Hi guys, I would like to share some photos I took with my HTC One from the summit of Mount Elbrus.
Just a note tho, i was wearing ski goggles and the sun was extreme bright. So i couldn't really see the screen. It was mostly 'point and shoot' without the focusing part.
It was roughly -20 degrees at the summit, I was genuinely surprised when my beloved One was still functioning (my brother's iPhone died at the summit).
I did experience some difficulties taking some pictures while near the peak, I don't know if its from the cold (the battery was around 3 degrees Celsius) or everything was too white for the autofocus to work properly. sometimes it took roughly 10 seconds (from pressing the shutter to picture being saved) for the picture to be taken.
I would love to hear your guys opinion regarding the photos!
Another thing, The battery on the One is EXTREMELY resilient, I was able to run the GPS chip to do Geo-logging for over 12 hours and the battery was only down the 30% even in the extreme temperature!
General information about Mount Elbrus:
Highest mountain in the continental Europe, standing at 5642m above sea level.
nice!!
Wow. Nice pictures from a nice adventure. Thank you.
Skickat från min HTC One via Tapatalk 2
That's incredible! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your climb!
Those look like some great pics to me..
Thanks for sharing them and the story behind it..
Very nice indeed the camera on this phone despite what some so call experts say is one of the best on a smartphone
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
These are really great pictures.
They remind me that the One has very coarse granulation of image adjustments. ie, trying to increase the exposure of a scene by the minimum increment will *drastically* increase the exposure.
In scenes like the ones in these pictures where there is a lot of snow, you generally want the snow to be a little whiter, less gray, so that the distant sky and forest will have a normal exposure. If the One allowed you to increase exposure *a little bit* , you could probably get the perfect balance of detail and realism. But I imagine if you set the camera to the smallest possible increase, ie " + 1 " , it would completely blow out all the lighter areas of the picture.
..at least with the initial versions of the camera software (ie system software 1.2x). They may improve this later I realize.
Of course at 5000+ meters you probably don't want to be playing around with the "image adjustments" menu anyway. So the default settings produced perfectly acceptable shots considering the conditions.
Gorgeous pictures. Congrats as well, amazing milestone.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Someone should spread this story. A feel good story for the One.
-Sent from Marino's One-
Great story and great pics mate :thumbup:
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Amazing pictures man.....great adventure...
The only thing is... its a pitty that there is so much noise in the bluesky in the pictures..
I hope htc will fix this...other wise great
Here's some more photo near the summit.
I don't understand why there is so much noise...
john291 said:
Amazing pictures man.....great adventure...
The only thing is... its a pitty that there is so much noise in the bluesky in the pictures..
I hope htc will fix this...other wise great
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I was about to say, am I the only one that doesn't agree that theses are great pictures? It seems many judge pictures by the scenery but not the quality of the image.
Sure the subject matter and location are stunning, but the quality of the image is not really that good. My old sgs2 would have taken a better picture with more clarity and less noise. That phone is over two years old!
If I took a grainy, noisy picture of Kim karsashian in bed with Cheryl Cole people,would still be saying wow! Great image! What a great camera! The One sure has a good sensor!
No offence, I have the One, like the one, keeping the one, but I sure hope some image improvements are on the way.
I think it's certainly possible to find fault with the images.
But we have lots of other threads for stuff like that.
I'm willing to just accept this thread at face value: a guy took this phone to the top of a very high mountain and the phone's camera performed ably in this unusual environment. Nothing more nothing less.
I commend him for the report (as well as the journey itself!).
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
NxNW said:
I think it's certainly possible to find fault with the images.
But we have lots of other threads for stuff like that.
I'm willing to just accept this thread at face value: a guy took this phone to the top of a very high mountain and the phone's camera performed ably in this unusual environment. Nothing more nothing less.
I commend him for the report (as well as the journey itself!).
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Exactly.... I've taken a number on top of mountains myself and whilst the One shoots ably, the fact is the photos once you actually zoom in lack detail. The grave stone in first pictures for example lacks detail, the text can not be read. Everything beyond normal focal range is overly soft and lacking details and suffer noise and artefacts. Or the fact in one of the photos of your climbing partners, if you zoom in you can't even make out details on their clothing or faces sadly.
As much as I love my One, the reality is for landscapes where much of clarity is in distant objects the 4mp on the one just isn't enough to capture the fine details.
Yes they look great on Facebook, twitter and posted on forums when viewed quickly, but when you load up the full image and actually examine it the faults are all to easy find.
In the scenario the OP took the picture, blue clear day - ultrapixel actually provided NO benefit as there was always enough light for the image to capture, but the lack of megapixels does hurt because with greater MP we would have been able to see so much more clarity in the photo, a clarity that would have done so much more justice to the breathtaking view on the summit than sadly the camera does capture.
Congrats OP on your climb / achievement - its great. But I think some folks are mixing up your 'great' achievement with 'great' photo. Sadly the photos are just fine.
g2525 said:
Hi guys, I would like to share some photos I took with my HTC One from the summit of Mount Elbrus.
Just a note tho, i was wearing ski goggles and the sun was extreme bright. So i couldn't really see the screen. It was mostly 'point and shoot' without the focusing part.
It was roughly -20 degrees at the summit, I was genuinely surprised when my beloved One was still functioning (my brother's iPhone died at the summit).
I did experience some difficulties taking some pictures while near the peak, I don't know if its from the cold (the battery was around 3 degrees Celsius) or everything was too white for the autofocus to work properly. sometimes it took roughly 10 seconds (from pressing the shutter to picture being saved) for the picture to be taken.
I would love to hear your guys opinion regarding the photos!
Another thing, The battery on the One is EXTREMELY resilient, I was able to run the GPS chip to do Geo-logging for over 12 hours and the battery was only down the 30% even in the extreme temperature!
