Does manual focusing work on the 5X? - Nexus 5X Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

TL;DR/dream response to this post:
If anybody that has Camera FV-5 (this is the app I want to use and it seems to have the best support for MF via Camera2 API and "LENS_INFO_FOCUS_DISTANCE_CALIBRATION_CALIBRATED") could...
1. Switch to MF in FV-5
2. Set focus distance to infinity (drag the MF slider all the way to the left to the "mountain symbol")
3. Take a snap of a landscape type of scene.
I'd really like to take a look at the resulting DNG/JPEG in full size.
Long version:
I'm considering selling my Nexus 5 because the MF does not work (because of mechanical reasons) with my favorite apps "Manual Camera", "L Camera" or "Camera FV-5".
This GitHub issue comment explains why it doesn't work:
The problem relates to the fact that the focus system of the Nexus 5 is not calibrated, as the construction of the focusing system (a relatively simple spring with an electromagnet) does not allow for calibration. That means that the chip cannot know when it is on a certain position or not. If you point your phone downwards (i.e. you try to photograph your feet yourself while standing up) your phone will reach infinity (i.e. the spring will stretch farther), while pointing to the ceiling will be the worst case, and even when setting the focus position to infinity (manually) the focus will be farther away from infinity (the sprint contracts because of the lens weight). While autofocusing, the camera uses an iterative process to achieve focus, and do not rely on absolute positioning.
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My question now: will it work on the 5X, or does it suffer from the same hardware design fail? The Nexus 5X should be calibrated (says apps should be able to read "LENS_INFO_FOCUS_DISTANCE_CALIBRATION_CALIBRATED" from the Camera2 API), but right now I don't trust this information at all, since support for for basic Camera2 features in many handsets (even Googles "own") has been a big fail.
To be clear: I'm not interested in manually focusing flower macros. Manually focusing at objects at up to 1 meter or so works perfectly with the Nexus 5. It is focusing at things at a distance (or at infinity) that isn't working. I want to be able to snap pictures fast without engaging AF in a street setting (see hyperfocal distance) with the focus set to infinity. Phone cameras are well suited for this because their sensors are abysmal which results in a very deep DOF.
Thanks in advance!

@8fold Here you go...

PiousInquisitor said:
@8fold Here you go...
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Thank you!!! I'm sad to see that this picture isn't in focus though. I guess that means that Google has released yet another Nexus phone which is incapable of manual focusing. You can see what the picture should really should have looked like by turning on the AF and focusing at something distant in your scene.
I wonder though if it's possible to have a distant object in focus by setting the MF a little to the right of the mountains on the MF slider i FV-5. If there is a another position, even if it isn't "at the mountains icons", which allows distant objects to be in focus that wouldn't bother me much. If you, or somebody else, has the time/energy/curiosity to research it that would be marvelous.

