Database Develop

[Discussion] Improve Camera Quality

Hello. So, there has been a confusion on how to capture better photos and videos on Nexus 5. With the introduction of Android Lollipop we have the option to shoot RAW photos (which is basically the same as before, with the difference being that the image is not compressed or processed), and also we got a great app which is called L Camera..
L Camera was a great alternative for those who wanted to squeeze out as much as Nexus 5's camera has to offer. We even got to shoot at 1080p/60fps(although it was never fixed to work properly) and a resolution very close to 4K.
I hoped that since Google unlocked all this power for us with Lollipop, Marshmallow was going to bring even better stuff on the table. This does not seem to be the case though.
So, right now we are basically stuck in terms of camera options. The L Camera has been outdated, problematic and unsupported for quite some while now and Google's stock camera is still really bad.
How do you feel about all this guys? Have you found any better camera app than L Camera that works on Marshmallow? Are you building something yourselves? (maybe and improved version of L Camera)
Let's discuss this!

There is this "Manual Camera", "Camera FV-5", and "Open Camera"

This may sound strange, but the Marshmallow stock camera app (which has been updated via the play store after M was released) is far better than that of Lollipop. I have found that it is far faster to respond (both focusing and the shutter), and handles low light much better (including with HDR). The auto white balance is much improved, too. The controls are more convenient than they were on Lollipop. This was a big surprise. One day, after routine updates, the camera just became much better!
True, it is no SLR, but whereas the photos I got from the Nexus 5 on Lollipop were mostly unusable except for viewing on another phone, now I get decent shots that I am not embarrassed to post online.

I use Proshot, really great camera app.
Skickat från min Nexus 5 via Tapatalk

jshames said:
This may sound strange, but the Marshmallow stock camera app (which has been updated via the play store after M was released) is far better than that of Lollipop. I have found that it is far faster to respond (both focusing and the shutter), and handles low light much better (including with HDR). The auto white balance is much improved, too. The controls are more convenient than they were on Lollipop. This was a big surprise. One day, after routine updates, the camera just became much better!
True, it is no SLR, but whereas the photos I got from the Nexus 5 on Lollipop were mostly unusable except for viewing on another phone, now I get decent shots that I am not embarrassed to post online.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got to agree. I notice especially low light performance has improved greatly on the stock camera app on marshmallow. Not sure what Google has done but good job on them for doing it. It still responses like crap and lags some times but if the pictures are better I am all for it.

Stock app is much better its what I call serviceable now. I always knew the Nexus 5s camera was capable but poor software always held it back. Sad to see it took almost 3 years after it launched to become capable.
Open camera is also a great app and 100% free and open source

The best choice is to shoot DNG and then use lightroom for android
I'm a Brazilian without English Course, sorry and be comprehensive

The lens is prone to gather grease from you fingers causing a hazy streaky look. I always bring a microfiber cloth to clean it off before shooting.
There isnt a proper RAW color profile available so it takes work to get images to pop like the JPEGs do. One of these days I'l generate one, it requires shooting a colorchecker chart outside in clear mid-day.

I haven't taken much pictures with it but this one.
I have a 6S and iPhone 5, I had lost my iPhone 5 out of stupidity. I wanted a cheap replacement and heard good things about the nexus, I had already tried the Galaxy s5 and htc one m8 so might as well kill 2 birds with one stone a good cheap phone and a chance to try out the nexus 5. Very impressed so far, very smooth. Runs much smoother then the galaxies I had. Ran me $160 CAD and it's unlocked
I decided to take a picture last night with the nexus. Came out amazing, took some other low lighting shots in my room and compared it to my 6s and it isn't that bad to be completely honest much better then my s5, Note edge and htc in low lighting.

The N5 is terrible for general photography esp low-light. Only my iPhone 5S is worse in low-light situations lol.

RazorMC said:
The N5 is terrible for general photography esp low-light. Only my iPhone 5S is worse in low-light situations lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's even worse than a dedicated camera. But you can improve things by processing RAWs:
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---------- Post added at 07:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM ----------
Here's a daylight example of a processed RAW:

RoadToNever said:
It's even worse than a dedicated camera. But you can improve things by processing RAWs:
---------- Post added at 07:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM ----------
Here's a daylight example of a processed RAW:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RAW and post-editing kind of defeats the entire purpose of point-and-shoot. The first pic is really amazing with the amount of detail and clarity. The second one has too much grain for my liking. Takes me back to those Nokia cameraphones from yesteryears lol
But MM has really improved cam quality if the user knows how to use the manual settings. I've got better results with Camera FV-5 than with any other app.