General information about Mount Elbrus:
Highest mountain in the continental Europe, standing at 5642m above sea level.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome pics buddy! Beautiful view! Congrats on the climb
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
nookcoloruser said:
Exactly.... I've taken a number on top of mountains myself and whilst the One shoots ably, the fact is the photos once you actually zoom in lack detail. The grave stone in first pictures for example lacks detail, the text can not be read. Everything beyond normal focal range is overly soft and lacking details and suffer noise and artefacts. Or the fact in one of the photos of your climbing partners, if you zoom in you can't even make out details on their clothing or faces sadly.
As much as I love my One, the reality is for landscapes where much of clarity is in distant objects the 4mp on the one just isn't enough to capture the fine details.
Yes they look great on Facebook, twitter and posted on forums when viewed quickly, but when you load up the full image and actually examine it the faults are all to easy find.
In the scenario the OP took the picture, blue clear day - ultrapixel actually provided NO benefit as there was always enough light for the image to capture, but the lack of megapixels does hurt because with greater MP we would have been able to see so much more clarity in the photo, a clarity that would have done so much more justice to the breathtaking view on the summit than sadly the camera does capture.
Congrats OP on your climb / achievement - its great. But I think some folks are mixing up your 'great' achievement with 'great' photo. Sadly the photos are just fine.
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yes it's a basic fact the ultrapixel camera will never be useful if zoomed, for that get another device
otherwise its one of the best all rounder phone cameras, especially in low light
the only thing weird in these photos, considering how much sun is that the images are little under exposed, guess the phone was trying to counter the extreme light in auto mode
as for the battery looks like heat is a good contributor to drain in ordinary use
hamdir said:
the only thing weird in these photos, considering how much sun is that the images are little under exposed, guess the phone was trying to counter the extreme light in auto mode
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Click to collapse
Was actually thinking the same thing. Setting must have been changed in camera for contrast / exposure because I've shot in similar circumstances and the HTC One will tend to over expose. It could also explain 'additional' noise in the image if settings like that have been changed in image adjustments.
I think HDR would have likely done a better job at balancing it out (which is what I tend to do myself) rather than leaving it on standard setting albeit with image settings adjusted....
Absolutely amazing! First of all congratulations on your milestone...a fantastic achievement!
Secondly...I would like to propose your post + pics for HTC One's top-achievement...ever (so far). Ridiculous really for a mobile phone to function at all at nearly 6 km height...plus taking some real quailty pics to boot :highfive:
mwatson said:
I was about to say, am I the only one that doesn't agree that theses are great pictures? It seems many judge pictures by the scenery but not the quality of the image.
Sure the subject matter and location are stunning, but the quality of the image is not really that good. My old sgs2 would have taken a better picture with more clarity and less noise. That phone is over two years old!
If I took a grainy, noisy picture of Kim karsashian in bed with Cheryl Cole people,would still be saying wow! Great image! What a great camera! The One sure has a good sensor!
No offence, I have the One, like the one, keeping the one, but I sure hope some image improvements are on the way.
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Would the SGS2 have taken better pictures in that extreme environment though?
Yes they are a bit noisy, yes the scenery is great, there is a tradeoff there but the real issue is the environment.
Related
I think HTC could have been a big contender to the galaxy S IV but will be dismissed by the average consumer because of the "poor" 4 ultrapixel camera, i dont get how a company struggling to sell would do such a thing , i love that they took a risk but maybe they should have waited until they had profits again, what do you think people is going to do when they go to buy a phone and see that the camera on the one is "just" 4 megapixels vs 13 megapixels on the galaxy S IV?
8 ultrapixels would have been great, also the daylight pictures are less than spectacular, the one x/xl takes better pictures at daylight ,lets see how turns out for HTC, i fear it wont be the best outcome :crying: , such a shame that "the best" will lose
So far seeing pictures taken against the iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, etc... I think they made the right choice. It takes some really nice pictures.
You are ignorant, HTC One along with Lumia taking the best photos in market at the moment. before coming up with a topic like that learn to check to results please.
But yeah, one thing is clear, people like you will think "hmm, 4 mp is bad i should get S4 because of that" and get S4. That is the only downside of the idea. Which I'm hoping wouldn't be a problem because noone is telling that it is 4 mp, they are marketting it as Ultrapixel Camera as a whole phrase, which is working relatively well.
You are right. While the tests seem to show, that the camera is really awesome and isn't worser than the 13 MP one the majority of people are still getting their phones direct from the store and deciding basically from the specs and the general appearance. I hope HTC will profit at least from their design and aluminium body this year.
Only ignorant consumers purchase items based on just numbers...
Education is key.
Many reviews show that its the second best on the market, after 808 and just beating the N95. Lesser pixels are also needed to process in the Zoe mode. So my conclusion will be it isn't a "poor" or "unnecessary" change. In fact, it's proving to be one of the best cameras (obviously if you don't print your photographs in full size)
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
Dharkan said:
You are ignorant, HTC One along with Lumia taking the best photos in market at the moment. before coming up with a topic like that learn to check to results please.
But yeah, one thing is clear, people like you will think "hmm, 4 mp is bad i should get S4 because of that" and get S4. That is the only downside of the idea. Which I'm hoping wouldn't be a problem because noone is telling that it is 4 mp, they are marketting it as Ultrapixel Camera as a whole phrase, which is working relatively well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That true no one has told me its a 4mp camera in shops, they say 4 ultra pixel.
Also when I played with the phone and compared pics to the xz and and s3 etc it blew them away which is one of the reasons there is a lovely silver HTC One sitting on my desk charging right now.
Also regarding charging, battery life for me so far is great: seeing as I had to send stuff to the phone yesterday it got charged to 61% before I took if off the usb at aprrox 1.30pm yesterday and started using it: screen 30% bright, power saver on, all connections off unless I need them, playing some music, generally looking at the phone, a bit of internet browsing, mostly phone calls and texts and the battery was on 6% at about 10 am this morning and I went to bed at 2am.
Btw the this is the same pattern i do for all phones I have 30% brightness and power saver. I will be able to properly judge when its actually charged to 100% though and compare it to my others phones bar the note 2 where it will clearly lose.
