How can I (or how did you) improve the Note 3's camera? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3

That's the main drawback of an N3 now, for me. The rest of the phone still works great even in late 2017, but the camera really falls short of newer models.
How do you improve camera performance on your Note 3? (Not just changing quality from 95 to 100 or whatever, but the actual picture-taking ability, like focus speed and minimizing blur or taking better low-light pictures). Do you use a different app? Is there a combination of stock settings that works for you?
More observations:
The Note 2 had a particular low-light mode (Candlelight?) that slowed shutter speed and made low-light pictures much better. I haven't seen anything similar on the Note 3. Am I just missing something?
The Note 2 seemed to have more control over blur-vs.-brightness. I didn't care if pictures were dark as long as they were mostly sharp. Note 3 seems to prioritize brightness over freezing fast motion, no matter how I change ISO, low-light detection, stabilization, etc. How do you capture fast motion?
I've tried practically every N3 ROM with an S7/N7/S8/N8 camera app and can't find a single one that does tap-focus at the same speed as N4 camera apps. If you use the S/N 7/8 cameras and tap on the screen, there's half-to-full-second delay before it finishes focusing. I've tried this on a bunch of ROMs on several different N3 handsets. Same delay with S7/N7/S8/N8 cameras. I guess it doesn't matter if the above observations still apply, but I'm sharing in case anyone's had the same headache.

Note3 Camera Improvements
Improvements to the camera are ROM/Kernel dependent. -- And unless it's a well hidden ROM, I think I've at least kicked the tires on anything I could successfully install and run on my N900T.
Are you looking for 'just' a camera improvement, or do you include video in your search? -- I believe the newer DarkLord ROM's boast 60fps with the Note3. Although dated, there are still some pretty good youtube videos out there that talk about camera and vid firmware.
As far as focus speed, blur, low-light, etc. goes, are you using the original OS app? -- (Not a sales pitch) I've found that CameraFX does a far better job querying the camera2 api than anything else out there, Modded or not.
Well, it looks like I'm still not able to upload images, being too new or something. If you're interested, leave me a PM, and I'll figure out a way to get you a few screenshots and more information on the camera. The Note3 still rocks the planet, and although I understand the reasons why, It's still sad to see so many great dev teams leaving the Note3 for the newer models that are essentially just retreading what the Note3 offers for right at $200.00
Good luck!
O's said:
That's the main drawback of an N3 now, for me. The rest of the phone still works great even in late 2017, but the camera really falls short of newer models.
How do you improve camera performance on your Note 3? (Not just changing quality from 95 to 100 or whatever, but the actual picture-taking ability, like focus speed and minimizing blur or taking better low-light pictures). Do you use a different app? Is there a combination of stock settings that works for you?
More observations:
The Note 2 had a particular low-light mode (Candlelight?) that slowed shutter speed and made low-light pictures much better. I haven't seen anything similar on the Note 3. Am I just missing something?
The Note 2 seemed to have more control over blur-vs.-brightness. I didn't care if pictures were dark as long as they were mostly sharp. Note 3 seems to prioritize brightness over freezing fast motion, no matter how I change ISO, low-light detection, stabilization, etc. How do you capture fast motion?
I've tried practically every N3 ROM with an S7/N7/S8/N8 camera app and can't find a single one that does tap-focus at the same speed as N4 camera apps. If you use the S/N 7/8 cameras and tap on the screen, there's half-to-full-second delay before it finishes focusing. I've tried this on a bunch of ROMs on several different N3 handsets. Same delay with S7/N7/S8/N8 cameras. I guess it doesn't matter if the above observations still apply, but I'm sharing in case anyone's had the same headache.
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Click to collapse

dangmouse said:
Improvements to the camera are ROM/Kernel dependent. -- And unless it's a well hidden ROM, I think I've at least kicked the tires on anything I could successfully install and run on my N900T.
Are you looking for 'just' a camera improvement, or do you include video in your search? -- I believe the newer DarkLord ROM's boast 60fps with the Note3. Although dated, there are still some pretty good youtube videos out there that talk about camera and vid firmware.
As far as focus speed, blur, low-light, etc. goes, are you using the original OS app? -- (Not a sales pitch) I've found that CameraFX does a far better job querying the camera2 api than anything else out there, Modded or not.
Well, it looks like I'm still not able to upload images, being too new or something. If you're interested, leave me a PM, and I'll figure out a way to get you a few screenshots and more information on the camera. The Note3 still rocks the planet, and although I understand the reasons why, It's still sad to see so many great dev teams leaving the Note3 for the newer models that are essentially just retreading what the Note3 offers for right at $200.00
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks, and agreed on every point!
Mainly seeking camera improvement, but video's a nice bonus! I'm pretty loyal to MagMa, but I might check out DarkLord.
I've read about CameraFX. Might have to fork over the few bucks and buy it if it's really worth it. I'm on the N4 camera app (S7/N7/etc. cameras on N3 have too long of a focus delay when you tap the screen to focus). N4 camera app's fine, but I'd just like some better all-around performance, and I swear the N3 has the power. Like you said, it's still a great performer in every measure. I know a camera can only be improved so much, but I figured the right app might make it sing more. I'll look into CameraFX. Thank you!