Related

Initial Camera Observations

Had my first day out with the V30 yesterday and just imported the photos and videos from it to my laptop for a closer look to make some initial evaluations. With some very interesting things to note and a lot to dig into further. There's definitely some realities that need to be addressed to better manage expectations.
1) I have no f'n clue what the HDR setting is doing other than making crappy photos. Which is about the same as it was on the V20. It's completely the opposite of what it was on the Nexus 6. On the Nexus 6, if you wanted the best photos out of the Google Camera you could get, you turned on HDR and forgot about it. With LG's Camera app, it's the exact opposite. Turn it off and forget it was ever there.
I still need to figure out the mess that the Google Camera app port has become and DL a copy and see how it does with this sensor.
2) If you shoot manual, there's a noise reduction on/off switch now. Unless you have some decent NR software though or know what you want to do with grainy photos (and I think it will have its uses, I just have to find the right subject), leave it on in very low light conditions. Not only does it tame grainy noise, it also tames a bit of purple fringe that will show up in high gain (high ISO) photos once the electronics start heating up around it.
3) As to that last part of #2: We have to be realistic here. This is a tiny cellphone camera packed in with A LOT of other electronics. If you're shooting several shots in a row or long exposures, either in dark conditions at high ISO, you will see amp glow or purple fringing. It's just a reality. Even DSLRs see it.
4) Digital zoom is digital zoom. If you aren't using just the standard view of each sensor, then you are going to see the limitations of a small sensor. I don't care what cellphone you're using. None of my larger/dedicated cameras have it for many good reasons. You shouldn't expect miracles from a smaller camera.
5) The wide angle sensor actually takes pretty good shots now in most conditions! The wide angle camera on the V20 was full of so many compromises that I avoided it at all costs. If I wanted a wider view than the standard lens, I would use the pano setting on the standard lens. Which is still a great option if everything in the frame is going to sit still but it takes time and patience. It still has distortion though, just not as much as before. You can't focus the wide angle in manual mode but you can in auto. Weird. It doesn't like to focus pointing directly overhead. That was hit or miss. Same rules about the NR and HDR apply here.
6) Video AF in low low light does miss sometimes. Again, just remember this phone doesn't have all the high end AF sensors that some DSLRs have to make sure focus is nailed every single time. Somewhere there's an article about the useful range of all the AF systems on the V20, I assume it still applies to the V30. I'll dig it up if I can to help manage expectations. If I remember right, laser AF is short range, maybe 7 feet.
7) During my import of files from my phone to my laptop, some of my videos lost their audio tracks. Not sure what that's about. I don't remember which ones were auto and which ones were manual but I suspect that's the problem. All videos have sound on my phone though.
8) I suck at video. Kinda hoping to kick myself in the rear with this phone and learn more about it. There's a lot more to manage and I probably won't be happy until I figure out the whole color grading thing and get the look I want. So the log file option ought to be a nice addition.
9) I remember telling someone that I swear I saw a video somewhere of a pre-unit that had the directional mics settings in manual video. Well, I can tell you that I must have imagined that because the unit I have does not have that setting. Just sliders and windcut.
10) And I don't know where LG is hiding it but I don't see 240 fps in any settings anywhere. The fastest video setting I see is 120fps. (Remember, only at 720p) I'm guessing 240 fps is reserved for the slo-mo mode and not available in manual or auto video modes.
11) Selfie camera. Yeah, I've seen the complaints. Are you sure your ugly mugs aren't breaking the camera? I posted this in the first impressions thread and I'll post it here. First thing I suggest doing is turning down the "skin toning" and skin lighting settings. Whoever renamed skin smoothing to skin toning should be shot as that's not what I thought that setting was at all. My first thought is that it adjusted the white balance of the skin to give you a rosier glow. Nope. Skin toning will butter face the heck out of you even on basics settings. Set it to zero. After that, the image held up well to some post processing and consistently gave me selfies I actually like. They actually remind me of something that might come from..... film.
I'm going to do some more shooting today and I'll try to figure out how to post examples without making you all click through to some other site. I also need to figure out how to get the videos over sound and all so I can give them honest assessments.
Ah, I just remembered something else to look out for.
12) If you shoot in manual and have the RAW option turned on, it isn't like on a real camera where you get the RAW file and a processed version of the RAW file. It shoots two photos. This does two things. One, it means you will see lag as it is shooting two photos for each press. This gets worse with longer shutter speeds. Two, this means unless you're shooting a still life that the RAW and JPG will not match. If you're shooting action like I was last night, you will get two completely different photos.
Interesting. Thanks for you observations.
I'm a pixel owner and I love the camera. It's ace. I really want to like the v30, but so far the real world observations and initial reviews haven't sung the praises of the camera. Are you happy with the camera or is it not worth the hype?
The camera is better than the V20 and I liked that a lot. Here's the issue in a nut shell. This phone is for those that aren't happy to just let the device to everything for you like an Apple product would. If that's what you want, that's what Pixels are about. Pixel is Google's iPhone. If you want control over the creative process, that's why the V's exist. The V series is more akin to using a DSLR and Pixels are more like a point and shoot. The Pixel series they're kinda hoping you're ok with whatever the phone spits out. The V series you tweak the initial settings and decide what the phone is even going to shoot so you can tweak it more to your liking later. The V30 gives us even more control than the V20 does.
CHH2 said:
The camera is better than the V20 and I liked that a lot. Here's the issue in a nut shell. This phone is for those that aren't happy to just let the device to everything for you like an Apple product would. If that's what you want, that's what Pixels are about. Pixel is Google's iPhone. If you want control over the creative process, that's why the V's exist. The V series is more akin to using a DSLR and Pixels are more like a point and shoot. The Pixel series they're kinda hoping you're ok with whatever the phone spits out. The V series you tweak the initial settings and decide what the phone is even going to shoot so you can tweak it more to your liking later. The V30 gives us even more control than the V20 does.
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Interesting. Thanks for the summary
I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet. And is front face camera really bad?
isko01 said:
I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet. And is front face camera really bad?
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I probably still have a few more days of testing but just based off of what I've seen in my standardized shooting at the museum, LG has pulled off a miracle with this tiny little sensor.
Like I said above, you have to have realistic expectations and know what the limits are of your gear. That's what a really good photographer does though. They know how the gear works and how to use what it does but also know when it's time to use something else or accept not getting a shot.
This is a tiny sensor. The largest sensor on this whole phone is only 1/3.09". It's smaller than the main one on the V20 but it looks better. That in itself is amazing but I'm not expecting a sensor that's 1/3 the size of the sensor of my smallest camera to match it. Yet that's what some people seem to expect . Which is asinine.
Really the only "failing" I had yesterday was trying to shoot overhead in extremely dark conditions with the wide angle camera and shooting performers wearing all black on an outdoor stage in the dark with just stage lighting (which was changing colors constantly) while moving around quickly. Neither of those surprised me at all. The second condition really is the realm of DSLRs still. The first one, I'm ok with too. That said, what I did get from the second condition, I'm still surprised with.
I've only had one day with it but I think I'm going to get some surprising images out of this camera. Now to teach myself more about video editing.
And again, about the front camera. Once you set those stupid settings to the bottom, you can get more skin detail out of a photo than most people would like to see. Every crease and furrow in my brow line and forehead ,pock mark in my nose, and hairs on my head and beard. From shooting models, I can tell you a lot of people wouldn't want to see that level of detail on their face. So I have no idea what people are complaining about. It's an f'n vanity camera that most people wouldn't want to use to its full potential.
Uploaded a couple of shots. All shots are my normal workflow with a cellphone camera. Shot with the V30 and the jpegs processed in Snapseed. First one is shot with the main camera overhead in a room not known for being well lit at the museum I used to work at. In fact the only real lighting is from some LEDs in the pearl at center. The LEDs are designed to be very soft so they don't degrade the paint and woodwork. The other two shots are selfies taken with indirect sunlight being the only light source indoors. The one with back background is indirect sun through clear glass. The one with the light background is indirect sunlight through very milky glass.
Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
Seriously, I'm not sure I'd really want more detail than that. I'm actually quite please with how all of these images turned out so far. I'll try to work up some more shots from the main and wides.
Can you post some pics in a room at night with just a lamp on or something in auto mode?
EVOme said:
Can you post some pics in a room at night with just a lamp on or something in auto mode?
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I'll have to see what I can set up. That's not really a normal shot I have set-up or sitting around. I might be able to do something at work tomorrow before everyone else gets in and the whole place is blasted with light. Unfortunately, I no longer work at the museum but I might be able to make something work.
isko01 said:
I would like to but V30, all because camera. But I don't know is this camera one of the best in 2017 or it is just average camera. I see many bad comments on internet.
And is front face camera really bad?
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I'm not hijacking this thread, but you asked a specific question. There's another thread where the camera is discussed, along with other features, and @keithleger took all his in "auto" mode, to compare the two V30 back cameras, and he also compared it to the Note 8 camera which he's decided to sell.
Camera
-Excellent camera but not on par with Pixel line or Samsung. Don't get me wrong, it is a great camera and in the sunlight it is fantastic but low light it does not do as well as Note 8. Video or Stills. But it is very adequate for my needs and I prefer having the wide-angle lens over the zoom lens any day.
-The one thing that really bothered me was shutter lag at times. Sometimes when I snapped a photo it was almost instant and others I had to wait a second or so. Long enough to think I might not of pressed the button. Not sure if others have had this issue but it is troublesome. It was not isolated to taking multiple photos fairly quickly either. Sometimes first shot.
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However, he's selling the Note 8 to keep the LG V30.
He posted an album of his first weekend pictures, as well as the comparison shots to the Note 8. The V30 outside shots look FANTASTIC, and even though the Note 8seemed to do better indoors the LG V30 won at least one of the indoor shots, in my opinion.
As for selfies, he gives the same advice as @CHH2.. Turn off the enhancemet crap on the selfie camera.
keithleger said:
For selfies, if you set the skin tone and lighting effects to 0 then it is ok.
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CHH2 said:
Selfie camera. . First thing I suggest doing is turning down the "skin toning" and skin lighting settings.
Skin toning will butter face the heck out of you even on basics settings. Set it to zero.
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See, they say the same thing. The only reason I'm mentioning the other thread -- and I do not mean to hijack @CHH2 camera thread -- is because @keithleger has direct comparisons to the Note 8 camera was well as the f/1.6 and wide angle cameras on the V30. Plus he only shot in auto, and didn't do any post processing (to my knowledge).
I appreciate all the work @CHH2 has put into this thread!
CHH2 said:
I'll have to see what I can set up. That's not really a normal shot I have set-up or sitting around. I might be able to do something at work tomorrow before everyone else gets in and the whole place is blasted with light. Unfortunately, I no longer work at the museum but I might be able to make something work.
