Alternative App that makes best quality photos - Xperia Z3 Compact General

Hi there,
As everyone knows, default camera app of sony sucks. I have tried a lot of alternative applications. For me the best results is from Snap Camera with settings 20mpx, camera api2, jpeg quality Best, opengl2, auto scene auto whitebalance, auto flash. These settings allows me to take much sharper images tested on my small facial hair. BUT! Camera is very overheating, after few minutes (5-6 shots) i have started sony camera and it alerted that camera is too hot, so it shuts down.
Snap camera allows HDR in 20mpx also any scene, its not limited as sony-s camera
Also snap camera produced the best images on my old low quality mtk based phone. So i recommend it, its paid but as far i know it have trial version.
I will be happy if someone will tell how is satisfied with this app.
PS.: FV-5 is worse, for my eyes.

in the play store info, there is setting for ISO. but why is there non when i check in setting...?

ive taken some kick ass photos in good light/ low light / bad light with the stock app. IDK what everyone is on about. but to each their own =)

`Ghost` said:
ive taken some kick ass photos in good light/ low light / bad light with the stock app. IDK what everyone is on about. but to each their own =)
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In Auto mode or Manual?

Both.

Basically, when you unlock your boot loader, the great photo quality will be gone. If you have backed up your "TRIMM area" before unlocking it (where the DRM keys are stored), then you'll be able to get it back, by re-locking the BL, but this means you'll lose your ability to use costom ROMs, only modified stock ROMs are possible after that.
The reason for this is that Sony uses some pretty amazing software magic to get great pictures in low light (noise reduction algorithms) which aren't meant to be accessible for others to reverse engineer, so they lock them away with the DRM keys. So with a locked boot loader, the camera makes awesome pictures even in low light, with an unlocked BL, meh... (not so much any more)
Of course, these algorithms are only available to the Sony default camera app for the same reasons...

Have you tried this
It will let you have scene's and HDR in 20mp, also it has more ISO options.

I've used FV-5 from the start and imo it's a lot better for me then the stock app. I can't work with the stock app that has limited control
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app

stock camera is the only one...'cause of manual iso... fv-5 has good auto but you can't force iso 100, 200 and so on

Recently I have the Z3 Compact therefore not yet tried everything, but the camera does not seem anywhere near what they sold me in reviews. The original camera seems poor choices, the automatic mode leaves much to be desired, especially in low light because when you have a lighthouse in front can not interpret well and properly handle white balance and contrast.
I was testing the Open Camera app and gives me better results than stock. The only thing I use it now for the stock camera is for timeshift and sometimes for panoramic shots.

I have almost forgot about this post, thanks for cleaning my bookmarks.
Thanks for everyone’s reply, I have figured out that another phones also uses that sensor and they make better pics, so probably problem is with sony's software developers who are doing a weak job. I am very addicted to zooming pictures and when I compare zoomed 5mpx downscale shot of lumia 1020 and 8 or 20mpx shot of Z3C, then shot of lumia is sharp and clear, full of details.... the shot of sony is like blurred and without details. So i think that they algorithm is wrong somewhere or they are compressing raw to too low quality and when jpeg is created then its final quality will be even worse regardless of 97% or 100% jpeg quality. Need to note that nokia's sensor is three times bigger in its physical size that captures the light.
But the video quality is epic i have never seen so good video quality from phone.
Currently i am waiting for availability of 5.1.1 in slovakia

