I just did a quick test of how well the stock Asus camera, GCam and Open Camera handle shots taken at night: I downloaded the GCam APK from XDA: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.1 and the Open Camera from F-Droid onto my Zenfone 8. I took the same shot of the exterior of my apartment block, including trees and greenery, with all three cameras.
I used normal and night modes with the Asus and GCam and Normal and DRO modes with the open camera and then compiled all the shots into a layered Photoshop file so that I could easily compare them.
The Asus night mode gave a much better result than the normal mode. The shadows had slightly more detail and much more color information than the normal mode. But they are aggressively sharpened and have a somewhat processed look.
The GCam normal and night modes had more color and slightly more detail in the shadows than the Asus night mode. They have much less sharpening than the Asus picture and so don't show as much detail, but they have a more natural appearance.
I wish I could turn down the sharpening of the Asus pictures, and turn up the sharpening of the GCam pictures. Unfortunately the Asus camera does not have a way to turn down the sharpening in either the Photo or Pro modes.
There is a setting in GCam to increase sharpening but it's not intuitive and I haven't messed with it yet.
The Open Camera gave really poor results in night and DRO modes, so soft and grainy that it's not something I'd ever use.
I've attached a detail from the Asus and GCam night mode shots and the DRO OpenCamera shot.
This was just a quick and simple test entirely for my own satisfaction, and the results of course are subjective. I'm now going to experiment with the GCam > Advanced > Ram Patcher >Sharpness setting and see If I can increase the sharpening and get a result somewhere between the the softer GCam default and the Asus overprocessed look...
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It seems some camera options are not very well documented. Thought I would start a thread to share tricks to help improve photos. There is another thread for tips and tricks but that one focuses on other things. Since camera is one of the highlights of this phone I figured a dedicated thread was worth it.
Here are a few I found. Feel free to share yours!
1. When tapping to focus on a point, if you do a long touch instead, it will set a focus point but add a second movable frame for exposure so you can have an exposure point that is not your focus point (IE focus on someone but expose for highlights)
2. If short tapping to focus, you can then tap/drag the focus point up or down to adjust exposure level (exposure compensation).
3. From my early tests, it looks like the camera hdr is better at recovering shadows instead of highlights. When having high contrast scene, change exposure so the highlights are better exposed when looking at picture frame. Shadow details will come out better (don't over exaggerate this or shadows will remain too dark). Adjusting exposure for shadows never seem to recover highlights properly.
4. I've seen some reviews where pixel 3 has a better exposure using their night scene function. If the mate night function yeilds results too dark, you can force the time and Iso to use (tap the icons in bottom left and right). So far I found that if I look at the picture info and see the auto mode exposed say 4 sec with Iso 400, usually keeping 4 sec but doubling Iso (800 in that case), will produce a better exposure similar to the pixel. I don't want to get into color/detail comparison between the 2 devices.. This is just to get a better exposure. Guessing they'll sort this out in a future update.
For now that's what I found that didn't feel intuitive.
Please share your findings!
Let me share my suggestions:
1. In case of pro mode ,shutter speed is restricted to 30s of exposure whereas night mode can give up to 52s (max I have seen) exposure.
2. You can try different light painting modes to achieve low-light shots as well. I tried with star trails and got good results ( but exposure gets throttled and(or) locked at some point.
3. in Pro mode, If you are taking low-light snaps in an enclosed area such that your flashlight can reach, then you will get very good photos for reasonably smaller exposure times.
4. Use tripods for all night shots (bluetooth trigger will make it even better), don't rely on stabilization unless there is ample light and that exposure time will be around 1/125 , because even night mode can be affected despite the claim that OIS stabilization will be sufficient.
5. lowering the exposure while taking close-up flash photography will help in partially retaining data that would have been lost due to flash overexposure.
Thanks,
Rakesh
Mod edit: @Tom100% Thread closed as duplicate of
[CLOSED]Asus, Gcam and OpenCamera night shots compared...
I just did a quick test of how well the stock Asus camera, GCam and Open Camera handle shots taken at night: I downloaded the GCam APK from XDA: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.1 and the Open Camera from F-Droid onto my Zenfone 8. I took the same shot of...
