Database Users

A few notes about the camera (it isn't bad)

Lots of people are unhappy with the camera on the Z. I'm into photography and I thought I'd have a play with it to see what I could find out. I thought I'd post this as it may help people get more out of the camera and understand why they are getting bad results. I was initially very unhappy with low light shots, especially compared with my old Xperia Arc. I am now getting vastly better results.
1. "Superior Auto Mode" SUCKS. Really, really sucks.
Why?
First, it applies some sort of hyper-aggressive noise reduction/sharpening to most images. This means that even if you get a good capture, this mode then does its best to ruin it for you by artificially stuffing up details and actually adding noise (via over-aggressive processing).
Second, it does really stupid things with ISO. You may notice that on manual settings, ISO only goes up to 1600 (which is still way too high for this sensor). However, in auto, the camera will go up to at least ISO 2500 (confirmed by checking exif data). This is extremely bad for image quality and introduces huge amounts of colour noise which simply cannot be overcome by post processing. In addition, in auto mode the camera is very "high ISO happy", so it will bump up the ISO very quickly even in moderately good conditions.
What's more, while you can't use the (dubious) image stabilisation at manual ISO settings, you can you HDR. So you can get good night or dusk shots by using HDR and (say) ISO 400 in normal mode, which I deal with below.
Overall, I would avoid this mode unless you are in bright conditions or just need to get a basic shot without caring about quality.
2. HDR mode is real, but the images it takes are not taken simultaneously.
I'm sure I read Sony claiming that the sensor was in some way three layered and therefore that it could take HDR shots instantly. The reality is that while HDR mode works (weakly), it actually takes three separate shots over the space of maybe half a second.
The problem with this is that if things are moving in your image, they will either blur or have ghosts of themselves in the photo.
I verified this by taking an HDR shot of traffic at an intersection. I was able to see very dark and very light 'ghost' images of moving cars, even though the rest of the image was sharp and clear.
From this I am guessing that Sony has implemented an edge-matching algorithm to process the three exposures into one. This can cope with some camera shake, but cannot cope with actual fast moving objects. This theory is supported by the fact that the image size drops by one megapixel for HDR, i.e., the camera is giving itself a "border" to allow for shake.
It is also apparent that the level of HDR processing is very weak compared to what is possible with a proper camera and proper software. The exposure range and the amount of weight given to the high and low range exposures is very weak (confirmed by the level of saturation of the "ghost" cars in my test image, which were fairly faint).
Others have reported that the video quality suffers with HDR on. This is consistent with the HDR having to take triple the exposures then process them on the fly.
3. Image stabilisation is a gimmick
In manual mode, you can turn on image stabilisation. However, when you do this, you can't set a manual ISO level and can't use HDR. This strongly suggests that all that "image stabilisation" is really doing is messing with your ISO settings (as per "superior auto mode") to increase shutter speed in difficult conditions by ramping up ISO. This, of course, destroys quality.
4. You can use normal mode to control the ISO and get much better results, including at night
If you choose "normal" shooting mode, and then go to settings and scroll down, you will find an option to set the ISO of the camera manually.
Playing with this, I have been able to get much, much better results from the camera than are achievable either in "superior auto" mode or in any mode where ISO is set to "auto".
Specifically, I would say that the camera produces fair to excellent results (for a phone camera) at any ISO below 400, and acceptable results at 800 in some conditions. However, 1600 produces very noisy images and should be avoided if you are after image quality (as should 800, to be safe). That is consistent with the size of the camera and sensor. Even fairly good consumer DSLRs struggle at or above 1600, so it is not surprising that a tiny phone camera struggles at or above 800.
Using the camera at ISO 400 I have been able to take shots in very dark conditions which look great and show relatively little noise.
The lens is f/2.4 at its fastest, which is not ultra fast, but fast enough to capture a decent amount of light at ISO 400 or 800. You are better off sticking to these ISO levels and trying to physically stabilise your camera (i.e., balance it on something solid) than killing you image quality with higher ISO settings.
A comparison suggests that "normal" mode doesn't apply the stupid levels of sharpening and noise reduction (so called) that superior auto mode does. Shots seem to retain most of the natural sharpness and detail that the camera is clearly capable of producing.
5. The flash is bad but better than most
Direct flash generally sucks, and mobile phone flashes generally suck. Combine them for a lot of suckiness.
However, Sony has done a solid job with this flash, given the baseline difficulties with any direct flash. It doesn't seem to blast its subject and it seems to be at a low enough level to let ambient light fill in the background. I was able to get acceptable results in normal mode at ISO 400.
6. Metering
The metering on the camera is quite aggressive in its centre-weighted variation. If you are finding that photos of a light or dark object are causing the rest of the scene to blow out or go too dark, try the full averaged metering mode (which is slightly dark, but does a decent job).
7. My suggested settings
A. Daytime: Normal mode; ISO 100; HDR off (to avoid ghosts on moving objects); flash off.
B. Nightime: Normal mode; ISO 400; HDR off unless taking pics of buildings and holding camera v steady; metering full scene; flash off.
C. I want to produce horrible photos then complain: Superior Auto Mode.
I hope this helps someone! Using setting A above this camera produces some stunning pictures in good light. Using setting B it produces very good night pictures for a camera phone, particularly if you shoot at the highest resolution then resize later.

One other thing - what I would like to see Sony do to improve the camera so that users get the most out of it...
1. Dramatically reduce the default image processing in auto mode
2. Add a smart ISO setting, where the user can control the maximum ISO that the camera will select on "auto ISO". E.g. allow the user to set ISO800 as a cap, but have the camera use a lower setting if suitable for the conditions.
3. Add advanced options to allow the user to contol noise reduction and sharpening.
4. (In fantasy land) add a full manual mode.

What do you mean by "metering full scene"? Do you recomendo "multi-point automatic focus"?

JPWOA said:
What do you mean by "metering full scene"? Do you recomendo "multi-point automatic focus"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, that's focus mode (which I don't have strong views about - I prefer single point for more control, personally). I.e., the way in which the camera picks the subject which will be in focus.
I'm talking about exposure, i.e., how the camera works out how bright or dark the scene is. In "normal" mode, if you go to settings, then scroll down, you will see a metering option. The choices are centre, average or spot.
I'm suggesting that at night "average" will be most useful as "centre" or "spot" take a limited part of the image and base exposure on that. At night a limited part of the image is likely to be extremely dark or light, which will make the exposure go nuts.
During the day "centre" works ok for specific subjects, and average is good for evenly lit scenes.

Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?

caitsith01 said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed on pretty much most of what you say, in addition other camera apps that allow you to save 100% jpg quality or save as png also help.
f2.4 not ultra fast hmmm, I am sure you do not have very many lenses in your arsenal that are faster for your camera. I know I only have one, my F1.2 50mm lens, the rest are f2.8 or F4, they have to do for me because they don't make any faster sir, and if one day they even did, I am telling you I could not afford them .
Apart from that some good information shared.
---------- Post added at 01:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:38 PM ----------
juanmaasecas said:
Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no, because Sony are still processing the image to create the jpg files, and not saving at 100%. Think of RAW, I always shoot in RAW because then I am in control of the processing on the image WB,Sharpness,Brightness... not my camera.
Burst mode is great, because the Sony algorithms don't have time to apply all the settings to all the photos before they are written, so just pretty much write the file (like jpg in raw jpg). So a combo of all these things will significantly help further. To better this even further there are other camera apps that allow you to save at 100% jpg or even png for RAW like capture to a lesser extent

danw_oz said:
f2.4 not ultra fast hmmm, I am sure you do not have very many lenses in your arsenal that are faster for your camera. I know I only have one, my F1.2 50mm lens, the rest are f2.8 or F4, they have to do for me because they don't make any faster sir, and if one day they even did, I am telling you I could not afford them .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.

juanmaasecas said:
Thank you very very very much for your review.
I'll own a Xperia Z in a few days and, since i'm into photography too, I was worried about the quality pics I've seen.
Did you try the burst mode? Have you seen the post about burst mode avoiding (almost) all postprocessing and daylight pics look awesome?
What do you think? Does normal mode avoid this kind of overprocessing in good light conditions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen that thread - in my opinion the burst pics look similar to those I have been able to achieve in normal mode, i.e., nice clean edges, not a lot of detail loss, not a lot of noise added by over-sharpening.
I imagine the reason is that the camera isn't fast enough to ruin... er... process pictures when shooting in burst mode. Burst mode has some resolution limitations, though, plus who wants 10 copies of every photo?
To be honest many of the daytime shots I've taken look pretty close to what you would expect from an enthusiast compact, like one of the Leica-Panasonic or Canon G-series cameras. Not quite there, but close (and obviously lacking optical zoom).

Well i don't know but i took some samples for a quick compare. Though even the BURST Mode pics are a bit smaller in size, they give you still the most detail and Pictures overall look much better. That's at least my impression.
1- Burst Mode
2- Snap Camera (PlayStore)
3- Supperior Auto
4- Normal Mode ISO 100
5- HDR Kamera (PlayStore)
Decide for yourself.

caitsith01 said:
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am talk serious gear, not cheap 50mm lenses. And I didn't ask you if you could find cheap lenses, I asked you how many lenses you have faster than f2.4.
For solid low light performance, I would not be using a smart phone, nor would most others I am sure. Most people are using phones for snap shots nothing serious, or to capture that once off shot because you didn't have a better camera on hand.
Not any phones that I am aware of below f2.0

caitsith01 said:
Actually I have a couple which are faster. For DSLR stuff f/1.4 and f/1.8 are only a couple of hundred bucks, and there are compacts available in that territory too.
For really solid low light performance at an acceptable ISO you really need something around f/2.0 or lower. Either that, or a better sensor which can produce minimal noise at ISO 1600.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi, thanks for your detailed explanation. i have one concern, though (just food for thoughts). you said that in superior auto applies more processing on the pictures. for what i've seen (and the examples provided by higgings are clear enough), the processing applies as well, but we have (dramatically) less colour shifting and probably less noise. the problem, to me, is still aliasing and lack of detail (if you compare in higgings pictures, burst mode, the door phone, you can clearly see the name plates, which isn't the case in the other pictures
anyway, good job, and thanks again

Thanks for this really informative thread.
One question though. In normal mode, the viewfinder, ie the screen, is really dark. I could barely make out any details in a well lit room but when I take a picture, the image comes out well lit. Increasing the exposure to 2.0 helps but not a great deal. The screen looks fine and bright in superier auto though. My settings are the settings you recommended. ISO at 100 and flash, HDR off. Any idea what's the issue? I've included a couple of photos to better illustrate this. Note, the dark picture which is in normal mode is attempting to focus on the same object as the superior auto mode in the same lighting situation.
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totally agree, most of all on superior auto...
normal mode, same photo,auto is 400 iso...manual iso 200 (just a little darker) superior auto 800/1600 iso
superior auto can be good only on daylight (difference between 40 and 100 is really small)

sacredsoul said:
Thanks for this really informative thread.
One question though. In normal mode, the viewfinder, ie the screen, is really dark. I could barely make out any details in a well lit room but when I take a picture, the image comes out well lit. Increasing the exposure to 2.0 helps but not a great deal. The screen looks fine and bright in superier auto though. My settings are the settings you recommended. ISO at 100 and flash, HDR off. Any idea what's the issue? I've included a couple of photos to better illustrate this. Note, the dark picture which is in normal mode is attempting to focus on the same object as the superior auto mode in the same lighting situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I think this is a flaw with the camera software. It happens on mine too. It is trying to guess what the image will look like at that ISO. So the slower you set the ISO, the darker the preview. However when you take the picture it does its best to get a good exposure and generally succeeds.
So basically not much you can do about this, but it does make it hard taking shots in very low light. Another thing Sony should fix!

fartlec said:
hi, thanks for your detailed explanation. i have one concern, though (just food for thoughts). you said that in superior auto applies more processing on the pictures. for what i've seen (and the examples provided by higgings are clear enough), the processing applies as well, but we have (dramatically) less colour shifting and probably less noise. the problem, to me, is still aliasing and lack of detail (if you compare in higgings pictures, burst mode, the door phone, you can clearly see the name plates, which isn't the case in the other pictures
anyway, good job, and thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that you can resolve those nameplates better in the burst mode picture, even though I think it might be slightly lower resolution (?). The "normal" mode shot looks softer, but looks to me like it still has less aggressive noise reduction/sharpening than the "superior auto" shot. I would like to know what ISO these were at - unfortunately the EXIF data has been stripped out.
Another area where the three pictures are noticeably different is the curtains in the lowest row of windows. The burst mode output is noticeably sharper. Normal mode is a bit more smudged and has the characteristic "painted" look of over-aggressive noise reduction, and superior auto mode is even worse in this regard (as well as the colour being completely different).
I obviously don't know exactly what's happening inside the camera, my original post is just what I've tried to work out from playing around with different settings.
I can say for sure that there was a drastic difference in noise for me taking the same dark night scene using superior auto and then manually dialling down the ISO. Using superior auto the noise in darker areas was so bad that the image was unusable, even for social media etc, whereas at ISO 400 it was acceptable and could have come from a reasonable quality compact camera. It may be that the ISO level is the primary problem, and that the aggressive denoise/sharpen algorithms make the problem worse (because running these on a super-noisy picture will produce messy results). So it might be running the same level of denoise etc in both modes, but because superior auto produces such messy base images the filters then make the pictures look shocking.
It really needs a "raw" mode, either producing real RAW images or producing "straight out of camera" JPEGS with minimal filtering.

caitsith01 said:
Hi
I think this is a flaw with the camera software. It happens on mine too. It is trying to guess what the image will look like at that ISO. So the slower you set the ISO, the darker the preview. However when you take the picture it does its best to get a good exposure and generally succeeds.
So basically not much you can do about this, but it does make it hard taking shots in very low light. Another thing Sony should fix!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah thank you. So for indoor pictures, if I wanted to see the preview, I don't have a choice but to increase ISO? That sucks really

I've flashed a 4.2 camera from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1970957
I found the quality is way better than the stock one, even it shot at 5MP

sillypilot said:
I've flashed a 4.2 camera from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1970957
I found the quality is way better than the stock one, even it shot at 5MP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exemples ?