Related

Camera quality is bad

So I've been taking a few pictures on my phone, and I have noticed that the Galaxy S2 is very very inconsistent in taking quality photos. I can have a great clear shot of some mid-ranged photos, but far distanced photos have horrible quality. I understand if you take pictures of something really far, obviously it won't be that good, but when I compared to my friends iPhone 4, the 8MP is barely on par with it. Do any of you know what might be the problem? I've tried using auto focus and manual focus, but it is always blurry.
It seems to be an hardware problem. I find the sgsw camera pretty good, especially the dynamic range. My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.
Can you upload and provide some shots samples?
Everything on auto? It might help to know which ROM/mod you are using.
I'm not an expert in mobile digital photography but if I can see your blurry distant shots it might be able to tell if I get better result with my device.
The S2 tends to like low shutter speeds (1/4s - 1/20s) ALL the frigging time.
It will select this slow shutter speed even when it should raise the ISO and get a faster shutter speed.
This is why the S2 often takes blurry photos, because even 1/15 or 1/19sec is not fast enough to take a photo sharply with a 28mm lens (effectively what the S2 is).
The slowest shutter speed the S2 should use is 1/30sec to ensure the photos aren't blurred by *camera* vibration/shake. (But, if the *subject* is moving, like a child, then 1/60s or 1/80s are the minimum that are needed to freeze the subject).
This is why the photos are so often blurry as soon as the light gets slightly low - cloud day, in shade, etc. I don't have a solution sorry!
Proof: check the EXIF data of the blurry photos you take. Most will have a stupidly low ISO (like ISO25, ISO50) and a stupid low shutter speed.
Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear
I don't want to be captain obvious, and I am sure you are a better photographer than me but can you check if the focus mode is set to macro if it is then change to auto focus.
Since this happened to me once i set to macro and forgot and all the photos were blurry.
I just felt that might be the reason.
I am guessing that what you're doing is pressing on the "Capture" button without focusing on the subject yet?
I do find that it's best to press to focus on the area you want to take and then press the main capture button to capture it. It seems like the focus hasn't focused on what you want to take.
It's quite annoying because then that means I have to press in the middle and then press the capture button to take a decent shot. I wish I could just hold down the capture button to focus, then release to shoot.. which works sometimes but not as good as what I said above.
Here you have 2 images, far and close focus. You can see the great quality of the camera. Take a look at the focus settings: better in auto mode if you don't want to manage it in all photos. Maybe you have some problem in the camera hardware... so warranty is the best option here.
There are at least 2 types of camera modules in SGS II.
Check this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098834
Mine also had this problem (blury at far objects), the soultion is set the metering to matrix in camera menu.It works for me.
iocar said:
Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear
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are you using macro mode to take farer objects ?
thats why it is more clear when you are taking photo of the specimen (3rd one)
or the camera firmware is broken , if not ,it may be the hardware issue
I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2
Try resetting the camera settings see if that works,try a third party HDR camera app or Camera 360,if quility is still bad in the 3rd party app then it could be a hardware fault
Sichroteph said:
My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.
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auto contrast I find helps take better indoors
Cant say I've had any problems with the camera. Love the macro focussing.
It seems obvious that your device doesn't behave like it should and have focus problems. I can have the exact same results with macro mode activated (and not shooting close objects)
I would suggest :
- trying another camera app (like TheiPhoneKiller suggested)
- trying a totally stock rom
- trying a rom like CM7 or MIUI
If you still got totally unfocused shots, you may very well have an faulty device. Try to get a replacement unit if you can.
(And did you try the fix kisstom suggested?)
Well... my shots is certainly much more grainy, since i upgraded to 2.3.5 - even if shot outside in bright sunshine. And many of the pictures is becoming more yellow than before - especially when using the flash-LED, so something has happened when i upgraded... this is one of my big complaints about the new upgrade. My old W800i 2Mpx beats the SGS2 in pure quality of the pictures now (but that was also, and still is, a VERY good camera for a phone)...
When comparing the newest pictures to some of the old pictures i have shot in the past, it's clear to me that i have a loss of quality since upgrading. How do i check manually, if there's a new camera-software version available - as i can't seem to find any in the Samsung apps, even if i have read somewhere that there's a newer one, comparing to my version of the camera-software???
But a least it's still not as crappy as my old HTC's camera - THAT was lousy...
Frankly speaking, 'Camera quality is bad' makes no sense. If you've said it's bad than this or that then I'd take it. Have used all the SE phones as I loved their image quality and I'll say after playing with the Satio, C905 I don't think this one would beat them. We are talking about a small image sensor here. So the main job is how good the post image processing is, some part still depends on the lens though.
The thing is I didn't buy this one for camera, believe me or not, after purchase, that is almost six months now, I've shot barely 10 pics with it. For normal usage and as a professional can't go without 350D, and for short tours and holidays I still shoot with my C905 , but not GSII.
But still this Camera is capable of taking some great pics, posting some of them here, after seeing them you certainly can't say Camera quality is bad.
The very bests I've found,
-> ithehappy
Well - i used to have that image quality too, but it has become somewhat impossible to shot such good pictures, since upgrading... i suspect that it's because my camera firmware still is TBEC28 (but of course not sure of it)
iocar said:
I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2
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Confused!!! Are you saying that you always have macro focus on?
If so then turn it off. My cousin complained about the exact same thing, blurry and red box when trying to focus. Went through his settings, turned macro off and everything was good again.
Also auto focus will not work correctly if macro is on, unless your taking really close range pics, which is what macro focus is for.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
well i am on 2.3.5 Images are really Perfect for me am seriously impressed the Quality iam on kI8 here is one example
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/20111118205552.jpg
iocar said:
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality
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Click to collapse
That's exactly why your pictures are blurry at a distance.
Macro focus is for close-up pictures, use auto focus for longer distances