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Thanks! You don't have to go out of your way. I will have my phone tomorrow.
EVOme said:
Thanks! You don't have to go out of your way. I will have my phone tomorrow.
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I shot this real quick this morning. It's completely SOOC. Yes, you might notice something rather odd and be asking yourself, "Why didn't he rotate the image?" Well, I didn't rotate it because on my phone the image is upright and correct. Somewhere between the phone and Flickr, it got rotated. I'll be deleting this one at the end of today as it's not really something I'd normally shoot even as a reminder or novelty.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36882784984/
And just because I got lucky this morning, a little close up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37593620881/
Going to add one more photo. This one shot in probably one of the most challenging places to shoot, a jazz club. This is probably the cleanest shot I've taken in there with a cellphone. I'm impressed.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36883443574/
CHH2 said:
I shot this real quick this morning. It's completely SOOC. Yes, you might notice something rather odd and be asking yourself, "Why didn't he rotate the image?" Well, I didn't rotate it because on my phone the image is upright and correct. Somewhere between the phone and Flickr, it got rotated. I'll be deleting this one at the end of today as it's not really something I'd normally shoot even as a reminder or novelty.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36882784984/
And just because I got lucky this morning, a little close up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37593620881/
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Wow man! I have restored faith in the camera. That office shot is very sharp. For the grasshopper, are you using one of the installed filters or is a post render?
Thank you for taking those.
EVOme said:
Wow man! I have restored faith in the camera. That office shot is very sharp. For the grasshopper, are you using one of the installed filters or is a post render?
Thank you for taking those.
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You're welcome. For photos, I never use the filters in the camera apps. I always use Snapseed. It has a lot more control and much more power once you learn how to apply the various filters in combination. The grasshopper only had typical post processing that most photographers would apply; a tad sharpening that is only really noticeable when zoomed in, B&W conversion, bump in contrast, and a bump in shadows to make them a tad darker. Oh, and a crop, maybe threw away a little more than half the overall pixels from the frame as I didn't want to scare it off.
And yeah, for being such a tiny sensor, I'm impressed with the low light shooting. I still want to try shooting in the basement of the jazz club. That's usually territory that I need at least my smaller dedicated camera if not my DSLR. I won't get to try that again until this next weekend.
Decided to try something a little different. This isn't final by any means but this shows what playing around for a couple of minutes in Snapseed with just a couple quick shots can get you: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37605204891/
Looking forward to showing this to my curator friend and watching him fall off of his barstool when I tell him it was all done on one cellphone in under five minutes. (He's pretty much a film guy as is the guy who is the inspiration for this photo. Bonus points if you can name the photographer I'm copying for this photo.)
Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
.[/QUOTE]
What camera was used for those selfies? I'm not a fan of selfies but love the ones you've taken. I'd like to experiment with it and my fiance would too.thank you. Btw love you test album. Talent for sure
lg3FTW said:
Main camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/36870848874/
Dark background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/37322765870/
Light background selfie cam: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chimphappyhour/23728950428/
.
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What camera was used for those selfies? I'm not a fan of selfies but love the ones you've taken. I'd like to experiment with it and my fiance would too.thank you. Btw love you test album. Talent for sure[/QUOTE]
I used the front selfie camera with all of those silly settings at the bottom of the frame turned off, set to zero, whatever their values are. Then I just did some quick processing in Snapseed. That's pretty much it. I don't get too complex. And thank you.
Finally figured out a work around so I can hear the audio on the videos I'm importing from the phone to my laptop and can't believe I didn't think of this before. Pulled the videos from their folder over into an empty Chrome browser window and Voila! they played complete with their soundtrack!
So the following is from shooting in a dark jazz club. (Notes, not footage yet. I'll try uploading something to youtube when I figure out what, when, and how.)
Probably the most important observation I see about video from the V30 (and this actually applied to the V20 too) is that loud music can end up jostling the OIS and introduce more shake than it removes.
Another observation is that recording video while in Auto mode, you better make sure you have plenty of somewhat decent light. Tonight while playing around, the screen would be plenty bright all the way up until I hit that little red record button. Then the screen squeezes down and went dark enough that the footage was unusable. Shooting in manual video mode, I was able to get some footage. It wasn't exactly ideal settings that I was shooting with though so the footage is so-so. (Best settings I could get were ISO 3200 and a shutter speed of 1/25. My understanding is that since I had my frame rate at 24fps, I should have had a shutter speed of 1/50 but that just wasn't happening inside that place.)
In manual video mode, it really doesn't like ISO 3200 for some reason. I'd play with a setting and come back and the ISO would be set to 3150 for some reason. I'd bump it back up to 3200, go do something else, come back to 3150. I would have to make sure that's the last thing I tweaked before hitting the record button.
The audio picks up pretty much all the sounds I'm hearing. I need to sit down with headphones and see if there's extra noise being introduced. I suspect dragging the videos into the Chrome browser is exactly the best quality test. It just lets me know the audio tracks are intact in the file which I was a little worried about at first.
I still have a lot more playing around with the video as most of it is new to me.