I also use the 4.2 camera. For me it's faster and the photos it makes are on par with the ones made using burst.
I've patched the 4.2 camera to support all of the resolutions Z/ZL support (9, 13, etc).
I'm uploading it now.
Update: here's the link

A few shots from yesterday.
At the car
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Bil%20Burstmode.JPG
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Bil%20iAuto.jpg
At my parkingspace
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20iAuto.jpg
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20Burst.JPG
Normal, 100ISO, HDR On
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/Parkering%20Normal%20100ISO%20HDR%20On.jpg
Window shot
iAuto
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/F%C3%B6nster%20Auto.jpg
Burstmode, mid.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83964459/F%C3%B6nster%20Burst.JPG
So what do you think? There are some differences between the pictures indeed.

Use this setting for Noise-free images!

I've come across a lot of people complaining about the camera not giving out noise-free images like it's supposed to. The trick is to use manual mode. I agree, if you use Superior Auto mode, it's a miss most of the times, and when it does work, it gives a purple-ish tint at the corners.
However, If you use manual mode and select the SCENE to NIGHT, the images come out amazing and noise-free!
[DO NOT JUDGE THE IMAGE BY WHAT THE VIEWFINDER SHOWS YOU. A lot of things happen when you press the shutter button. The viewfinder simply goes red for making it easy to focus. The final image in the gallery is a hundred times better]
The Scene modes are one of the most commonly ignored settings.
I hope this helps!

Thanks for this but i just tried it and even though it pretty light where i am taking the picture, the picture turns us a little blurry.
Possibly because night mode uses a longer shutter time which makes it more sensitive to motion blur?

Schadowx277 said:
I've come across a lot of people complaining about the camera not giving out noise-free images like it's supposed to. The trick is to use manual mode. I agree, if you use Superior Auto mode, it's a miss most of the times, and when it does work, it gives a purple-ish tint at the corners.
However, If you use manual mode and select the SCENE to NIGHT, the images come out amazing and noise-free!
[DO NOT JUDGE THE IMAGE BY WHAT THE VIEWFINDER SHOWS YOU. A lot of things happen when you press the shutter button. The viewfinder simply goes red for making it easy to focus. The final image in the gallery is a hundred times better]
The Scene modes are one of the most commonly ignored settings.
I hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USe night SCENE even if we are with light ? i mean DAY light

DjTony90 said:
USe night SCENE even if we are with light ? i mean DAY light
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you select a SCENE mode? I don't have any such option.
Never mind, I had it at 20MP.

Havent got around to really check out every setting in manual mode, bu I will for certain try this on oute tomorrow.

don't know why but right now scene mode shows up only on 8 megapixel and lower shots , so change your camera settings to access it.

I Use Manual mode, 20 Mp, ISO 50!!! Very important for controlling noise - still at pixel level picture is a mess but that is true for Every camera with such pixel density! And overall picture quality as seen on my sample is OK!

Isn't ISO50 only workable with very good lighting? I mean, indoors it's very tricky already...

dagrim1 said:
Isn't ISO50 only workable with very good lighting? I mean, indoors it's very tricky already...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photography is painting with Light, when light is not available there no much "painting" - Agree indoors when it's dark You should up ISO otherwise camera will go to very long exposures and You'll get blurry pictures.
What i was giving was setting for lower possible noise in pictures, settings will vary according to current lighting condition

pesho00 said:
Photography is painting with Light, when light is not available there no much "painting" - Agree indoors when it's dark You should up ISO otherwise camera will go to very long exposures and You'll get blurry pictures.
What i was giving was setting for lower possible noise in pictures, settings will vary according to current lighting condition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, but it's logical that a lower ISO will generate less noise, unfortunately then shutter times increase quickly resulting in moved shots. But it does seem an issue with auto mode that it increases the ISO values very quickly...
Ah well, hoping future firmware updates will improve things (if only had sony included OIS in this thing).

when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.

thefunkygibbon said:
when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have No such problem.

thefunkygibbon said:
when i select Iso50 the whole of the viewfinder becomes VERY laggy. doesnt anyone else find this? (happens with both mine and my old z1 which was replaced)
very disappointed with the camera on this phone given that the camera is supposed to be the main selling point of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same lagginess here, but only when the lighting is low/lower... Not as much as an issue for me.
Camera doesn't live up to it's expectations unfortunately, especially in lower light. (No, I don't expect awesome pics in lower light but coming from a Lumia920, which performed a whole lot better, yay for OIS, in that area it is kinda disappointing)

dagrim1 said:
Same lagginess here, but only when the lighting is low/lower... Not as much as an issue for me.
Camera doesn't live up to it's expectations unfortunately, especially in lower light. (No, I don't expect awesome pics in lower light but coming from a Lumia920, which performed a whole lot better, yay for OIS, in that area it is kinda disappointing)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not tested it in "good light" to be honest since the whole point in changing the ISO is to compensate for the low light conditions you are trying to take the photo in.
its a little confusing since "Auto" iso setting is the only one which is not laggy. you can select iso50 or the top iso level (Can't remember what number it is) and its all just as laggy. you would have thought that Auto would imply that you would be using an automatically determined iso level, which would be more intensive on the phone than selecting an iso level manually (especially iso 50 which should be really less processing than"auto" would be.
---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------
ilovemyZ1 said:
After doing some more research I found the answer to our low-light camera problems! This trick works with all Sony phones and is easy to do.
What we need is this and this and image quality improves SIGNIFICANTLY!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i have one of those and i can tell you that low light pictures on that are just as bad. a) it doesnt use the nice sony camera app. it uses the frankly rubbish Sony memories camera app which has next to nothing in terms of manual setting and b) you can't use a flash.
so no. it isnt the answer. at all.

ilovemyZ1 said:
haha maybe you should have got the QX100 instead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe, but it was a freebie with my phone. i've used it a handful of times and its frankly crap.
might stick it on ebay later actually. i doubt the qx100 would be much better tbh as it'd still be using the same app. it'll still take about 30 seconds to connect the device to the phone and it'll still have the same crap wifi distance (about an arms length) before the phones viewfinder lags out badly.

