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Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Huawei P10 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'm very satisfied with the camera on the p10 phone.
Hi guyz! I just got my P10...all I say about camera- it's a beast. Daylight photos are excelent. For me the "vivid" colour mod makes it 10/10. I've been playing with the camera for all day and I came up with 2 questions:
1)Which resolution do you guys prefer- 12 or 20 mp ??(Since it has only 12 mp colour sensor- does upscaling work good 4 you?)
2)Why software doesnt allow to zoom-in while @20mp at all?
Here's an example for [standart] vs [vivid]- http://imgur.com/a/fg8e6
Tea Time said:
Hi guyz! I just got my P10...all I say about camera- it's a beast. Daylight photos are excelent. For me the "vivid" colour mod makes it 10/10. I've been playing with the camera for all day and I came up with 2 questions:
1)Which resolution do you guys prefer- 12 or 20 mp ??(Since it has only 12 mp colour sensor- does upscaling work good 4 you?)
2)Why software doesnt allow to zoom-in while @20mp at all?
Here's an example for [standart] vs [vivid]- http://imgur.com/a/fg8e6
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Yes, this problem is mine as well
There is an issue with Verical Panorama. Although Horizontal Panorama works perfect, in Vertical as you go up, it gets constantly out of focus. It's hasnt been fixed since B113 and we are now in B162...I have sent the problem to Huawei in all socia media. Try it for yourself
have the phone about a week and thepicture quality is perfect!
Camera does an excellent job on automatic. Love it
P10 has got a magical night mode capture algorithms. Check attached photos below (first 2 taken with moon light only).
waelh said:
P10 has got a magical night mode capture algorithms. Check attached photos below (first 2 taken with moon light only).
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Yes! I gave that a try and I was impressed. If you have a small tripod it works even better.
Overall, very happy with the quality, but please Huawei, give us an option to save RAWs to external storage...
Here some photos from my P10
Cheers!
Vertical panorama is bad.
Bad light bad joins obvious.
Rom version 181.
My samsung s6 camera vertical panorama was perfect
Panorma quality is very poor compared to my old Samsung S6.
The photos are not joined properly.
Yoguko said:
Overall, very happy with the quality, but please Huawei, give us an option to save RAWs to external storage...
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Click to collapse
There's already a RAW option.
Has the photo quality change or improve with the Oreo update?
On my P10 camera app version went from 4.x to 8.x with Oreo Update.
Regarding quality, i didn't see much improvement however i would say that one big flaw (for me) of the P10: artificially over-brightening night photos has been somehow improved (still has this ****ty habit but less)
Test
Some new pictures I made. The bright ones were made in Auto-Mode, the Runway at Night is made in Manual mode with ISO50 and 30s exposure.
I uploaded them to imgur for quality.
Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Google Pixel 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!
Not taken by the "average consumer" but I have to admit that these picks are AMAZING! Cant wait to have my 2XL in hand to test it out! https://9to5google.com/2017/10/07/google-pixel-2-photos-videos-samples-gallery/
Updated link with Full Res Pics
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=WEdYT3BMNFZGdUlwQ0l6aEdFT1UwVlg2LUZESDhn
I haven't taken more than a few photos, but oh my lord this camera is absolutely awesome. Depth of field trick is snazzy and works perfectly 99% of the time. Color accuracy on photos is mind-blowing.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AWwB8R1uW2CQJPBh1
Took some sample pictures with Pixel 1 and Pixel 2, compared images on PC, they look identical but some are better on Pixel 1. Pixel 2 colors are more saturated and there is no flare....
I have been comparing the photos from the Pixel 2 to the iPhone 8 Plus if anyone is interested ?
Daylight and Night time
Took pictures today after dusk, same thing. Most images look identical to Pixel 1, but when I zoom in I can see that lens on Pixel 1 is a little bit sharper with less noise.
Edit: also noticed that automatic white balancing is off sometimes. Pixel 1 gets it right while Pixel 2 doesn't.
But all negatives are relatively small, I wouldn't say one is better then another
I don't find the camera miles better than previous phones I've owned (S7, S8, 5s pixel port etc). But it's capable, fast, a good allrounder and DOF mode is okay for a single lens construction. Hdr+ is a joy and considered, that Google don't yet utilize the new chip empowering this function it's FAST.
Sendt fra min Pixel 2 med Tapatalk
I have been able to take amazing pictures with the N5,N5X,N6P and now with the Pixel 2.
HDR+ does a great job in all these phones I owned.
The main quality difference between the N5 and the latest 3 I mentioned, are the megapixels. (But HDR+ quality was still solid in the old 5).
They main difference between the 5X/6P and the Pixel 2 is the speed to take photos, launch the camera, focus and process the HDR+ but the quality is really close.
I've decided to stick with HDR+ enhanced (which is similar to the old HDR+ in the Nexus) to minimise the risk of getting unfocused areas that sometimes with the HDR+ are not so detailed. So I'm sacrificing speed to capture photos to try to get always a perfect HDR+ shot.