Camera/Photography thread - tips, apps, advice

Hi, guys,
I'm coming from an Xperia Z3C, which had a camera that was pretty bad. Even though some bash the XZ1C camera, it's a lot better than what I used.
I'm no photographer and I dont' know the apps, so I'd like everyone to share what they know and use.
doriandiaconu said:
Hi, guys,
I'm coming from an Xperia Z3C, which had a camera that was pretty bad. Even though some bash the XZ1C camera, it's a lot better than what I used.
I'm no photographer and I dont' know the apps, so I'd like everyone to share what they know and use.
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Despite people putting down the stock camera, I find it does take good a picture, although using a small tripod gets the best results. This is far from idea for a phone, but just resting the phone on something solid dramtically imporves the picture.
The focusing seems to be better if you turn off 'object tracking' and although HDR is supposed to be automatic in the auto mode, I tend to shoot in manual with HDR enabled. The predictive capture is a good & useful tool. I wasn't sure when I first saw it introduced, but it does a burst shot when it gets triggered by a smile and dramtically increases your chances of getting a great picture.
My favorite post proccessing app is SKRWT. I love taking landscapes and this is great for straightening things or there are some funky mirror effects.
Didgesteve said:
Despite people putting down the stock camera, I find it does take good a picture, although using a small tripod gets the best results. This is far from idea for a phone, but just resting the phone on something solid dramtically imporves the picture.
The focusing seems to be better if you turn off 'object tracking' and although HDR is supposed to be automatic in the auto mode, I tend to shoot in manual with HDR enabled. The predictive capture is a good & useful tool. I wasn't sure when I first saw it introduced, but it does a burst shot when it gets triggered by a smile and dramtically increases your chances of getting a great picture.
My favorite post proccessing app is SKRWT. I love taking landscapes and this is great for straightening things or there are some funky mirror effects.
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What about the resolution? Many people avoid the 19MP resolution for different reasons.
doriandiaconu said:
What about the resolution? Many people avoid the 19MP resolution for different reasons.
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19MP is the only resolution. It's the native size of the sensor, meaning you get one=one. Anything else is derived from a software interpretation.
People seem to be obsessed by letterbox, perhaps because that's the way they watch TV. If you don't like the square shape of a 19MP picture, then edit it afterwards, but a least get the best quality you can to start with.
I've taken some decent shots with Open Camera. I like its DRO mode (dynamic range optimization). Haven't had much luck with stock camera app, although I'm a fan of the wide angle selfie camera.
the camera is good not more... not a lot of choices in creative mode, iA can't be customized, "macro" focus at 10 cm... at least it's pretty fast
I use the stock app, mainly in manual mode without object tracking (with that setting on I find the focus is a little inaccurate, maybe just an impression).
Overall i would say the app has all you need to take a photo plus a couple of nice features (like autofocus burst mode and predictive capture).
Any tips on what kind of exposure and ISO to use in manual mode? My pics always come out blurry.
Edit: For example, would the tips here apply? https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz/how-to/xperia-xz-camera-how-to-optimize-manual-t3534640
Sounds like most people are saying choose a low ISO and EV a little below 1.
I'm particularly interested in tips or settings that don't require a tripod, because I don't own one. And I think it's unrealistic to expect people to use a tripod to take decent phone pics.
I had a big night shootout in Frankfurt with XZ1c and Galaxy s8. Im not good in photography and all shoots are in Auto mode. Couple of shoots are manipulated in Adobe Lightroom in Auto light and color corections. They names started with LLR....
What You think?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUQIYsKXGg5tGugK2
propov said:
I had a big night shootout in Frankfurt with XZ1c and Galaxy s8. Im not good in photography and all shoots are in Auto mode. Couple of shoots are manipulated in Adobe Lightroom in Auto light and color corections. They names started with LLR....
What You think?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUQIYsKXGg5tGugK2
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I'm no photography expert, but I could see the difference instantly on most of these. The XZ1c photos were blurry and seemed improperly exposed. The S8 wasn't perfect, but it was generally a lot sharper. This basically mirrors my experience with the XZ1c and my previous phone that had a better camera, HTC 10.
Has anyone installed AOSP and got the Pixel's camera apk working on the xz1c? This is my main motivation for going the root -> rom route.
Take a picture of a green lawn or of leafy trees, and there's often an unpleasant, slightly smeary watercolor-like effect. Is it possible that using another camera application would prevent this processing effect?
Hello,
I am sorry in case this has been covered so far. I did not find it.
I have a custom ROM (RR6), but would like to use the stock Camera mainly for the slow motion 960fps video recording. It seems to be possible via this topic:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...-apps/app-xperia-xzs-panorama-camera-t3577514
But even if it worked, it would replace the custom ROM's Camera, which I'd like to keep. Is there a way to run these two Cameras side by side?
Or should I use another 3rd party app that does the slo-mo job?
Thanks a lot for anz advidce!
vhatp said:
Hello,
I am sorry in case this has been covered so far. I did not find it.
I have a custom ROM (RR6), but would like to use the stock Camera mainly for the slow motion 960fps video recording. It seems to be possible via this topic:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...-apps/app-xperia-xzs-panorama-camera-t3577514
But even if it worked, it would replace the custom ROM's Camera, which I'd like to keep. Is there a way to run these two Cameras side by side?
Or should I use another 3rd party app that does the slo-mo job?
Thanks a lot for anz advidce!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea thats my concern as well. I am not sure if drm fix can re-enable the 960fps slow mo or is it gone for good after unlocking bootloader. If only we can get gcam and stock camera run together