Actually there is still noise in the images on the 4MP sensor, but less than a 13MP for sure in low light.
HTC made a deliberate decision that a phone camera is more utilized to pictures of family, friends when you go out somewhere like a restaurant, bar etc. In those circumstances good low light performance is essential and you don't need (in fact you don't want) to see the highest resolution possible on people's faces etc
You only really need 13MP when you are shooting landscape. In the case of Sony, they try and incorporate a camera that is more aimed towards tourist pictures. During the daylight, the resolution advantage will be clear to see on detailed scenes.
Personally, I do not use my phone as a replacement for a good camera. I use it exactly as HTC considered, incidental photos when out with friends and to keep memories of those occasions.
Having said that, it is not the best 4MP sensor...it should really have been even better (less noise). So while I think HTC did play a gamble here, and to some extent, there is a good amount of logic behind their decision...the implementation is still not as good as I would have hoped. It is just possible that software updates will improve its performance further.
R89SONY said:
which is one of the reasons there is a lovely silver HTC One sitting on my desk charging right now.
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Amen!
jonstatt said:
Actually there is still noise in the images on the 4MP sensor, but less than a 13MP for sure in low light.
HTC made a deliberate decision that a phone camera is more utilized to pictures of family, friends when you go out somewhere like a restaurant, bar etc. In those circumstances good low light performance is essential and you don't need (in fact you don't want) to see the highest resolution possible on people's faces etc
You only really need 13MP when you are shooting landscape. In the case of Sony, they try and incorporate a camera that is more aimed towards tourist pictures. During the daylight, the resolution advantage will be clear to see on detailed scenes.
Personally, I do not use my phone as a replacement for a good camera. I use it exactly as HTC considered, incidental photos when out with friends and to keep memories of those occasions.
Having said that, it is not the best 4MP sensor...it should really have been even better (less noise). So while I think HTC did play a gamble here, and to some extent, there is a good amount of logic behind their decision...the implementation is still not as good as I would have hoped. It is just possible that software updates will improve its performance further.
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Click to collapse
The noise problem was with prerelease software, if you see the photos now, there's way much less noise
From USA Gizmodo:
Another pleasant surprise: the camera's UltraPixels actually live up to the hype. In our testing the One performed as well as if not better than the top smartphone shooters out there (check out our comparison). It also took better low-light (read: in bars) photos than any phone I've used, and I was extremely impressed by how accurate the color rendering was. Now, if you're planning on printing your photos on 8x10s, maybe you'll miss the extra megapixels, but who really does that with their phone cam? For the web, you won't be able to tell the difference in resolution, and you will be able to tell the difference in low-light.
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Check out the photo thread
NiCk.JaY said:
The noise problem was with prerelease software, if you see the photos now, there's way much less noise
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
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I have one...I still see some noise. I am not saying it is bad. Just I guess I had such high expectations that it would take super clean images.
jonstatt said:
I have one...I still see some noise. I am not saying it is bad. Just I guess I had such high expectations that it would take super clean images.
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Have you updated it to the latest version? Because the pics from Gizmodo, Engadget, Verge are superb
SteelH said:
Only ignorant consumers purchase items based on just numbers...
Education is key.
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This. Also quality beats quantity!
Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2
NiCk.JaY said:
Have you updated it to the latest version? Because the pics from Gizmodo, Engadget, Verge are superb
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Click to collapse
There is no update. I definitely have the most current release on the phone. I think it was just my expectations were too high. Don't get me wrong, it takes great pics.
I think that it will be very important for in-store signage of the HTC One show the comparison of the HTCs photo quality against "the others". They can't leave it to the uninformed general public or the uninformed sales staff to simply look at point form notes on the phone spec
AW: HTC risked itself unnecessarily with the 4 ultrapixels camera
And... Megapixels are nothing. It is all about the sensor and the lense. It is time to stop that Megapixel hype... Just look at the S4... 13mp on a damn small sensor, I guess you will not see a difference between my 1S and the S4...
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
4mp should of NEVER been banded about because in work people were going 'Omg the HTC ONE only has a 4mp camera.... who would want that' and then you have to explain it to them etc....
It was a risk but it should of just been left at 'Ultrapixel' and not compared to a megapixel count.
x3
I personally as a Photographer like their decission.
Remember the Foveon X3 Chip. If HTC manages to get something more out of that technique, they will get much better results.
At first saw no difference with the quality from the x. Now after a few dozen photos. There is a difference.close up shots capture loads of detail
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
First of all, I think that HTC from the quality point of view made the right decision. The camera appears better than sufficient - for the ordinary smartphone user that is. HTC's approach is different, I think: Remember "Friend Stream" in Sense? Now it is "Blinkfeed". My impression is that HTC bets on that users will shoot more photos if the photos can be uploaded to FB and other social networks quicker and thus in bigger numbers thanks to their smaller size. Photos go up easier to the Dropbox storage, too. The camera with 4 megapixels only is really more usable.
In the end the photo quality debate is a "luxury issue", the "ordinary" customer will not see a quality issue in the images. But the fact that he/she can really easily share their photos shot with the One - which they in real life can't with photos from their Samsung and other phones due to the sheer size of the images - this must be communicated to the customer. In addition, 32 GB built in storage on the One due to the difference in size of the camera's images in real life equal 50 GB storage on the Samsung.
To my opinion, therefore the success of the HTC One is not so dependent on the question whether 13 megapixels are better than 4 (or vice versa), but on the question whether they succeed in explaining the potential of smaller image files to the masses. My serious concern is, that even HTC and their marketing people are not aware really, what HTC's development department had in mind.
Well, HTC gave the One to professional photographers and the outcome was those great images! What do you think?
Source: http://blog.htc.com/2013/03/htc-one-photography/?NS01
WoW...