Related

Front camera issues on some phones (Results of detailed testing)

First of all let me say that my only reason for conducting these tests is to bring attention to any issues I find, so that they can be addressed by Samsung and T-Mobile. I am just the messenger, don't shoot.
If you have not seen the results of my display tests for this phone, I encourage to you to check them out here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1320942
I conducted the following tests with 4 phones. 2 Sprint Galaxy S II phones and 2 T-Mobile Galaxy S II phones. Now let's see how our phone compares with the Sprint phone when it comes to the front camera.
1. Front camera test using DSLR
For this test I borrowed some data from my earlier display test. All 4 phones were switched to front camera and the camera settings were reset to default. I then put the phones down on a table and took a picture with my Canon 60D.
Needless to say, this looks really really bad for T-Mobile sets. This is the test that gave me the idea that something else was going on here in addition to the well known screen problems of the T-Mobile/Telus phone. As we will shortly see, the T-Mobile phone is suffering from a double whammy of screen and camera problems in this test.
2. Low light test
For this test I lined up some random objects on the floor and took pictures using all 4 phones. The room was lit by one CFL bulb, pointed in the opposite direction of the objects being photographed. The camera settings were reset to factory settings. I used the 2-second timer to take pictures from the front camera. The EXIF data on all the pictures is identical. Please keep in mind that this test used jpeg data from the phone camera. And the screen defects played no role. Full size, un-edited pictures are available if you click on an image below.
Camera maker : SAMSUNG
Camera model : Sprint: SPH-D710 T-Mobile: SGH-T989
F-stop : f/2.8
Exposure time: 1/8 sec.
ISO speed : ISO-400
3. High light test
For this test I repeated test 2 above. But opened up the curtains to let the light in from outside and pointed the CFL bulb towards the objects being photographed.
Conclusion
And the parade of tears continues. Like the display, the front camera loses the battle badly. The hardware is supposed to be identical. Why does the T-Mobile continue to perform poorly? Was the QA team sleeping at the wheel?
The low light test probably needs no analysis. It is easy to see that the pictures from the T-Mobile phone are just plain dark. In the bright light test, if one is not paying attention it would be easy to overlook the washed out colors in the pictures produced by the T-Mobile camera.
I'll continue to update this post as additional data on the performance of front facing camera becomes available.
man im getting very disappointed with my phone, tmo users always getting the short end of the stick..
Wow, this is really eye-opening. I'm assuming you wiped off the lens on both phones before the tests? The T-Mobile one almost looks like it's shooting through a haze.
Also, has anyone done a comparison on the rear-facing cameras?
Both phones have the same parts... Just different processor. Im really starting to believe its a software issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Dont forget to thank this guy for his hard work WOW. Still trying to get someone with some followers to voice a concern about this.
I noticed this a little too, but I totally overlooked it.. I will probably never use the front facing camera on any device... But it does both me that t-mobile devices are worse quality... Might as well purchase it at walmart
I seriously think I am going to side step to the Galaxy Nexus when it is available, mostly for the screen issues on Tmo GS2...
Well first of all no need for a separate thread for this ffc for all phones are crap. Second of all you need more precise test. Like see if Samsung and T-Mobile are using the Same screen manufacturer. You can see this by typing dsmeg. In terminal emulator. You have to remember that you have tested I say about 7-8 devices. Not all of them. Xda is about 1% of a total population that has Samsung galaxy 2
---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------
phewizzo said:
Both phones have the same parts... Just different processor. Im really starting to believe its a software issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
SuperCurio the developer for voodoo screen tuning said this himself. We are missing the MdNie chip for processing the screen due to the chipset switch. Meaning Hardware.We emulate the chip in our phones using the Qualcomm MDP. Like i said it may can be fixed by getting better emulation software and samsung reworking the drivers for optimization for the screen. The closest update we have is the wifi calling update which will probably bring various bug fixes as well for the samsung galaxy s2.
I've done some video chat over Skype in the last few days and this has been the best front facing camera that I have ever used. People have noticed a much clearer and smoother image from the SGS2 FFC than from the 3 different PC webcams that I use. I don't know much about the Sprint version, but I've been very happy with ours.
Hopefully they will release an update to fix it...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
phewizzo said:
Both phones have the same parts... Just different processor. Im really starting to believe its a software issue.
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Click to collapse
I have the same opinion.
Killbynature said:
Well first of all no need for a separate thread for this
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We are talking about two separate issues here. You can use the camera to take a picture and analyze on a separate studio display. The phone screen does not play a part here. And any defects with the screen should be discussed separately.
ffc for all phones are crap.
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If all FFCs are crap then how come the Sprint Galaxy S II is taking better pictures with the same camera hardware?