Galaxy A70 has 8MP Main camera and not 32MP? Attention everyone

I've been using the A70 for about a week. I interacted with some A70 owners and they said that the phone had 8MP main camera and not the 32MP main camera. I gave a try to some hardware info apps and all showed 8MP camera at the back and 5.2MP camera on the front. What's wrong here? The phone is showing wrong info or it just has an 8MP camera. Can everyone confirm this?
I have also made a video on it. I'm just trying to get an answer from all the Galaxy A70 owners about their experience with this phone.
You can check it here: https://youtu.be/tOM9oNWV_rQ
I wish I'm wrong on this, Everyone please drop your comments.
No, it really is a 32mp camera module. Samsung, for whatever reason, have crammed the 32mp option in a submenu inside the camera app. Tap on the format button and choose 3:4H. Now you'll be able to use the full resolution of the camera.
Just be aware that - I don't know why - HDR does not work in 32mp mode.
All I can say is that pictures taken in low light conditions are amongst the worst I have seen. Absolutely terrible picture quality worthy of a 100$ budget phone not a premium 400$ phone.
Even my 3 years old A9 Pro 2016 has better low light capability.
Sufyan3D said:
All I can say is that pictures taken in low light conditions are amongst the worst I have seen. Absolutely terrible picture quality worthy of a 100$ budget phone not a premium 400$ phone.
Even my 3 years old A9 Pro 2016 has better low light capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that. I don't know why Samsung had to cripple their camera module this hard via software. Using Gcam though, the camera does produce great results in low light!
Irrespective of MP number, picture quality isn't great for sub $400 phone. Can they fix with software update? or need to change phone?
um009 said:
I've been using the A70 for about a week. I interacted with some A70 owners and they said that the phone had 8MP main camera and not the 32MP main camera. I gave a try to some hardware info apps and all showed 8MP camera at the back and 5.2MP camera on the front. What's wrong here? The phone is showing wrong info or it just has an 8MP camera. Can everyone confirm this?
I have also made a video on it. I'm just trying to get an answer from all the Galaxy A70 owners about their experience with this phone.
I wish I'm wrong on this, Everyone please drop your comments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually wrote a post about this, didn´t see yours, was too eager to write my first post here I guess. The camera uses a new Samsung technology which only works if you choose 4:3H aspect ratio, there is no way to choose file size for each respective ratio. The pictures are hardware 4 x 8MP rendered and since the technology is new all third party camera and HW info apps only view the 8 MP .. not the x4 tetracell technology which works and is implemented in an abysmal manner.
---------- Post added at 11:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 PM ----------
Jason379 said:
No, it really is a 32mp camera module. Samsung, for whatever reason, have crammed the 32mp option in a submenu inside the camera app. Tap on the format button and choose 3:4H. Now you'll be able to use the full resolution of the camera.
Just be aware that - I don't know why - HDR does not work in 32mp mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if one usually only uses 16:9 aspect ratio? .. limited to 8 MP? ... I call that false advertising.
Jason379 said:
I second that. I don't know why Samsung had to cripple their camera module this hard via software. Using Gcam though, the camera does produce great results in low light!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell us wich version of Gcam u use, and where to find it ?
Edit: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1U0aSgKE for example.
Seems like at the moment Gcam is only better for taking photo's in low light......
Snoete said:
Can you tell us wich version of Gcam u use, and where to find it ?
Edit: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1U0aSgKE for example.
Seems like at the moment Gcam is only better for taking photo's in low light......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I used this version of Gcam:
S10_1_MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova_TlnNeun_V1.3.030119.0 645.apk
You can find it on Androidfilehost, for example. Works like a charm on my A70. Lots of settings are actually possible - just don't try to 'force 4K on front camera' mode - it'll make the app crash all the time. Other than that, Gcam really is way better than the stock camera app and HDR+ works really really good, too. Only downside - pics are limited to 8MP at the moment, but when using RAW, it's not a big deal at all.
Jason379 said:
Hi,
I used this version of Gcam:
S10_1_MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova_TlnNeun_V1.3.030119.0 645.apk
You can find it on Androidfilehost, for example. Works like a charm on my A70. Lots of settings are actually possible - just don't try to 'force 4K on front camera' mode - it'll make the app crash all the time. Other than that, Gcam really is way better than the stock camera app and HDR+ works really really good, too. Only downside - pics are limited to 8MP at the moment, but when using RAW, it's not a big deal at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the samd apk, does your night mode shots also crash the app ?
Download this Gcam mod to get full working night mode on the A70:
MGC_6.1.021_MI8_V2e
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=1395089523397887533
Make sure you make a few necessary changes in app settings by following this video:
https://youtu.be/0cRMt39V8Po
Getting great low light shots with this mod. Other Apks crash when taking a photo in night mode.
Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.
NexusPenguin said:
Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, this phones's cameras suck.
You can choose high resolution mode (32mp) by tapping on the small 3:4 button then choosing 3:4H (H stands for high quality or high resolution).
There is an update rolling in India right now which promises to improve camera quality.
Sufyan3D said:
Agreed, this phones's cameras suck.
You can choose high resolution mode (32mp) by tapping on the small 3:4 button then choosing 3:4H (H stands for high quality or high resolution).
There is an update rolling in India right now which promises to improve camera quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds very promising. In the meantime, use the app 'open camera' for 100% JPG quality or even full size RAW output. It's got fully manual controls, too.
Yes, it looks like camera software improvements are coming soon:
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pushes_first_software_update_for_the_galaxy_a70-news-37147.php
We'll have to wait to see how much it's improved...
SAMSUNG A70 CAMERA Poor Quality images and videos
I just bought Samsung a70, and the camera gives very poor images for 738 kb sizes only. I bought that mobile from samsung site, how to return the mobile. any help.
i am more than disappointed with the main camera...it is below any standards for modern phones...even my no name chinese phone couple of years old is making better photos....it is a shame for samsung to produce such half hearted pathetic camera...photos are smudgy, soft, and lack sharpness...auto focus is sluggish and in most cases you don't know is it even work...my old phone has clear green square signs all over screen which shows if photo is in focus or not, here you don't know what is going on...samsung is trying to impress all of us with 32mp number, but it is pathetic as well...i have tried some of the gcam camera and results are clearly better....so, it is obvious samsung is treating customers badly and sell them inferior camera not only to direct competition regarding price, but camera which is even worse than cameras in 50 dollars no name chinese phones...to say i am feeling cheated is understatement...
to be honest, live focus/blur/portrait mode is doing very good job?? how come? it looks like samsung is artificially made camera bad and not even try to make things better through software changes...
i would like to hear your thoughts about it? are you feeling cheated and disappointed about main camera in a70?
Tactman said:
i am more than disappointed with the main camera...it is below any standards for modern phones...even my no name chinese phone couple of years old is making better photos....it is a shame for samsung to produce such half hearted pathetic camera...photos are smudgy, soft, and lack sharpness...auto focus is sluggish and in most cases you don't know is it even work...my old phone has clear green square signs all over screen which shows if photo is in focus or not, here you don't know what is going on...samsung is trying to impress all of us with 32mp number, but it is pathetic as well...i have tried some of the gcam camera and results are clearly better....so, it is obvious samsung is treating customers badly and sell them inferior camera not only to direct competition regarding price, but camera which is even worse than cameras in 50 dollars no name chinese phones...to say i am feeling cheated is understatement...
to be honest, live focus/blur/portrait mode is doing very good job?? how come? it looks like samsung is artificially made camera bad and not even try to make things better through software changes...
i would like to hear your thoughts about it? are you feeling cheated and disappointed about main camera in a70?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back camera is simply bad.
Front camera is very good and specially in night. All I would like to change in that phone is the back camera which I do not really understand why Samsung are doing this....
Samsung A70 32MP camera (top camera) is not working
All cameras the 8MP, 5MP and the front camera are working. Im sure they are working because I tried blocking each one depending on settings. But I cant seem to find the settings on how will the top camera will work. I tried the 3:4H ratio already but its the middle camera that is being utilized. For the wide angle, it is the bottom back camera. How can I utilize the top camera at the back?
Engrfusi said:
All cameras the 8MP, 5MP and the front camera are working. Im sure they are working because I tried blocking each one depending on settings. But I cant seem to find the settings on how will the top camera will work. I tried the 3:4H ratio already but its the middle camera that is being utilized. For the wide angle, it is the bottom back camera. How can I utilize the top camera at the back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, top camera's job is depth. You can use it with live focus.
32MP one is in the middle of them. It's the main camera.
And bottom camera is wide angle as you knew.
NexusPenguin said:
Hi,
I must say that, whatever the causes, the pictures taken by this device are simply horrible.
I am not one of those so called photographers that is looking for the absolute colour reproduction and the sharpness of 10X real life.
I just want to have some pictures for moments I want to remember.
But even for that, this device doesn't do the job
All pictures are blurry, out of focus...
I can't even set the picture quality in the settings of the camera app.
I just can set the aspect ratio (in the Photo part) and the video resolution in the settings.
But no way to set the number of pixels I want for the pictures.
That is another dark side of this device that looked so promising on paper but doesn't deliver at all.
So goes Samsung... and device will be sent back to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this phone a70 is a total lie.
it has a 8 magapixel awful camera.
it is absolutely not 32 megapixel by hardware. maybe it is 32 megapixel by software.
photos have no details, overprocessed, photos are washed out. like a watercolor paint. there are no textures. all textures are washed out.
colors are either too washy or either too bright.
low light performance is among the worst.
SAMSUNG, DO YOU KNOW THE WORD CALIBRATION???
and by 6 months this lier company released to market after A10,A20,A30,A40,A50,A60,A70,A80,A90 the s variants.
A10s,A20s,A30s,A40s,A50s,A60s,A70s etc.
now they have released the 1 variants.
A11,A21,A31,A41,A61,A71 etc etc
this samsung company is a total lier. hoax company.
trying to dominate the market by flooding with fake phones almost all the same hardware... market lies.
incomplete products, incomplete software, full of bugs, full of bloatware...
and i forgot they have the M10,M20,M30 as well as M20s,M30s....
pufffff LIER HOAX COMPANY SAMSUNG.