Making the most out of the camera

Hey guys, would just like to start a discussion on tips/tweaks that are possible on the edge's camera. I'm by no means a professional photographer but would like to learn how to take a good photo from a smartphone. Maybe someone who is pro and in the know can help.
Tbh, its not like edge's cam is bad but I envy the iphone 6's camera performance especially in too bright (they just come off darker) and low light (not bright enough) scenarios. This is most apparent when I try to take a spherical/panoramic shot with google camera, the sky wont just have the same 'brightness' when the spherical photo is stitched completely.
It seems Ip6 users can just take good photos effortlessly. In dark scenarios, ip6 users have that feature where you can just click on the area thats too dark and it magically becomes brighter without spoiling the overall photo quality.
Spec wise the edge's cam should be superior so imo the edge cam can perform close to if not as good as the ip6's with the right settings/tweaks. So hoping someone can share their knowledge regarding this. Thank you.
I love the camera so far. I also use Procamera and A Better Camera. I downloaded the add ons and am playimg with them all. I really like the placement of the controls on the Edge. It takes a bit to get used to in landscape mode, however. I would like a "low light" or "night" setting. Maybe I just haven't found it yet!
Update 2/9/15: found out the camera automatically switches to night mode in low light. Pretty cool!
I've been using Camera Zoom FX for when I need the most amount of manual adjustments to my camera.
Most the time the stock camera app can handle most situations but sometimes manual is needed and Camera Zoom has always done the job for me.
But this is an app that requires some photography knowledge and not sure if this is what you are looking for since you are looking for something that is easy to use like the I6 camera.
I've been playing more and more with the camera. I am really liking it. I was getting frustrated with the "shot and more" mode until I realized some only work in the landscape mode. Panning really gives a great effect,! This api is very intuitive. I hear the Lollipop version is even better. Can't wait.
Are there any recommended setting for the Camera ?
Thanks
I've been playing around with it and usually leave it at a lower size (between 2-3m). I find you have to hold it really still. Action shot mode always comes out more blurry. I tend to like the shot and more mode so I can choose the best picture. Auto does great for closeups and distant, plus I like how it automatically changes to night mode in darker settings.
If you are having difficulty, try a higher ISO, like 800. I had to do that on my HTC Inspire.
May i know which canera audio file to delete when click in android 6?
Sent from my SM-N915G using Tapatalk

Best camera(quality) app for Lineageos and klte?

just as the title states,
what is the camera app that you found to take best quality wise photos with S5, I've noticed that stock lineageos app takes very unfocused photos and takes a lot to focus in video mode, also I tried SnapIt with works better but a lot of modes just crashes app and I also tried Oxygeon os v8 cam app and it just doesn't have many options, I can't even set photo resolution.
Please recommend me something better.
I have the same problem
I read/heard hat Open Camera is a very good one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en
and the camera from oneplus:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/onepl...e/oneplus-camera-2-5-21-android-apk-download/
regards
I now tested: LOS, CameraMX, Footej, OnePlus and Open Camera. Neither of these Apps could give me acceptable picture quality in low light scene. Is there any other recommendation? Maybe an App that is specialized in dark scenes? I don't care too much about features but about quality.
MysteryIII said:
I now tested: LOS, CameraMX, Footej, OnePlus and Open Camera. Neither of these Apps could give me acceptable picture quality in low light scene. Is there any other recommendation? Maybe an App that is specialized in dark scenes? I don't care too much about features but about quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try SnapCamera
Giowi said:
Try SnapCamera
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Click to collapse
Thanks, in fact it's the best dark scene Camera of all. But still far away from Stock quality.
Made pictures of my room wallpaper with the monitor as the sole indirect light. Tested each Camera with and without HDR with automatic settings and no camera light.
On Stock Camera noise is extremely low and you can clearly recognize the muster. Taking pictures with this camera takes twice the time at least.
Snap Camera has a lot of noise but muster is still recognizable.
Open Camera has a little more noise but you can recognize the shadows/transitions a little better.
Footej and LOS Camera seem to be in about same league and far to dark.
OnePlus Camera is almost black even though I used the brightness adjuster (only in this App).
I know most of the Apps have a lot manual settings and a professional could most probably get more out of it, which might result in different ranking of the Apps. But I'm no pro like many/most phone camera users.
Clearly software algorithm of Stock Camera is on a totally different level for the S5.
While you can't see big differences in good light/scenes/situations, you can see it more as the light/scenes/situations get worse.