Second of all you need more precise test. Like see if Samsung and T-Mobile are using the Same screen manufacturer. You can see this by typing dsmeg. In terminal emulator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is easy to sit back and point fingers at the data that somebody put a lot of effort to produce. It identifies problems in this device so that they can be fixed. Samsung, T-Mobile and much of user community of this phone are oblivious to these issues.
What you say here is irrelevant and absolutely does not matter. The question I set out to answer was:
"Does the front camera on T-Mobile Galaxy S II take better or worse pictures than Sprint Galaxy S II". I answered that with my research and shared the results with everybody else.
You are very welcome to run your own tests and share the results with us. Additionally if you are going to ask others to go on wild goose chases for you, perhaps you should attempt to meet them halfway. I am assuming that you have the same T-Mobile phone as I, you can parse the dmesg as well as anybody else. Tell us what screen we are using. And we'll go from there.
SuperCurio the developer for voodoo screen tuning said this himself. We are missing the MdNie chip for processing the screen due to the chipset switch. Meaning Hardware.We emulate the chip in our phones using the Qualcomm MDP. Like i said it may can be fixed by getting better emulation software and samsung reworking the drivers for optimization for the screen.
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And how did you connect mDNIe to the front facing camera? I am not saying that it is not relevant, but I am curious to know if you have any real information connecting the two or if you are spouting nonsense again.
manekineko said:
Wow, this is really eye-opening. I'm assuming you wiped off the lens on both phones before the tests? The T-Mobile one almost looks like it's shooting through a haze.
Also, has anyone done a comparison on the rear-facing cameras?
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Click to collapse
All 4 phones were wiped clean. They are like new to begin with.
I do not know of any comparison performed on the rear facing camera with the Sprint phone. I might do that one day, if there is enough demand.
Splaktar said:
I've done some video chat over Skype in the last few days and this has been the best front facing camera that I have ever used. People have noticed a much clearer and smoother image from the SGS2 FFC than from the 3 different PC webcams that I use. I don't know much about the Sprint version, but I've been very happy with ours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera on the phones is better than the 0.3 megapixel cameras on most netbooks and notebook computers. However performs poorly under low light and renders colors incorrectly. In some use cases (e.g. plenty of light) many users will not notice an issue. Specially when they have not seen the output of the equivalent camera on the Sprint phone.
In short, the camera produces decent output for a front facing camera. But it can be much much better!
And that is the goal here. To wake up Samsung.
cheema said:
We are talking about two separate issues here. You can use the camera to take a picture and analyze on a separate studio display. The phone screen does not play a part here. And any defects with the screen should be discussed separately.
If all FFCs are crap then how come the Sprint Galaxy S II is taking better pictures with the same camera hardware?
It is easy to sit back and point fingers at the data that somebody put a lot of effort to produce. It identifies problems in this device so that they can be fixed. Samsung, T-Mobile and much of user community of this phone are oblivious to these issues.
What you say here is irrelevant and absolutely does not matter. The question I set out to answer was:
"Does the front camera on T-Mobile Galaxy S II take better or worse pictures than Sprint Galaxy S II". I answered that with my research and shared the results with everybody else.
You are very welcome to run your own tests and share the results with us. Additionally if you are going to ask others to go on wild goose chases for you, perhaps you should attempt to meet them halfway. I am assuming that you have the same T-Mobile phone as I, you can parse the dmesg as well as anybody else. Tell us what screen we are using. And we'll go from there.
And how did you connect mDNIe to the front facing camera? I am not saying that it is not relevant, but I am curious to know if you have any real information connecting the two or if you are spouting nonsense again.
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Click to collapse
You seem mad. You should calm down. Let me explain it to you. A chipset switch means different devices . Qualcomm and exynos the camera rendering is different on each device. Exynos chipset and qualcomm chipset are different.
The phones are nothing alike except in name. Its like taking a amd processor and comparing it to an i7 the way they work is totally different. Have you looked at the source code. I don't think so because if you did you know we have most of our drivers largely reworked for our processor.
Very little in common with our other variants. A sprint galaxy s2 is closely related to the original galaxy s2. Because it has the same chipset as the galaxy s2. The source even has similar drivers.
The only way to fix it is to have Samsung A) rework the drivers to make it the best they can it they haven't already did that yet. or B) recall all products and switch out processors. Either one is probably most likely not going to happen. Telus did the right thing by naming it Samsung galaxy x2 because that what it is. It is not a galaxy s2 in performance or anything except in name.
DNie -DNIe offers better detail than conventional televisions by using four proprietary processes that optimize and enhance image quality and sound: a Motion Optimizer that is a noise processing technology used to eliminate blurring and noise in moving images; a Contrast Enhancer that offers rich details and image quality; a Detail Enhancer that automatically analyzes the picture signal and reproduces images that result in lifelike video; a Color Optimizer that analyzes the video signals being generated so that the quantities of reds, greens, and blues are calculated to provide natural, realistic colors. The M part stands for mobile.