RazorMC said:
RAW and post-editing kind of defeats the entire purpose of point-and-shoot. The first pic is really amazing with the amount of detail and clarity. The second one has too much grain for my liking. Takes me back to those Nokia cameraphones from yesteryears lol
But MM has really improved cam quality if the user knows how to use the manual settings. I've got better results with Camera FV-5 than with any other app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, RAW isn't user friendly, but this is thread about camera quality The second pic is really pushing it. It was a very dimly lit venue, a challenge for any camera. But offline processing allows much more sophisticated algorithms. Normally that shot would either be underexposed or at best a smoothed out, waxy-looking mess.

RoadToNever said:
Yes, RAW isn't user friendly, but this is thread about camera quality The second pic is really pushing it. It was a very dimly lit venue, a challenge for any camera. But offline processing allows much more sophisticated algorithms. Normally that shot would either be underexposed or at best a smoothed out, waxy-looking mess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but that means instant sharing is out of the question. And many people would be uncomfortable processing pics just so some distant grandma "Likes" it on Fb.
Everytime i take low-light shots, I remember my trusty N73 with its huge LED flash and N82 with xenon.
How would you say we can make the best use of HDR on our N5 with 3rd party apps? And does it really work?

RazorMC said:
True, but that means instant sharing is out of the question. And many people would be uncomfortable processing pics just so some distant grandma "Likes" it on Fb.
Everytime i take low-light shots, I remember my trusty N73 with its huge LED flash and N82 with xenon.
How would you say we can make the best use of HDR on our N5 with 3rd party apps? And does it really work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a simple checklist I go through when processing raw photos: exposure, white balance and NR if needed. I rarely need anything else so for a single shot I'm normally done in less than a minute. Raw converters offer many options which can seem overwhelming for the novice, but there's nothing to it if you stick to the most important ones. OTOH if you are working on an uncalibrated monitor there's a small chance are you might be making things worse color-wise. I don't do HDR, sorry.

Snap camera? I threw it under system/apps, changed the name to camera2.apk and even the power button hot key works.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

"A better camera" super mode do the job very well in any light conditions.
But going manual pays it in certain situations.
https://flic.kr/p/v3nAd3
I'm a Brazilian without English Course, sorry and be comprehensive

prog19 said:
"A better camera" super mode do the job very well in any light conditions.
But going manual pays it in certain situations.
https://flic.kr/p/v3nAd3
I'm a Brazilian without English Course, sorry and be comprehensive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm enjoying "A Better Camera" too. It's really simple to use and produces nice photos. But I still prefer Camera FV-5 over it when I need manual setings.

prog19 said:
The best choice is to shoot DNG and then use lightroom for android
I'm a Brazilian without English Course, sorry and be comprehensive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lightroom can now take raw pictures with our N5

onesolo said:
lightroom can now take raw pictures with our N5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And output any dng to full resolution.
The sad thing about LR is the import picture method
I'm a Brazilian without English Course, sorry and be comprehensive

Nexus 6P Manual Camera recommendations

If you would like to see a video review of the app just let me know.
PROSHOT REVIEW​
So I just wanna update and say that I bought all the above apps trying them out for an hour or so. I refunded them all and decided on ProShot! Below are my pros and cons of using ProShot, I'm only reviewing this one because it's the one I stuck with and liked the most ​
PROS
Very Beautiful UI, the buttons respond immediately to my presses and most with subtle but nice animations.
Settings are very organized, The Manual camera features are all feel accessible without feeling overwhelming or cluttering the User interface.
Hidden Manual Focal Length, It comes in handy since the Nexus 6P doesn't always know how to lock onto the focus properly
Custom Settings Presets, haven't used it yet but you can have 2 presets for your custom settings.
Easily Crop Photos, the settings lives at the top of the screen change between different aspect ratios (which I use often)
The work space, I mentioned before the wonderful UI but you also get a amount of space to work with because of all of the transparent elements in the User Interface.
Special features, Exposure bracketing, timelapse, and a cool one (Light Painting) light painting is still in beta and is extremely buggy but once it shifts out of beta I could see it being my favorite feature!​
Cons
The Auto Focus, tapping the screen to auto focus does not work currently in manual mode
Manual Exposure, I believe the dev posted hear saying it was a google bug but right now the feature simply does not work.
The Gallery, there's a gallery button in the corner but the images are very slow to load. Use your personal gallery app.
Updates, The app is a little slow to receive updates. I would love for Light Paint to come out of beta.​
Final Thoughts
The app is pretty amazing and very polished. One of the most polished of all the Manual Camera Apps I have tested. It has enough features to keep you satisfied in the mean time while waiting for the updates to come. I mentioned has a beautiful transparent UI which allows your much more working space than other apps. The special features are fun to tinker with and with time lapse you and video recording you don't have to download a separate app to do those things.​
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[[[OP]]]
Was super excited with the Camera2 API back in the Nexus 5 days
Now that I have a Nexus 6P, what are the best Manual Camera apps? I'm mostly lean towards UI & features but the question is, what do you guys recommend for manual camera picture taking goodness?
Thanks!​

Proshots
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Camera FV-5, really good app! You should try it!

