Camera exposure and response time - Nexus 6P Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I find the camera takes darker pictures, especially in low light, compared to Note 5 (underexposed perhaps? Not a photography buff at all . Also, the snapping pictures in general seems to be slower vs. Note 5.
Any suggestions?
I currently have both 6p and Note 5 and truly find the Note 5 to have an all-around better camera. 6p but bad by any means, but tough comparing to Note 5.

Been comparing to a friend's note 5.
The note seems to overexpose a tad in lower light.
6p seems like it's a tad darker around the edges, but for the most part is a better match to what the eye sees.
Hdr+ balances everything out, and should be used whenever possible - like always.
It works wonders. This coming from an amateur photographer, well, I have been paid for my work, but I still consider myself an amateur - even after 35+ years of playing with cameras.

Phazmos said:
Been comparing to a friend's note 5.
The note seems to overexpose a tad in lower light.
6p seems like it's a tad darker around the edges, but for the most part is a better match to what the eye sees.
Hdr+ balances everything out, and should be used whenever possible - like always.
It works wonders. This coming from an amateur photographer, well, I have been paid for my work, but I still consider myself an amateur - even after 35+ years of playing with cameras.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with your assessment. Note 5 can tend to overexpose slightly in low light but overall I find Note 5 pics to be a bit clearer in low light. Even with hdr auto on both. Also agree the 6p tends to be darker around the edges. Biggest concern I have with 6p is length of time to focus/snap picture. Seems far longer than Note 5...

lp1527 said:
Agree with your assessment. Note 5 can tend to overexpose slightly in low light but overall I find Note 5 pics to be a bit clearer in low light. Even with hdr auto on both. Also agree the 6p tends to be darker around the edges. Biggest concern I have with 6p is length of time to focus/snap picture. Seems far longer than Note 5...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only been playing with the new 6p for a couple days, but so far it seems pretty instantaneous.
Point, click, there's a picture - and in focus.
Been very very happy with the camera so far.

With HDR off the shutter is crazy fast, pretty much instantaneous. I keep auto HDR on because the HDR on this phone creates truly amazing results. If your phone is shooting HDR there is a little bit of a lag when taking a photo but not terrible. I'll take the slight lag of the HDR because the increased image quality far outweighs it.
As for underexposing images, I don't think there is any issue there. Keep in mind that the screen on the 6p is calibrated very differently than most devises. I notice images look underexposed on my phone's screen but on a computer screen or another device they look fine. I have adaptive display on so it is dimming the screen making the image look darker than it really is.
Look at the histogram of the photos if you want to see the dynamic range and the actual exposure info. In low light my 6p is very good figuring out the exposure. The histogram is obviously on the darker side if I take a photo in low light but there isn't any clipping at all under reasonable low-light. In extreme situations, like a photo in the middle of the night with only one light source, then the shadows clip but they would with any camera. What is really impressive is the lack of noise!! Usually when you have full black on a cell phone pic you get a ton of noise but the 6p is pretty good at just letting it go black rather than trying to overexpose.
The dynamic range with the HDR on is really impressive. Even extreme contrast like indoor photos with a bright window in the background won't clip in the highlights.
I am having a blast testing the limits of this camera.

nonnasmyladie said:
With HDR off the shutter is crazy fast, pretty much instantaneous. I keep auto HDR on because the HDR on this phone creates truly amazing results. If your phone is shooting HDR there is a little bit of a lag when taking a photo but not terrible. I'll take the slight lag of the HDR because the increased image quality far outweighs it.
As for underexposing images, I don't think there is any issue there. Keep in mind that the screen on the 6p is calibrated very differently than most devises. I notice images look underexposed on my phone's screen but on a computer screen or another device they look fine. I have adaptive display on so it is dimming the screen making the image look darker than it really is.
Look at the histogram of the photos if you want to see the dynamic range and the actual exposure info. In low light my 6p is very good figuring out the exposure. The histogram is obviously on the darker side if I take a photo in low light but there isn't any clipping at all under reasonable low-light. In extreme situations, like a photo in the middle of the night with only one light source, then the shadows clip but they would with any camera. What is really impressive is the lack of noise!! Usually when you have full black on a cell phone pic you get a ton of noise but the 6p is pretty good at just letting it go black rather than trying to overexpose.
The dynamic range with the HDR on is really impressive. Even extreme contrast like indoor photos with a bright window in the background won't clip in the highlights.
I am having a blast testing the limits of this camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please explain to me the slowest shutter time of the nexus 6p with a third party app? Currently I have a Oneplus 2 and I can get up to 30 seconds which is a lot. My Oneplus 1 even had 60 seconds. Can I have these values with the nexus 6p or through a mod?
Thanks