Killbynature said:
The phones are nothing alike except in name. Its like taking a amd processor and comparing it to an i7 the way they work is totally different. Have you looked at the source code. I don't think so because if you did you know we have most of our drivers reworked for our processor.
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Click to collapse
The processors are different. We all understand that. But the camera hardware is the same and the display hardware is the same.
Going by your example, If I had two PCs, sitting side by side, one had an AMD processor and the other had an Intel one, but everything else, including the monitor and the Logitech webcam attached were the same. Would I be so wrong to complain if the Logitech camera on one PC produced pictures that were much worse?
I think the problem is in the software and T-Mobile / Samsung rushed a product out the door, that was not quite ready for release.
People who paid good money for this product, deserve better. In the meantime I will try to help them find these problems that they seem to have overlooked.
If you think these manufacturers do not overlook problems when they ship products, I point you to Samsung Vibrant and its GPS problems as an example.
cheema said:
The processors are different. We all understand that. But the camera hardware is the same and the display hardware is the same.
Going by your example, If I had two PCs, sitting side by side, one had an AMD processor and the other had an Intel one, but everything else, including the monitor and the Logitech webcam attached were the same. Would I be so wrong to complain if the Logitech camera on one PC produced pictures that were much worse?
I think the problem is in the software and T-Mobile / Samsung rushed a product out the door, that was not quite ready for release.
People who paid good money for this product, deserve better. In the meantime I will try to help them find these problems that they seem to have overlooked.
If you think these manufacturers do not overlook problems when they ship products, I point you to Samsung Vibrant and its GPS problems as an example.
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That chip is a big problem for us because that causing everything to look bad. If we had lets say a super lcd screen. We have the drivers to calibrate it correctly. The Qualcomm chips have the correct drivers for it. As i see in most galaxy 2 we are missing the part where we can calibrate the screen are self. A setting under display.
I not a big fan of samsung but the qualcomm chip is much weaker than the chipset in exynos.So is the gpu. It maybe samsung couldn't sacrifice performance trying to emulate precisely. So be wary of what we get because the update might make the phones performance worst. If you compared it to the amaze 4g since they have similar chipsets. The amaze takes great pictures back and front. Since HTC has optimized their device sensors and such for the drivers.
You can't really compare two computers like you do phones. Phones different so much from each other. It's not even funny. More like cars if i get the fastest Cadillac with the most powerful engine and then buy a Cadillac with a different engine then expect them to have the same horsepower and performance. Besides computers have a good integration phones do not. Yes i do feel things were rushed though.
Keep in mind our drivers are largely different. The MDNie chip is largely where our problem is if you read about the Dnie: "DNIe generally improves images are made sharper with DNIe, contrast is improved, and color accuracy is enhanced in many ways.That was from Samsung site. We have a hacked emulated one. You should talk to Samsung through online chat to show them the issues on our devices. Because on the phone i got people who had no idea of the problem. After 20 minutes waiting.
I think the OP got a defective tmobile phone! either that or he works for sprint and he's trying to convince us that their SGS2 version is better so we should switch. I've compared my phone side by side with the sprint one and there's no difference on the screen whatsoever, I tried different angles, different brightness, etc. Our phones are actually faster in my experience!
huggosz said:
I think the OP got a defective tmobile phone! either that or he works for sprint and he's trying to convince us that their SGS2 version is better so we should switch. I've compared my phone side by side with the sprint one and there's no difference on the screen whatsoever, I tried different angles, different brightness, etc. Our phones are actually faster in my experience!
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1. I have been through 3 T-Mobile phones. They all show the same symptoms. And there are plenty of other people who were complaining about the displays before I decided to get a little more scientific about it.
2. I do not work for Sprint. Otherwise I would not be hosting the pictures on my own website. My motivation is that I want the problems fixed. Is that really that hard to understand?
3. Plenty of people have said that they have done the comparison. Some find issues, others do not. Those who do not, have not actually put up any data to support their claims. I suspect most of these people are testing/comparing under bright lights where the T-Mobile display and camera problems are less obvious.
I have noticed this, while comparing my phone with my friend's S2. Honestly the factory settings are junk. I usually, at minimum, change the ISO setting to 200, to get decent pictures. -.-
kosnarf said:
I have noticed this, while comparing my phone with my friend's S2. Honestly the factory settings are junk. I usually, at minimum, change the ISO setting to 200, to get decent pictures. -.-
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You cannot change the ISO when using the front camera.
Anyway, the user visible settings in the test are the same. Including the ISO. This can be verified by looking at the EXIF data in the photos.
The pictures produced by the cameras with the same exact settings should be equal in quality. They are not in this case. T-Mobile phones produced noticeably lower quality pictures every time.