I like proshot, haven't used fv5 in a while
Sent from my angler using XDA Labs

ProShot is complete and has a friendly UI. I prefer it because I can adjust everything with a couple of tap. However you can try the demo

I`m not that pro about photos and sensors...
If I use proshot the HDR+ will be turn on always?

cattel said:
I`m not that pro about photos and sensors...
If I use proshot the HDR+ will be turn on always?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! I'm the dev of ProShot. HDR+ is not available yet, and HDR only works on certain devices (mostly Samsung and Motorola from what I've seen). I'm working on my own version of HDR, but don't have a solid timeline on when it will be ready.

edee1337 said:
Hi! I'm the dev of ProShot. HDR+ is not available yet, and HDR only works on certain devices (mostly Samsung and Motorola from what I've seen). I'm working on my own version of HDR, but don't have a solid timeline on when it will be ready.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You very much! I was really wondering about that!
I will keep it with proshot! Just wish that this feature was included!

edee1337 said:
Hi! I'm the dev of ProShot. HDR+ is not available yet, and HDR only works on certain devices (mostly Samsung and Motorola from what I've seen). I'm working on my own version of HDR, but don't have a solid timeline on when it will be ready.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kudos bro, an amazing app. I have been recommending this to everyone.

Used the pay version of manual camera last night here were some of the results! No edits
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Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Proshot. If you have kids running around it's the best. Proshot is the only one I've found that can do shutter priority. Every other camera2 compatible app I've seen forces manual iso with manual shutter (full manual mode). Proshot can do manual shutter with auto iso. I think it's a hack bc it doesn't always hit the set shutter speed perfectly but it works well and gets close. Decent interface too.

nsmal24 said:
Proshot. If you have kids running around it's the best. Proshot is the only one I've found that can do shutter priority. Every other camera2 compatible app I've seen forces manual iso with manual shutter (full manual mode). Proshot can do manual shutter with auto iso. I think it's a hack bc it doesn't always hit the set shutter speed perfectly but it works well and gets close. Decent interface too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep it is a hack Glad you like it, I wasn't going to launch ProShot without it.

frezd91 said:
ProShot is complete and has a friendly UI. I prefer it because I can adjust everything with a couple of tap. However you can try the demo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does the demo version have all features enabled? cuz camera fv-5 has a lite version which put everything behind a paywall, meaning you couldn't test it out.

dex2grigg said:
Used the pay version of manual camera last night here were some of the results! No edits
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they shots look decent, did you leave the default settings or not? (like aperture, exposure, exposure bracketing, etc.)

edee1337 said:
Yep it is a hack Glad you like it, I wasn't going to launch ProShot without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you explain what about the auto ISO feature doesn't always work? also will it become a usable feature? honestly I'm just searching for a camera app but they all require you to pay before you try.

drago10029 said:
could you explain what about the auto ISO feature doesn't always work? also will it become a usable feature? honestly I'm just searching for a camera app but they all require you to pay before you try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean it doesn't always work? If the shutter is a few ticks above or below the selected value it's likely a rounding error in the displayed EXIF. Say you choose 1/25 but it appears as 1/24. The actual value is probably 1/24.999.
Alternatively, say you choose a shutter speed like 1/2000. These phones aren't precise and the image sensor might expose the scene for 1/1997s. That value is stored in the EXIF not as a fraction, but as nanoseconds: 500751ns. ProShot's camera roll then tries to convert that value back to some human-readable fraction, and through some guesswork and approximation might display 1/1989s.
Hope that clears it up!

