phone.
Thanks again for your help!
You should try the camera outside in the daylight with a front-lit subject before you condemn it.... post some pics from your wifes Samsung for us to view then
Here is how the camera would have metered it (photoshop profile) had you not included the area where all of the light was.
The camera does work pretty awesome with the proper lighting...
Notice in the first two, pointing the camera down, so that the car is the majority of the picture, the camera meters for the car, overexposing the sky. Put pointing the camera up underexposes the car, but the sky is brilliant blue, instead of white....
Now I am not saying that this camera doesn't have problems... on the contrary, this camera has a light leak.. which is clearly obvious when every picture taken has the same Spike in photoshop's histogram. But an ounce of prevention, in this case is truly worth a pound of cure! Play with the camera, experiment with all of the settings, find out what you like best. But most important, just pay attention to the screen and move the camera up, or down, left, or right ever so slightly and watch how the exposure changes... It won't take long before you can take great pictures with it!
Oh yeah, and clean that lens every time you use it!

Any hacks to make the camera take better pictures?

I've tried all the settings and resolution. I find 640 X 480 to be the clearest. Still pictures are clear. Anything moving in the picture is a blurry mess. Is there a registry hack that improves clearity?
+1 bump +1
Wow, an 18 minute speedbump
Please clarify what you have tried, my Crystal Ball is away for Calibration.
(Or do you expect a 300 $ camera in a 600 $ mobile? )
Did you both try the "reaction time" tweaks that are available in Advanced Config ?
this is coming from a photographer. Blurry objects are caused by moving objects in a low light environment. When trying to capture light in a room with poor lightning the camera shutter will stay open longer to capture enough lights for the exposure. This can be corrected by bumping up the ISO or apenture. Since this cannot be done by the camera on the Fuze you can always turn Flash on to compensate for the low light or resting your elbows on a desk for more steady position
karloe said:
Wow, an 18 minute speedbump
Please clarify what you have tried, my Crystal Ball is away for Calibration.
(Or do you expect a 300 $ camera in a 600 $ mobile? )
Did you both try the "reaction time" tweaks that are available in Advanced Config ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm coming from devices like the Sanyo M1 (2MP Auto Focus, the best camera phone ever on Sprint), Mogul (2MP decent pictures) and Treo 800 (2MP, really nice pics). All I'm asking is for the blurry pics to be better. I took 20 pics yesterday and 18 of them were blurry. I've tried every resolution setting. Like I mentioned earlier it seems L 640 X 480 pictures seem to be better than the higher settings.
Buy SonyEricsson and you get a camera that can be actually used for something...
Mine takes pretty good pictures, do you hold the capture button to allow the auto focus to do its work and then take teh picture without having much movement. The movement is what i found causes the blurriness. I guess it autofocuses on a spot and then when you move it start refocusing but the picture takes anyway?
BTW my sports and burst mode arent working properly, camera freezes up and have to soft reset. Is the 3mp tweak for these modes to much for the CPU to process
Yes, I hold and press which autofocus then snaps. I understand it something in the picture is moving but every pic? That's not normal. I've been taking pictures with phones for years and never ran into an issue like this. Plus this is suppose to be a really advanced 3.2MP camera. Might have taken a step backwards with this one.
One thing I do is turn the brightness down as far as the camera will let me, this really isn't a brightness control but a shutter speed control, lowering the brightness raises the shutter speed, which allows for faster camera response.
I think the problem is probably mostly that the sensor used in our module has an imaging area of 3.61mm*2.72mm, 4.52mm diagonal.. take a look at the chart here for imaging sensor sizes: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensor_sizes_01.htm
Notice how the size of our sensor is below the bottom of the chart.. It's often said that a camera with superior MPixel count will lose to a camera with an inferior MPixel count and a superior sensor.. well, our sensor isn't big enough to be able to take really nice 3.2mpix photos.. without ideal conditions. Then there's that whole thing about using a CMOS sensor rather than a CCD sensor..
One thing I think the camera can do better is that it doesn't seem to be operating in progressive-scan mode.. there's noticable tearing all over the place..
VibrantRedGT said:
I've tried all the settings and resolution. I find 640 X 480 to be the clearest. Still pictures are clear. Anything moving in the picture is a blurry mess. Is there a registry hack that improves clearity?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can remove the back cover of your phone and take a picture... it does make it better.
pandaboyy said:
You can remove the back cover of your phone and take a picture... it does make it better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that is somewhat incorrect. For TYNT II and older phones, yes that would work, since it has a plastic cover over the camera. But for the touch pro and the diamond, it should make little to no difference. I've tried it, and I don't see much of a difference, since it's just a hole. Not covered with plastic or anything.
I had the blurry photos problem too. I just tried it and I haven't played with it enough to confirm this fixes the problem (it seems like it reduces the problem but doesn't eliminate it) but try this:
HKLM/Software/HTC/Camera/Captparam/
and set
CaptureTimer = 0 (old=5000)
tell me if you see a difference
Two more things to do - go into the camera advanced settings (in the camera itself) and turn off the click sounds and set the review time to no limit. With those two and the change above I think I have a working camera here...
have you done the "white balance" tweak in your settings? it completely gets rid of that yellow look when you take pics indoors. Also theres rumors saying that turning off the shutter sound increases the camera's quality but I cant prove that
bugsykoosh said:
I had the blurry photos problem too. I just tried it and I haven't played with it enough to confirm this fixes the problem (it seems like it reduces the problem but doesn't eliminate it) but try this:
HKLM/Software/HTC/Camera/Captparam/
and set
CaptureTimer = 0 (old=5000)
tell me if you see a difference
Two more things to do - go into the camera advanced settings (in the camera itself) and turn off the click sounds and set the review time to no limit. With those two and the change above I think I have a working camera here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try that registry hack.
Here's the 'yellow photo' fix if anyone hasn't seen it yet: http://www.fuzemobility.com/?p=951
I think what most people are looking for with regards to photos is not 100% 9mp quality from our phones. I mean, why can't a fix similar to the Tilt's be made?* All I want is a higher FPS in low light conditions.
*Where you can increase FPS (in low light) by running the camera, turning the phone off, covering the lens, then turning the phone back on...
How to make a sharp pitcure:
EDIT: See new post! This one has been erased to avoid confusion.
I tried those tweaks with no success. Pics aren't as blurry but they are pretty crappy. I'm not saying I want 10MP clearity. I just want this camera to be compariable to the devices I previously owned (Sanyo M1 and Treo 800). Right now it's not. I'm going to exchange this device.
Errrr Sorry I stated the wrong registry key. Actually that one does not matter too much. UPDATED version:
1. Change registry key:
- HKLM\software\htc\camera\captparam\Capkeydelaytime = 10
2. Soft reset to activate the hack.
3. Set the capture key of the camera to hold & press.
To make a photo:
- Aim at subject.
- Hold your finger on the round big enter key and wait until the white "[" "]" go green. This might need a slight "touch".
- Shoot by pressing the round big enter key fully.
The problem you're going to run into is the size of the sensor on cell phones in general. You could have a 10mp cameraphone but if they keep the sensor the same size it is now the pix will continue to be crappy.
I will say that the pictures I've taken with my Fuze have been pretty good, and I have really bad shakes in my hands. The autofocus is a huge step forward imo.