thefunkygibbon said:
maybe, but it was a freebie with my phone. i've used it a handful of times and its frankly crap.
might stick it on ebay later actually. i doubt the qx100 would be much better tbh as it'd still be using the same app. it'll still take about 30 seconds to connect the device to the phone and it'll still have the same crap wifi distance (about an arms length) before the phones viewfinder lags out badly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The QX10 is pretty good in low light, the QX100 will be better with the large sensor and 1.8 aperture at the wide end.
Nothing can help the lack of flash for certain situations, but a lot of it comes from learning the camera.
Wifi isn't amazing, but it works further than that for me, and through walls. I'm trying to think of new ways to use that style of camera and have been experimenting.
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk now Free

LG G4 Pictures (56k No No) + Impromptu Mini-Photography Tutorial

These are straight from the camera, no editing. Also, it was crazy windy and I don't have a tripod for this thing...so they are a bit blurry. If it was calm, these would be a lot better. You can see a few were better than the others (I was using objects to set the phone on and keep it more steady), just luck of the draw due to it being so windy.
I am AMAZED by this camera at night. Just BEAUTIFUL. Up until now, shooting pics at night with a smart phone was a COMPLETE waste of time. Now? Totally doable.
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Were these on Auto
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

LancerV said:
Were these on Auto
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, manual. You do have to know what you're doing, but with a tripod setup of some kind, this phone is capable of a LOT.

Thanks for sharing! They definitely look good, it's good to see on manual mode with some understanding of the settings you can get some nice clean shots.

Freshtojeff said:
Thanks for sharing! They definitely look good, it's good to see on manual mode with some understanding of the settings you can get some nice clean shots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a steadier hand it would have been even better lol.

AWESOME! i suggested LG to give us more options to camera, like 1080p 60fps, jpeg quality at 100% and slight more control, just like XCAM for G3.
But yeah, nothing can compete with G4 camera, all my friends rape this camera so hard.

IlyaKol said:
No, manual. You do have to know what you're doing, but with a tripod setup of some kind, this phone is capable of a LOT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mind putting these up someplace so we can check the exifs ?
imgur unfortunately strips them out.
flickr is best, failing which googledrive or dropbox etc.

IlyaKol said:
No, manual. You do have to know what you're doing, but with a tripod setup of some kind, this phone is capable of a LOT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing some of the settings or at least the basic how to use the manual mode? I can see from the pics that you a professional photographer. Would you please outline some instructions for us or at least point us in the direction where we can learn how to shoot with a manual camera? Thanks

One Twelve said:
You mind putting these up someplace so we can check the exifs ?
imgur unfortunately strips them out.
flickr is best, failing which googledrive or dropbox etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See/try attached.
llaugerm said:
Would you mind sharing some of the settings or at least the basic how to use the manual mode? I can see from the pics that you a professional photographer. Would you please outline some instructions for us or at least point us in the direction where we can learn how to shoot with a manual camera? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Photography is a complicated thing with many principles and techniques. I also like to say that it's half luck lol. Right place, right time type stuff (at least for the photography I did/do). In general though, the 'foundation' of knowing how to use a DSLR or in this case a smartphone with manual controls is the following:
Aperture: This is a number signified by something like F1.8 (LG G4). This signifies how wide a lens can open and maintain it's speed (by allowing more light, you can make the shutter speed fast - more on that below); the wider the better because it allows in more light. In the DSLR world, a F2.8 (fast) lens will cost 2x as much as a F4.5 (slow) lens, if not more. For the sake of the LG G4, this isn't really something you can change from what I can tell.
ISO (aka Sensitivity): ISO is one of the more important things to know, IMO. The reason is that it can have a DRASTIC effect on your images if not used properly. The way ISO works is, like aperture, a lower number is better. In the case of the G4, the ISO goes from 50 to 2700 in various increments. Say you go from 50 to 100, what this means is that your camera needs only half as much light for the same exposure because you made it more sensitive to the already existing light. When you change your ISO, you'll notice that your preview on the phone gets considerably brighter each time you go up. The reason why it is important to know how to use ISO properly (in combination with shutter speed) is because the higher you go, the more 'grainy' an image will get. This is why I always try to shoot at 250-300 ISO or below. It's a respectable range. But, the images were dark, so I had to mess with the shutter speed. Keep reading.
Shutter Speed (aka Exposure Time): This is the other vital piece of information you need to know. As I mentioned above, the lower you go in the ISO, the darker your image will be. To combat this, you need to increase the shutter (make it stay open longer) in order to allow more light in to the censor to compensate. If you shoot a picture with a 50 ISO and a 1/30th of a second shutter (reasonably fast), your image may end up being pitch black. BUT, if you shoot an image with a 50 ISO and a 2 second shutter (slow), you'll likely get something that more or less resembles an image. However, with a long shutter, which was my issue with the pictures I posted...you MUST have a tripod. The natural movement (minuscule) of the human body + wind + building shake (I was on a massive plaza with a roadway underneath) will cause the images to be blurred. If I had made the ISO 1000 and the shutter 1/60th of a second (fast), I wouldn't need to really keep steady, but the images would have been very grainy. The shutter on the LG G4 goes from 30 seconds (incredibly slow - you will DEFINITELY need a tripod unless you're dead lol to keep steady) to 1/6000th of a second (insanely fast, but you'll need a TON of ISO to make the image even remotely visible in a darker situation).
Focus: I always shoot on manual focus (even with DSLR) but you can use auto focus. This just means that the camera will try to decide what you're trying to take a picture of (objects close or far) and will focus accordingly. With manual focus, you pick if you want the camera to focus far or near.
White Balance: Honestly, this just changes the 'color' of your photos to be more warm or cool...even when I was shooting weddings I never messed with it on the camera. If I needed to change it, I changed it post-wedding during my editing sessions.
That's very basic and I hope I touched on the important things...may have forgotten a bit here or there but that should get you started in understanding the general concept of ISO and shutter speed and their relationship.