Can you please explain what setting are you using in proshot to get the best results when the subject is moving fast like kids or dogs?

drago10029 said:
does the demo version have all features enabled? cuz camera fv-5 has a lite version which put everything behind a paywall, meaning you couldn't test it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some limits on the demo version; you can use full manual controls but the pics are watermarked. I wish I didn't have to do this, but man piracy is really bad on Android. The app took almost a year of my life from me so it's sad to see so many people stealing.
The current demo is a bit out of date and buggy. I'll be releasing a new version tomorrow fixing a lot of lingering issues (as well as bug fixes for the main app).
---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 AM ----------
Nabfy said:
Can you please explain what setting are you using in proshot to get the best results when the subject is moving fast like kids or dogs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's going to depending on your lighting, but throwing ProShot in either Manual, C1, or C2 with ISO set to AUTO and a shutter between 1/60-1/100 will do a great job of freezing motion so you won't get blurry faces. If you're indoors in a dimly lit space dropping to 1/30 is probably the lowest I'd go, though you will get some blur then. And always keep flash off

edee1337 said:
What do you mean it doesn't always work? If the shutter is a few ticks above or below the selected value it's likely a rounding error in the displayed EXIF. Say you choose 1/25 but it appears as 1/24. The actual value is probably 1/24.999.
Alternatively, say you choose a shutter speed like 1/2000. These phones aren't precise and the image sensor might expose the scene for 1/1997s. That value is stored in the EXIF not as a fraction, but as nanoseconds: 500751ns. ProShot's camera roll then tries to convert that value back to some human-readable fraction, and through some guesswork and approximation might display 1/1989s.
Hope that clears it up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone named nsmal, above said the auto iso feature didn't work properly, was he referring to what you just explained or something different? and thanks for the explanation, and i understand piracy is an issue definitely, I'm just concerned with buying a app that didn't suit me but I will def take the watermarked version for a run tomorrow since you say it's full featured
Also, MUCH MUCH RESPECT for not abusing the permissions! even the ones at that bottom no one really checks, much appreciation :good::good::victory:

drago10029 said:
someone named nsmal, above said the auto iso feature didn't work properly, was he referring to what you just explained or something different? and thanks for the explanation, and i understand piracy is an issue definitely, I'm just concerned with buying a app that didn't suit me but I will def take the watermarked version for a run tomorrow since you say it's full featured
Also, MUCH MUCH RESPECT for not abusing the permissions! even the ones at that bottom no one really checks, much appreciation :good::good::victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably what I explained, the rounding errors can be confusing haha. The demo update will probably go live late Tuesday night (USA time) so I'd say hold off til Wednesday to get the best impression :good:
I tried to keep the permissions as minimal as possible, but I might add analytics soon (simple data points like does anyone use the Light Painting mode? [to help guide my dev priorities]). That will require internet, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to add that in a way that doesn't make people upset :angel:

[Guide] Low Light and Long Exposure Photography with One Plus 3

Hi Everybody,
To be honest, I am very much amazed by the Camera of One Plus 3, It takes amazing shots in low light(provided you adjust exposure)
I have been tinkering with my One Plus 3 Camera for a while and found the Manual Mode in 3.2.0 Update quite usefull.
Here are some of the Pictures taken with My Device,
1. Macro Shot
https://imgur.com/84HjJ1X
Camera Used: Google Camera Manual Focus
Exposure time Auto
ISO Auto
After Pic Editing- Used Big lens to increase Depth of Field.
2. Low Light Night Photography
https://imgur.com/C2wHNaf
Camera App- Google Camera Focus set to infinity
Exposure time- 7/2500
ISO- 160
Cropped RAW DNG.
3. Low Light Long Exposure
https://imgur.com/4crrlMl
ISO 800
Exposure Time- 2 Sec
Edited RAW in Snapseed.
I plan to capture milky way, But I live in a city. Too much light Pollution
So Here are some of the apps I would recommend.
Proshot Pro for manual settings
Biglens for DSLR like DOF
Snapseed- Raw Editing

I just purchased proshot and had to refund it because it's so buggy. I've never seen an app with so many issues. ?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

EP2008 said:
I just purchased proshot and had to refund it because it's so buggy. I've never seen an app with so many issues. ?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works fine for me. Sometime changing the exposure leads to black screen. But I just restart the app

varunmehra5 said:
Works fine for me. Sometime changing the exposure leads to black screen. But I just restart the app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Black screen, crazy issues with zooming, the UI breaks (icons get all jumbled up and the viewfinder has fragments of frozen images), changing ISO doesn't give any preview so you don't know if the image is too light or what.
One thing that did work was the ability to turn image stabilization on and off at will.

Any difference using the one plus camera app with manual mode?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers mobile app

tssphysicsboi said:
Any difference using the one plus camera app with manual mode?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you know how to use a camera in manual mode, it can change everything even if you don't have the aperture settings.
If you are talking about the noise treatment or sharpening, it don't change anything.