Poor Image Quality in Manual Mode.. Try This

Hey Folks
I just wanted to share this with everyone...
I'm running OS. v. 4.101.. (Aug 2017)
I love this phone, its awesome, great Audio.. really fast, no stutter or lag.... 32Gb Internal w/SDCard, although I think the screen on the original XAU was a LITTLE brighter and more vivid..
Like some folk here.. I started out having Camera Shake / Blurry Images when taking a shot in Manual Mode and Ive been having the same red, purple noisy tint in very Low Light in Manual Mode that some have also posted about, but it can be a struggle to take steady shots in Manual Mode in daylight as well.. However, thanks to the Newer updated imaging algorithm found in the XZ1 and XZP which from what Ive read, SONY have used in our XA1U... it functions really great in Auto Mode, so SONY phones can now be used as great Point and Shoots.. and we no longer have to struggle anymore with ISO 50 or 100, WB and Metering.
But in Manual Mode, Ive found that by permanently keeping the camera at 12MPX (both Auto and Manual Modes)... gives great steadier shots... 20 and 23MPx modes, for me, give Blurred and poor image quality, kinda like camera shake. .. But as everyone knows MPx don't mean squat in "true" photography, only on YouTube and less MPx means less processing, so steadier image. Used to be the same in the older "Z" series where 8MPx was the magic number..
Also, in Manual Mode.. goto settings and set the Metering to "Centre" weighted, so your light metre is set to your point of focus and when you half-press the shutter to focus.. don't hold the focus for too long as it can shift, like most cameras will.
Give it a try and Lets know if it works for you.
Thanks for the suggestion. While I didn’t change all the settings you recommended, simply bumping the resolution down to 12 megapixels has improved many things, including shutter lag and processing speed. I noticed when using manual, taking photos from a moving car resulted in unusable images with ghosting or extreme shutter lag. It was very frustrating for a while there. 12 mp is slightly less sharp but also less noisy... I can live with it.
I’ve been a Sony Xperia user for a while now and I’ve always had mixed feelings about their smart phone Cameras. Megapixels are always high, with several innovative camera features and ‘firsts’, but image quality has never lived up to other brands.
I have taken amazing shots with these, but those are almost always outdoors and in sunlight.
The camera on results on the XA1 are essentially the same as I’ve gotten on all the Z series phones (Go figure, since it’s the Z5 camera sensor).
NightOrchid said:
Hey Folks
I just wanted to share this with everyone...
I'm running OS. v. 4.101.. (Aug 2017)
I love this phone, its awesome, great Audio.. really fast, no stutter or lag.... 32Gb Internal w/SDCard, although I think the screen on the original XAU was a LITTLE brighter and more vivid..
Like some folk here.. I started out having Camera Shake / Blurry Images when taking a shot in Manual Mode and Ive been having the same red, purple noisy tint in very Low Light in Manual Mode that some have also posted about, but it can be a struggle to take steady shots in Manual Mode in daylight as well.. However, thanks to the Newer updated imaging algorithm found in the XZ1 and XZP which from what Ive read, SONY have used in our XA1U... it functions really great in Auto Mode, so SONY phones can now be used as great Point and Shoots.. and we no longer have to struggle anymore with ISO 50 or 100, WB and Metering.
But in Manual Mode, Ive found that by permanently keeping the camera at 12MPX (both Auto and Manual Modes)... gives great steadier shots... 20 and 23MPx modes, for me, give Blurred and poor image quality, kinda like camera shake. .. But as everyone knows MPx don't mean squat in "true" photography, only on YouTube and less MPx means less processing, so steadier image. Used to be the same in the older "Z" series where 8MPx was the magic number..
Also, in Manual Mode.. goto settings and set the Metering to "Centre" weighted, so your light metre is set to your point of focus and when you half-press the shutter to focus.. don't hold the focus for too long as it can shift, like most cameras will.
Give it a try and Lets know if it works for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this, I definitely see some improvements as you mentioned yourself...
Hi there,
I would like to install a AOSP ROM zip file, but whenever I look for it I never find it
Can someone help me please and give me some page or even a link?
Thank you