Camera Software

I'll be honest, i haven't really looked for any alternate software very hard... but what i have found, is either incomplete, or does not have the feature set im looking for.
I was trying to take photos today, and i realized, Auto focus is great for objects at about 7in to infinity distance.
But what am i supposed to do for objects that may be closer? it seems to focus on everything around the object, and totally ignore the subject to be photographed.
Now I'm curious, is there an application that could allow you to manually focus the lens? I mean, it is an electromagnet... and is is controlled by software... and I've seen the auto focus bring the subject in to focus, then loose it... so it make sense that it should technically be able to do it, right?
if there is a software out there that allows the control of the electromagnet in the raph, any ideas?
-Wyefye
I know that on a digital camera when you take a photo ~7in or closer you use the macro feature. Im not sure what that entails but you could try starting from there.
there might be something wrong with your device. i just tested mine (brand new, not even 1 day old yet) and i can easily take pictures as close as 2inches away from the subject and they turn out extremely clear and sharp.
this is using the camera app that comes pre-installed on the phone
see the attached picture, it was taken approximately 2 inches away
the curvature of the lens on the camera make it impossible to focus on all 4 corners of the SD card at that distance, but as you can see the top edge is almost perfectly clear
I just "Warrantied" my Fuze. The new (to me as it is a re-furb) unit doesn't take sharp pictures any closer than about 6 inches. That is a pain as I am a big WorldCard Mobile user but cannot get decent resolution of business card shots any longer.
I think - based on what I hear as the camera is focusing - that there is some mechanical issue within the unit itself.
Don't know if this is any help to anyone, but I've noticed (although it's kinda like common sense, so I'm not going to act like I'm intellectual ) that when I take a picture with my phone close up, in macro mode, it only turns out clear when I'm pretty much straight on with whatever it is I'm taking a picture of. This of course has to do with the fact that when the camera needs to focus on an object, it needs to basically pick a spot that is one distance away from the camera. As you can see with the sd card picture, it focused on the top, so everything out of the distance range cannot be seen very well. We do have to remember though that these are extremely small smartphone cameras, and not dedicated digital cameras
piratedninja said:
see the attached picture, it was taken approximately 2 inches away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verified. Stock HTC Touch no mods. See the pic.