Sent from my Pixel 2
thesebastian said:
I have been able to take amazing pictures with the N5,N5X,N6P and now with the Pixel 2.
HDR+ does a great job in all these phones I owned.
The main quality difference between the N5 and the latest 3 I mentioned, are the megapixels. (But HDR+ quality was still solid in the old 5).
They main difference between the 5X/6P and the Pixel 2 is the speed to take photos, launch the camera, focus and process the HDR+ but the quality is really close.
I've decided to stick with HDR+ enhanced (which is similar to the old HDR+ in the Nexus) to minimise the risk of getting unfocused areas that sometimes with the HDR+ are not so detailed. So I'm sacrificing speed to capture photos to try to get always a perfect HDR+ shot.
Sent from my Pixel 2
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do you think it's better then middle range budget mirrorless camera ?
julianalaqrua said:
do you think it's better then middle range budget mirrorless camera ?
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I don't know because I stopped using cameras for my trips, since I got a Nexus 5 with HDR+ and before that I mostly used the typical compact Sony cyber shot with Carl Zeiss lense.
And I only regret to use smartphone as main camera when I switched from the N5 to Z5 Compact and went to Paris and took ugly photos. Specially nightly photos and closeup photos. This is the main reason I sold that phone after 6 months and went for the 5X.
Probably you can get better details with those cameras you mention. But there are some key features in HDR+ (this is all post processing) that do a lot of magic:
- Focus in most of the areas. (You can focus on a person's face and still capture the details behind a window that points to the street / or the clouds in the sky/ or other faces; as if you had focused directly on that window or clouds).
- More dark skies at night. The night photos look amazing. Nightly skies try to be converted to a more solid dark colour.
- Same good quality with sunny photos that have a lot of sunlight or sun rays and you can't see well trough the camera app when taking the photo because of the high brightness. After HDR+ you could have a good result more opaque.
Other things I like from the latest Google phones cameras:
- Panoramas. Sometimes I take a panorama with just 1 captured image, because of the increased FoV to fit a building. And sometimes you need to take more than 1 because the building still doesn't fit.
- Capture photos when walking: In previous HDR+ Nexus cameras when you press the shutter, camera starts capturing and you can have blurry photos if you were moving. In The Pixel 2 when I press the shutter of the camera (also walking and with HDR+ enhanced) phone camera blocks and take some time to capture to maximize the possibility of a crisp shot. (And if you press the shutter and starts shaking the camera it won't capture till you stop shaking)
So I'm taking photos when I don't have time to stop now.
- Minimum focus distance: I love close-ups / macro shots and the latest Google phones had a good minimum focus distance and mixed with HDR+ the result is amazing.
(The Z5 Compact I owned used to have a wide angle but terrible minimum focus distance I hate this).
What I don't really care is the new portrait mode. You get 2 photos when using it. With blurry unfocused areas and the original with no blur. I think this is only useful for CV photos or some close-ups or special cases. There is a lot of people that loves this feature. I personally prefer the photo that contains more data for 99% of my captures.
Sent from my Pixel 2
Absolutely love the camera on my Pixel 2. Below are some examples shot really quickly from The Shard in London.
I had the iPhone 8 plus briefly and although similar, I'd probably say the Pixel 2 is a bit better, I also think the portrait mode is insanely good considering it only has one camera! :highfive:
Pixel 2 vs Pixel 1 (Auto, flash off, lens clean, no case)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FTyfRvJHxWAx38e93
julianalaqrua said:
do you think it's better then middle range budget mirrorless camera ?
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Click to collapse
absolutely not.
however, the pixel takes decent pictures completely automatically while you can completely mess up a picture on a mid range a mirrorless camera if you don't know how to use the settings - and the fully automatic mode of the mirrorless cameras tend not to be actually as good as the pixel
(technically, the pixel is also a mirrorless camera btw - just that the sensor and lens are tiny, get less light and aren't as sharp, basically - but they have much better automatic processing)
sstanton86 said:
Absolutely love the camera on my Pixel 2. Below are some examples shot really quickly from The Shard in London.
I had the iPhone 8 plus briefly and although similar, I'd probably say the Pixel 2 is a bit better, I also think the portrait mode is insanely good considering it only has one camera! :highfive:
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amazing shots. that's auto mode or you have used lightroom or photoshop ?
sammyalexandro said:
amazing shots. that's auto mode or you have used lightroom or photoshop ?
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Thank you! And it was through a glass window too! No Lightroom or any other editing app. Just HDR!
Very happy with the camera.
took pixel 2 for a two weeks Europe trip, omg! The pictures are amazing!!!!
elijahmendelson said:
what about bokeh? is it possible to make background blur on pixel 1 like pixel 2 in portrait mode ?