Improvements in stock camera app?

Has Moto stock camera app improved picture quality? I haven't updated my camera app for a long time now, even the one that changed the app icon. Are there any improvements after updating the camera app on stock ROM?
Nops only changed the icon and microphone bug. Even the pink tint is still present in high ISO setting. forget HDR+
I think that the quality is little bit better using manual mode.
Enviado desde mi LG-V400 mediante Tapatalk
cpvm said:
I think that the quality is little bit better using manual mode.
Enviado desde mi LG-V400 mediante Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Agreed. I find setting a manual shutter speed cuts down on the oversharpening that usually occurs with low light shots. I use 1/30 second for most indoor shots. The photos are usually under-exposed and require some tweaking in Google Photos or your editor of choice. I'll take that any day, instead of automatic mode's tendency to over-expose and clip the highlights.
I've got to admit, I just got this phone today and was hoping it would be at least as good camera-wise as the Nextbit Robin it was replacing. I didn't think the Nextbit's camera was so amazing, but with the right manual controls I was able to nail decent shots with it.
This, I feel like the colors are oddly oversaturated and the sharpening is ugly as sin. I did also find that switching to manual helped a bit, at least with the sharpening, but what's with the clipping highlights so early? Does this camera sensor just suck when it comes to dynamic range? Or is it just bad software?
My phone hasn't had a chance to update yet so I was hoping new software might have come along to address the shortcomings, which is how I ended up in this thread.
Are there other camera apps which might improve things? I tried Open Camera, but it seems to just behave the same as the stock app with a different UI. Has anyone tried the ported Google Camera app?
Dishe said:
....[much snipped]....
Are there other camera apps which might improve things? I tried Open Camera, but it seems to just behave the same as the stock app with a different UI. Has anyone tried the ported Google Camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm resurrecting this thread in order to address your original question, which is now irrelevant to you. Meanwhile, you've demonstrated (in this thread and others) that the G5+ does, indeed, have a capable camera module that's hamstrung by lousy software. But this is for those of us who are still wimps and not yet willing to unlock the bootloader.
As others have said (and I have too) just switching the stock camera to "pro mode" seems to reduce the oversharpening effects, but only slightly. Setting the shutter speed to 1/30 also helps in some low light situations.
However, my best luck has been with the Camera FV-5 app, which I bought years ago. In addition to allowing much more manual control, it also can be set to save images in .png format, and that seems to bypass more of the default image processing. (Unfortunately, it also means no EXIF data, so no info about exposure is recorded.)
Setting Camera FV-5 to save black and white images (Settings/photo encoding settings/color channels) also produces some strikingly sharp images that I find very pleasing. I'm sure many will not be interested in that option.
Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that Moto is now advertising the G5+ as having the "Most advanced camera in its class"?
One more app worth trying, whether rooted or not: FreeDCam. It's free and open source. It's possible to turn off denoising, resulting in a much sharper image. Some sort of noise reduction is still needed for most low-light images, though. Even without root, I'm getting much better photos now. For those who are rooted and have access to camera2 api, raw images are supported.
edit: after more experimentation, my enthusiasm for FreeDCam is waning, at least on unrooted phones. I think it still has a lot to offer those who have rooted. And it still produces incredibly sharp images in good light. But in low light, the noise is severe and I haven't found an effective way to deal with it. For now (until I root) it's either the stock camera in "pro" mode or Camera FV-5 for low light shots.
I was disappointed with the camera too when I first got mine, but I've recently discovered it's not the camera itself, but merely the software. I've been using the 3rd-party, free, ad-free Open Camera app by Mark Harman, available in the Google Play store, & it's heaps better! You can download it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en

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