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shot by op3 and edited in Adobe lightroom
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

This one really amazed my... I never thought a mobile cam will do this
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

sharath412 said:
View attachment 3833903This one really amazed my... I never thought a mobile cam will do this
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which camera app and what settings did you use for this one?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers mobile app

My OnePlus camera behave erratic while focussing,if the shutter speed and ISO is changed..is it an issue wid my mobile or is the frame rate low?its almost unusable..sorry if it's a noob ques, don't know much abt manual mode

Kartoffl said:
Which camera app and what settings did you use for this one?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used default camera app. Image was taken in raw. Then did post-processing using Adobe light room
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Shot a night sky with a lot of stars in a pitch black night.
Exposure Time 30sec
Iso 1600
Focus Manual to Infinite
Layed the device flat down on a surface with the back facing up and used the volume button as the shutter.
Note this is a jpeg wihtout editing or anything just the post processing the device does.

Manual mode OOS Camera (OOS 3.2.2) :
ISO 800
Focus : Infinite
Exposure Time : 30s
Layed the device flat down on a surface with the back facing up and used the volume button as the shutter.
In a pitch black night (new moon), in the country
Milky Way :
Here is the original RAW converted to JPEG (max quality) :
And here the RAW after post-processing in Adobe Lightroom converted to JPEG (max quality)
I'm impressed about the camera's quality !

Letin69 said:
Manual mode OOS Camera (OOS 3.2.2) :
I'm impressed about the camera's quality !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice results indeed with a phone and such a small lens. Stacking more raw pics of the same sky area before processing with lightroom/photoshop should help to reduce the noise.
On windows DeepSkyStacker is great for stacking.
I would love myself to experiment with different cameras apps/different processing however it seems (at least the last time I tried on OOS) that only the stock camera allows slow exposure up to 30s.
Anyone tried with cm and the latest camera improvements ? I know the OOS stock camera has some issues on custom roms but what about 'Snap' camera ?

_Man0waR_ said:
Very nice results indeed with a phone and such a small lens. Stacking more raw pics of the same sky area before processing with lightroom/photoshop should help to reduce the noise.
On windows DeepSkyStacker is great for stacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice, it's the first time I shot the Milky Way, I didn't know that such software exist
But I didn't understand the part about Flats (PLU), can you explain it to me please ?
Btw I tested all the ISO, and my favourites are 800 and 1600 to do night photographies.

Letin69 said:
Thanks for the advice, it's the first time I shot the Milky Way, I didn't know that such software exist
But I didn't understand the part about Flats (PLU), can you explain it to me please ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. Well there are a lot of settings and options in this software. It's generally used with DSLR and telescopes. You can ignore flats and darks for now and only stack the 'lights' frames.
I suggest to read the faq on Deepskystacker website.
There are other techniques for stacking, using only photoshop for example. I reckon Deepskystacker is probably overkill for mobile astrophotography.
I have some astrophotography experience with a DSLR and a telescope but never tried with a smartphone. Mainly because smartphone cameras were pretty bad until recently, also long time exposure is relatively new on mobiles.
Have a look at this article too.
http://www.lonelyspeck.com/photographing-the-milky-way-with-a-smartphone/
I will try myself to experiment when I have some free time and clear skies.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Okay,
I took again few photos last night, with the same parameters as before.
This time, I used the noise reduction technic, with image stacking (Photoshop, 5 pictures) (Thanks @ _Man0waR_ for the tip )
Here is my first night photography with this technic. I took others with ISO 1600 but I didn't have the time yet to do the post-processing ^^
Here is the original RAW picture (ISO 800, 30s exposure, Infinite Focus) :
Here is the stacked RAW (5 pictures) :
Great noise reduction !
And here the processed RAW (I wanted a more natural look as the previous one) :

Very nice shooting of the Lyra and Cygnus region It's impressive considering it was totally impossible to take this kind of pictures not so long ago with just a phone.
Stacking definitely helped to reduce the noise.
You should try to shoot the Sagittarius area (if you can, it's quite low in the sky). Adding some foreground, trees,mountains can make some really artistic pictures I suppose.
Well done !

_Man0waR_ said:
Very nice shooting of the Lyra and Cygnus region It's impressive considering it was totally impossible to take this kind of pictures not so long ago with just a phone.
Stacking definitely helped to reduce the noise.
You should try to shoot the Sagittarius area (if you can, it's quite low in the sky). Adding some foreground, trees,mountains can make some really artistic pictures I suppose.
Well done !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Yes, I want to try to shoot another area of the sky but I don't have a tripod to hold the phone yet. I actually just put the phone on a car's roof Yeah it's artisanal
But I'm considering buying a trepod, the photography interest me more and more, and I would be able to shoot the sky not only vertically ! And other landscapes ^^

Ohh wow, oh wow.
---------- Post added at 08:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:57 PM ----------
Woderfull, more please. Dessert at night? or am I asking too much?