all my pictures are blurry taken by camera.. why is this happening?

ive tried all types of focus, but even the slightest movement makes it blurry.. anyone hae a fix to this??
Xperia has one of the worst cameras i've ever used in a mobile phone. My 5 year old $150 camera phone with lower pixel count outperforms this one on Xperia. The only use i have is for the light LED which i occasionaly use as a torch. I think the lens quality is so downright pathetic that it takes quite a bit of shutter lag to capture anything. This makes it prone to camera shake. There might be a way to reduce the shutter lag but then the exposure quality would suffer.
all SE phones i had (t610, k700i, k750i ans X1i) were fine in outdoor conditians. the pictures were nice. but its normal if you are moving the phone while taking a picture that the picture wount be sharp. As I said in outdoor conditions everithing was fine.
In bad indor conditions its normal I guess for a phone to easily make a fuzzy picture. It helps if you hold the phone as still as you can. But if the conditions are realy bad like a semi-dark room its almost impossible to make a sharp picture.
You can even see on the screen before you press the shoot button if the pisture runs fluidly it will probably be a nice picture but in bad conditions even the camera view isnt fluid it can be laike 5 fps and then youll need to be still to maka a farly decent pic.
You can set the camera on several conditions like Auto, Outdoor, Indoor, Cloudy, Sport and such...
I have my camera alweys set on Sport so its fluid even in the dark. The pics are little darker then on Auto setting but if the pic is made in normal indor conditions that almost isnt noticeble. Sport works for me alot better then Auto.
Dont realy know how some phones (seen on some midle-low class Nokia) can have great visibilitiy and fluid camera view in realy bad conditions and why high end SE phones cant do that.
there is another thread about this. if u put it in macro mode it seems to work better. the camera itself is fine and good quality but its too sensitive to the slightest movement making it blurry.
also install the r3a beta camera software as that is the best (for some reason SE decided not to include the r3 beta camera software in the final r3 rom, even though it is a lot better than the r3 rom camera software they included).
r3a camera software cab link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/314373093/R3A-XperiaCamera.cab
It seems like on a 6.5 ROM (at least the ROMs i tried) the Camera has longer exposure time. It was hard to shoot a clear photo. Yesterday i changed back to R3A stock ROM and it's much better now. I'll try the R3A beta camer app, maybe its even better.
This may help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=577364
IMO the X1 is excellent.
But the trick is to:
Set it to unfished focus - ∞
In most conditions I use Sports mode - makes really sharp pictures.
I use Automatic mode only in a very bad light..
All the settings besides Sports raises up the exposure,
compromising the speed.
Note:
Check your camera glass.
I had to wipe off the invisible paint on it which became blurry after half a year.
Now it's perfect.
If you want, look at my blog photos:
www.doministry.blogspot.com
Sports mode plus flash always on is the answer. Good results but dim indoor pictures.
How I wish I could hack into the flash settings to try to make it brighter... I never found any registry settings and I presume the two levels of brightness are hard wired in.
If I had more time I'd make a little sound activated xenon flash that triggers through the 3.5mm jack. It's a Radio Shack project that's not even too difficult. Anyone out there wanna try? EEs?
howw can ii cheeck if i have r3a camera? i installed barebone rom r3.. but i have autoflash init already.. shoukd i still install the r3 camera cab since this one is blurry even on the ssettings u guys rec ommmended?
Thank you Ganondolf for the link for R3A beta camera cab, yay I know have zoom. I still don't get how the infite focus is the best focused, IMO I think macro is the best focus.
Another question came to me, sense we can import things like zoom is their away to import image stabilization red eye removal, face detection from other WM phones?. The one I'm the most intersted in is Image Stablilization.
Camera lens dirt
Would you take a look at where your lens is located? There must be a severe smear. You better peel them off compeletely with your nails and erasers. It's a known problem of X1 lens film's poor quality and not sure that thin film has done any good till now, but now i have a crisp clear quiality back with that fix.

[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

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