Related

Bad camera focus

So, my problem is that my camera does not seem to focus an Objekt, even when I "touch " it in the camera app. It is still a bit blurry when I view the taken shot. When I look at my friends Nexus 4, colors are much better and everything is sharp. Is it possible that I have a broken camera? The settings are exactly the same...
It may be helpful to post some example shots.
1st thing to look for is to make sure that the glass covering the lens is clean. And shoot in good lighting.
Known problem, please star the issue http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=43153&thanks=43153&ts=1359017856
AW: Bad camera focus
And the washed out colors? Max it be the fault of rev10 devices? A friend of mine said something like that
//edit
Here's a sample. If you zomm in you will see the Blurry borders. They are really annoying because when I look at the pic on a PC, I am able to notice it. Maybe it's the cameras fault or Googles fault for bad drivers and software.
http://db.tt/QSb8F0KE
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
It seems to me like the hardware is perfectly capable of the focal lengths to get clear focus, it's just the autofocus implementation that's broken. Is autofocus a driver level implementation? If so, would it be feasible to try and create a custom driver to at least allow for true manual focus?
There are several things that can be going on here. 1.) it ain't a great lens, so not all areas of the picture are going to be razor sharp. I see a good degree of softness in the corners.
2.) I have noticed the camera's default behavior is to use lower ISO, and longer shutter speeds in less than ideal light, making camera movement a major factor in blurry photos. If you're gonna test under less than ideal light, rig up some kind of tripod.
3.) Auto-focus algorithms decide focus based on maximum contrast. If the area of your focus reticle is over an area that has poor contrast, focus will be compromised. Low light also lowers contrast.
4.) Depth of field. It is limited with this lens. Make sure areas you are checking for focus are on/near the same plane with shots that have reasonable distance separating foreground/background objects. They all can't be in focus.
With all that said, reasonable photography skills can get pretty reasonable results from this camera, as is exhibited in the photos posted in the photo thread of the "general" forum.
It does focus, but has a small delay tho..
actually the focus on N4 is slow a little bit ..
Is there any new piece of information about the bad camera focus?
anyone else have a pink haze when capturing white objects