Note 10+ camera - smeared looking photos

Is anyone having camera issues?
For whatever reason, when I try to take a photo of my dog, the face looks smeared. Roughly 80-90% of the time. While on my iphone it looks great...I'm kinda bummed out about this and wondering if this is either an issue with my unit, or if this is a common thing with Samsung.
Also, just for some more info, I've tried turning on/off hdr, scene optimizer, and whenever I am ready to take a picture, it looks stunning. Then I hit the shutter button, and it turns out like poop. Barely half the quality of what it looked like before I hit the shutter button.
Here are two pics to compare so you can see what I mean. If anyone has any info regarding this please let me know, thanks.
Samsung
Iphone
resetoriginal said:
Is anyone having camera issues?
For whatever reason, when I try to take a photo of my dog, the face looks smeared. Roughly 80-90% of the time. While on my iphone it looks great...I'm kinda bummed out about this and wondering if this is either an issue with my unit, or if this is a common thing with Samsung.
Also, just for some more info, I've tried turning on/off hdr, scene optimizer, and whenever I am ready to take a picture, it looks stunning. Then I hit the shutter button, and it turns out like poop. Barely half the quality of what it looked like before I hit the shutter button.
Here are two pics to compare so you can see what I mean. If anyone has any info regarding this please let me know, thanks.
Samsung
Iphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have always seen this happen on Samsung phones (S8, S9, and S10) when taking pictures in certain lighting situations. Especially inside when taking pictures of a rug or anything slightly fluffy. It is as if it is trying to apply the beauty mode to everything.
Try to get the AF to lock on to the animal's eyes.
A good pro cam can most times; it's a small but high contrast target.
-If you don't grab the eye(s) you lose the shot-
I haven't done any research how this cam's AF works; normally you would point focus AF although it may still target the hair as it's a high contrast target too.
There are a lot of high contrast targets in this shot, the dog's nose, that chair, the dog's hair and the floor boards. Try to limit potential AF targets by keeping the composure simpler and less cluttered with high contrast targets if you intend on capturing a face with the eyes in focus.
Getting closer to the subject makes an AF lock on the eye more likely. Try punching up the yellow focus/tracking square.
Worse with this cam's large aperture it makes for a shallow DOF which means a spot on focus is needed. The aperture setting is fixed so you can't stop it down to something reasonable like f/5.6 however this cam is sharpest at it's fixed aperture. Backing up therefore may help get more of the subject in focus. You need to learn to see through the camera's eye, as it sees rather than your eyes.
It is much more limited than the superb human visual system...
Manual focus is sometimes the only sure fire way to do it. In the pro mode it does have manual focus but lacks the smooth ring control of a good piece of glass found on stand alone cam systems.
A trade off... it's only a smartphone.
First, nice looking dog.
A couple of questions.
What were the lighting conditions?
Was your dog moving?
Sent from my SM-T727V using Tapatalk
Samsung applies way to much noise reduction destroying the details of a photo. This is why it appears like that. Also, there's nasty shutter lag with the stock cam...so you press the shutter to take the pic but it doesn't happen right away simply because hdr is always on no matter if you have the switch off or not. Basically Samsung have rendered there stock camera useless. Get the latest GCam port from arnova....all problems solved.