IlyaKol said:
See/try attached.
Photography is a complicated thing with many principles and techniques. I also like to say that it's half luck lol. Right place, right time type stuff (at least for the photography I did/do). In general though, the 'foundation' of knowing how to use a DSLR or in this case a smartphone with manual controls is the following:
Aperture: This is a number signified by something like F1.8 (LG G4). This signifies how wide a lens can open and maintain it's speed (by allowing more light, you can make the shutter speed fast - more on that below); the wider the better because it allows in more light. In the DSLR world, a F2.8 (fast) lens will cost 2x as much as a F4.5 (slow) lens, if not more. For the sake of the LG G4, this isn't really something you can change from what I can tell.
ISO (aka Sensitivity): ISO is one of the more important things to know, IMO. The reason is that it can have a DRASTIC effect on your images if not used properly. The way ISO works is, like aperture, a lower number is better. In the case of the G4, the ISO goes from 50 to 2700 in various increments. Say you go from 50 to 100, what this means is that your camera needs only half as much light for the same exposure because you made it more sensitive to the already existing light. When you change your ISO, you'll notice that your preview on the phone gets considerably brighter each time you go up. The reason why it is important to know how to use ISO properly (in combination with shutter speed) is because the higher you go, the more 'grainy' an image will get. This is why I always try to shoot at 250-300 ISO or below. It's a respectable range. But, the images were dark, so I had to mess with the shutter speed. Keep reading.
Shutter Speed (aka Exposure Time): This is the other vital piece of information you need to know. As I mentioned above, the lower you go in the ISO, the darker your image will be. To combat this, you need to increase the shutter (make it stay open longer) in order to allow more light in to the censor to compensate. If you shoot a picture with a 50 ISO and a 1/30th of a second shutter (reasonably fast), your image may end up being pitch black. BUT, if you shoot an image with a 50 ISO and a 2 second shutter (slow), you'll likely get something that more or less resembles an image. However, with a long shutter, which was my issue with the pictures I posted...you MUST have a tripod. The natural movement (minuscule) of the human body + wind + building shake (I was on a massive plaza with a roadway underneath) will cause the images to be blurred. If I had made the ISO 1000 and the shutter 1/60th of a second (fast), I wouldn't need to really keep steady, but the images would have been very grainy. The shutter on the LG G4 goes from 30 seconds (incredibly slow - you will DEFINITELY need a tripod unless you're dead lol to keep steady) to 1/6000th of a second (insanely fast, but you'll need a TON of ISO to make the image even remotely visible in a darker situation).
Focus: I always shoot on manual focus (even with DSLR) but you can use auto focus. This just means that the camera will try to decide what you're trying to take a picture of (objects close or far) and will focus accordingly. With manual focus, you pick if you want the camera to focus far or near.
White Balance: Honestly, this just changes the 'color' of your photos to be more warm or cool...even when I was shooting weddings I never messed with it on the camera. If I needed to change it, I changed it post-wedding during my editing sessions.
That's very basic and I hope I touched on the important things...may have forgotten a bit here or there but that should get you started in understanding the general concept of ISO and shutter speed and their relationship.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow!!! Thank you for that great introduction to photography. I don't know how good I'll become shooting pics to my two years old that she moves pretty fast. Lol. This post was a great tutorial!! Thank you.

llaugerm said:
Wow!!! Thank you for that great introduction to photography. I don't know how good I'll become shooting pics to my two years old that she moves pretty fast. Lol. This post was a great tutorial!! Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, that's why I quit shooting weddings, sold my camera gear and bought a motorcycle lol. Shooting humans SUCKS...just too unpredictable and tough to get a good picture. They blink, don't stand still, etc. lol.
For a 2 year old, you're likely going to want to stick to using full auto mode (or at least a fast shutter and high ISO). I'd use manual mode for things like nature pictures, etc. where objects are stationary.

IlyaKol said:
See/try attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope, board attachments are no better, also strip out all exifs

One Twelve said:
nope, board attachments are no better, also strip out all exifs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this zip. I resized the images to 1024 by x but EXIF should still be good.

IlyaKol said:
Try this zip. I resized the images to 1024 by x but EXIF should still be good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see you are in Albany. My in-laws are in Albany and we go there quite frequently. The next time I go to Albany I will invite for a cup coffee!. I'll PM you my email.

IlyaKol said:
With a steadier hand it would have been even better lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok , now i understand better, mostly ISO 200 shots with exposure times ranging from 1/4, some at 0.5s, going up to 1s and the last one at 4s.
the sharpest one i could make out was the 1/4, things get softer at 1/2s and beyond.
if you can pull off a steady handheld 1/4 then the OIS on this thing is working and is as good as on the iP6+

Here is another one I took last night. ISO was 50 and Shutter was 2 seconds. Keep in mind that Instagram badly compresses the images on Android. Also, the bike image was also a 50 ISO and a 4 second shutter (to get the light trails):

IlyaKol said:
Here is another one I took last night. ISO was 50 and Shutter was 2 seconds. Keep in mind that Instagram badly compresses the images on Android. Also, the bike image was also a 50 ISO and a 4 second shutter (to get the light trails):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you hold the device in your hands or did you use some kind of tripod? Really nice pics.

Galaxicos said:
Did you hold the device in your hands or did you use some kind of tripod? Really nice pics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Queensboro Bridge picture was resting on a railing. The bike picture (longer exposure so harder) was held by hand. I have pretty steady hands, all things considered. Tips: put your elbows into your sides and hold your breath. Should steady you.

IlyaKol said:
Queensboro Bridge picture was resting on a railing. The bike picture (longer exposure so harder) was held by hand. I have pretty steady hands, all things considered. Tips: put your elbows into your sides and hold your breath. Should steady you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bridge picture is really awesome. I don't have a steady hand. I have a DSLR as well and always have issues with this, but resting on something is a good workaround

Galaxicos said:
The bridge picture is really awesome. I don't have a steady hand. I have a DSLR as well and always have issues with this, but resting on something is a good workaround
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, if you can find something to rest on. Unfortunately, not always available lol. I find that sitting down and resting your arms on your knees can sometimes steady the shot too...I get creative lol.