Sent from my HTC One X
While they are good, I've got to say I've seen the One's camera take better quality photos.
saw those, if im honest, i dont think theyre overly impressive, the feather is nice though
but its impossible to tell if theyre "good" or not without knowing the conditions they were shot in.
im assuming they were all shot in fairly low light with no flash based on the background, in which case yea, the colours are impressive - im surprised HTC didn't say that though
lack of detail is clear though even when full screen on computer
I agree.. Some people still have a doubt about this camera, but its taking great images. I have my own Canon camera when going on trips or travel. But this camera is great enough for my daily use.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
djbenny1 said:
saw those, if im honest, i dont think theyre overly impressive, the feather is nice though
but its impossible to tell if theyre "good" or not without knowing the conditions they were shot in.
im assuming they were all shot in fairly low light with no flash based on the background, in which case yea, the colours are impressive - im surprised HTC didn't say that though
lack of detail is clear though even when full screen on computer
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You're over thinking it too much in my opinion. Does it really matter what was the setting or conditions they were taken in? Not everyone cares about taking a perfect photo but one that looks appealing to the person taking it.
I'm pretty sure those pictures were taken in the perfect setting and conditions and the look great in my opinion. That tells me that some one with not such great conditions and not a professional will be able to take very descent photos.
Sent from my HTC myTouch 4g using xda premium
For a mobile phone 1st of all those pics are great, can't believe people can be so critical. If you want top quality photos go and by a DLSR
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
coupetastic-droid said:
You're over thinking it too much in my opinion. Does it really matter what was the setting or conditions they were taken in? Not everyone cares about taking a perfect photo but one that looks appealing to the person taking it.
I'm pretty sure those pictures were taken in the perfect setting and conditions and the look great in my opinion. That tells me that some one with not such great conditions and not a professional will be able to take very descent photos.
Sent from my HTC myTouch 4g using xda premium
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how am i overthinking it?
in good light, my 2 year old htc incredible S would take more detailed pictures than those - like i said, even if you look at them full screen on an HD monitor, the quality is poor
but again, like i said - the light looks like it wasn't good, in which case yes they are pretty impressive, but without knowing the conditions they were taken in it is impossible to know
I think they are great for a phone! I would rather have better low light pictures than bigger images. They only thing I want HTC fix is exposure in both pictures and videos. It seems some conditions pictures get over/under exposed and in videos the exposure auto adjust is too slow.
djbenny1 said:
how am i overthinking it?
in good light, my 2 year old htc incredible S would take more detailed pictures than those - like i said, even if you look at them full screen on an HD monitor, the quality is poor
but again, like i said - the light looks like it wasn't good, in which case yes they are pretty impressive, but without knowing the conditions they were taken in it is impossible to know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here's a photo i took very quickly on my incredible S - the detail is far greater than the marbles, for example.
yes, the light is very good in my photo, but the point im trying to make is that the htc photos aren't very good IMO unless you consider they were taken in very low light - but they didnt say they were.... and most people will probably click the full size image and think the same thing as me, and that is that they are really lacking in detail
in other words, as far as photos that "showcase" the overall quality of the One camera go, those ones are poor representations
djbenny1 said:
here's a photo i took very quickly on my incredible S - the detail is far greater than the marbles, for example.
yes, the light is very good in my photo, but the point im trying to make is that the htc photos aren't very good IMO unless you consider they were taken in very low light - but they didnt say they were.... and most people will probably click the full size image and think the same thing as me, and that is that they are really lacking in detail
in other words, as far as photos that "showcase" the overall quality of the One camera go, those ones are poor representations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most android phone will take a great picture like your example but thats because of the lighting is perfect. What matters is a phone will take a perfect picture In low lighting
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
Andrew149 said:
Most android phone will take a great picture like your example but thats because of the lighting is perfect. What matters is a phone will take a perfect picture In low lighting
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
totally agree
but HTC didn't say "here are some photos taken by professional photographers in very low light, look how great the colours are!"
to those that don't know any better, those are just "photos taken by professional photographers" - and to those people, they probably don't look very good.
i know they're relatively good, because i can see the lighting is poor - most of the people who saw HTCs post won't know that
You people are crazy of you don't think those pictures take with the one aren't good.
What is wrong with you? For one, its a phone camera, not a dlsr. If you want amazing pictures, then spend your hard earned money on that. Who knows, maybe you have a future as a professional photographer, lol!
And DJ, don't you have an HTC one? If so, you get quite defensive in the s4 forums, yet here you are in the One forums doing the same thing.
Sent from a galaxy far away!
The most important photo is actually the first One
HTC is using the fastest shutter time in the industry, if HTC went ahead and used long exposure times instead, the quality will be multiplied
but for a mobile device in your pocket this shutter speed is essential you can grab anything without worrying about blurring it (hint Lumia 920)
the fact that ZOE start buffering action before you even press the shutter is a testament how everyone is underestimating this ability
here is another example of the shutter speed (the high contrast is because I have auto enhanced it with my One X)
Those shots are sadly not real world as it is easy to see they have been taken with professional lighting rigs. (multiple light sources, none from the direction of the lense). They are impressive but I prefer real people's examples.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
JesseMT4G said:
You people are crazy of you don't think those pictures take with the one aren't good.
What is wrong with you? For one, its a phone camera, not a dlsr. If you want amazing pictures, then spend your hard earned money on that. Who knows, maybe you have a future as a professional photographer, lol!
And DJ, don't you have an HTC one? If so, you get quite defensive in the s4 forums, yet here you are in the One forums doing the same thing.
Sent from a galaxy far away!
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Click to collapse
Don't know what you mean by defensive.
The detail in the pictures is poor. I don't care what anyone says, I can see that with MY eyes. The colours in the pictures is good, I can see that with MY eyes. With my eyes I can also see that yes there is professional lighting in these photos, so it is stupid of HTC to provide these photos as a showcase to Joe Public - no one else will shoot in those conditions.
Yea, I'm about to get my One back, and I loved it while I had it, and will love it when I get it back; that doesn't stop me from being impartial with regards to the One / GS4 debate.
Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
djbenny1 said:
Don't know what you mean by defensive.
The detail in the pictures is poor. I don't care what anyone says, I can see that with MY eyes. The colours in the pictures is good, I can see that with MY eyes. With my eyes I can also see that yes there is professional lighting in these photos, so it is stupid of HTC to provide these photos as a showcase to Joe Public - no one else will shoot in those conditions.
Yea, I'm about to get my One back, and I loved it while I had it, and will love it when I get it back; that doesn't stop me from being impartial with regards to the One / GS4 debate.
Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
You have extremely high standards for a camera on....a phone. Ultra pixel or not, it is still just a camera....on a phone.
Which IMO does quite well actually. I mean I don't think many of us on here are professional photographer's, so its in the end a regular persons opinion.
Everyone pretends to be an expert though....
And I am sorry you get your pants rustled pretty good in that huge thread you have going over there in the s4 thread. You basically back whatever you can in the One, yet somehow do opposite on this thread about the One.
I don't get it and have a hard time taking someone seriously when you are so wishy-washy.
Again, just my opinion, lol!
Sent from a galaxy far away!
JesseMT4G said:
You have extremely high standards for a camera on....a phone. Ultra pixel or not, it is still just a camera....on a phone.
Which IMO does quite well actually. I mean I don't think many of us on here are professional photographer's, so its in the end a regular persons opinion.
Everyone pretends to be an expert though....
And I am sorry you get your pants rustled pretty good in that huge thread you have going over there in the s4 thread. You basically back whatever you can in the One, yet somehow do opposite on this thread about the One.
I don't get it and have a hard time taking someone seriously when you are so wishy-washy.
Again, just my opinion, lol!
Sent from a galaxy far away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's hard to understand?
Some people over there make stupid claims about the One, and I am quick to set them straight. Likewise here some people are so blinded by fanboyism they can't admit there is anything to improve upon in the One.
Both types annoy me equally.
I don't know what you are trying to accuse me of here, being impartial? Lol... Although I will admit that yes it can be a rare sight on the forums...
Also please tell me at what point did I say the One wasn't a good camera?
I commented on those photos, stating that I didn't think they were a very good marketing tool, as personally I don't think they are overly good. Do you have a problem with that statement?
Really not sure what you're trying to accomplish here?
Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
I will say one thing.
HTC One will and it make pictures around 600kb - 1.3mb.
Those photos have 2.5MB (even 13mpx cameras with no comprassion hardly get this value).
So people, those photos are not fake, but also not HTC One photos.
Move on...
The declared megapixels of this camera are 4MP, the declared reason is bucking the megapixel race, the declared usage is social media, the promised compensation is the low MP are good low light performance which delivers as well as fast shutter speed
There are no surprises about the lack of detail
Its like agonizing that a certain car can only do its stated HP
Or is mine bad?!? Seriously, is no one else getting this problem with blown highlights and over-exposure, or are y'all accepting it? I bought this phone for its "superior camera" and while yes it can take pictures in low light I was not willing to give up taking good pictures in good lighting >8(
I installed Android Revolution 8, then 9, to get the "updated" camera- stock kernel, Dev. Ed.
Attached photo taken with stock camera with auto settings, no custom settings, no hdr (though that has been disappointing as well). Oh and white balance was about 5-800 Kelvin too yellow as well... (sigh)
So do I send it back to get cameras as good as everyone else's or start watching the Sony rumors again? Because my 18 month old Galaxy Note could get this picture right...
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
The camera is awesome, its just you have to play around with the settings. Cange the sharpness to -1 and contrast to +1 for day light pictures. Also focus manually before taking pics.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
What were u expecting from a phone camera?
If you want realy good pictures you need to buy a good standalone camera..
The time isnt still there (and will be for along time) before phone cameras can compete with good standalone cameras...
I also find the camera disappointing. I love the software features like Zoe, but I personally can't rely on this camera to quickly capture a good picture. And I don't think the low light performance is very good either.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Those pictures do not look nearly as good as pictures I have taken with mine,using stock settings. Here's a couple for example. The pictures look a lot better in original format as well in full resolution.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
I love this camera, it lacks the raw specs but it manages to capture those special moments very well, better than even a camera.
The camera has impressed me so far, especially the speed and the amazing colours.
Completely stock trickdroid settings for camera here
@jeeptrash love your cat
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta
My camera is working fine too
it's not perfect but it works
john291 said:
What were u expecting from a phone camera?
If you want realy good pictures you need to buy a good standalone camera..
The time isnt still there (and will be for along time) before phone cameras can compete with good standalone cameras...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
John, my expectations are to not move BACKWARD in quality. Trust me I carry my X100 half the time, but the other half this phone was supposed to fill in and it doesn't cut it.
It's your phone also blowing highlights and having white balance problems? I'm trying to understand if this behavior is typical or not.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
The overexposure thing is a little annoying it's true. HDR mode seems to recover lost shadow detail but doesn't seem to help with blown-out highlights.
Setting contrast to +1 is definitely *not* going to help it.
When you know there will be difficult highlights, setting exposure to -1 in normal non-HDR mode seems like the only response. Not ideal I know. Especially when making such a simple, temporary adjustment requires a lot of fiddling around with menus.
Yep, been playin with my camera all day, had no work in. Found the adjustment settings werent fine enough - swung too much one way or the other on +/- 1.
And indoor pictures where theres any daylight showing (doors/windows etc) caused the images to be washed out, even when focused on the lightest part first.
I think the hardware is fine, just some software improvements are needed. So its not all bad.
davedigerati said:
John, my expectations are to not move BACKWARD in quality. Trust me I carry my X100 half the time, but the other half this phone was supposed to fill in and it doesn't cut it.
It's your phone also blowing highlights and having white balance problems? I'm trying to understand if this behavior is typical or not.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello yes it have the white balance problems sometimes..
I think they need to finetune the software better..
But it can also make some nice pictures too...
But a fine tuned software would be great..
