Fortunately, I haven't had any focus problems with the cameras on T-Mobile's Note 4 as others have reported.
However, the Front Facing Camera is quite depressing in which too much movement causes the pictures to come out washed out and blurry. Taking pictures on the front facing camera requires a lot of steadiness; whereas when I shoot in video mode using the Front Facing camera, the live video playback on the display turns out smooth. Do you all experience the same phenomenon with the front facing camera? I know the front facing camera doesn't feature OIS, but still wondering what going here as my previous Note did not have camera issues.
winlinmac001 said:
Fortunately, I haven't had any focus problems with the cameras on T-Mobile's Note 4 as others have reported.
However, the Front Facing Camera is quite depressing in which too much movement causes the pictures to come out washed out and blurry. Taking pictures on the front facing camera requires a lot of steadiness; whereas when I shoot in video mode using the Front Facing camera, the live video playback on the display turns out smooth. Do you all experience the same phenomenon with the front facing camera? I know the front facing camera doesn't feature OIS, but still wondering what going here as my previous Note did not have camera issues.
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you are not alone. i've found that in normal selfie mode, the viewfinder feels very laggy and the movement is both choppy and easily blurred.
to me this looks like a huge bug. if i change to wide angle selfie mode the movement is normal and smooth. so for me it seems like this problem / issue
is isolated within the normal selfie mode. i haven't tested out any different modes, but this is what i've learned thus far. very annoying to be quite honest.
surprised there's so few mentioning it. at least i kind of feel bothered by this sort of thing
No such issues. Both front and back are focusing quick.
Not having trouble with having to keep my hands steady for selfies. My hands shake from time to time and I let other people take selfies with my phone. Everybody was happy with their pics and putting them on Facebook. Even my dad who is a professional photographer.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better camera phone til the s6 or note 5.
They could always make it better of course. Always a good thing.
What roms are you guys using?
Hey everyone,
Is someone able to speak to the quality of the front camera on these? I have the HD 8, the front camera is advertised as "HD" (probably 2 MP) and performs surprisingly well.
I'm curious about the quality of the front camera on the 7. It's advertised as VGA, so probably .3 MP. I've used some of the low end Dragon Touch tablets with .3 MP front cameras and the quality is *terrible*, it easily took 5+ seconds to focus on anything. But part of that could be the camera app, the manufacturer of the sensor itself or something else to do with the quality of the hardware.
At $150, the HD 8 isn't prohibitively expensive, but it would be nice to get away with the $50 7 instead. The main functionality I'm looking for is whether it's able to focus in and scan a QR code (version 2 density) quickly.
Thanks!
Just tried it. The front camera takes the photo fast enough, but the image is very smudgy and a bit too high contrast. It's VGA. It would be ok for video chat in a well lit environment but not for much else. If you're one of those 'selfie' types, you'll want a different camera. :laugh:
The 2mp camera on the back seems to be a bit better, but then it should be. Needs to be changed to 4:3 to use the full sensor, as it defaults to 16:9. The HDR mode improves picture quality by a fair margin. Especially unintentionally overexposed ones. As with all these cheapo cameras you will have to hold the whole device still to get a clear shot.
Neither camera is anything special and I'd say both are below average. The 1.9mp camera in my Samsung Gear smartwatch is leaps and bounds above the image quality of this Asus Fire tablet and it's 2 years older with a similar lens size.
The app for the camera does the job but is very basic with few options to change.
this video shows both front and rear cammeras
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSpPRJ7wghY
Last summer I purchased an Xperia 1 II which I really liked for a lot of reasons - the screen, form factor and feel were all great. Unfortunately, the camera was not up to much and really struggled in low light conditions as well as capturing moving objects. As a camera is one of the top priorities for me in a phone, I made the switch and got the Pixel 5. The camera on the Pixel is brilliant and I am happy enough with the phone for now but the small screen and medium-range specs are definitely a shame.