Photo quality

Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Razer Phone 2 come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

i found the stock camera app to be pretty poor coming from a pixel 2 like it was almost dealbreaking. I also have an essential phone that needed a google cam port to be usable. So i went to the gcam repo and spent a good hour trying all the versions from arnova, cstark etc. and i found that the only one that actually works is from BSG for the Mi 8 and the quality is night and day. i posted on reddit about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/razerphone/comments/9rv2ed/google_cam_port_quality_vs_stock_app_vs_pixel_2/

meh
There is no 60 frames-per-second 1080p video nor is there 16 by 9 aspect ratio for photos they are also blurry, the zoom is okay though I guess.

https://imgur.com/gallery/5tkoGjG
Picture taken with it, does an amazing job at medium-low lighting

Razer's photo app does pretty good, minus not having slow motion, beating all my previous phones in clarity, quality and ability to take photos of an always moving 2 year old with very minimal, if any, motion blur, and in low light without flash and no visible grainyness. But to boost your cameras performance, Gcam works wonders (slow motion still does not work) Beware of file sizes of videos, though... An 8 minute 4k video of my daughter was a whopping 2.5gb... and when you take photos at the same time you're recording, they come out much darker than just taking a photo by itself. Photo quality is outstanding, taking bright, clear photos in low light with no motion blur what so ever, and with no visible grainyness or loss of color accuracy. People with high end iPhones and Samsung devices were amazed at the photo quality of the Razer 2 compared to their phones...so a big plus for this phone. I have NO idea what people we're talking about when they said the camera was crap... As far as the photo album app, I think the one that comes with the phone totally sucks, it's the Google albums app, which for me is over complicated, I have no idea how to browse it, or organize it, or create folders, or move them to folders...so, I downloaded a very simple, easy to use gallery app that fits all my needs. VERY simple to understand, I can move things around, create new folders, etc. If you're interested in it, here's the link.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro
It reminds me of the simpler album apps that came with earlier versions of Android Galaxy phones, which is what I'm used to.
EDIT- 10/16/19
Finally found a camera app that makes full use of the camera. Gcam
Version 6.2.030. greatly increased clarity, amazing low light performance, night mode, multiple resolutions to choose from, hdr, hdr+, 4k video, bokke effect in portrait mode, which makes a HUGE improvement in photo dramatic effect when taking pictures of people, and most importantly, to me at least, VERIFIED WORKING SLOW MOTION AND TIME LAPSE... Which for some STUPID REASON Razer has OMITTED from even their latest software update, posted only a couple days ago. Link below for the gcam mod.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rAgBKJ9ZixrsfP2_29HHJabm-2g9etLY/view?usp=drivesdk
I cannot recommend you use this gcam mod enough! It's EXACTLY what this phone was missing all along
Not my work, BTW. Simply pointing a link at someone else's work.

mmfnsmith said:
Razer's photo app does pretty good, minus not having slow motion, beating all my previous phones in clarity, quality and ability to take photos of an always moving 2 year old with very minimal, if any, motion blur, and in low light without flash and no visible grainyness. But to boost your cameras performance, Gcam works wonders (slow motion still does not work) Beware of file sizes of videos, though... An 8 minute 4k video of my daughter was a whopping 2.5gb... and when you take photos at the same time you're recording, they come out much darker than just taking a photo by itself. Photo quality is outstanding, taking bright, clear photos in low light with no motion blur what so ever, and with no visible grainyness or loss of color accuracy. People with high end iPhones and Samsung devices were amazed at the photo quality of the Razer 2 compared to their phones...so a big plus for this phone. I have NO idea what people we're talking about when they said the camera was crap... The only problem I have is audio quality issues. Sounds like they have a background noise suppression setting turned on by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9wTQKDUWFDrOMX2zAofWl7G2ULpTdRn/view?usp=drivesdk

I'm pretty blown away with this camera, especially in very low light. I downloaded the gcam app. And just wow!
This is a picture in my hobby room with just the light from my computer monitor no other lights or flash
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Sent from my Phone 2 using Tapatalk

Warrior1988 said:
Try this. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9wTQKDUWFDrOMX2zAofWl7G2ULpTdRn/view?usp=drivesdk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man, I tried this app you linked to and here are some comparison shots.
In our play room with low light currently.
Stock camera app
You linked camera app
Sent from my Phone 2 using Tapatalk

Hey, a Razer Phone 2-specific version of GCam was uploaded to https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/ the other day. I downloaded it, and it's so much faster than the MI8 version. It's bloody quick. No more loading ring when I'm taking a picture. Just a flash as the picture is taken.