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Click to collapse
Pixel 1 does not have Portrait mode (or at least not yet). Pixel 1 has Lens Blur mode, it works but not as good
---------- Post added at 12:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 AM ----------
bilboa1 said:
absolutely not.
however, the pixel takes decent pictures completely automatically while you can completely mess up a picture on a mid range a mirrorless camera if you don't know how to use the settings - and the fully automatic mode of the mirrorless cameras tend not to be actually as good as the pixel
(technically, the pixel is also a mirrorless camera btw - just that the sensor and lens are tiny, get less light and aren't as sharp, basically - but they have much better automatic processing)
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I had Canon G5 ($500 compact camera) and gave it away with a purchase of Pixel 1. I think P1 pictures are much better.
kolyan said:
Pixel 1 does not have Portrait mode (or at least not yet). Pixel 1 has Lens Blur mode, it works but not as good
.
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is it possible to activate portrait mode on pixel 1 ? this is only software thing as I understand, right?
alfonsocoralles said:
is it possible to activate portrait mode on pixel 1 ? this is only software thing as I understand, right?
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Click to collapse
No you can't activate it, not sure if it's software or some hardware thing. Maybe Google will enable it later
I'm opening this thread since I don't see it there.
Why do I get the impression that the 960 FPS Slow Motion that the Camera does is actually an interpolated version of a 240 FPS version?
Today I was curious to see how good it was, I put the 960 FPS mode and I said: I will finally be able to see every little detail of my experiments and social life.
I was very disappointed to see that after the video had been processed I would find myself with an old acquaintance of interpolation algorithms such as RIFE, CAIN or DAIN... The distortions. These flaws are common when interpolating videos as the AI is trying to guess where the next pixel will go in the next frame, as a consequence sometimes a teleportation effect is generated and that's what I realized today.
Honestly, that has left me disappointed because now I know that in the 960 FPS version, 3 out of 4 frames are not real.
It would be stupid to ask but the camera and processor specs support 960 FPS video. Why didn't Motorola actually implement it? Instead it is using the NPU to Interpolate
fulltronservice said:
I'm opening this thread since I don't see it there.
Why do I get the impression that the 960 FPS Slow Motion that the Camera does is actually an interpolated version of a 240 FPS version?
Today I was curious to see how good it was, I put the 960 FPS mode and I said: I will finally be able to see every little detail of my experiments and social life.
I was very disappointed to see that after the video had been processed I would find myself with an old acquaintance of interpolation algorithms such as RIFE, CAIN or DAIN... The distortions. These flaws are common when interpolating videos as the AI is trying to guess where the next pixel will go in the next frame, as a consequence sometimes a teleportation effect is generated and that's what I realized today.
Honestly, that has left me disappointed because now I know that in the 960 FPS version, 3 out of 4 frames are not real.
It would be stupid to ask but the camera and processor specs support 960 FPS video. Why didn't Motorola actually implement it? Instead it is using the NPU to Interpolate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They couldn't be bothered. Much about this device is made just to seem good on the surface but actually using it is a different story. I, for example, doubt that the main camera is even 108MP. Taking photos in 108MP does not offer any more detail than 12MP. They honestly should have just gone for an OIS 16MP or something but no, they went backwards from last generation and slapped in this garbage sensor, which is a shame since the telephoto and wide angle are actually great. I also noticed the messed up "960fps video" and I just never use it.
Username: Required said:
They couldn't be bothered. Much about this device is made just to seem good on the surface but actually using it is a different story. I, for example, doubt that the main camera is even 108MP. Taking photos in 108MP does not offer any more detail than 12MP. They honestly should have just gone for an OIS 16MP or something but no, they went backwards from last generation and slapped in this garbage sensor, which is a shame since the telephoto and wide angle are actually great. I also noticed the messed up "960fps video" and I just never use it.
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Actually in the rest of the sections I am satisfied for the price of the phone but in the quality of the main camera I was disappointed. I'm still using GCam and I can't find a way to make the photo display with its details.
fulltronservice said:
Actually in the rest of the sections I am satisfied for the price of the phone but in the quality of the main camera I was disappointed. I'm still using GCam and I can't find a way to make the photo display with its details.
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What do you mean by "display with it's detail"? The phone does take soft pictures with the main camera, I know. Shooting in RAW and opening the images in Light Room does show that there is a lot of detail that gets crushed due to the aggressive denoise algorithm that GCam uses, and the main camera app sharpens the image so much that it ends up looking like an oil painting.
Username: Required said:
What do you mean by "display with it's detail"? The phone does take soft pictures with the main camera, I know. Shooting in RAW and opening the images in Light Room does show that there is a lot of detail that gets crushed due to the aggressive denoise algorithm that GCam uses, and the main camera app sharpens the image so much that it ends up looking like an oil painting.
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With details I was referring to the information that the camera captures when you zoom in and start to see noise. I find no way to prevent the noise algorithm from creating corrections far from reality. When you take a picture, the photo is perfect until you zoom to 4x. You realize that you start to see noise and lose detail. And Motorola in the camera content update it released earlier this week hasn't fixed anything.