Photography information/assistance/ideas

Paid hobbiest photographer here, I thought I'd share my knowledge of photography and give an opportunity for others to do the same
For pictures on the G4, they are can have the opportunity to be amazing. Let me start off by saying that LG did an amazing job with their auto mode. Whenever there is a large contrast (sun behind a mountain for example) I use auto for the hdr. When in doubt, use auto mode. The results are almost always stunning. (I also use auto for landscape pictures when it's a large subject, like a meadow for example)
That being said, there's another level that it can be taken to with manual mode. Let me explain each function from left to right.
WB: White balance - This option controls how "warm" or "cold" your pictures are. This is the most confusing option, and also the hardest to explain. Basically the lower the number, the more white your light source is. Thankfully LG put in recommendations as to what to set the white balance at based on your light source, but ultimately it's up to your personal tastes. One of the best things about this is that you can see the effects of changing the white balance on real time, making it easy to select your preferred look. I commonly increase the white balance on order to get a more saturated picture, with brighter, more vivid colors (but that's just my preference). White balance is one of the easiest to change in editing however, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as of right now.
MF: Manual Focus - This option is something I tend to leave alone, because of how well the laser focus works. As the name implies, this setting controls the focus of the camera. I find it useful in very close-up situations where the auto-focus is struggling to set, or when you want to focus on a specific object in your scene. Due to the laser auto-focus however, I mostly leave this alone, especially because it's easy to be just a tad off, and is impossible to fix in editing.
+/-: generic exposure - the only way you can have this enabled is if you uncheck "AE-L" on the far right. Adjusting this makes your pictures lighter or darker. Rather then messing with the iso and shutter speed yourself, the phone does it for you. I can honestly say I have never used this, mostly because I have a certain object I want to capture that requires either a fast shutter speed, or low iso.
ISO: Sensitivity to Light - A very useful tool, and completely foreign to the smartphone world (I think) until the LG G4. This is mostly changed based on what type of picture you're trying to capture. No matter what picture you are taking however, A LOWER ISO IS ALWAYS BETTER. While a higher iso will allow more light to be captured resulting in brighter pictures, it will also increase the "noise" or the graininess of the picture. Normally if I'm taking pictures of landscape or a still object, I'll keep the iso at 50, but at a maximum of 150 in order to keep the image clear and sharp. If I'm taking a picture of action or I'm trying the stop the motion I'll go up to an iso of 700 (but once again it's up to your personal preference)
S: Shutter Speed - one of my favorite things about this phone is being able to set the shutter speed. The longer the shutter speed, the more light will be able to get in. However, as a trade off, it's harder to keep the phone still, and anything in motion will show up blurry. A faster shutter speed will stop motion, meaning you can get really cool action shots, or freeze pretty much anything you want. The downside of this being normally you have to turn up the iso in order to compensate for the lack of light, meaning a grainier shot.
AE-L: Exposure Lock - All this does is toggle whether or not you want the camera to change the shutter speed and iso or not. As soon as you change the shutter speed or iso, the toggle is switched and the phone will not adjust these settings until you press the toggle.
Hope this helped let me know if you would like specific examples of how to use the shutter speed and iso to take some really cool shots!
-rifievans

Thanks for posting this. Complementary to the information you provided, here is below a previous post I wrote in the G4 pictures thread with some shooting tips as well. It was at the same time a mini review of the ProShot app (which allows more shooting controls), but the concepts described are relevant to any other application.
----
Here are my thoughts on the ProShot camera app followed by tips to maximize your image quality.
This is a paid app and you can dowload it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riseupgames.proshot2
This is a great app for photo enthusiasts and it currently offers some unique shooting modes with the LG G4.
I am not talking about scene modes like beach, snow, food, etc... - this app doesn't have that - but about the shooting functionalities you usually get on an advanced camera or SLR. The closest photo app offering a lot of manual features is Camera FV-5 that I also like.
Before going into the details, let's go through some photography basics.
The image exposure you are getting depends on the following parameters:
- Aperture: It is fixed on the LG G4 at F1.8
- Shutter speed: A slow shutter speed will allow more light to be captured but increase the risk of blur (sometimes a slow shutter speed is wanted to get light trails or water blur and the phone must be very steady for such cases). A fast shutter speed will freeze the motion.
- ISO: The image quality is maximized at ISO 50 (I have made tests and can confirm that). For a same exposure, choosing a higher ISO allows you to select a faster shutter speed (to counter shake / motion blur) but you will get more noise in the picture.
The following picture illustrates how these parameters work:
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
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"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
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}
As the aperture is fixed to F1.8 on the G4, going forward I will only cover the 2 following values: Shutter speed and ISO.
LG's camera, FV-5 and ProShot offer the following modes:
- Auto: Shutter speed and ISO are chosen automatically. You can play with the exposure compensation to undexpose / overexpose the pciture (the camera will adjust one of the 2 values, sometimes both).
- Full manual: You have to manuall select the Shutter speed AND ISO values. The exposure compensation is not available in this mode (it becomes irrelevant).
So what if I want to shoot at a specific ISO but don't want to adjust the Shutter speed everytime the light changes (or vice-versa) ?
This is where ProShot comes into the game with 2 unique functionalities (not offered on LG's camera or FV-5):
- You can select an ISO value and the camera will automatically select a Shutter speed. You can still use exposure compensation if you want.
- You can select a shutter speed value and the camera will automatically select the ISO. You can also still use exposure compensation if you want.
Ok that's good but what do I make with that ? Here are shooting recommandations to maximize your image quality all the time using the ProShot app:
1. With good light and static subject(s), use P mode and set the ISO value to 50. You will get the best image quality possible on the phone with that setup. If you want to undexpose / overexpose the picture, you can still use exposure compensation (which will affect the shutter speed, but automatically). If you start getting shake / motion blur (low light or fast moving subject, go to point 2.
2. Determine the minimum shutter you can use without getting shake / motion blur (let's say for example 1/8 sec with steady hands and a static subject). Use M mode and set up this shutter speed value. Leave ISO in "Auto". ISO will then be automatically be adjusted depending on the light. (EDIT: You can also use C1 or C2 mode if you want to apply exposure compensation.)
If you have multiple chances to shoot the scenes, you can use burst mode - even in RAW + JPEG, something not possible with the defaut G4 app - and lower the shutter speed a bit under your comfort level (1/4 sec for example). Then review your series and only keep the sharpest picture.
Because of the above shooting flexibility available in ProShot, it is currently my favorite photo app with the LG G4.
Please note that the slowest shutter speed currently available is 0.7 sec in manual mode (the stock camera allows to go up to 30 sec).

But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?

hyyoje said:
But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is different screen temps, mine is warmer...

hyyoje said:
But since the G4's Display is not accurate in white balance (I think it's closer to 8000K, which results in a blueish tint), won't the photos taken look very different on a calibrated display? Is there anyway to adjust the display's temperature to closer to 6500K? permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never noticed the temperature of the screen... But if that's true then yes the pictures will look different on a calibrated display.