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Oswald Boelcke
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I just did a quick test of how well the stock Asus camera, GCam and Open Camera handle shots taken at night: I downloaded the GCam APK from XDA: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.1 and the Open Camera from F-Droid onto my Zenfone 8. I took the same shot of the exterior of my apartment block, including trees and greenery, with all three cameras.
I used normal and night modes with the Asus and GCam and Normal and DRO modes with the open camera and then compiled all the shots into a layered Photoshop file so that I could easily compare them.
The Asus night mode gave a much better result than the normal mode. The shadows had slightly more detail and much more color information than the normal mode. But they are aggressively sharpened and have a somewhat processed look.
The GCam normal and night modes had more color and slightly more detail in the shadows than the Asus night mode. They have much less sharpening than the Asus picture and so don't show as much detail, but they have a more natural appearance.
I wish I could turn down the sharpening of the Asus pictures, and turn up the sharpening of the GCam pictures. Unfortunately the Asus camera does not have a way to turn down the sharpening in either the Photo or Pro modes.
There is a setting in GCam to increase sharpening but it's not intuitive and I haven't messed with it yet.
The Open Camera gave really poor results in night and DRO modes, so soft and grainy that it's not something I'd ever use.
I've attached a detail from the Asus and GCam night mode shots and the DRO OpenCamera shot.
This was just a quick and simple test entirely for my own satisfaction, and the results of course are subjective. I'm now going to experiment with the GCam > Advanced > Ram Patcher >Sharpness setting and see If I can increase the sharpening and get a result somewhere between the the softer GCam default and the Asus overprocessed look...
The recent Asus system update includes improvements to the stock camera’s picture quality, so I did a quick test to see if I could spot any obvious difference when compared to the GCam (Wichita 1.4) that’s also on my Zenfone 8.
In my previous tests I found pictures from the Asus camera to be over sharpened. This makes foliage look good on a small screen but when viewed large the pictures have an overall processed look. This is something I’m aware of since I’ve made largish prints (50 x 70cm) from some of my previous smartphone shots.
Unfortunately I didn’t spot any improvement that the latest update has made as they are still aggressively sharpened.
GCam pictures have the opposite problem and look too soft when enlarged. So in this test I’ve altered the sharpness: Settings > Advanced > Ram Patcher > Sharpness > 1.500.
The GCam Jpegs are also consistently too dark. I tried to alter the brightness using Settings > Advanced > Ram Patcher > HDR Overall Lightness, but this just blew out the highlights and negated the HDR effect. I’ll have to experiment with some of the other HDR settings to see if I can lighten just the shadows and midtones. I lightened the Jpeg in Photoshop for this comparison.
It’s also possible to shoot a Raw+Jpeg with the GCam. Raw files look flat and greyish straight from the camera but when post processed they give a slightly cleaner and sharper result. They are only16MP rather than the full 64MP the camera is capable of, so hopefully Wichaya will alter this in future mods.
The GCam still gives better picture quality compared with the Asus, but the bright and punchy look of the Asus shots is very good too. If you are into photography and want to get the most from the Zenfone 8 then it’s worth trying the GCam and fine tuning it to suit your needs. The examples below are cropped from the central area of the picture.
If a developer brings out a mod of the Asus camera that allows adjustments to sharpness and brightness, etc, I’d certainly be interested, especially if it could also shoot 64MP Raw.
Have you tried toggling the model settings on GCam to see if that improves the detail?
In a previous post I compared the stock Asus Zenfone 8 camera with the latest Wichaya GCam + config xml. I much prefer the look of the Asus shots which are brighter and have more shadow detail than the GCam pictures.
Unfortunately I have not found any info of how to adjust most of the GCam Ram Patcher settings to make the pictures brighter and show more shadow detail. Blindly playing about with combinations of the Ram Patcher settings made the pictures look worse.
Then I came across a YouTube video in a foreign language showing how to adjust Ram Patcher settings and copied what was shown - my GCam shots are much improved.
The custom settings I now use are:
In the GCam’s drop down menu:
HDR+Enhanced is selected.
In the GCams Settings menu:
Shasta Factor set to 5; Multiframe HDR+Enhanced set to High.
In the Settings > Advanced menu > Ram Patcher:
Sharpness 1,250; Denoise 1.250; HDR Range Plus 12; HDR Range Minus -2.