This thread explores the photo quality possibilities of the Z8. I'll post occasional info and tests about the stock camera, comparisons with GCam mods, etc, with example pictures to illustrate my findings. I hope you'll find some of this useful and post examples of your own that we can learn from.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Latest posts
Nikon SLR vs Zenfone photo quality test, June 2023
Asus & GCam Night Shots, in-depth comparison
Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2
Brightening GCam to match the Asus camera
Asus vs GCam vs Nikon - DSLR quality from the Z8?
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Wichaya GCam V1.6
Wichaya has recently released an updated version of GCam, “GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6”, that is now almost as good as the stock Asus camera.
The previous GCam version's shots were always too dark, lacked shadow detail and looked dull compared to the Asus stock camera's excellent pictures. With the latest V1.6 pictures are almost identical with the stock Asus camera, most of the time.
My only criticism of Asus shots is that they are over-sharpened. Foliage looks great but it can have an unnatural flattened appearance; fine textures can look like sand and coarser textures can be exaggerated too much. Unfortunately the Asus camera does not allow any adjustments.
GCam does not suffer from over-sharpening and the settings can be fine-tuned. Occasionally it will under expose and may not give as much shadow detail as the Asus shots, and the white balance can be a bit too warm, but overall the latest version is a fantastic improvement.
Many thanks to Wichaya for this upgrade!
Available here: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-wichaya/f/dl6/
I used the “Wichaya8.1_ZF8_V5.xml” with it from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/working-gcam.4280045/page-8
I'll never understand why people think stock cam takes better pics than GCam. Whenever I take shots side by side, Gcam's always have more detail.
I wanted to test this latest GCam 1.6 with this V5 config file and Asus A12 .113 firmware stock camera. Just to see for myself, and well here are some pictures and details. It's like previously said, stock camera has a lot of sharpening added. It blows the fine details out and gives some edges a "halo effect". GCam without HDR was useless at least on this spot.
Overall, I like the Asus white balance a lot better, closer to reality like with my own eyeballs. GCam is much too cold. Is there a configuration setting that tunes the GCam WB? GCam HDR+ Enhanced catches in some cases a lot better detail, but takes some seconds to capture. HDR+ still has more detail, but also more noise and in my opinion worse white balance. Asus camera can oversharpen a lot and add halos around every edge. Denoise and sharpen blurs details.
https://imgur.com/a/cxgK8nj
edit: Jeez imgur destroys the pictures, maybe just download them.
Also the full pictures if someone wants to zoom, my photo editor might have processed the zooms a bit.
Jgruar said:
I wanted to test this latest GCam 1.6 with this V5 config file and Asus A12 .113 firmware stock camera. Just to see for myself, and well here are some pictures and details. It's like previously said, stock camera has a lot of sharpening added. It blows the fine details out and gives some edges a "halo effect". GCam without HDR was useless at least on this spot.
Overall, I like the Asus white balance a lot better, closer to reality like with my own eyeballs. GCam is much too cold. Is there a configuration setting that tunes the GCam WB? GCam HDR+ Enhanced catches in some cases a lot better detail, but takes some seconds to capture. HDR+ still has more detail, but also more noise and in my opinion worse white balance. Asus camera can oversharpen a lot and add halos around every edge. Denoise and sharpen blurs details.
https://imgur.com/a/cxgK8nj
edit: Jeez imgur destroys the pictures, maybe just download them.
Also the full pictures if someone wants to zoom, my photo editor might have processed the zooms a bit.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain and illustrate your findings comparing the Asus camera and Wichaya's latest GCam version. I also prefer the look of the Asus shots but dislike both how they over-sharpen some areas and smooth out other areas.
The Gcam shots on my Zenphone 8 generally look more natural (= not over-sharpened) but are often a bit too dark, and can also be a bit too warm. So there may be manufacturing variations that affect the white balance. The Asus shots also have a lot more shadow detail, which I prefer.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a combination of Ram Patcher setting that would bring the Gcam shots closer to how I'd like them to be. If Wichaya can advise how to increase shadow detail without affecting the highlghts I'd be grateful!
Yeah, would be really great if we could combine the good parts from both softwares. I don't know much about the GCam settings, if someone wants to share what we are able to change and how?
Tom100% said:
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain and illustrate your findings comparing the Asus camera and Wichaya's latest GCam version. I also prefer the look of the Asus shots but dislike both how they over-sharpen some areas and smooth out other areas.
The Gcam shots on my Zenphone 8 generally look more natural (= not over-sharpened) but are often a bit too dark, and can also be a bit too warm. So there may be manufacturing variations that affect the white balance. The Asus shots also have a lot more shadow detail, which I prefer.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a combination of Ram Patcher setting that would bring the Gcam shots closer to how I'd like them to be. If Wichaya can advise how to increase shadow detail without affecting the highlghts I'd be grateful!