The quality is "okay" but not that good
I hope they'll do better in the future .
Mini Militia App Lock

cs88 said:
i found the stock camera app to be pretty poor coming from a pixel 2 like it was almost dealbreaking. I also have an essential phone that needed a google cam port to be usable. So i went to the gcam repo and spent a good hour trying all the versions from arnova, cstark etc. and i found that the only one that actually works is from BSG for the Mi 8 and the quality is night and day. i posted on reddit about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/razerphone/comments/9rv2ed/google_cam_port_quality_vs_stock_app_vs_pixel_2/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you like the Razer 2 w/gcam compared to the Pixel 2?

I just installed the RP 2 gcam from the link and only saw a lowlight/indoors performance difference while indoors. Once I went outside there was a bit of a split decision. On one hand the dynamic range of gcam was a lot better and maintained clear details in the image. There were a couple of occassions where the stock camera app took a more appealing picture. Most of the pics while outside in good natural light were almost identical; only zooming in all the way and searching would you see the difference. Again, that goes back to the dynamic range and how the apps process the images once you take the picture. At some point we need to stop splitting hairs on the most minor detail that really isn't discernable unless you zoom in 300% an search vice when you look at the normal zoom image. I have noticed however, the RP2 does over process more often than not, leading to it softening the image way too much causing a slight blur in the details. But other times it takes really good pictures.

I just uninstalled the gcam app now. I don't know what happened but was using the camera a few hours after installing and testing it out and I noticed major artifacts, color distortion and image distortion when I am looking at the screen and moving the phone around to different subjects. I also notice it having a real hard time adjusting the exposure and balance. The removal of the gcam app hasn't seemed to fix anything. I may have to reset the phone to get it functioning again.

lamamafia said:
There is no 60 frames-per-second 1080p video nor is there 16 by 9 aspect ratio for photos they are also blurry, the zoom is okay though I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not bad...

I just got the phone, and knew going into it the camera was going to be bad (doubly bad considering I was coming from an LG V20!). What I didn't expect was just how bad HDR is on the stock app. It's rather laughable. The first image is a normal photo on the telephoto lens. The second photo is an HDR shot on the same lens. I plan to play around with Gcam, but HDR will never see the light of day on my stock app. Lol

Not as good as my motorola z2 force. Really, very bad! I can only play games now. . . . Maybe gaming phones can only play games.

Themes / Apps / Mods Samsung Expert Raw app

FYI, just noticed the release of the Expert Raw app by Samsung, supporting all lenses for the S21 Ultra. Editing can be done through Adobe Lighthouse for Samsung.
The app is release in South Korea, but als available through mirror sites.
More info here

thanks.

Manual controls over the telephoto lenses are awesome. However sadly "RAW" here is used loosely since there's built in noise reduction that cannot be adjusted.
Top is "Expert RAW" DNG to JPG with just adjusting brightness. No noise reduction is applied and yet there is very little detail. Bottom picture is just stock camera night mode. More noise, but also more detail.
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I'm testing Expert RAW now and mus confirm, noise reduction exist even on DNG file. You suggest to use other app?

I'll test it tonight

Right after downgrading to 11 I saw this post. Back to 12... Again and, yes, it's True. This is NOT pure RAW. I posted 3 photos down here so you can see what's going on. I apologize in advance for this long post but I wanted to show the actual view on the user's screen.
1st: Expert raw actually takes a RAW photo (notice the high chroma noise) but immediately processes it, to reduce the noise as seen with the yellow progress circle in the lower part of the screen.
2nd: after processing, the photo looks like this
3rd: after opening the photo in Photoshop Express, it looks like this:
To the untrained eye, this looks like such a great, clean image. But this is clearly, not RAW and it is not what users asked for.
Honestly, Samsung is frustrating. They give you the feeling that they are listening to their customers. We ask them for oranges and they give us watermellons. My theory is that they absolutely know they have mediocre sensors in their flagships and do not want to risk their image by letting you see the RAW capability of their camera.

Randi03 said:
To the untrained eye, this looks like such a great, clean image. But this is clearly, not RAW and it is not what users asked for.
Honestly, Samsung is frustrating. They give you the feeling that they are listening to their customers. We ask them for oranges and they give us watermellons. My theory is that they absolutely know they have mediocre sensors in their flagships and do not want to risk their image by letting you see the RAW capability of their camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sad but True. Higher ISO level = more agressive processing.
This example with some lightroom touches from x10 tele captured on ISO 50 but on tripod gimbal with 1/15s time.
Glad that they gave us full control at all, that's the most important thing, but they also had to give something back.