[Q] Further Camera updates? HTC or Devs?

Since the .15/.17 updates, we have seen a modest improvement in camera quality, furthermore, the RAW mode has shown that the sensor and lens combination can take some decent shots, even in low light
(look here) http://www.anandtech.com/show/9211/a-quick-look-at-one-m9-raw-photos
Now, yes, we could all just shoot in raw and learn how to correct the profiles, but, simply put, we shouldn't have to.
It is evident that HTC's jpgs are not being processed well, resulting in poor images.
I've tweeted HTC to ask if there are further improvements coming, and I didn't get a real response. Does anyone in the know have details as to whether they have committed to continue working on their JPGs, or will this have to go to one of the hardworking devs here to do something about?
Personally i've found HTC jpeg shots look better than RAW, and even in the photo's you've linked it's better in JPEG to be fair.
The S6 and iphone don't impress me either.
All the shots are awful, so I wouldn't use any of them as low light or night time shooters.
I wouldn't expect too much more in the way of improvements and if this phone's camera isn't good enough for you, i'd give up and sell it because they're all much of a muchness and no substitute for an Ultrapixel or proper camera.
Would love to see ANY update. When is it coming to europe and Sweden? Hate waiting....
I don't know what to tell you, then. The S6 and the iPhone are pretty much the gold standard for camera phones right now, and to call them awful is pure hyperbole. You might be a pro photographer and prefer a DSLR or pro gear, but even a pro photographer would be able to know what the intended use were for camera phones and not resort to calling them "awful" when they're clearly quite good for what they are.
The HTC camera, however, is simply horrendous. For simple point & shoot operation, this is damn near unusable indoors, and much worse than my Nexus 5, which is generally regarded to have a pretty bad camera. HTC **** the bed on their processing, and need to put some engineers towards improving this before it hurts them even more. Fortunately, this CAN be done over an OTA, but somehow I doubt it will.
Jonathan-H said:
The S6 and iphone don't impress me either.
All the shots are awful, so I wouldn't use any of them as low light or night time shooters.
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entropism said:
I don't know what to tell you, then. The S6 and the iPhone are pretty much the gold standard for camera phones right now, and to call them awful is pure hyperbole. You might be a pro photographer and prefer a DSLR or pro gear, but even a pro photographer would be able to know what the intended use were for camera phones and not resort to calling them "awful" when they're clearly quite good for what they are.
The HTC camera, however, is simply horrendous. For simple point & shoot operation, this is damn near unusable indoors, and much worse than my Nexus 5, which is generally regarded to have a pretty bad camera. HTC **** the bed on their processing, and need to put some engineers towards improving this before it hurts them even more. Fortunately, this CAN be done over an OTA, but somehow I doubt it will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't any perfect phone out there, but easy there I think the HTC M9 camera is great if you know how to tweak the exposure, contrast, and saturation. Maybe you should have a look on how to fox it
mr.dj26 said:
There isn't any perfect phone out there, but easy there I think the HTC M9 camera is great if you know how to tweak the exposure, contrast, and saturation. Maybe you should have a look on how to fox it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, for POINT & SHOOT operation, this phone is absolutely awful. Like 99% of the population, I do not want, nor should I need, to tweak any settings to make the phone usable as a camera. Should manually adjusting the camera take BETTER pictures than point and shoot? Sure. But using the camera right out of the box should take semi decent pictures, not the blurry, pixelated mess that HTC's software produces. Saying "Oh, it'll work fine as soon as you adjust the contrast, exposure, saturation, etc etc etc" is NOT something that will work for the general public.
So don't call a camera phone awful, but it is ok to call one horrendous. Lol. My wife has the Note 4 and before that she had the Note 2. We have had other Samsung phones in the past. Her phone does take a slight better pics than mine, but let's not exaggerate it. For those spur of the moment memories, texts, and social media, my phone does just fine. I have found iPhones do produce really nice photos, but my understanding has been that Apple does a little extra with the processing and the end result is not a natural photo.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
fernandezhjr said:
So don't call a camera phone awful, but it is ok to call one horrendous. Lol. My wife has the Note 4 and before that she had the Note 2. We have had other Samsung phones in the past. Her phone does take a slight better pics than mine, but let's not exaggerate it. For those spur of the moment memories, texts, and social media, my phone does just fine. I have found iPhones do produce really nice photos, but my understanding has been that Apple does a little extra with the processing and the end result is not a natural photo.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I've had the S6, it's quite adept at taking pictures. It's not DSLR quality, but as far as camera phones go, it's at the top for sure. Meanwhile, every single point & shoot picture out of the M9 comes out a pixelated mess.
I never said don't call a camera phone awful. I said you simply cannot take the gold standard out there and say it takes awful pictures. It's simply inaccurate. Meanwhile, for point & shoot, the M9 certainly is a poor performer.
entropism said:
I've had the S6, it's quite adept at taking pictures. It's not DSLR quality, but as far as camera phones go, it's at the top for sure. Meanwhile, every single point & shoot picture out of the M9 comes out a pixelated mess.
I never said don't call a camera phone awful. I said you simply cannot take the gold standard out there and say it takes awful pictures. It's simply inaccurate. Meanwhile, for point & shoot, the M9 certainly is a poor performer.
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Like I said. I did comparisons and I don't see where it is that bad. I don't know how much better a S6 camera is than a Note 4, but I doubt it is that great. But I guess it could be.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
I think a fair few of us in this thread agree that the M9 's hardware is CAPABLE of making some good shots, comparable to other flagships on the market. However, to GET to that point, it requires Manual intervention (or RAW). This is ok for 80% of the time, but when you have a short time to take a shot, it certainly falls short of other options.
This thread isn't to argue the semantics, rather asking what everything thinks is the next step for our camera, whether anyone in the know can share whether HTC will continue working on making the AUTO + JPGs better, or whether the notion that they will work on the camera was just a tick box action, and now we've had a small update, it is up to the independent devs to improve.
Karl-Johan said:
Would love to see ANY update. When is it coming to europe and Sweden? Hate waiting....
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Sorry mate, no idea, but I do feel your pain.
If you're really eager, any one of the leading custom ROMs have the latest camera update? I'm personally running Leedroid at the moment, and I cant fault it. Stable, with great performance