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Click to collapse
Give this a look: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-arnova8g2s-google-camera-port.3862448/post-84805697
MRDA1981 said:
Give this a look: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-arnova8g2s-google-camera-port.3862448/post-84805697
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Click to collapse
Thanks, it's certainly interesting and gives some insight into how complex changing the default settings can be (for Arnova8G2's GCam). It shows how to increase the exposure time - this would brighten both the shadows and the highlights.
I would like to increase only the shadow detail. This is the main difference between Wichaya's GCam and the Zenfone 8's stock camera which gives the shadows a welcome boost.
I did a quick test to see how the Zenfone 8 and Whchaya V1.6 GCam performed in Night mode.
All examples are cropped from 16MP files.
I took one shot in the normal camera mode, then in night mode, and an extra shot with the GCam’s RAW (DNG) mode to compare side by side.
The Asus camera’s normal mode always tries to smooth lightly textured areas and so has made the road and areas of soil look unnaturally smooth. The GCam normal shot (HDR+) records the textures faithfully and is more colourful but a little too bright. Both cameras blow out the bright lights at the front and side of the building.
The Asus Night shot is excellent as it holds all the textures, minimises the highlight blowouts and is quite sharp and well exposed. The GCam Night shot is quite good but a bit too bright. It’s more colourful, not quite as sharp as the Asus shot and the highlights are blown out.
So it appears as though the Asus Night mode gives the best result.
However, take a look at the enlarged cropped area of the “Asus-GCam Night modes” comparison. The Gcam Night shots is not as sharp as the Asus Night shot, but the Asus is way very over-sharpened, so much so that the light pebbledash texture of the wall is unnaturally exaggerated. The ideal, in my opinion would be somewhere in-between these two. The GCam DNG edited shot is almost ideal as it is sharp but does not over exaggerate textures, however the highlights are blown out...
To sum up I’d say that the Asus Night mode will give the best results, but can sometimes look a bit artificial depending on the range of textures involved.
Hello,
thank you for another comparison of image quality. At night the scenario from the day is repeated, the stock camera is oversharpened and the Gcam is unsharp with little detail. Is it possible to modify the Gcam in general to produce sharper images? This is a question more for the author @michelinoO
Dave.a said:
Hello,
thank you for another comparison of image quality. At night the scenario from the day is repeated, the stock camera is oversharpened and the Gcam is unsharp with little detail. Is it possible to modify the Gcam in general to produce sharper images? This is a question more for the author @michelinoO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look in Wichaya's GCam settings, Advanced, Ram Patcher you'll see setting to vary lots of parameters, including sharpness...
Asus vs GCam vs Nikon. DSLR quality from the Z8?
Modern smartphones cameras have tiny imaging sensors yet take amazingly good pictures. The Zenfone 8’s imaging sensor is only 7.5 x 5.5mm and is crammed with almost 64,000,000 light sensitive cells. It requires a serious amount of “computational photography” processing to create pictures that exceed the actual capability of the camera’s tiny sensor.
About 20 years ago I bought one of the first cellphones that had a built in camera, the Nokia 7650. The photos were only 640 x 480 pixels but looked good on the phones 176 x 208 pixels display! Todays phones take high quality HDR pictures that look good on large screens, so I thought it would be fun to compare a picture taken with my Zenphone 8 and Nikon DSLR. This has an 24MP sensor that’s 10x the size of the Z8’s.
Z8 compared to DSLR
The DSLR has fewer megapixels but they are larger and gather much more light which results in higher quality pictures without the need for the intense processing necessary in smartphone cameras.
I took all of the attached shots during a 10 minute period to try to keep the lighting reasonably consistent and used the Z8’s stock camera and the Wichaya V1.6 GCam mod to shoot both Jpegs and DNGs. I shot only RAW files (NEFs) with the Nikon.
I edited the Asus DNG, Gcam DNG and the Nikon RAW files to reasonably match the Asus stock camera’s Jpegs to give some consistence to the comparisons.
I expected the Nikon would come out on top, but I wasn’t certain because of the outstanding results I’ve had with the Z8. The Nikon won, but the edited 64MP Gcam DNG came a close second. In some ares the Asus and GCam shots were actually better than the Nikon’s.
Notes
I’ve kept the comparisons the same size - I was impressed that the 16MP Asus Jpg that even when enlarged to 130% compares quite well with the edited 24MP Nikon RAW seen at 100%. But enlarging the Asus Jpeg makes the usual over-sharpening of fine foliage details more obvious.
The 16MP GCam at 130% is also impressive but is under exposed and lacks shadow detail that’s usual for Wichaya’s GCam.
The large 64MP Asus and GCam Jpgs both lack shadow detail, but at least the Asus isn’t over-sharpened and is actually a bit softer than the GCam.
The best results were obtained with the edited GCam 64MP DNG. I’ve shown how it compares to the edited Nikon RAW in two comparative enlargements. A very impressive result.
Of course in different circumstances the results will vary, but this test in daylight with deep shade and sunlit highlights shows the astonishing capability that computational photography has with tiny sensors.