rifievans said:
Paid hobbiest photographer here, I thought I'd share my knowledge of photography and give an opportunity for others to do the same
For pictures on the G4, they are can have the opportunity to be amazing. Let me start off by saying that LG did an amazing job with their auto mode. Whenever there is a large contrast (sun behind a mountain for example) I use auto for the hdr. When in doubt, use auto mode. The results are almost always stunning. (I also use auto for landscape pictures when it's a large subject, like a meadow for example)
That being said, there's another level that it can be taken to with manual mode. Let me explain each function from left to right.
WB: White balance - This option controls how "warm" or "cold" your pictures are. This is the most confusing option, and also the hardest to explain. Basically the lower the number, the more white your light source is. Thankfully LG put in recommendations as to what to set the white balance at based on your light source, but ultimately it's up to your personal tastes. One of the best things about this is that you can see the effects of changing the white balance on real time, making it easy to select your preferred look. I commonly increase the white balance on order to get a more saturated picture, with brighter, more vivid colors (but that's just my preference). White balance is one of the easiest to change in editing however, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as of right now.
MF: Manual Focus - This option is something I tend to leave alone, because of how well the laser focus works. As the name implies, this setting controls the focus of the camera. I find it useful in very close-up situations where the auto-focus is struggling to set, or when you want to focus on a specific object in your scene. Due to the laser auto-focus however, I mostly leave this alone, especially because it's easy to be just a tad off, and is impossible to fix in editing.
+/-: generic exposure - the only way you can have this enabled is if you uncheck "AE-L" on the far right. Adjusting this makes your pictures lighter or darker. Rather then messing with the iso and shutter speed yourself, the phone does it for you. I can honestly say I have never used this, mostly because I have a certain object I want to capture that requires either a fast shutter speed, or low iso.
ISO: Sensitivity to Light - A very useful tool, and completely foreign to the smartphone world (I think) until the LG G4. This is mostly changed based on what type of picture you're trying to capture. No matter what picture you are taking however, A LOWER ISO IS ALWAYS BETTER. While a higher iso will allow more light to be captured resulting in brighter pictures, it will also increase the "noise" or the graininess of the picture. Normally if I'm taking pictures of landscape or a still object, I'll keep the iso at 50, but at a maximum of 150 in order to keep the image clear and sharp. If I'm taking a picture of action or I'm trying the stop the motion I'll go up to an iso of 700 (but once again it's up to your personal preference)
S: Shutter Speed - one of my favorite things about this phone is being able to set the shutter speed. The longer the shutter speed, the more light will be able to get in. However, as a trade off, it's harder to keep the phone still, and anything in motion will show up blurry. A faster shutter speed will stop motion, meaning you can get really cool action shots, or freeze pretty much anything you want. The downside of this being normally you have to turn up the iso in order to compensate for the lack of light, meaning a grainier shot.
AE-L: Exposure Lock - All this does is toggle whether or not you want the camera to change the shutter speed and iso or not. As soon as you change the shutter speed or iso, the toggle is switched and the phone will not adjust these settings until you press the toggle.
Hope this helped let me know if you would like specific examples of how to use the shutter speed and iso to take some really cool shots!
-rifievans
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks

Is the stock camera app the best one to use with LG G4?

WTF? said:
Is the stock camera app the best one to use with LG G4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Proshot is better imo if you don't need longer than 0.7s shutter speed/exposure time.
It allows to turn off the Noise Reduction which LG has tuned for certain ISO's to be a bit heavy handed.

goofball2k said:
Proshot is better imo if you don't need longer than 0.7s shutter speed/exposure time.
It allows to turn off the Noise Reduction which LG has tuned for certain ISO's to be a bit heavy handed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that kernal mod to get the quality of jpg's much better, it turns off the compression, I guess?

WTF? said:
I did that kernal mod to get the quality of jpg's much better, it turns off the compression, I guess?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe so. It doesn't really help the noise reduction though, to my knowledge.

LeonardWoody said:
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously u tried to take some daylight long exposure shots where photos became unusable, right? As a matter of ISO 50 is the lowest as far as I know for any camera. Even many DSLR has 100 as lowest, but there u can adjust the aperture. So bad luck for smartphone users. If u really want to be creative, there's a video in HighOnAndriod youtube channel on how to take long exposure shots in daylight by using F-stop ND filters. U can apply that.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------
Nice thread. I wanted to create such a thread for LG G4 photography lovers to share our ideas and techniques. I request OP to change the thread title a little bit so that even more experienced photographers share their knowledge with newbees like us.
Anyway I want to share a few gadgets/accessories which I bought recently (still to come in my hand).
1. Beastgrip Pro
2. 52mm Hoya 1000 ND filter
3. 52mm Hoya Polarizer
4. 52mm Fotga Variable ND filter
5. 37 to 52mm step up ring adapter
6. 48 to 52mm step up ring adapted
7. Kenko 37mm 0.47x Super Wideangle / Fisheye + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
8. Kenko 37mm 0.5x Wideangle + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
9. A Generic 37mm Wideangle + Macro lens
As I haven't yet received these products in my hand, I will post reviews when they are available. But u get my purpose of buying these, right?
1. To take long exposure shots as day time
2. To take longer exposure shots at night
3. To take wideangle landscape long exposure shots
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

LeonardWoody said:
Hi, thanks for the tips! I am finaly somewhat comfortable with the lg gl stock camera app. But I was wondering wether there is something i can do to lower the iso below 50, since a shutter speed above 2 seconds will result in a over bright picture, even with iso on 50. Anything to change this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this post
For another way to attach the filter see this google plus post by Dave J.

nipun1110 said:
[/COLOR]Nice thread. I wanted to create such a thread for LG G4 photography lovers to share our ideas and techniques. I request OP to change the thread title a little bit so that even more experienced photographers share their knowledge with newbees like us.
Anyway I want to share a few gadgets/accessories which I bought recently (still to come in my hand).
1. Beastgrip Pro
2. 52mm Hoya 1000 ND filter
3. 52mm Hoya Polarizer
4. 52mm Fotga Variable ND filter
5. 37 to 52mm step up ring adapter
6. 48 to 52mm step up ring adapted
7. Kenko 37mm 0.47x Super Wideangle / Fisheye + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
8. Kenko 37mm 0.5x Wideangle + Macro lens (Cheap, not cheapest)
9. A Generic 37mm Wideangle + Macro lens
As I haven't yet received these products in my hand, I will post reviews when they are available. But u get my purpose of buying these, right?
1. To take long exposure shots as day time
2. To take longer exposure shots at night
3. To take wideangle landscape long exposure shots
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately (as far as I know) you can't change the title of the thread after it is created. However I completly agree with you in that this is a terrible title. I dont know what I was doing

so i have got the products in my hand and i will post the reviews soon

Camera images are blurred.

Image looks clear and sharp before pressing the shutter but for some reason after it has took the shot and i view it's not as sharp and is slightly blurry, anyone notice this, steady hand by the way so it's not shaking that's for sure.

Ady1976 said:
Image looks clear and sharp before pressing the shutter but for some reason after it has took the shot and i view it's not as sharp and is slightly blurry, anyone notice this, steady hand by the way so it's not shaking that's for sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes a little.
It helped if I pressed on the subject I wanted in focus, if that makes sense?

Ry2mkk said:
Yes a little.
It helped if I pressed on the subject I wanted in focus, if that makes sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Manually focus (press the subject) is always recommended.

Yes that help a bit, so the autofocus is off or these cameras are not as detailed as they're saying, starting to lose faith in this phone, don't want to keep hold of it too long waiting for software that may or not fix these issues because it may not be accepted back.

Blurry or not in focus? These are two different problems. One is caused by lack of OIS \ hand movement, the other is just focus lock miss (can be corrected by tapping the object before).

galr said:
Blurry or not in focus? These are two different problems. One is caused by lack of OIS \ hand movement, the other is just focus lock miss (can be corrected by tapping the object before).
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I would say more not in focus than blurry even though edges of objects tend to fringe over and are a bit blurry depending on the shot. I get the manual focus thing, but what is the point of auto focus if it doesn't work correctly ? I don't have to manually focus shots on my cannon powershot sx 730 hs, I've never had an issue with focusing on any of my previous phones, hopefully it will be fixed in an update, even though there was already an update out the box with "camera optimisations" allegedly done, but obviously not quite right imo.