Buying Note.Is the lag from earlier reviews gone? Anything I should know/check?

Hello!
I am buying the Note 10.1 2014 for $165 from a local person.
I have seen reviews commenting about some lag issues. Is that gone with the latest ROMs? Anything else I should know or check before I buy?
I am upgrading from a Lenovo S8-50 mainly because my phone is a Xperia Z Ultra with a 6.44" screen son an 8" tablet is not quite the jump as a 10".
Plus, I do photography so it will be nice to have such screen to show images to clients and maybe it can even do some light editing on the spot if needed. Gaming not really a consideration.
As long as the screen has the quality I have read about, NFC works and it can do some light editing, it would work great for me.
Please let me know what you think after owning one for a while.
It's not fast by any means (old hardware) but at least the later OTAs are not laggy, at least not by my definition. Latest OTAs are also slower -however- due to lollipop being heavier. So if you want fast experience with many features you can use the Kitkat releases and then debloat (kills the lag). If you want the most features then use the latest OTAs (no lag but slower). And if you both want no lag and speed use CM12.1 roms (non Samsung) but they are not as feature packed (if you don't care about tablet exclusive features).
So I think software wise we're fine. We could be better, but we're fine. I think your problem is elsewhere. The screen is not that good, despite the glowing reviews it doesn't hold a candle to latest iPads or Samsung's very own Tab S series. So unless you care about the pen support I would warn you away from this tablet. Mostly because of the screen, IMO it's by far it's ... weakest spec with all else being equal.
my idea is that your use case is to show photos. The screen's render of dark hues is one of the worst I've seen to any product of that price. I almost felt duped when no reviews were mentioning it. There is some type of backlight illumination that ruins the dark scenes and since a lot of photography happens to darker areas, you reeeeally don't want to show your photos in this tablet's panel...
My P605(LTE with Snapdragon 800) never had any unnatural lags. However, there is also no decent custom rom...
P60x is a great tablet. Buy it!
There are some custom roms out there, Im using Davids rom V3: http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...lopment/rom-david-rom-2-0-10-01-2016-t3290152
But it doesnt have NFC or a great camera.
tcntad said:
P60x is a great tablet. Buy it!
There are some custom roms out there, Im using Davids rom V3: http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...lopment/rom-david-rom-2-0-10-01-2016-t3290152
But it doesnt have NFC or a great camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually ended up buying it and I like it but the NFC took my by surprise since I did a quick search with shot (the obviously wrong spec) of NFC YES. Oh well. No prob with the camera, I am a photographer and the LAST thing I would do is take photos with a tablet LOL
shaolin95 said:
I actually ended up buying it and I like it but the NFC took my by surprise since I did a quick search with shot (the obviously wrong spec) of NFC YES. Oh well. No prob with the camera, I am a photographer and the LAST thing I would do is take photos with a tablet LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol woudnt be anybody's first choice of "camera"

Would you recommend the A5 2017(especially camera)?