---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 PM ----------
davedigerati said:
John, my expectations are to not move BACKWARD in quality. Trust me I carry my X100 half the time, but the other half this phone was supposed to fill in and it doesn't cut it.
It's your phone also blowing highlights and having white balance problems? I'm trying to understand if this behavior is typical or not.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way this was a simple picture i took out of my window..
Here i like the shadow detail and the natural look of it..
The camera does over expose yes. If you want an easy to use camera. Get the S4/iPhone 5.
Can you control, ISO, shutter speed, Exposure compensation?
Turn ISO off automatic and set it to like 50
Terrorantula said:
Can you control, ISO, shutter speed, Exposure compensation?
Turn ISO off automatic and set it to like 50
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can control iso but you cant get below 100..
The shutter speed cant be controlled manual..
The exposure can be set.
Terrorantula said:
Can you control, ISO, shutter speed, Exposure compensation?
Turn ISO off automatic and set it to like 50
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ISO & exposure yes, you can, and even better if you want to monkey with settings for every shot I recommend FV-5 which I use frequently
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...NvbS5mbGF2aW9uZXQuYW5kcm9pZC5jYW1lcmEucHJvIl0.
The point of my post though is not to find workarounds but to see if this is COMMON, or my camera chip has issues.
I'm puzzled by the lack of complaints out there and feel like the photo I posted was a good example of average sunny day conditions, done badly. Indoors, low light, we're fine, it's the sunny days that are the issue.
Everyone quiet means either
a) everyone is accepting poor quality sunny day photos
b) my camera has issues and everyone else's is fine
c) everyone is feeling a little bit bad that the camera they were promised would offer 'a great leap in the quality of point-and-shoot photos and video' (http://www.htc.com/www/zoe/) frankly isn't, and reluctant to say so, or
d) other?
So everyone shooting sunny day pics please chime, in I appreciate your input- if your pics are coming out great without clipping I'll start the RMA process, or if yours are getting blown I'll fire up the angry fan-boi machine and pester every HTC channel I can hit with requests for a camera update.
Cheers,
Dave
The latter option.
I second, go for the latter
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
davedigerati said:
ISO & exposure yes, you can, and even better if you want to monkey with settings for every shot I recommend FV-5 which I use frequently
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...NvbS5mbGF2aW9uZXQuYW5kcm9pZC5jYW1lcmEucHJvIl0.
The point of my post though is not to find workarounds but to see if this is COMMON, or my camera chip has issues.
I'm puzzled by the lack of complaints out there and feel like the photo I posted was a good example of average sunny day conditions, done badly. Indoors, low light, we're fine, it's the sunny days that are the issue.
Everyone quiet means either
a) everyone is accepting poor quality sunny day photos
b) my camera has issues and everyone else's is fine
c) everyone is feeling a little bit bad that the camera they were promised would offer 'a great leap in the quality of point-and-shoot photos and video' (http://www.htc.com/www/zoe/) frankly isn't, and reluctant to say so, or
d) other?
So everyone shooting sunny day pics please chime, in I appreciate your input- if your pics are coming out great without clipping I'll start the RMA process, or if yours are getting blown I'll fire up the angry fan-boi machine and pester every HTC channel I can hit with requests for a camera update.
Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have posted few times in this forum about disappointing camera or my expectation is too high. Maybe the next HTC software update would fix them. I like the speakers though which is undeniable to be the best.
Camera is superb.
But it's not all things to all men. If you prepared to fanny around with lighting, settings, angles etc for a photo, and expect a high res masterpiece, this isn't your bag. If you want a point and shoot camera which takes nr unbeatable pictures quickly, then this is it.
Mega bright lights will screw any photo up. Your picture is remarkable given the phone was able to cope at all.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lng0004/sets/72157633487686583/
Very good looking photos, taken with the HTC One. Impressive what can be done with a little knowledge of lighting, and a bit of post editing.
Apparently all the editing was done with stock features or Avairy.
Great shot!:good:
Those are some awesome shots indeed. But I think there are a couple of these threads already that this could be merged with.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta
sly101s said:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lng0004/sets/72157633487686583/
Very good looking photos, taken with the HTC One. Impressive what can be done with a little knowledge of lighting, and a bit of post editing.
Apparently all the editing was done with stock features or Avairy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stunning!
Downloading Aviary now
The content and artistic value is impressive. The quality of the images are not really that mpressive though. You can tell its been taken on a mobile phone.
Rubbish
mwatson said:
The content and artistic value is impressive. The quality of the images are not really that mpressive though. You can tell its been taken on a mobile phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way to tell that these are taken on a mobile is if you knew before hand!
Great shots, that could have been taken with the majority of compact cameras
No shame in any of them!
Great shooting
Dal1970 said:
The only way to tell that these are taken on a mobile is if you knew before hand!
Great shots, that could have been taken with the majority of compact cameras
No shame in any of them!
Great shooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They way to tell is view them at their full size (in other words at 100%), its then VERY clear they were taken with a low MP phone cam. They aren't very sharp. Remember your monitor is lower resolution than the images, if you view them even full screen the reduction gives a sharpening effect, hides aliasing on lines, masks artefacts. The 'effects' applied also hide the Ones poor dynamic range.
They are very very well composed shots, and are great looking scenes, which is something the One does very well because it has a fast shutter and therefore little blur, but no they arent quality images from a technical standpoint. The problems with the One camera are still quite clear.
If you zoom in close on any shot you see the pixels - it is digital
I use a D7000 as my main camera and if you zoom in close enough is is pixelated
When you view these shots at a sensible size, there is nothing wrong with them. They will never blow up as large as my dSLR, but that is a different animal entirely.
the low light shots and indoor shot I took on my iPhone 4 are attrocious in comparison - took me ages to correct the colour casts and reduce the HUGE amount of noise
100% is not zoomed, its native. Its shortcomings are very evident at native resolution. I suspect those that don't notice are viewing on the phone or on a fairly small monitor. If thats the case, and you're happy, then fine.
