Database Develop

Picture quality with 3rd-party apps

We all know now that the camera software is taking some bad pictures because of some compression issue.
But have anyone tried 3rd party apps like camera zoom or any other?!
Is the quality better?
I ask because I want to know if its a software issue or a hardware issue...and want to know before I buy 3rd-party camera app.

Kevin_seymer said:
We all know now that the camera software is taking some bad pictures because of some compression issue.
But have anyone tried 3rd party apps like camera zoom or any other?!
Is the quality better?
I ask because I want to know if its a software issue or a hardware issue...and want to know before I buy 3rd-party camera app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The quality is the same since every 3rd party app uses the camera APIs or camera Framework provided by Sony. It's a software problem, not a hardware one, but Sony is who has to improve it.
I wonder if CM or AOKP roms have their own "camera API" instead of Sony's. Probably they could fix the issue before than Sony does...

juanmaasecas said:
The quality is the same since every 3rd party app uses the camera APIs or camera Framework provided by Sony. It's a software problem, not a hardware one, but Sony is who has to improve it.
I wonder if CM or AOKP roms have their own "camera API" instead of Sony's. Probably they could fix the issue before than Sony does...
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Thanks for answer...Hm thats not good...Does CM or AOKP teams know about the issue or said anything about improving the camera for us?!
I did a chat with sony support and they said they are looking in to the matter but "don't know when/how the issue will be solved"

It's a software problem.
For daylight i use the stock camera in burst mode,it give a very good image quality.
For night time i use night camera from playstore,it removes all the noise.
Sent from my C6602 using xda premium

Only difference I noticed with camera zoom is u can set 100% jpg quality and pics go to 2.5mb instead max 2.2mb
So it's not much better but I hope rizal finds a solution for the problem like he did with my neo camera
[email protected] from XDA premium

gm007 said:
It's a software problem.
For daylight i use the stock camera in burst mode,it give a very good image quality.
For night time i use night camera from playstore,it removes all the noise.
Sent from my C6602 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Same here, using night camera +, quality is good.
Sent From XPERIA Z ::: Stock, Locked & Rooted ( SLR )

the camera has low quality half-light

The camera has low quality half-light, I factory reset and delete logs you camera and nothing, the photos attached is pixelated red and blue
I'm with JB 4.2.2 => 10.3.A.0.423 C6603

I have the same problem with 4.2.2
Sent from my Xperia Z

JasonX199 said:
I have the same problem with 4.2.2
Sent from my Xperia Z
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Just don't use Superior Auto. Find yourself th best settings for night pictures and they fr sure will be an improvement over the Superior Auto mode, which in my opinion just bumps up the iso, making the pictures noisier than the lens capable of.

Even without superior auto it's very bad
Sent from my Xperia Z

yep this flash sucks compare to my last phone.

Try to use scene modes
Actually find it is better than manual(maybe I dont know how to get the best setting )

danny9001 said:
The camera has low quality half-light, I factory reset and delete logs you camera and nothing, the photos attached is pixelated red and blue
I'm with JB 4.2.2 => 10.3.A.0.423 C6603
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Click to collapse
That's the typical fail of most of smartphones, the quality highly depends of the quality of the optical. Exemple : Nokia use some Carl Zeiss optical, most used in astronomy with great quality, their photos in low luminosity is clearly better.
You'll be always blocked by the maximum that the optical can do, don't wait better or buy a reflex.
Here what i'm talking about

Thanks for the answers
Thanks for the answers, expect an update there is no other, and use normal mode for night shots.

IS the i9100 Galaxy S2 camera better than the Xperia ZR?

ZR is my dream phone well the Z is but due to so many hardware issuses and bad design I want to go with the ZR
But can the camera match my previous i9100 S2?
My S2 was incredible at taking photos especially at night. No noise at all.

The Samsung used SONY camera module till S3 Galaxy. The ZR takes incredible pictures once you do the settings right and for critical pictures use HDR Cam+ or other utilities like I do.

ZR gets better photo than GNexus. The camera sound effects can't mute by sound settings, I can't take photo of my sleeping kid with this. It's good camera among phones.
Sent from my SO-04E using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I keep reading on review websites that the Z and ZR camera is horrible its really really bad
But some people are saying thats cause those guys are morons and don't enable HDR
can anyone confirm how the Z and ZR camera matches other phone cameras?

http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=1&idPhone1=5421&idPhone2=5204&idPhone3=3621

chewdaniel said:
http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=1&idPhone1=5421&idPhone2=5204&idPhone3=3621
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wow thanks holy crap
the S2 i9100 is significantly better sharper and less noise than the Z and ZR
the Z does look better than the ZR
how the heck a old phone like the i9100 S2 can have such a better camera? how is that even possible?

it's sony's post-processing and crap compression that screws up a great camera... it's the software :/

so can this be fixed using HDR?
what about rooting and flashing custom rom etc?

john5220 said:
so can this be fixed using HDR?
what about rooting and flashing custom rom etc?
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i believe it'll be fixed by next software updates.. as most of the reviews about the Xperia ZR camera was made on the 4.1 ROM ,and we have some positive feedbacks about camera quality and focus-speed enhancement in the new 4.2.2 update
so we need someone who is using the 4.2.2 ROM to confirm it..