How to take good photos on Nexus 4

I don't know anything about photographic. All I have done up to now is using the automatic mode. Well, you know, aim and shoot. But I would like exploit it more, as I have seen great photos from another topic. So can anyone give me little hints on how to adjust the default values in different conditions?
Also, about flash and HDR. When to use flash and when to use HDR? I know they're helpful in low light conditions, but photos with flash seems to be less realistic despite being brighter. On the other hand photos with HDR are easier to be out of shape if we would like to take quick photo (a moment in a party for instance).
Gửi từ Nexus 4 của tôi
Graphics Designer/Photographer here. Depending on what rom you have (stock or custom), you may have different camera options, so I'm going to go off the stock settings in the Nexus 4 camera.
Flash:
I typically leave flash off, sometimes I have it on if I know it's a dark place (indoors, parties, bad lighting). A lot of the times, the flash can create a white-ish haze, or even blow out details in photos. Flash can also produce a lot of glare on reflective surfaces which can be annoying and ruin a photo. If I can shoot a photo without the flash, I'll do so and touch it up later to improve it. Although sometimes just because you don't need the flash doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. Camera have a setting called "ISO" (You can't change this on our phone). Typically in a bright sunny environment, the ISO will be lower, causing a less grainy image. In darker scenes, the ISO automatically kicks up higher and adds grain to the image to help hold details which would otherwise be lost due to the low lighting. (This is also noticeable on old film cameras depending on the ISO speed of film you purchase, 100 being lowest, 400 being typical, 800+ being high grain)
Exposure:
If an image is too dark, flash on, or flash off, you can always try to turn the exposure up by +1, or +2. Same for if an image is a bit too bright, you can turn the exposure down. I use this a bit less on cell phone cameras since it feels a bit more fake than what you'd find on a real camera. It can be helpful though in bright/dark scenes. Play with it yourself to get the hang of it.
White Balance:
This mainly modifies how color is perceived by the camera when a photo is taken. Color temperature (in kelvins) can change how white looks under different lighting. A piece of white paper may look pure white when outdoors in the bright sun, while inside your lamp makes it seem creme/yellowish. Adjust the white balance to the proper lighting condition will better allow you to get more accurate colors in your photos. If you have a florescent light, switch the setting to that. If you have incandescent lighting indoors when trying to snap a photo, switch to that. On this mode, you're better off leaving it on automatic most of the time, but if you have time to make changes based upon the lighting conditions, do it.
HDR:
I wouldn't use this mode if you're trying to capture high speed motion or anything moving. It's best for still shots you know you can capture. HDR quickly takes 2 photos split seconds apart from one another. It adjusts the settings of the camera to capture the most detail in the darkest portions of the scene, and the brightest portions of the scene. Then it combines the photos into one image creating a scene you normally would not have been able to shoot without HDR. For example if I'm outside in a sunny day and I'm shooting a photo of some trees, the camera is going to adjust itself to capture the most detail and color from the trees. Because the sun is so bright, normally the camera would just blow out the sky and make it pure white, or extremely bright. With HDR on, it'll shoot a photo metering the color and values of the trees, then shoot another metering the color and values of the sky, then stitch them into one nice photo.)
I hope I helped some. I'm trying not to use too much photography terminology which might confuse people who aren't too familiar with manual photography.
Wow honestly I didn't expect such a detailed and useful reply. So basically if I'm in good light condition and no need to rush or something like that, HDR always produces better photos?
Gửi từ Nexus 4 của tôi
khanhtrinh said:
Wow honestly I didn't expect such a detailed and useful reply. So basically if I'm in good light condition and no need to rush or something like that, HDR always produces better photos?
Gửi từ Nexus 4 của tôi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but only if you have very steady hands
Rarscaryfrosty said:
Graphics Designer/Photographer here. Depending on what rom you have (stock or custom), you may have different camera options, so I'm going to go off the stock settings in the Nexus 4 camera.
Flash:
I typically leave flash off, sometimes I have it on if I know it's a dark place (indoors, parties, bad lighting). A lot of the times, the flash can create a white-ish haze, or even blow out details in photos. Flash can also produce a lot of glare on reflective surfaces which can be annoying and ruin a photo. If I can shoot a photo without the flash, I'll do so and touch it up later to improve it. Although sometimes just because you don't need the flash doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. Camera have a setting called "ISO" (You can't change this on our phone). Typically in a bright sunny environment, the ISO will be lower, causing a less grainy image. In darker scenes, the ISO automatically kicks up higher and adds grain to the image to help hold details which would otherwise be lost due to the low lighting. (This is also noticeable on old film cameras depending on the ISO speed of film you purchase, 100 being lowest, 400 being typical, 800+ being high grain)
Exposure:
If an image is too dark, flash on, or flash off, you can always try to turn the exposure up by +1, or +2. Same for if an image is a bit too bright, you can turn the exposure down. I use this a bit less on cell phone cameras since it feels a bit more fake than what you'd find on a real camera. It can be helpful though in bright/dark scenes. Play with it yourself to get the hang of it.
White Balance:
This mainly modifies how color is perceived by the camera when a photo is taken. Color temperature (in kelvins) can change how white looks under different lighting. A piece of white paper may look pure white when outdoors in the bright sun, while inside your lamp makes it seem creme/yellowish. Adjust the white balance to the proper lighting condition will better allow you to get more accurate colors in your photos. If you have a florescent light, switch the setting to that. If you have incandescent lighting indoors when trying to snap a photo, switch to that. On this mode, you're better off leaving it on automatic most of the time, but if you have time to make changes based upon the lighting conditions, do it.
HDR:
I wouldn't use this mode if you're trying to capture high speed motion or anything moving. It's best for still shots you know you can capture. HDR quickly takes 2 photos split seconds apart from one another. It adjusts the settings of the camera to capture the most detail in the darkest portions of the scene, and the brightest portions of the scene. Then it combines the photos into one image creating a scene you normally would not have been able to shoot without HDR. For example if I'm outside in a sunny day and I'm shooting a photo of some trees, the camera is going to adjust itself to capture the most detail and color from the trees. Because the sun is so bright, normally the camera would just blow out the sky and make it pure white, or extremely bright. With HDR on, it'll shoot a photo metering the color and values of the trees, then shoot another metering the color and values of the sky, then stitch them into one nice photo.)
I hope I helped some. I'm trying not to use too much photography terminology which might confuse people who aren't too familiar with manual photography.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was quite a detailed explanation u gave there..
I didn't know abt the HDR. Thanx..
khanhtrinh said:
Wow honestly I didn't expect such a detailed and useful reply. So basically if I'm in good light condition and no need to rush or something like that, HDR always produces better photos?
Gửi từ Nexus 4 của tôi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found indoor museums to be good for HDR. Usually they're so dark except for specific areas where spot lights are shining down upon. If you shoot a normal photo, you'll have a lot of dark spots which hold no detail. With HDR, you'll pick up some detail in those darker areas, though they'll still be a bit dark.
What I'm wondering is how is it that I can remove some of the blue when taking photos on non HDR photos. It always seem to come out bluish
afbengochea said:
What I'm wondering is how is it that I can remove some of the blue when taking photos on non HDR photos. It always seem to come out bluish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed the same issue. This is really my only complaint with the N4 camera.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
HDR takes way too long to capture.......anything that can be done about that?
Sent from my Nexus 4
------------------------------------
Devices:
LG Google Nexus 4 16 GB
Samsung Google Nexus 10 32 GB
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini ST15i (Retired * Sold)
Nokia C7 (Sold)
HTC TyTn II (Sold)
Motorola RAZR v3 (broken)
Sony Ericsson W705 (broken)
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Lower the picture size
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Note 4 front camera HORRIBLE noise