Yes its great in low light, although some other phones manage quite well with HDR mode in low light, however in daylight the One is just a poor quality 4MP camera. Those images have done their best to hide it with great composition and effects, but its still evident.
One way to hide it a bit is to enlarge the picture in Photoshop, maybe to 16MP or more, then apply a smart sharpen of maybe 2.5 pixels and 75%, then drop back to 8MP. It cleans up a lot of the aliasing, artefacting and in effect interpolates a higher resolution.
Awesome shots welldone!
It always amazes me that some people expect a phone camera to match a DSLR.. i have both and yes the One isnt as good as my DSLR but it takes brilliant shots and is a whole lot easier to carry around in my pocket
sharpey said:
Awesome shots welldone!
It always amazes me that some people expect a phone camera to match a DSLR.. i have both and yes the One isnt as good as my DSLR but it takes brilliant shots and is a whole lot easier to carry around in my pocket
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one expects it to match a DSLR, but to approach a 5 year old 5MP phone in daylight would be nice, and it just doesnt. This is why people are upset by the Ones camera. Its low light abilities are great, but its daylight abilities, especially moderate to long distance shots are very poor, even for 4 MP.
mwatson said:
The content and artistic value is impressive. The quality of the images are not really that mpressive though. You can tell its been taken on a mobile phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
The same photographer could have made equally amazing photos with any other smartphone or crappy point and shoot.
The value of those photos come from their composition and lighting, not the image quality. Its the old argument of photographer vs camera.
But yes, very nice photos
Those are some great photos, is that Chinatown in Manhattan?
rovex said:
No one expects it to match a DSLR, but to approach a 5 year old 5MP phone in daylight would be nice, and it just doesnt. This is why people are upset by the Ones camera. Its low light abilities are great, but its daylight abilities, especially moderate to long distance shots are very poor, even for 4 MP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, see... this is where I have a problem: I think the daylight abilities are quite good, but that it really sucks in low light.... For me, all the photos I take in low light (ex. a street corner at night, with lamp posts around) it turns the black into blue noise and it takes some time and a few shots to get a focused photot, even with all the blue in the picture...
Impressive pics imo
Sent from my HTC One using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
We have a photo sharing thread already. The OP in this thread put up some specific shots and claimed they were "impressive". There's plenty to discuss there without opening it up to random new shots with generic captions
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
NxNW said:
We have a photo sharing thread already. The OP in this thread put up some specific shots and claimed they were "impressive". There's plenty to discuss there without opening it up to random new shots with generic captions
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry wrong thread... Will delete.
Sent from my HTC One using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Yeah if you just want to share you can always go to
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2169626
Plenty of good shots in there..
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Incredible quality. One of the main reason why I choose One. I can probably say goodbye to my digital camera now.
Flattered you think my shots are impressive. Sure, I agree that the photographer makes the difference (;p) but the HTC one camera tech really helps. I've yet to take a photo in low light only to find it shaky later. Never. Of course, sometimes sharpness comes with higher noise level but better than a shaky image.
I feel like I'm using an old camera with fixed wide angle lens when shooting with the HTC One. HDR what? ;p
Hi all,
TL;DR - Pretty pictures taken with the HTC One here: Click
I've been very interested in the HTC One's camera ever since it was announced, as I believe that the philosophy behind the trade-offs made in its design are a step forward for the mobile phone camera industry.
I've recently returned from a trip to Japan and as an experiment, used the HTC One as my only camera (clearly not because my P&S was stolen two years ago!). I have taken nearly 8,000 shots over the 14 days I was in Japan and after nearly a hundred (if not more) hours spent in post-processing, I think I have a decent set of pictures.
I have annotated some of the pictures in a travel-journalistic manner. If you are a experienced traveller, I am probably not saying anything you do not already know. If you have never been to Japan, I hope they provide you with some insights.
A few observations I've made in the process of shooting said pictures:
The wide angle lens on the HTC One is wonderfully versatile, especially for landscape and architecture shots. Framing the shot is effortless and as it turns out, of utmost importance.
The most controversial aspect of the One's camera, the 4MP resolution does come with a very real drawback. You have little room in post-production to recover a badly framed shot. Cropping in post-production is often an unhappy compromise as you are left with less room to compensate for noise and blur. I would hazard to say that shooting with only the One for an extended period of time may be a great way to improve your composition skills.
The HTC One's camera software and auto-focus is fast and responsive, you can compose, re-focus/expose and shoot in a blink of an eye, which is something I took advantage of to take the multiple exposures required for the HDR pictures.
While no aspect of the HTC One's camera is exceptional, the package of a very fast f2.0 lens, optical image stabilization and above average sensor sensitivity means that vis-a-vis other mobile phone cameras, you will nail shot after shot in daylight and have a decent chance of grabbing something usable in low-light.
Will I do something like this again? Unlikely. The next time I can afford to travel, I will almost certainly be packing a decent camera. Do I regret the experience? Definitely not. Shooting with a camera like the One forces you to learn to frame your shots well. I like to think that technically, I am a decent photographer, but as far as composing a picture well, I have a long way to go.
Links to the various albums below. Sorry if you dislike Google+, but its easy to upload and annotate and it has a really clean interface. The albums are all public, so there is technically no need to sign in, but Google+ prompts you to login if you happen to be signed into another Google service. If you really want to avoid signing in, simply open the links in a incognito window.
If you are impatient, Kyoto and the Highlight albums are probably the best.
Comments, feedback and questions welcome. Wasn't sure if I should have created a new thread, if not, please merge into the photograph thread, thanks moderators.
Highlights
Tokyo (東京)
Odaiba (お台場)
Sensoji Shrine (浅草寺)
Meiji Shrine (明治神宮)
Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場)
Hama-Rikyu Gardens (浜離宮恩賜庭園)
Osaka (大阪)
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (海遊館)
Nara (奈良市)
Himeji (姫路市)
Kyoto (京都)
Kanazawa (金沢)
Shibuya Scramble Crossing (Youtube Video)
---
Photomatix Presets
edit: converted text to links
edit2: added link to timelapse of Shibuya scramble crossing
edit3: link to the photomatix presets I've used
Wow! Those are some very nice photos! Just goes to show how much power is behind our phone. It makes me want to go out and use my camera now.