DoO37 said:
i believe it'll be fixed by next software updates.. as most of the reviews about the Xperia ZR camera was made on the 4.1 ROM ,and we have some positive feedbacks about camera quality and focus-speed enhancement in the new 4.2.2 update
so we need someone who is using the 4.2.2 ROM to confirm it..
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4.2.2 user here.I can tell that the camera is way better,and for the lowlight shoting please turn off the SAM - superior auto mod. and try playing with the settings abit like stopping HDR / chosing Fill flash / focus - multi auto focus.It really gives a very good low light pictures.So basicly the camera is great for me here

effective said:
4.2.2 user here.I can tell that the camera is way better,and for the lowlight shoting please turn off the SAM - superior auto mod. and try playing with the settings abit like stopping HDR / chosing Fill flash / focus - multi auto focus.It really gives a very good low light pictures.So basicly the camera is great for me here
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Thanks @effective for confirming :good:
and guys don't listen to just one review specially the one from Phonearena.. it's the worst review ever for the ZR and you may see the positive comments there for the users..
you can just only check the photos quality from Here ,but don't read the the whole page you'll hate the phone
the photo's aren't that perfect.. but they're still great for me (note that these photos were taken on the 4.1.2 FW)

DoO37 said:
Thanks @effective for confirming :good:
and guys don't listen to just one review specially the one from Phonearena.. it's the worst review ever for the ZR and you may see the positive comments there for the users..
you can just only check the photos quality from Here ,but don't read the the whole page you'll hate the phone
the photo's aren't that perfect.. but they're still great for me (note that these photos were taken on the 4.1.2 FW)
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No probs man here u go a link from here that some ppl incl me made some pics with the phonie - 4.1.2 firmware tho.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2389624

Xperia T - Grainy Photos

I've grown increasingly disappointed in the camera on this phone. 13mp photos are compressed, grainy, and look just awful up close at full zoom. Are there any workarounds to improve image quality?
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

There's no rocket science here.
It's the same with every Xperia flagship, from X10 till Z.
It's the result of terrible post-processing handled by default Xperia camera software, which tries to artificially remove noise and then terribly compress image, to achieve as lower file size as it could. Which again, is terribly wrong, and only Sony developers know why is this like this.
In a world of huge internal storages, and generally cheap 32+GB microSD cards, they are trying to compress images to the lower limits.
On my last phone, Xperia Arc S, I partially solved this by using CameraZOOM FX app, that doesn't compress images that badly, and it produced overall better images than default Camera app, and larger in size also. It was especially noticable with macro high detailed shots, like text or similar.
But, on Xperia T, for some reason CameraZOOM is not providing 16:9 aspect ratio option, so you're stuck with standard 4:3 ratio images, which is deal-breaker for me to be honest. So unfortunately I'm stuck with default camera app till CameraZOOM devs fix this issue, or till some better camera app appears.

Attached are 3 pictures from 3 different sources. Camera zoom, Android 4.3 camera, and stock Sony. Can anyone tell the difference?

Camera zoom
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Stock. Sorry it won't let me upload to one post from my phone
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

4.3 camera
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

First, images you uploaded are downsampled to 1032x774 resolution, therefore unusable for any kind of comparison.
Second, if you haven't done that already, set image quality in Camera ZOOM to 100%.
Third, find some object with clean and defined lines/shapes (ever saw gsm arena photo comparison sample?), as only that way you can see difference if there is any.
And then upload those photos to imageshack in FULL resolution, and then share them here, and ask for opinion.
And even if you prove to be right (which I doubt you'll be), I never said that Camera ZOOM will surely provide better results on Xperia T too. I know it made a difference back on Xperia Arc S, and in some situations quite a huge difference.
Maybe one more thing to add is, I'm working with graphics on daily basis, so I know what I'm talking about.