More examples with little lightroom postpro. All lenses and this time all captured from hand. Expert RAW creates multiple ammount of photos to some kind of HDR RAW. Anyway theare are much better than photos from standard camera app. Less processing but still exist.

Randi03 said:
Right after downgrading to 11 I saw this post. Back to 12... Again and, yes, it's True. This is NOT pure RAW. I posted 3 photos down here so you can see what's going on. I apologize in advance for this long post but I wanted to show the actual view on the user's screen.
1st: Expert raw actually takes a RAW photo (notice the high chroma noise) but immediately processes it, to reduce the noise as seen with the yellow progress circle in the lower part of the screen. View attachment 54668372nd: after processing, the photo looks like this
View attachment 5466841
3rd: after opening the photo in Photoshop Express, it looks like this:
View attachment 5466843
To the untrained eye, this looks like such a great, clean image. But this is clearly, not RAW and it is not what users asked for.
Honestly, Samsung is frustrating. They give you the feeling that they are listening to their customers. We ask them for oranges and they give us watermellons. My theory is that they absolutely know they have mediocre sensors in their flagships and do not want to risk their image by letting you see the RAW capability of their camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol that's the thing though, the sensors aren't mediocre. Having a Snapdragon with access to telephoto RAW for a while now, I can definitely say that they're pretty good albeit a little soft and lack contrast. I think it's that Samsung's algorithm is still problematic and they are still catering to the common user who they think is scared of any signs of noise.
Here's a zoomed in picture of a 10x GCam RAW zoomed in with Photoshop Express without noise reduction
And here's the Expert RAW version

Wow, the Gcam looks very nice. That's exactly what I hope to get out of the Exynos someday )

Expert raw seems to be the answer to apple's proraw or I can't remember the exact name. Basically it's 6 raw shots stacked together to help reduce the amount of noise and increase dynamic range over a single raw since these phones are usually meant to have lots of internal post precessing after the raw shot to look good. I was pretty excited when I read apple had come up with it. Turned out to be disappointing. Looks like Samsung's answer isn't better either.
It shows the difficulty of processing and stacking multiple images. I'll stick to my gcam with snap dragon as I'm super happy with it. 10x is by far my favorite lens to take portraits, never use the fake portrait mode, even in 3x it can't beat gcam 10x. Google processing is just that good. If pixel 6 pro had a 10x periscope I was probably switching phones... Will have to wait some more

PhilMorin said:
Expert raw seems to be the answer to apple's proraw or I can't remember the exact name. Basically it's 6 raw shots stacked together to help reduce the amount of noise and increase dynamic range over a single raw since these phones are usually meant to have lots of internal post precessing after the raw shot to look good. I was pretty excited when I read apple had come up with it. Turned out to be disappointing. Looks like Samsung's answer isn't better either.
It shows the difficulty of processing and stacking multiple images. I'll stick to my gcam with snap dragon as I'm super happy with it. 10x is by far my favorite lens to take portraits, never use the fake portrait mode, even in 3x it can't beat gcam 10x. Google processing is just that good. If pixel 6 pro had a 10x periscope I was probably switching phones... Will have to wait some more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what GCAM mod are you using btw?

yoyosquad said:
what GCAM mod are you using btw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Arnova, one of the first version that was released. I've been really happy with it so haven't bothered updating to one of the latest version that beserker has posted.

PhilMorin said:
Arnova, one of the first version that was released. I've been really happy with it so haven't bothered updating to one of the latest version that beserker has posted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if that's not a problem, can you write us exact version of this release?

ski.ign said:
if that's not a problem, can you write us exact version of this release?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gcam build number is 8.1.101, might still be available from the links in beserker gcam for snapdragon thread

test

How can I install it? It's a zip file

Hello, i have question - how LOSELESS JPEG function works? Can You share some photos without editing it in external editors like lightroom? I'm interested how jpg from expert camera looks like.

I don't see any different between this camera end the stock camera

Hi, I am not sure what you mean by lossless jpeg. I couldn't find a setting for this. Here you can find 6 JPEG photos. 3 with stock, 3 with expert. All settings (ISO, Exposure, Focus distance, White balance) should be exactly the same as I have manually selected them while keeping the phone on a tripod. Auto HDR was disabled too. https://we.tl/t-WSBZjBGaNB
Also, I am on the Exynos variant.