Another shot i just took if you look at the bottom of the mug where the text is, very clear in the viewfinder before the shot then after the shot suddenly gone out of focus, tried all settings no difference.

I find the photos of OP5 to be blurry too. They are way more blurrier than 3T.
---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 AM ----------
Ady1976 said:
Another shot i just took if you look at the bottom of the mug where the text is, very clear in the viewfinder before the shot then after the shot suddenly gone out of focus, tried all settings no difference.
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Are you taking photos in portrait mode? It seems like bokeh effect.

I've a quick question..since we're talking of cameras did you notice that in pro mode you'll have to tilt the phone slightly to the left in order to achieve a balanced line (as in the line turns green signalling the camera is balanced)? I tried keeping it straight in a table but the it always shows it's imbalanced...can anyone confirm? I really really hope I don't have a faulty piece...

Ok guys done more testing, it definitely is not focusing correctly, just gone to pro mode and left everything on auto but just adjusted the focus manually and it's way better. So all i can think of what is happening is after you take the shot in auto mode it's knocking the focus off slightly, look at the box of toys in manual focus then the other, also look at the numbers on the train then my manual focus version.
Edit, quality has changed slightly since uploading to xda.

Areebanwar said:
I've a quick question..since we're talking of cameras did you notice that in pro mode you'll have to tilt the phone slightly to the left in order to achieve a balanced line (as in the line turns green signalling the camera is balanced)? I tried keeping it straight in a table but the it always shows it's imbalanced...can anyone confirm? I really really hope I don't have a faulty piece...
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If you you have to tilt slightly to the left then yes just noticed that myself.

Ady1976 said:
Ok guys done more testing, it definitely is not focusing correctly, just gone to pro mode and left everything on auto but just adjusted the focus manually and it's way better. So all i can think of what is happening is after you take the shot in auto mode it's knocking the focus off slightly, look at the box of toys in manual focus then the other, also look at the numbers on the train then my manual focus version.
Edit, quality has changed slightly since uploading to xda.
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The difference is so marginal that i don`t see the difference between the 2 pics to be honest. Maybe its an issue for you but for me it looks like nitpicking. But you can wait for a firmware update or return/RMA the device.

Areebanwar said:
I've a quick question..since we're talking of cameras did you notice that in pro mode you'll have to tilt the phone slightly to the left in order to achieve a balanced line (as in the line turns green signalling the camera is balanced)? I tried keeping it straight in a table but the it always shows it's imbalanced...can anyone confirm? I really really hope I don't have a faulty piece...
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gee2012 said:
The difference is so marginal that i don`t see the difference between the 2 pics to be honest. Maybe its an issue for you but for me it looks like nitpicking. But you can wait for a firmware update or return/RMA the device.
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It's marginal on here because xda has compressed the images so the focused one looks worse than it should.

Ady1976 said:
It's marginal on here because xda has compressed the images so the focused one looks worse than it should.
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Maybe share the pics on google drive to see the difference.

Okay thank you! I doubt it's a manufacturing defect..probably the software. Someone with a keen eye(unlike myself) could take a look at the camera module to see if it's a little shifted downwards...I feel so..I maybe(hopefully) wrong though!
And yes, I compared the photos/viewfinder with 3t.. it's pretty blurry! The EIS doesn't seem to kick in...

Ok 2 original images on zip, manual vs auto, don't use Google drive but here's originals in zip format.

Areebanwar said:
Okay thank you! I doubt it's a manufacturing defect..probably the software. Someone with a keen eye(unlike myself) could take a look at the camera module to see if it's a little shifted downwards...I feel so..I maybe(hopefully) wrong though!
And yes, I compared the photos/viewfinder with 3t.. it's pretty blurry! The EIS doesn't seem to kick in...
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Yep I'm not going insane then, just blurry out of focus shots a lot.

Last example, good lighting, I've labeled them in focus and out of focus in zip, look at the numbers and look look at the coloured buttons at the top of the train, I'm not saying it's much but I've seen enough to see pro mode manual focus is better to my eyes.

Ady1976 said:
Last example, good lighting, I've labeled them in focus and out of focus in zip, look at the numbers and look look at the coloured buttons at the top of the train, I'm not saying it's much but I've seen enough to see pro mode manual focus is better to my eyes.
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I know that your evidence points to your conclusion, but I can assure you that the focus is not the culprit here.
The issue is the postprocessing. OnePlus uses a muli-picture postprocessing to remove noise.
When you switch to manual mode, the amount of postprocessing used is highly minimized, because it is of course supposed to be a manual mode.
This is the exact same behavior the OP3/T has.
Check this video I did a while ago and keep in mind that nothing has changed since then and this is still happening on my device in auto-mode, mostly in artifical / dim lighting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbn9Lj6F6EM
Try for yourself by quickly going into the preview after taking the picture (although the OP5 processing might be faster).
Also, check the exif data in your photos!
The "in-focus" photo uses only half the ISO (320) and half the shutter speed (1/25s) compared to the "out-of-focus" photo with ISO 640 and 1/50s in auto-mode.
The out of focus photo should be at least as sharp, due to the quicker shutter-speed, but the higher ISO + postprocessing kills it!
The same applies to your first comparison (manual focus.jpg vs auto focus.jpg).
ISO is higher in auto-mode -> software applies more postprocessing due to more noise -> picture is killed
So after a year since the OP3's release nothing changed and the software still suffers from the same problems.
Really disappointing!

AcmE85 said:
I know that your evidence points to your conclusion, but I can assure you that the focus is not the culprit here.
The issue is the postprocessing. OnePlus uses a muli-picture postprocessing to remove noise.
When you switch to manual mode, the amount of postprocessing used is highly minimized, because it is of course supposed to be a manual mode.
This is the exact same behavior the OP3/T has.
Check this video I did a while ago and keep in mind that nothing has changed since then and this is still happening on my device:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbn9Lj6F6EM
Try for yourself by quickly going into the preview after taking the picture (although the OP5 processing might be faster).
Also, check the exif data in your photos!
The "in-focus" photo uses only half the ISO (320) and half the shutter speed (1/25s) compared to the "out-of-focus" photo with ISO 640 and 1/50s in auto-mode.
The out of focus photo should be at least as sharp, due to the quicker shutter-speed, but the postprocessing kills it!
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Interesting i shall check this out, but if that's the case why use so much processing in auto mode ? Why don't they leave the processing as the manual mode in auto mode when it is clearly much better ? I just don't get it.