Thanks for the information. I obviously don't know what I'm doing and didn't know it sampled down when attaching. I'll clean this thread up and do some more comparison on my own before posting given your helpful advice. Thanks again!
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

i see no difference in that three pics, upload photobucket full size maybe
my observations:
when i was on CM in past, i used camerazoom and procapture, both are nice. negative for me was the time it need for procapture to shoot+save a pic, a bit too long. but many options, also 16:9. i not installed camerazoomfx since it cannot 16:9 on sony stock here
iam quite satisfied with sony stock camera (no cybershot mod). i play around with manual settings, so i make quite good shots for daily use.
only for panorama i bought me propanorama, its simply a sexy panorama app:silly:

Ok, I did a quick comparison this morning, and unfortunately with undesired result.
Maybe the object of shooting wasn't ideal because of lack of colors, but I think it could give us general idea about comparison of stock Camera and Camera ZOOM.
So, I took a shot of tech magazine, from same angle and same distance, as much as I could, and there's no big difference to be honest.
There's no difference in file sizes, and in quality of pictures too. I remember though, that back on Xperia Arc S, Camera ZOOM provided bigger files for about 20-30%.
So here are the full resolution shots:
Camera ZOOM:
http://imageshack.us/a/img513/9871/ky.jpg
Stock Camera:
http://imageshack.us/a/img11/2116/w1lx.jpg
And this is a 100% zoom cut-out I did in Photoshop:
As you can see, there's no big difference, if any at all. If you try hard, you can see some small difference in edge sharpness, on big letters "S" and "U", but nothing spectacular. Also, on upper part of picture, you can see that letter "H" is a little bih cleaner and sharper on Camera ZOOM, but this could be due to un-ideally aligned focus on both photos, as they are not taken from 100% ideally the same angles/position.

mr_torture said:
There's no rocket science here.
It's the same with every Xperia flagship, from X10 till Z.
It's the result of terrible post-processing handled by default Xperia camera software, which tries to artificially remove noise and then terribly compress image, to achieve as lower file size as it could. Which again, is terribly wrong, and only Sony developers know why is this like this.
In a world of huge internal storages, and generally cheap 32+GB microSD cards, they are trying to compress images to the lower limits.
On my last phone, Xperia Arc S, I partially solved this by using CameraZOOM FX app, that doesn't compress images that badly, and it produced overall better images than default Camera app, and larger in size also. It was especially noticable with macro high detailed shots, like text or similar.
But, on Xperia T, for some reason CameraZOOM is not providing 16:9 aspect ratio option, so you're stuck with standard 4:3 ratio images, which is deal-breaker for me to be honest. So unfortunately I'm stuck with default camera app till CameraZOOM devs fix this issue, or till some better camera app appears.
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SirFork said:
I've grown increasingly disappointed in the camera on this phone. 13mp photos are compressed, grainy, and look just awful up close at full zoom. Are there any workarounds to improve image quality?
Sent from my LT30p using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Click to collapse
For me xperia t camera is awesome in all conditions... way better then xperia sp....its superior auto mode works fine although it compressed pictures but its ok the end result is fine but i had problem in video recording because auto focussing is not good in video so i fixed it by a help of a great camera app called LG camera.....
here is the complete thread of mine if u wana know more and know all problem is solved
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45066222#post45066222 :good:

Camera usage at nighttime questions

I would like to know more about the camera and video camera usage at night time with flash enabled.
Is it good quality when viewed on the phone's screen?
If not, could you please state the affects produced by the camera of the phone during night. For example, grainy pictures, interlaces, glitches etc...
If that is so, would you suggest the iphone 4 instead of this sony xperia z?
Thanks very much.

raghavsood999 said:
I would like to know more about the camera and video camera usage at night time with flash enabled.
Is it good quality when viewed on the phone's screen?
If not, could you please state the affects produced by the camera of the phone during night. For example, grainy pictures, interlaces, glitches etc...
If that is so, would you suggest the iphone 4 instead of this sony xperia z?
Thanks very much.
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Xperia Z is 10x better than iPhone 4
For me,i tried to take photos at dark place with flash
So far so good,quality is okay,but i suggest to enable HDR for better quality but only with 12MP.

Ben Ling said:
Xperia Z is 10x better than iPhone 4
For me,i tried to take photos at dark place with flash
So far so good,quality is okay,but i suggest to enable HDR for better quality but only with 12MP.
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Ok well thanks for the reply. Why is HDR only 12 MP. Isn't the back camera 13 MP. Does it matter if it is 1 MP less or not?

raghavsood999 said:
Ok well thanks for the reply. Why is HDR only 12 MP. Isn't the back camera 13 MP. Does it matter if it is 1 MP less or not?
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For all devices,if take pictures with HDR,it will reduce 1MP,and doesn't matter.
For Sony's Superior auto mode,only with 9MP
Sent from my Sony Xperia™ Z using XDA Premium