Having seen some brilliant reviews of the S21 Ultra, my interest has been piqued and I am considering pre-ordering. I am also conscious though that reviews often don't really give a thorough, in-depth review of camera capabilities in different everyday situations (often just focusing on headline specs and flashy new features). Having read the S20 Ultra forum, I noticed a lot of negativity around autofocus, images in low light conditions, images of moving subjects and video quality. This goes back a way but having previously had S6 & S7, I thought the cameras were OK but often a little unnatural/beautified.
Does the S21 Ultra appear to be rectifying these issues and will the camera/video quality be on a par with the likes of Pixel 5 & iPhone 12 Pro Max? For the price of the phone, I would really expect it to be very top end.
Tmel14 said:
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I know this is very rude of me, but I didn't read, too long of a message lol, and I'm so tired rn. But if you want good camera reviews, you can check DxOMark.
It's my reference for cameras.
Here's the S21 Article
I've read/watched a ton of reviews, many of which offered direct comparisons to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and a few also included the Pixel 5 (not as many, as it's not considered a top tier phone any more). They all seem to be very capable. If I were to try to average all the reviews and build a consensus, I appears they are very comparable in standard everyday shots. They trade blows here and there, but generally very similar. The iPhone still wins in portrait shots. It also seems to have a slight edge in video. Night shots are tougher to judge, some had the iPhone ahead, some the S21. The S21 was the CLEAR winner in macro and zoom, as well as features. It seemed they generally gave the overall win to the S21, because the categories where the S21 won it did so with greater margins than the iPhone, where it's wins were tighter. And also because the wider range of capabilities made it a more flexible camera. But if the extreme close and extreme far don't fall into your typical usage, the iPhone would probably come out ahead.
It's also probably worth mentioning that Apple is generally pretty polished, and the iPhone 12 has been out for a bit. It's not unusual for Samsung to be a bit rough at release, and take several updates to tweak things. The two phones probably aren't at equal levels of maturity. Being an S20U owner, I can confirm there were definitely some improvements over time. The S20U camera setup was a complete change from the previous generation, while the S21U is more of a refinement on that. So it may not have as much room for improvement as the S20 did. But there's probably a decent chance that it might close some gaps where the iPhone wins, and/or increase some leads where the iPhone loses.
The differencies are minimal. Really. It is like chicken soup vs tomato soup. I did buy S21 Ultra due to the pen. S21U has clearly better camera than P30Pro. But S21U vs i12pro/i13pro vs Pixel 5/6 ... c'mon. If you like to have the best possible photos buy Vivo x70Pro+
I have S21U and wife has Iphone 13PM. Both has pros and cons. From my day to day experience, this is what I found, comparing S21U and the iPhone:
iPhone pros:
- Very fast shutter speed on camera.
- Sharper video overall, especially for night videos.
- camera app very optimized. Everything feels so smooth.
- better camera focus for indoor photos.
iPhone cons:
- white balance is so bad. Every photos turn yellowish, white sometimes turn into blue.
- too much post photo processing, especially true in clouds. Normal cloudy days turn into storm looking clouds.
- over sharpening. Took a photo of wall calendar on the wall, everything else seems bit blurry but the numbers are sharp (not in a good way, like a Photoshop overshaperning).
- portrait photos not as capable as S21U. Hardly take a clear portrait photo of moving kids (1 clear shots out of 6 shots).
- lens flare. Haven't tried night shots yet with the main cam, but the selfie does has this issue.
- no zoom 10x. Once you have this, you will want them on your phone.
- very dimmed videos at night.
- stabilization not as good, very noticeable on 3x lens.
S21U Pros:
- very versatile camera system with 3x, 10x zoom lens.
- white balance most of the time is correct - true to life
- 108 MP shots are a great option to capture extra details
- top notch stabilization on videos and photos even for zoom lens
- portrait photos are better than the iPhone, capture less shaky photos for moving objects with a better blurring object identification.