Hello all,
I've been thinking of updating my phone(currently running Xperia M4). So I thought of buying the A5 2017. I already gathered that it's battery life is very good(important for me), however some people were disappointed by the camera. Can somebody confirm if this is true? More specifically, can you upload some pictures taken with it? Any other problems/drawbacks(I don't care much about gaming performance, which also seems to be lagging)?
Camera is pretty good as long as you keep your hands still, front camera has a range of focus, and games aren't lagging on my phone, idk about others. Battery is a beast.
kasa ssg said:
Camera is pretty good as long as you keep your hands still, front camera has a range of focus, and games aren't lagging on my phone, idk about others. Battery is a beast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. Can you please upload some sample photos? I've seen some on reviews, but I suspect that they might have picked the best shots(or used something like a tripod). I'd like to see what the "average" shot looks like
Here ya go, but you have to rotate most of them.
i recomand open camera ,is the best for the video and photo
The camera is OK. It's not bad but it aint great either. It would - imo - be one of the negatives of the A5. The battery is good, the screen is great and the build and feel are like premium, but the bloatware is ridiculous.
Sample images
PS if you like rooting your phone then Samsung just made it impossible after the December update.
fmboots said:
The camera is OK. It's not bad but it aint great either. It would - imo - be one of the negatives of the A5. The battery is good, the screen is great and the build and feel are like premium, but the bloatware is ridiculous.
PS if you like rooting your phone then Samsung just made it impossible after the December update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by impossible? Surely just until a workaround is found?
ammen99 said:
What do you mean by impossible? Surely just until a workaround is found?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. Samsung have locked the bootloaders in latest updates. Until a fix is born, i cant root and nothing in the below links have worked for me.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/samsung-a-series-2017/how-to/tutorial-root-november-security-update-t3715661
and
https://forum.xda-developers.com/samsung-a-series-2017/how-to/root-december-security-update-a5-2017-t3730146
Well, to answer my own question, here are some photos I took with my new A5 2017 on my trip in Boston: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ll0SNnnnjE5oyE9P2
To any who might read this post and wondering whether to buy the phone, here's what I think after a week: Superb battery, good photos(especially macros) you can also do Photo spheres using the google camera, performance is just fine, no lags or delays. However make sure to buy a case and a screen protector soon after you buy it, because on the second day it got(albeit small) scratches, and it has been only in my pocket with nothing else inside!
The camera really sucks for me, atleast when you are snapping text documents, you have to take atleast 3 photos to later find out that the 2 are just too blury. The another problem is poor WiFi, often reconnects and gets slow, the battery seemed superb at the beginning, the updates often reduce the battery life a lot, then you get some update that fixes it and so on. Not to mention that after few months GPS is often slow, even after redowbloading the A-GPS DATA...
Camera is crap. I love redmi 5 plus camera, battery, price...

Do You think that the camera in S9 will be minimum or much better than in S8?