I did this test for my own amusement and out of my interest in computational photography, but for most normal snaps it probably makes little difference whether you prefer the normal 16MP Asus or GCam Jpegs.
Computational Photography and Mainstream Cameras
Mainstream camera manufacturers don’t seem in a hurry to introduce computational photography into their mirrorless cameras because this would narrow the gap between expensive professional and cheaper consumer equipment. But eventually they will have to give in and this could revolutionise the amateur and professional photography scene. Can’t wait!
Tom100% said:
I expected the Nikon would come out on top, but I wasn’t certain because of the outstanding results I’ve had with the Z8. The Nikon won, but the edited 64MP Gcam DNG came a close second. In some ares the Asus and GCam shots were actually better than the Nikon’s.
Notes
The best results were obtained with the edited GCam 64MP DNG. I’ve shown how it compares to the edited Nikon RAW in two comparative enlargements. A very impressive result.
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I just worked out that the 64MP Gcam that came a close 2nd to the Nikon DSLR was shot at 2 stops of under exposure (f1.8, 1/850sec, ISO 25 compared to f8, 1/60sec, ISO 100).
If the phone had taken only a single shot the image would have been very dark with mainly the highlights showing. Because of "computational photography" the phone takes a lot of the same shots quickly, perhaps 15 or more, which it then adds together using “image stacking” and uses several digital enhancement techniques to create the final HDR image.
The "Asus Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" scored 131 in the DXOmark Photo category. It costs twice as much as the Zenphone 8 but has the same main Sony camera and Qualcomm chip as the Z8, which has a Photo score of only 120.
I guess only the computational photography software had been upgraded to give the superior Photo score. Hopefully Asus will share some of the magic sauce in future upgrades to my Z8.
Brightening GCam to match the Asus camera
Shots taken with the Asus camera have an edge over GCam shots, they have lots of "pop", are well exposed and have good shadow detail. GCam shots have a more natural appearance but are generally darker with less shadow detail.
The Asus camera over-sharpens and exaggerates textures such as foliage and grass, etc. This creates the "pop" effect that looks good on a smartphone but can look artificial and over-processed when viewed on a laptop or PC screen. Unfortunately Asus does not have any settings to reduce this effect so I’ve been experimenting with Wichaya’s GCam to try brighten its shadow detail to look more like the Asus shots.
In GCam’s Advanced section the Ram Patcher has settings to fine tune the processing. Some settings are self explanatory, such as Sharpness and Saturation, but it’s not clear how other adjustments affect the picture, either when used singly or in combination.
Adjusting Ram Patcher settings is not straightforward. There are hundreds of possible combinations, and some settings are predictable up to a certain point and then produce erratic results.
Other Mods sometimes explain what their setting do but use different terms that may not directly apply to Wichaya’s Ram Patcher. As far as I can tell there isn’t a setting that will directly increase shadow detail without affecting the midtowns or highlights. I’ve came to the conclusion that it will take a combination of settings to do this.
Test Results
In a recent test I found that a combination of HDR Range Minus and HDR Range Plus can lift the shadow detail and bring GCam closer to the look and feel of the Asus camera.
The examples below show the same scene taken with the Asus camera, the darker looking GCam V1.6 (plus xml), and the GCam with custom HDR Range Minus “-4” and HDR Range Plus “4” settings to brighten the shadows. I'll be using this setting over the next few weeks in different situations to see if it can be improved.
I noticed a peculiar effect in the Asus Camera’s shot: The sun is high in the sky towards the left side of the building - in the GCam shots the sky in this area is almost white. In the Asus shot the sky behind the building appears to have been over processed to make it a much darker, and this looks quite artificial in the area I've marked in red. The GCam sky has a more natural appearance.
If you have found other ways to improve the quality of the GCam compared to the Zenphone 8’s camera I be happy if you could share examples and details here. Thanks.
Tom100% said:
The examples below show the same scene taken with the Asus camera, the darker looking GCam V1.6 (plus xml), and the GCam with custom HDR Range Minus “-4” and HDR Range Plus “4” settings to brighten the shadows. I'll be using this setting over the next few weeks in different situations to see if it can be improved.
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Couple of settings i have seen in other xml setups.
HDR range Minus
-0,375
HRD Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
HDR Range Minus
-0.875
HDR Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
I use my phone (not AZ8) on -0.375 / 10.0. I like that shadows is little bit darker but i have to test that -4 / 4 setting
Dayuser said:
Couple of settings i have seen in other xml setups.
HDR range Minus
-0,375
HRD Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
HDR Range Minus
-0.875
HDR Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
I use you my phone (not AZ8) on -0.375 / 10.0. I like that shadows is little bit darker but i have to test that -4 / 4 setting
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Thanks for the information - I'll try out those settings. I found that there are a wide variety of settings that brighten and lighten the shadows but the HDR Range Plus/Minus seem to give the most control.
Edit: I tries out the settings they didn't make much difference. The best results so far I've shared in my latest post: Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2.
Is there a way to use the Asus Cam on a custom ROM?