S21u cons:
- slower shutter speed. Not very usable when taking moving objects indoor
- indoor focus sometimes off, need to click the screen to focus the object.
- camera app not as smooth as iPhone
- color sometimes can be not as true as real life
Those are what I have found so far on my daily basis.
I'm so disappointed in the photos from the telephoto lenses of this camera. Even at 1x, there is so much noise in every photo, even in outdoors on a sunny day everything looks like an oil painting. Did they give me a faulty device because I got a student discount (costed $1360 AUD 256GB) is this a common issue? Pretty disappointed with the camera of this "flagship" phone...
The photos are 1x, 1x cropped, 10x and 19x zoom.
I'm not seeing an issue.
The last one looks like cam shake and/or a bad AF lock.
The thing is even when holding still taking photos the post processing always oversharpens it and makes it noisy
Tristan17 said:
The thing is even when holding still taking photos the post processing always oversharpens it and makes it noisy
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Digital zoom sucks but look at the size of the optics. It's no L70-200 f/2.8 IS telephoto!
Shooting RAW will get rid of that... or at least you can with post editing.
Samsung doesn't have good photo editing tools, that pisses me.
My stupid S4 had a better photo editor than my 10+ which has none. WTF?
Maybe I'm missing something... probably not
That's fair but I wish they didn't oversharpen every photo, it would look much better like gcam does a way better job
Tristan17 said:
That's fair but I wish they didn't oversharpen every photo, it would look much better like gcam does a way better job
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That cam should be better than my 10+.
The 10+ does an excellent job, but digital zoom is not one of them.
Close the distance. Know the limitations of the camera; see the world as it does and your photos will improve immensely.
Even with pro equipment this is true.
Look at the stunning photos grabbed over a century plus ago with very limited technology.
A good camera helps but in the end it's more about who's shooting.
True thanks
Relax and enjoy it...
Try wide angle on a brick house or a picket fence and see how it does. Two of my favorite test subjects after people.
Don't enable vivid in screen mode if that's an option as it blows out colors.
Yeah I've got my screen set to amoled photo and I have gotten some good photos already thanks for the feedback
Tristan17 said:
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Nice to see another Orient here...
Wow nice man it's a great watch haha
Yall old timers!
P. S. Just kiddin, the older ones look superb!
I totally agree with the OP, the S21U camera is definitely not a 2021 flagship camera. 10x zoom softens the image like crazy (everything becomes hazy & lacks of contrast) and the noise in all cameras is too much, especially in low light conditions.
blackhawk said:
Digital zoom sucks but look at the size of the optics. It's no L70-200 f/2.8 IS telephoto!
Shooting RAW will get rid of that... or at least you can with post editing.
Samsung doesn't have good photo editing tools, that pisses me.
My stupid S4 had a better photo editor than my 10+ which has none. WTF?
Maybe I'm missing something... probably not
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I recommend you try Snapseed app (free, owned by Google), have look on YouTube for videos on Snapseed and you'll see how good it is at editing photos
Snapseed is indeed a great editor!
And all of you guys who are hating on the ZOOM cameras of the phone, ya'll just don't understand how lenses and cameras work in general, that's why the s21U cams annoy you. Especially in low light... It is absolutely normal and it is still better than anything else at this size and functionality.
The fact that you have this kinda photo power in a phone in 2021 is in it self amazing.
In general I think that S21 Ultra have most versatile camera setup in market (at least at the moment when I've ordered phone), but sometimes I've had that feeling that details are not the best e.g. when zooming some photos. I guess it's exynos thing, because details are better on snapdragon versions.
BTW I'm happy to see so many Orient owners.
I did a video comparing the S20u vs S21u cameras and it's VERY subjective. Some of the shots on the S20u are better, some on the S21u are better, but all in all, they both don't compare to an actual camera, yet still blow away any other phone by comparison.