Question No zoom lens until 5x

So I noticed that the zoom lens only activates at 5x zoom. You can see this by covering the lens with your finger and zooming in.
I gather this must mean that the optical 4x lens is fixed at 4x, but as it only kicks in at 5x zoom you can never get 4x optical zoom shots as it is cropped to 5x ?
This would also mean that up to 5x zoom you are just getting a digital crop of the main lens?
Am I missing something here? Seems a little weird that you cant get a 4x optical shot with a 4x optical lens fitted.
rosso22 said:
So I noticed that the zoom lens only activates at 5x zoom. You can see this by covering the lens with your finger and zooming in.
I gather this must mean that the optical 4x lens is fixed at 4x, but as it only kicks in at 5x zoom you can never get 4x optical zoom shots as it is cropped to 5x ?
This would also mean that up to 5x zoom you are just getting a digital crop of the main lens?
Am I missing something here? Seems a little weird that you cant get a 4x optical shot with a 4x optical lens fitted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googles periscope lens doesn't kick in a "fixed" manner, it uses an algorithm (ambient light, shaking, distance to object etc) to decide "on its own" when to kick in the dedicated zoom lens. You can easily test this out/replicate this by lowering the light in your room/and or change your distance to your desired object and see that the point where periscope lens kicks in, changes.
Best just try to focus on the amount of details you can see, if you play around with it, you can quickly see through the Preview when periscope kicks in, since that will improve the amount of details in your preview window significantly.
Many people here want "fixed" values, but as of now, Google doesn't offer that.
This is also a big problem in reviews, since those people don't know about this limitation and you can often see a "here, 4x shot, not looking good" and my eyes tell me "jea, that's a digital crop, you m*ron" and none are the wiser.
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
The deciding factor on whether it's digital zoom or the telephoto lens is the distance of the object. I estimate the telephoto lens minimum focus distance is around 4 feet. As you go between close and far objects, you can see the stutter between the digital 4x and telephoto 4x. You could always cover the either the main lens or telephoto and figure it out too. What they really need to do is add an icon in the camera app that lets you know it's 4x digital zoom or 4x telephoto.
This isn't something that's only unique to the 6 Pro.
EeZeEpEe said:
What they really need to do is add an icon in the camera app that lets you know it's 4x digital zoom or 4x telephoto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I think that's the best solution for now, let people know what they have at the moment.
rosso22 said:
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The threshold in the HAL is at about 4.3x provided that all the other requirements for the switch are met. You can see the image "jump" slightly when it crosses the threshold because the image characteristics do not match perfectly. So yes, you can definitely tell which sensor it is using.
The reason why they don't alert you to which sensor it is using is because they (gooble) think they're smarter than you and better able to pick the right sensor.
Another thing to keep in mind is if the 4x telephoto was the default, anything too close would be immediately blurry. Then how do you switch to a digital zoom?
They could just give us a way of selecting the lens in use manually. Instead of treating us all like idiots.
rosso22 said:
They could just give us a way of selecting the lens in use manually. Instead of treating us all like idiots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck with that. Truly given the way the entire world is being run right now, its pretty clear that the vast majority of people *ARE* idiots. And that is putting it mildly. So best way to make money is to sell to the majority, who are stupid enough to trust government -- those people clearly can't think for themselves.
rosso22 said:
So your saying you never know whether you will get a crop or an optical zoom shot at 4x, this makes the 4x lens pointless imho.
Google are basically stopping you using a feature of the phone whenever you want. If every zoom shot is a gamble on cropped or optical, decided by the phone, surely they are stopping you from getting the best performance from the camera every shot/zoom length.
If I choose a 4x shot I want optical every time or I may as well have bought the 6 instead of the pro and saved some money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, return your pro and get the 6. be happier.
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
MacGuy2006 said:
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have 4k60fps enabled?
For some odd reason, Google only allows the dedicated sensors to kick in if you use 30fps, since both the ultrawide and Tele module do not support 4k60fps.
So if you zoom in whilst having 4k60fps enabled, it will always be a digital zoom.
This is one of the most annoying features. The 4x lense can focus as reasonably close range but the "ai" deciding to either crop and main lense or switch to the periscope is crap.
You can trick it by switching to 4x and focusing on a distant object and back again and hope it's just within range.
People ask why use it so close, but the 4x can really aid in composing a shot without the wide distortions.
Another issue is if you adjust anything like HDR or temperature on the main lense and switch focal length to other options it doesn't switch to the actual lense you want anymore!!
MacGuy2006 said:
It's worse on video. I took a supposedly 4x video of my dog and it looks terrible. Pixelated, oversharpened and unusable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't use the telephoto sensor for video. Only the other two.
86rickard said:
This is one of the most annoying features. The 4x lense can focus as reasonably close range but the "ai" deciding to either crop and main lense or switch to the periscope is crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my book, that's an idiotic "feature" and is in fact a bug.
It makes zooming in day-to-day use unusable in most common cases.
When I zoomed to 4x and took a video, the result (1080) was not usable. It's a joke.
I think the conclusion here is the entire camera system really needs work. The hardware is better but the software is letting it down. Jerky transitions, bugs and a processing algorithm left over from the lower quality sensor days that actually over works the 50mp images.
96carboard said:
You can't use the telephoto sensor for video. Only the other two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you can. I just tested it by setting it to 4x, making sure I'm focused on something far enough, and blocking the telephoto lens does block the picture.
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app; the one thing they could do to make it perfect is give you control over when the periscope kicks in. If anyone here knows the people working on this, please mention this. The mod is here, btw — you really should try it! The version you want is 8.3.252-V1c_MWP:
MWP GCam APKs - Google Camera Port
Modified Google Camera app by MWP.
www.celsoazevedo.com
Gnaius said:
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app; the one thing they could do to make it perfect is give you control over when the periscope kicks in. If anyone here knows the people working on this, please mention this. The mod is here, btw — you really should try it! The version you want is 8.3.252-V1c_MWP:
MWP GCam APKs - Google Camera Port
Modified Google Camera app by MWP.
www.celsoazevedo.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That may not actually be an option. The hal only presents one logical camera on that side of the phone and transparently switches between the sensors based on the level of zoom requested, and an assortment of other data.
I haven't looked into what the hal looks like, is it open source? If it is, presumably it could be modified to present 3 or 4 logical cameras (I.e. 3 individual + 1 combined).
Gnaius said:
Just discussing this elsewhere, with regard to the MWP GCam mod. This is a *serious* improvement over the stock app;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is it an improvement?
Testing zoom, it still uses the main lens on 1x, 2x ad 4x. Just like the stock camera does.
This is another reason to dislike this phone and to recommend against buying it.

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