Do You think that the camera in S9 will be minimum or much better than in S8?
Well I mean, the only details Samsung has officially released about the S9 itself is "The camera, reimagined," so uh yeah
Minimal change, with some new effect of a selfie or something like that.
Coolyou said:
Minimal change, with some new effect of a selfie or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if camera wise S9 (single)= Note8(double)
cause S9+(double) > Note8 (double)
It already revealed that is has super slow motion (f/1.5, 26mm, 1/2.5", 1.4 µm, Dual Pixel PDAF)
Considering I always put a custom AOSP-based ROM on my phones, I've sort of lost hope in having a decent camera. Because of... reasons... you lose out on the amazing camera capabilities if you don't run a stock ROM. It's quite depressing knowing the camera is far more-capable than what I'm getting out of it.
sremick said:
Considering I always put a custom AOSP-based ROM on my phones, I've sort of lost hope in having a decent camera. Because of... reasons... you lose out on the amazing camera capabilities if you don't run a stock ROM. It's quite depressing knowing the camera is far more-capable than what I'm getting out of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That really suxx. But wasn't it always like that in Samsung phones? And in others?
androidbadboy said:
That really suxx. But wasn't it always like that in Samsung phones? And in others?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a former Sony user, I can say it's the same on there. Something related to DRM-Protected drivers.
R!n said:
As a former Sony user, I can say it's the same on there. Something related to DRM-Protected drivers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But that happend since S8 or was always the problem in all Samsung phones?
androidbadboy said:
But that happend since S8 or was always the problem in all Samsung phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't really say, I never owned a Galaxy since the S2. Was looking to see if the S9+ ends up being better than the Mate 10, or at least drop the price of the Note 8.
R!n said:
I can't really say, I never owned a Galaxy since the S2. Was looking to see if the S9+ ends up being better than the Mate 10, or at least drop the price of the Note 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So Mate 10 is better than S8/S8+ ?! In what may I ask? Seriously, no hard feelings and irony here.
androidbadboy said:
So Mate 10 is better than S8/S8+ ?! In what may I ask? Seriously, no hard feelings and irony here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly just the camera. Performance-wise the Mate 10 lacks in numbers, but it still feels just as snappy.
The monochrome cameras are great, and the camera app's pro mode is really nice to take some great pictures with. I especially fell in love with the 30s exposure.
R!n said:
Mainly just the camera. Performance-wise the Mate 10 lacks in numbers, but it still feels just as snappy.
The monochrome cameras are great, and the camera app's pro mode is really nice to take some great pictures with. I especially fell in love with the 30s exposure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude! Please help me out here. Is the camera pics and recording better in Mate 10 than in S8/S8+ are U 100% suer?
Cuz if that's true I may buy that phone,
androidbadboy said:
Dude! Please help me out here. Is the camera pics and recording better in Mate 10 than in S8/S8+ are U 100% suer?
Cuz if that's true I may buy that phone,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photos yes, video recording not so much, not sure why.
Also be aware that the Mate 10 Pro does not have a 3.5mm jack or SD card slot, but 256GB internal memory instead.
R!n said:
Photos yes, video recording not so much, not sure why.
Also be aware that the Mate 10 Pro does not have a 3.5mm jack or SD card slot, but 256GB internal memory instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about Note8, are thie pics from Mate also better than Galaxy Note8?
Nope camera won't be good until they overcome the hardware limitation, 12 mega pixels are good, but when you see the pics on computer or zoom in then you see the blur and weakness of 12 mp camera but i know that in past 22 megapixels sonys have really bad image quality because it doesn't depend solely on increased mp, but for a real upgrade now they need to increase megapixels while still retaining same image quality, atleast 20 megapixel and still a large aperture size is the only thing that can push me to upgrade, other than that, front facing fingerprint scanner and atleast 3600+ mah battery is a must, but its still nice that they added stereo speakers, i would like to see fm radio and infrared back too. Btw both exynos 9810 and snapdragon 845 are still far behind from apple's A12 bionic chip, both in terms of processor and gpu performance. So a hard choice which to upgrade atm.
Sent from my S7 Edge using XDA Labs
shah22 said:
Nope camera won't be good until they overcome the hardware limitation, 12 mega pixels are good, but when you see the pics on computer or zoom in then you see the blur and weakness of 12 mp camera but i know that in past 22 megapixels sonys have really bad image quality because it doesn't depend solely on increased mp, but for a real upgrade now they need to increase megapixels while still retaining same image quality, atleast 20 megapixel and still a large aperture size is the only thing that can push me to upgrade, other than that, front facing fingerprint scanner and atleast 3600+ mah battery is a must, but its still nice that they added stereo speakers, i would like to see fm radio and infrared back too. Btw both exynos 9810 and snapdragon 845 are still far behind from apple's A12 bionic chip, both in terms of processor and gpu performance. So a hard choice which to upgrade atm.
Sent from my S7 Edge using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So You wouldnt upgrade to Mate 10 PRo, S9/s9+ and Apple X from S7 Edge?
How about if you have had S6EPlus ? would You upgrade then? If yes to which phone?
Some general points.
Megapixels has nothing to do with it really. It's the size of the sensor. I do have it on good authority though that at least one of the well known brands is working on a halo product with a 1" sensor. But expect it to cost the earth, if it sees the light of day, and to be much thicker than today's flagships.
Probably the P20 with its triple camera sensor (likely interpolated into single auto HDR images) and software collaboration with Leica is likely to be the best bet for photography this year. But expect to get *at best* dual camera support on custom ROMs (if OpenCamera / LineageCamera / GoogleCamera begin supporting dual configs).
S9 and S9+ will probably show quite a bit of improvement in low light, and autofocus.
I really wish Samsung would allow Samsung Camera to run on their phones that run AOSP / custom ROMs. I can see why Sony, and to some extent Huawei won't, as smaller players with niches. But Samsung are the market leader and could still attach function to hardware IDs, rather than allowing it to work on competitors' phones.
If Nokia / HMD keep improving sales, I'm pretty sure you'll see Pureview, or something similar resurrected. Protos / designs are certainly being looked at, but likely depend on them continuing to build momentum. If they have a good 2018, expect to see something from them in 2019 with 4-6+ rear camera sensors ... bit like a mini L16. But, again, expect them to lock the software to their stock ROM.
mudnightoil said:
Some general points.
Megapixels has nothing to do with it really. It's the size of the sensor. I do have it on good authority though that at least one of the well known brands is working on a halo product with a 1" sensor. But expect it to cost the earth, if it sees the light of day, and to be much thicker than today's flagships.
Probably the P20 with its triple camera sensor (likely interpolated into single auto HDR images) and software collaboration with Leica is likely to be the best bet for photography this year. But expect to get *at best* dual camera support on custom ROMs (if OpenCamera / LineageCamera / GoogleCamera begin supporting dual configs).
S9 and S9+ will probably show quite a bit of improvement in low light, and autofocus.
I really wish Samsung would allow Samsung Camera to run on their phones that run AOSP / custom ROMs. I can see why Sony, and to some extent Huawei won't, as smaller players with niches. But Samsung are the market leader and could still attach function to hardware IDs, rather than allowing it to work on competitors' phones.
If Nokia / HMD keep improving sales, I'm pretty sure you'll see Pureview, or something similar resurrected. Protos / designs are certainly being looked at, but likely depend on them continuing to build momentum. If they have a good 2018, expect to see something from them in 2019 with 4-6+ rear camera sensors ... bit like a mini L16. But, again, expect them to lock the software to their stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks and wow for that massive knowledge. I wonder what P20 will bring to the table with their 5 cams. 27th March is the premiere. How much will it cost in Your opinion. EUR or USD please if possible and add with or without tax.
I'm almost exclusively interested in the video camera capabilities of the S9+. I can manage with a mediocre photo camera but video needs to be class-leading in smartphones.
Ability to shoot UHD video in h.265 compression + much better low light performance than Note 4 = I'd be very happy.
Sadly LG put an undersized sensor in their V30 (not to mention the sucky POLED display) - otherwise I might grab a V30 right now for a good price. I wonder what LG has in store for the V40, given their focus on video shooting prowess.

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