Is it possible to capture a photo in broad daylight and have it look like this? The noise is HORRIBLE! (skin correction is turned off). I dont even dare take selfie shots. The results are ALWAYS awful not matter the lighting conditions.
This is during daylight:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ss4un6ftg86fvuz/front camera.jpg?dl=0
This is at dusk, so its not completely dark:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1y6jkki7o0xet9q/2015-08-11 20.18.00.jpg?dl=0
No one? Everyone's Note 4 takes so bad front camera pictures? Oo
bump
This is unfortunately typical of the Note 4's front camera. The module's just not quite up to snuff - it's got a tiny sensor without OIS. Sure, the optics get a bit more light in, but at the cost of stretching things near the edges.
Skin correction "helps" things a bit I guess, by blurring the skin surface so you don't see image artifacts, but it makes other things in the frame blurry.
This is very weird. The Note 3 I had before had a better front camera than the Note 4!

[Camera Review] - The Unassuming Bea5T

I expected a decent camera (having used a 3t before) and back then 3t could hold its own 70% of the time against the S7edge and iPhones, but had lacked the oomph/wow factor in the images it produced. The 5t is a huge improvement over 3t (I guess this is due to the fact that i did not use op5). The images are crisp, well lit and razer sharp in good to average lighting conditions. More often than not I have been mighty impressed with the OOB images from the camera and I have not been editing them on snapseed because I didn't feel the need to - thats a testament to the camera processing on this phone (OnePlus has come a long way here).
Note: Click on the images to view full size versions of them. All images posted here are straight out of the camera without any editing/post-processing done to them.
Good lighting:
Moderate/Tricky Lighting and conditions:
I expected things to go down south as it did on the 3T on similar lighting conditions. Seattle is a particularly tricky place to get good evening shots as its mostly grey and gloomy and camera's dynamic range becomes a big factor when shooting in Seattle. The camera did a good job detecting the need for HDR on the streetcar shot below (It notifies on the camera UI that its using HDR). Given the gloomy and dim conditions I was very impressed with the picture. I was unsure about composition when the streetcar was moving so I long pressed the shutter - With HDR on, it took about 4 shots in very quick succession (Thats impressive speed, slightly better than S7edge camera). The other 2 images below are in bright to moderately dim indoor conditions with multiple colorful stuff in the frame to meter. I have to admit that in indoor warm lighting the blue tones take a serious hit and ends up grey-er than normal. On the 3rd image below there was so many small tiny details on those objects and I was blown away by the sharpness and details on that image given that the lighting was only moderate.
Low Light and severely-low/dark lighting conditions:
I did read the op5 reviews early on and part of the reason why i skipped that was due to the low light camera performance (and lack of 18:9 screen). I wouldn't say they have blown me away here but I was getting more wow-worthy images out of this camera setup than the previous oneplus phones. 7/10 times I ended up not having to re-shoot the image or edit for sharpness and noise reduction. The first image below is a 7 AM (yeah thats how Seattle is in the morning) night lit building shot of the amazon bioshperes - the shot came out very very sharp and with excellent details. The lights were too bright so I am not surprised by the blown highlight spots, but the details on the greens/plants inside could have been better.
The next 2 images were taken in very poor lighting conditions. The first one is from under the kitchen cabinet where its the darkest corner and I know there is nothing going on here, but this is was shot i was MOST impressed with from this camera. there was absolutely no light in there but the outcome was a very pleasingly clear and crisp/usable image of my shiny cookie jar and hot chocolate cups.
The last one below is a photo with a faint one LED light source on a toy, i have linked the full lighting image for comparison of colors on the toy - in short: yeah it does better, but image processing needs lot of work on super dark conditions color noise and smudgy artifacts are visible.
Regular lighting shot of the above toy for comparison: https://i.imgur.com/cM9dPnMh.jpg
Portrait mode and Macro:
This is an exciting feature and I was completely not expecting such results (DSLR-esque bokeh). Granted this is my first portrait mode equipped camera phone (as a daily driver), and I was thinking that the G6s wide angle was the best second camera option until this happened. I am going to let the sample images speak for itself.
In short:
Very pleasing subtle bokeh
Color rendition on macros is "phenomenal"
Sharp... sharp as a needle.
No glaring smudgy artifacts on portrait mode when lighting is good.
very close focusing distance
did I say sharp.. its freaking sharp - just look at the chipmunk picture below, those hairs can give you a paper-cut by just looking.
Nice shots! Can't wait to get my 5T next week. Had the 5 before but sold it and now I'm borrowing a friend's 3T. So technically I've upgraded, then downgraded, and now will be upgrading again:laugh:
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Thread closed. Please remember forum rules. Search before posting eg:
[Camera Thread] Post your best shots with the 5T ! or
OnePlus 5T User Opinions and Reviews

I know what's wrong with g5plus camera.