I run lineageOS and tried to backup the Asus CAM before wiping the phone via ADB but only got a file with a few kB. Does anyone have a working APK?
flymetothemoon said:
Is there a way to use the Asus Cam on a custom ROM?
I run lineageOS and tried to backup the Asus CAM before wiping the phone via ADB but only got a file with a few kB. Does anyone have a working APK?
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I don't know about technical things like this, but I do remember reading how the Asus camera couldn't be extracted from the Asus system. Can't remember where I read it, though.
Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2
I've always preferred the brighter, more punchy look of the Asus Zenfone 8 camera to Wichaya's V1.6 GCam. Unfortunately the Asus shots are over-sharpened and can look somewhat unnatural when viewed on laptop and monitor screens.
Wichaya's GCam does not over-process the images but usually gives darker results, so I've been experimenting with the Ram Patcher settings to try to brighten them up...
In my last post, "Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera", I listed some Ram Patcher settings that lightened the GCam shadows to try and resemble the Stock Asus Camera. Further experiments have yielded improved results and I've attached samples cropped from 100% enlargements of a few pictures. Those with more subtle highlights are the Gcam shots.
The setting I now use are shown in the Ram Patcher screengrab. I discovered that the HDR Effect Intensity alters the overall contrast of the image and I've adjusted it to give more shadow and highlight detail.
No combination of setting can make GCam shots exactly match the Asus shots since the intense computational processing that goes on under the hood is different. But I like these GCam shots and for me they provide a good alternative to the Asus shots.
I now use Asus for general/family pictures and GCam (RAW+Jpg) for more important or creative shots that I might process afterwards.
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Reviews I've seen about the Asus Zenfone 9 camera indicate that it still over-sharpens the images. Hopefully Asus might provide some setting to reduce this in future upgrades.
Asus and Gcam Night shots, in-depth comparison
I’ve been having another look at pictures taken at night with the Asus stock camera and the Wichaya GCam on my Zenfone 8. The results can vary a lot between the two cameras, particularly if there are large areas of dimly lit shadows.
The Asus camera over-sharpens fine detail which gives pictures taken during the day or at night an over-processed appearance. Viewed on a phone they look great, but when viewed on larger screens they can look a little unreal. GCam applies less sharpening - pictures look good on phones and have a more natural appearance on larger screens. Which you prefer is personal preference.
Asus vs GCam Night Shots
The difference between pictures taken at night with the GCam and Asus cameras is more pronounced than in daylight shots. You can view the attached examples to judge for yourself…
I sometimes use the Asus Night camera for general shots in low light. I can access it quickly (using Zenfone shortcuts) to capture fleeting moments. But when I have the opportunity to take a more artistic or creative shot at night I will use the GCam HDR+ Enhanced mode. This is set to capture jpg and dng files together - the jpg looks sharp and accurately exposed, and if I want the very best quality I can edit the dng files later.
The quality of the edited GCam Night mode dng is almost as good but it has a longer "hold still" time, so it's not my first choice for quality and convenience.
The Night Sight mode can also be used for daylight shots but it still doesn't give any sharper or more detailed result than the HDR+ Enhanced mode. The edited dng files from both look just the same, so the HDR+ Enhanced mode is still the best choice.
However in very extreme low light situations I may try the GCam Night Sight mode, which has the longest "hold still" time. But so far I’ve been happy with the quality achieved by the HDR+ Enhanced option.
The examples are from the central area of the picture to make comparisons easier...
I”m using
Wichaya's 8.1 v1.6: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6
Wichaya-8.1.101-ZF8-amrazing33.xml
The HDR+ modes and Ram Patcher settings are shown in the screenshots.
In GCam Settings I have the Multiframe HDR+ Enhanced set to Very High.
Did someone try night sky photos?
I could not get good star photos with gcam, but with Asus cam they look decent.
Hello
For different reasons, I had to upgrade my vanilla S20 to vanilla S23 (though I was not entirely convinced to).
Although the phone runs incredibly smooth, the battery life is amazing, screen is the best I've ever seen, the most important phone aspect for me is the camera video and photo quality, especially during the daytime.
Videos are amazing from S23 and way better than S20's, especially in terms of stabilization.
However, the daylight photos, from all cameras leaves A LOT to be desired. No matter what photo is it - well lit room, landscape, greenery, plants, moving objects, from both main and Telephoto camera are noticeably WORSE than from S20 during daytime.
Photos are noisy as hell, does not have that much details and has too much oversharpening applied. Even using fake 1,1 "tele" lens from S20, the resolved details during the daytime are just better on S20, on all available zoom ranges. Oversharpening on S23 is so strong that it literally kills some finest details sometimes and makes all photos look artificial and unnatural. S20 photos, compared to S23 look as if it S20 was from far future compared to S23.
I am incredibly disappointed as I was expecting A LOT more from phone of that kind. S20 photos are just amazing and I expected something either similar or better.