The biggest downfall I see is when people bash on the zoom lens, saying it's grainy.. and it's like.. yeah.. can any other phone out there even come close to a focal range this thing has? It's still a further reach zoom than anything else regardless of quality which is only improving between the S20u and S21u when it comes to zoom.
Which you can see that the image processing on the zoom lens out of the box on the S21u is worse than the S20u, but the clarity at further reach on the s21u pulls ahead over the s20u
babyboy3265 said:
Snapseed is indeed a great editor!
And all of you guys who are hating on the ZOOM cameras of the phone, ya'll just don't understand how lenses and cameras work in general, that's why the s21U cams annoy you. Especially in low light... It is absolutely normal and it is still better than anything else at this size and functionality.
The fact that you have this kinda photo power in a phone in 2021 is in it self amazing.
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Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. I have been shooting with slrs and dslrs for decades, also owning numerous lenses, so I guess I know a bit about photography hardware. Yet again, I am not comparing apples to oranges, namely dslr quality with S21U quality, but instead comparing S21U quality with my 2020 p40 pro photos and believe me there is a HUGE gap over there. The p40 pro was a 2020 flagship and it's photo quality is miles ahead the S21U in various aspects, the most important being low light performance in all cameras, as well as zoom quality etc. Had the p40 pro not been a deal breaker due to no GMS (huawei USA ban etc), I would not change the device for the S21U. I did know though that there would of been a small downgrade in photo quality when I decided to switch to S21U, yet hoped for a good trade off with the 10x zoom instead of 5x, as well as a true uw lens, as compared to the merely uw on the p40 pro (18mm only), but we are talking about a huge difference over here in terms of quality,i mean, even my previous p20 pro which was a 2018 device was capturing much more detail in low light, yet still noise free.
thanito said:
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. I have been shooting with slrs and dslrs for decades, also owning numerous lenses, so I guess I know a bit about photography hardware. Yet again, I am not comparing apples to oranges, namely dslr quality with S21U quality, but instead comparing S21U quality with my 2020 p40 pro photos and believe me there is a HUGE gap over there. The p40 pro was a 2020 flagship and it's photo quality is miles ahead the S21U in various aspects, the most important being low light performance in all cameras, as well as zoom quality etc. Had the p40 pro not been a deal breaker due to no GMS (huawei USA ban etc), I would not change the device for the S21U. I did know though that there would of been a small downgrade in photo quality when I decided to switch to S21U, yet hoped for a good trade off with the 10x zoom instead of 5x, as well as a true uw lens, as compared to the merely uw on the p40 pro (18mm only), but we are talking about a huge difference over here in terms of quality,i mean, even my previous p20 pro which was a 2018 device was capturing much more detail in low light, yet still noise free.
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When I spoke of cameras and lenses, it is because I too have such tech and like photography.
And honestly, the Huawei just seems to have a different post-processing. Which amps up the "structure" a bit and makes things appeared deeper and more detailed. But that's just my 2 cents. Maybe I am wrong.
Hi All,
Is there anyway to enable 4K Video with the wide Angle lens (0.5x zoom) in S20FE 5G Snap?
It already supports 4K with the normal lens (1x or no zoom)
I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.
Thanks
thari_psg said:
Hi All,
Is there anyway to enable 4K Video with the wide Angle lens (0.5x zoom) in S20FE 5G Snap?
It already supports 4K with the normal lens (1x or no zoom)
I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.
Thanks
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does the sensor for the wide angle lens have enough resolution after cropping in to do 4K ?
figure that out first so you're not wasting your time if it doesn't.
I think there's only one image sensor for all modes.
It seems to be a limitation enforced by the samsung camera app.
I installed gcam and it allows 4k at 30fps in wide angle mode.
I can't say I now for a fact but I'm thinking Samsung either turned it off to keep the regular S line a step above or like other phones it causes heating really fast and you're limited in how long it can do it.