I still prefer the slightly more punchy look of the Asus Camera, but GCam shots have a more natural look. The Asus Camera over-sharpens fine detail, and in flatter areas smoothes and reduces the detail. Unfortunately here’s no possibility to alter these aspects of the Asus camera.
The attached examples show a picture taken with the Asus Camera.
Then with Wichaya’s GCam and the above custom settings.
I’ve included a GCams DNG (RAW) picture that I’ve edited.
And for fun the same picture taken with a DSLR RAW file I’ve edited.
I now use the Asus camera for general photography, and the GCam (Jpejs + RAW) for more important shots that I may wish to process and improve later.
Mod Edit
Thread closed per [OP] request.
jackeagle
Forum Moderator
I have made a few posts about the Asus camera and became familiar with some of its less obvious details and features. Here’s some notes that apply mainly to daylight shots. I’ll make a separate post about night shots.
Asus 64MP Jpegs
You can take a 64MP Jpeg picture in one of three ways;
The normal camera’s “4:3 (64MP)”
The Pro camera’s “4:3 (64MP)”
And the Pro camera’s “RAW+JPG” settings
HDR processing is not used on the 64MP Jpegs so they are not suitable for general photography as they can lack detail in the highlights and shadows.
You might find a use for the normal camera’s 64MP Jpeg if you ever need the highest resolution Jpeg of a subject with limited dynamic range as it is slightly sharper than the normal camera’s 16MP HDR Jpeg.
I’d avoid ever using either of the Pro camera’s 64MP Jpegs - they are a lot more noisier than the normal camera’s 64MP Jpeg.
Asus Smaller Resolution Jpegs
All of the 16MP(and smaller sized) Jpegs have HDR processing and so will make better looking pictures than the 64MP Jpegs, especially for general subjects. They also have smaller file sizes than the 64MP pictures.
Asus Raw Files
Use the Pro camera’s “RAW+JPG” setting to record a 64MP DNG file if you want to make the very highest quality shots. I transfer the DNGs to my laptop and edit then in a Raw file editor, Capture One. Other Raw editors, such as Lightroom and Affinity Photo, etc, can be used. The noisy 64MP Jpeg that is recorded alongside the Raw file can be discarded.
Raw files are the best option to use if you want to produce the highest quality shot from a mobile phone. Jpeg files can be edited afterwards too, but Raw files contain lots more digital data than Jpegs and are more suited to post production. I use the Asus normal camera HDR Jpegs for general photography, but for special shots use either the Asus 64MP Raw or the the Wichaya GCam Raw files and edit them afterwards.
The final look of an edited Raw file depends on your skill, experience and preferences. But the edited 64MP (9168x6872 pixels) Asus Raw beats the 16MP (4560x3416 pixels) Wichaya GCam Raw, as it is definitely sharper and more finely detailed.
However you won’t see much difference between these two edited Raw files unless you view them alongside each other at the same viewing size - i.e. Asus at 100%, Wichita at 200%. So for general purposes either and be used. (See attached screenshot)
Although the Asus Raw is sharper it is also grainier, especially in smoother, less detailed areas - but sharp detail is more important than visible grain if you ever need to make large prints.
Asus camera fast startup
You can open the Asus camera from the lock screen without entering a pin code or unlocking the phone. At the bottom right corner of the lock screen is a small symbol - swipe it up to open the Asus camera without unlocking the phone.
Gallery app Raw file previews
When you open a Raw file in an editor app it has almost no color, the highlights are white and shadows are black. The camera’s gallery app shows you a preview of how it looks as a Jpeg.
Asus camera vs Wichaya GCam
All of my previous tests have shown the Asus stock camera produces better looking pictures than the Wichaya Gcam, at least in my opinion. They are punchier, better exposed and have a more accurate white balance. They are, however, generally over-sharpened and highlights are over-smoothed. When enlarged they look flatter and less natural that the Wichaya GCam shots.
Unfortunately the Asus camera allows no control over sharpness, highlights and shadow detail, HDR intensity, etc. Wichaya’s GCam Ram Patcher settings let you adjust many parameters but so far I have not been able to alter them to look as good as the Asus camera. I look forward to the Wichays’s next GCam version and hope to have more success.
If you have used a different GCam APK that produces better results than the Asus camera please share your findings, preferable with comparison pictures - I’m sure Zenfone 8 users would be interested.
Mod Edit
Thread closed per [OP] request.
jackeagle
Forum Moderator