Is there any way to reduce the oversharpening and smoothen the photos so that they are not that noisy? Or maybe force S20's camera algorithms to S23?
Expert RAW is a no go for me as it takes too much time to play with to take photo. It also processes these photos too much.
Thanks,
Maciej
I came from pixel 7 and I am also dissaponted a lot from the camera although I wouldn't say my photos have noise. It's this Overusaturation that Samsung does( I have turned off scene optimizer) that gets on my nerves. Also night photos are not good. I'm thinking of switching back to pixel.
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
vzsolti said:
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
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I have it and I see only option for automatic hdr and where to give priority, speed or quality
Is there a Google cam available?
ermacwins said:
Is there a Google cam available?
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There is: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gcam-port.4553443/
vzsolti said:
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
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Click to collapse
Wow, thank you for reply!
I've been looking for something like this, although I'm not entirely convinced if there are enough options regarding eg. noise. Nevertheless, I will surely try it out and share my findings
Kindest regards,
Maciej
I have played with the Camera Assistant app and it helped a little bit indeed, but the quality is still far from perfect.
No matter what "Smoothening" level I select, there is still visible noise, but more or less "smudged" based on "Smoothening" settings. Finest details are also lost when any "Smoothening" is enabled (even the medium option).
Although there is some visible changes with Camera Assistant, I still preffer S20's photos as they are both detailed and noise-free.
I hope Samsung improves the Camera, because this is not what people should expect from the top tier Android flagships. Too bad is that March security patch does NOT include any Camera improvements.
You can also try to switch off Scene Optimizer or use Pro mode to take photos
Benoe said:
You can also try to switch off Scene Optimizer or use Pro mode to take photos
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Thank you for your reply.
Scene optimizer has been off since I first launched the camera. On pro mode the results are moreless the same - very noisy and tons of artificial oversharpening.
I've had an opportunity to compare my shots from last year's S22. I think there is less noise from S22 shots, so I believe this will get fixed by Samsung in the near future. BTW - S22's photos are still worse than my old S20's and that's the major reason I decided not to purchase S22 year ago.
I shoot and edit in RAW/DNG only. I like the S23 photo compared to my S21 phone.
Do you use Pro mode then?
Hi,
I have the same issue, as per the flagship tag, the photo quality is not that much great I would say.
Usually people taking photos just point and shoot no other special settings changes.
This camera taking 2 to 3MB picture with 12MP camera but too much noise and little blurry as well.
When I switch to 50MP 3:4mode then picture is capturing little sharpen as compared to the above 12MP camera, but it has very large size of picture around 8 to 12MB.
Even banana shape are also capturing specially on humans head.
I'm very disappointed with the camera.
If I talk about overall phone except camera then this is the best phone I have ever seen.
I don't know why every YouTuber is telling lie to us in camera department, they are saying camera is much better then the iPhone or Pixel but the real truth is this phone has very poor camera specially while capturing the photos.
My brother have Realme 9pro+ and he has taken photos on my daughter's birthday and I have taken also and I'm surprised when I saw the quality of his phone's camera photo, very sharp, no noise good quality and size is also not that much.
Thinking to buy pixel 7 or some other flagship kind of phone in exchange of this S23 because I don't this so Samsung will push the camera update on this as they are very much focused on 23ultra and they have bought every YouTuber mouth as well.
I'm very happy with the camera quality so far. This month we should receive a major camera update and it will get only better with time. I have compared the gcam output with the Samsung camera app and gcam is significantly worse. And yes I have used the config file as described.
I truly hope this match update will indeed improve the quality of the camera as this is simply bad now.
Moreover - I have also found many other issues as I keep using my S23 as a daily driver.
First - the video stabilization simply does not work. It did work once released and it was actually one of major improvements that made me amazed, but it seems like february (or march) security patch has simply destroyed this feature. The videos are completely without ANY kind of stabilization.
Second - I have noticed that the Super Slow Motion mode has a HUGE step back when compared to S20. I love this feature as this allows you, without any professional hardware, to capture interesting physical phenomenoms using just your phone, such as lighting up the lighter, break the glass/ice, or even see how the little bees' wings work. These kind of videos have always been unique to Samsung and I find them extremely interesting and I'm a huge fan of these.
While S20 did capture the real 960 frames for 1 second (quite a long of time for a smartphone), S23 captures only half a second and... it's certainly NOT 960 FPS, but rather 480 FPS artificially enriched to 960 FPS by the software.
The effect is that you can't see all the phenomenoms - bees are wingless, the glass breaks unnaturally (you clearly see it's more AI work than actual capture). I'm terribly disappointed.
Honestly I doubt this upcoming March camera patch will solve that many issues and I'm extremely disappointed that 1000 EUR phone is such a garbage in terms of camera. I agree with @Normas Interruptor
If I talk about overall phone except camera then this is the best phone I have ever seen.
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But the truth is that you can charge your battery if it's empty, you can still use the phone if it lag sometimes, you can play the games if you don't have full details. But you can't repair damaged and bad photo. Period.