Excellent shots! You clearly have a lot of talent! And that is some good post-processing too.
It would be great to know if you touched up the HDRs in post-production in anyway or are they mostly untouched?
ankanb said:
Excellent shots! You clearly have a lot of talent! And that is some good post-processing too.
It would be great to know if you touched up the HDRs in post-production in anyway or are they mostly untouched?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the HDR shots are not in-camera HDR shots, they are multiple pictures of the same shot combined in post.
Every picture has been touched up in post. The natural looking ones are probably just simple lighting/contrast adjustments, the surreal looking ones took more effort.
Love Japan. Absolutely love Kyoto. You took some really good shots
One thing I am a bit disappointed with is the amount of noise the camera has. (still love it hough)
Some of your shots (especially the HDR) are way too noisy for my liking, but that's a matter of taste or sometimes plain nitpicking.
Which settings did you mainly use?
Did you leave the phone in charge of most of the settings or did you do it manually?
I agree, you took some beautiful shots!
Makes me want to travel. Lol.
MartinS13X said:
Love Japan. Absolutely love Kyoto. You took some really good shots
One thing I am a bit disappointed with is the amount of noise the camera has. (still love it hough)
Some of your shots (especially the HDR) are way too noisy for my liking, but that's a matter of taste or sometimes plain nitpicking.
Which settings did you mainly use?
Did you leave the phone in charge of most of the settings or did you do it manually?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With respect to the noise, agreed. In most cases, with some work, as its only really bad for the uniform areas of the picture, the noise is entirely cleanable in post. But in most cases, I've chosen not to for effect. And the HDR process does tend to accentuate the noise and would typically not be visible if I had processed it for a natural look.
Still, it doesn't surprise me that much. I picked up a Fujifilm f100fd, a P&S as my last camera. It was supposed to be really good with low-light photography due to its excellent noise control. While clearly better then the HTC One, I found myself running into the same problems when post-processing the f100fd's shots vis the HTC One's shots. I think if you really want clean, low light shot, a DSLR/interchangeable lens camera with a fast prime lens is the only way to go, that or a tripod, depending on the picture you want.
Sharpness at -2 for virtually all the shots. Occasionally exposure at -1 is very useful, when you are sure that you can capture enough detail in a darker picture. You're essentially telling the camera, hey, I'm OK with a dark picture, take the next shot as fast as a shutter speed as you can. For that reason, almost all the aquarium shots are with exposure -1, as you don't really care about the walls of aquarium being properly exposed, you just want the fish exposed.
For the multiple shots needed for the HDR pictures, tapping at a bright spot, taking a picture, then quickly tapping at a dark spot, then taking another picture... The problem is that sometimes having the camera focus at a bright/dark spot means you screw up focus entirely.
The HTC One's backlight mode is incredibly useful when you want to take portrait shots with something bright in the background. I've used the landscape and HDR modes a few times, but I'm still not entirely sure what landscape mode gets me.
So... Long story short, normal mode, with sharpness at -2, with lots of tapping on the screen.
edit: oh, also, I manually flashed to 4.2.2, which meant that I had access to AF/AE lock. That came useful for the epic panorama of Himeji castle's surroundings.
Exposure -1 is indeed good in some cases. I've used that too.
I also want to try setting the ISO manually in dark photos as I believe there is room for lower ISO in some cases and the camera just increases it a lot.
I'm also not a fan of noisy, instagram-y photos like some of yours but you have some very nice shots.
I saw a link with a timelapse video. What's the deal with that? Is it yours?
Ooops, error.
Corduroy-21 said:
Exposure -1 is indeed good in some cases. I've used that too.
I also want to try setting the ISO manually in dark photos as I believe there is room for lower ISO in some cases and the camera just increases it a lot.
I'm also not a fan of noisy, instagram-y photos like some of yours but you have some very nice shots.
I saw a link with a timelapse video. What's the deal with that? Is it yours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The timelapse video is mine yes. If it helps, the noise is inherent in the picture, and not added for "authenticity"
edit: I think the One generally makes good decisions when it comes to ISO, it priorities shutter speed over anything else, which I think, given the fact that in any low-light shot, you are going to get unhappy amounts of noise, is a good choice. A blurred shot is usually totally unusable.
shasderias said:
The timelapse video is mine yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do it?
Did you use the One?
Corduroy-21 said:
How did you do it?
Did you use the One?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. Sideloaded the stock android camera, used the timelapse function. Waited...
The pictures you have posted are just amazing.
Although I have a HTC One but I don't take much pictures. You have motivated me to take more pictures from this phone now.
The filters you have used in this are given ones or some other application for that?
Wow. I just went through every album. Those all turned out amazing.
Great pics! :good:
rahulwadhwani said:
The pictures you have posted are just amazing.
Although I have a HTC One but I don't take much pictures. You have motivated me to take more pictures from this phone now.
The filters you have used in this are given ones or some other application for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No filters used, photos are all taken normally and edited in post. Photoshop for all editing, Photomatix for most of the HDR pictures.
shasderias said:
Yup. Sideloaded the stock android camera, used the timelapse function. Waited...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which timelapse function did you use? How come my phone doesnt have it?
aceonetwothree said:
which timelapse function did you use? How come my phone doesnt have it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't use the HTC One's camera app, I sideloaded the camera app from stock android (the one with photosphere) to do the timelapse.
Incidentally, the photospheres for some reason, turned out super low-res.
How do you manage to take photos with the phone using 3 exposure values, going into the menu and changing the value after each photo while keeping the phone perfectly still?
Love these! The Shibuya Scramble pictures gave me to flashbacks to The World Ends With You.