The highlighted thing about g5 plus was also the reason for bad camera. The 1.7 aperture and wide angle camera are the cause here. Though it is good for shots within a certain distance like 10-15 feet. But any further the pictures loose sharpness and gets noisy due to which moto decided to use high denoising due to which the photos look soft. My father's redmi 4 clicks better distance pictures than this. It has 2.0 aperture and little less wide angle lens.
Don't forget that G5 Plus have the same camera sensor as HTC U11 or Asus Zenfone 4 (which takes good pictures on stock software).
Worse photo quality is caused by software (Motorola/Lenovo screw it up).
Did you tried any mods/apps? You can find a lot of these, but I suggest you to try Google camera app port.
.czarodziej said:
Don't forget that G5 Plus have the same camera sensor as HTC U11 or Asus Zenfone 4 (which takes good pictures on stock software).
Worse photo quality is caused by software (Motorola/Lenovo screw it up).
Did you tried any mods/apps? You can find a lot of these, but I suggest you to try Google camera app port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use bacon camera on stock Android without root.
I disabled noise reduction and use hdr with manual mode and stable hands to get though grainy but nice pictures. Though the app is not perfect but it works
When I first got the G5+ I thought the camera was too dark... While a lower aperture may help in low light shots it does cause a bit of trouble for highly illuminated scenes.
HDR does compensate but it's nothing like HDR+ from Google.
Plus, terrible sharpen and overdone Noise Reduction excessive Color NR.
I felt quite dissapointed comparing it to my old Titan (G2)
Anyone tried to mod the camera to enable debug mode? You can disable noise reduction from there
ugupta100 said:
The highlighted thing about g5 plus was also the reason for bad camera. The 1.7 aperture and wide angle camera are the cause here. Though it is good for shots within a certain distance like 10-15 feet. But any further the pictures loose sharpness and gets noisy due to which moto decided to use high denoising due to which the photos look soft. My father's redmi 4 clicks better distance pictures than this. It has 2.0 aperture and little less wide angle lens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from an old school enthusiast of photography background - you're aperture on your lens (in this case f1.7) isn't going to cause noise - that's a function of the sensor. A lot changed when we went from film to digital sensors, but the impact of the f number of the lens did not.
You might be on to something with the with loss of sharpness though. Typically a fixed focal length lens is at it's sharpest at it's only setting... but they very well could have forked this up.
Given that the camera does pretty adequately with other camera software or other hacks - I don't think it's a hardware issue or lens issue. It could be a cut rate sensor...
It could also just be that whomever chose the default settings for this camera did a bad job
pwag said:
Your aperture on your lens (in this case f1.7) isn't going to cause noise - that's a function of the sensor. A lot changed when we went from film to digital sensors, but the impact of the f number of the lens did not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about shadows in bright scenes such as outdoor scenery?
I mean, wouldn't lens aperture like f2.2 preserve more of these details?
That's a function of the film/sensor.
Your f number controls light and the depth of field (area that's in focus) - a smaller f number is more desirable because it allows more light to the film/sensor.
The only thing different here than fine that I can see is the size/diameter of the lens related to the f number. A larger f number, like f 8 or f16 increases the depth of field and sharpness, but at the cost of light hitting the film/sensor. That results in a longer exposure time.
A wide open f stop means more light and shorter exposure times.
One thing we gained with sensors over film is a wider range between highlights and shadows... You could get more shadows and more highlights. Film could get only so much of that before shadows went black and highlights blew out to white. But you still have a limited range. You can't get it all. In order to keep the highlights from going completely white you have to trade off some of the shadow range.
It's early and I'm probably explaining this horribly. Your spectrum between black and white or shadows and highlights is very long. But your camera sensors capability can only encompass a range of that spectrum. If the spectrum were a line of shades of grey from black to white that was, say, 10 units long, the range you could get in one image might be six units long. You've gotta give up somcombo of four units either at the black end of the spectrum or the light side.
If the cameras loaing details in the shadows that's because it's opting to the highlight/light end of the range.
So lens doesn't play a huge role in what chunk of the spectrum the film/sensor can encompass. But does play a role in how quickly the sensor can collect that info. Higher f number = smaller amounts of light on the sensor = longer exposure times.
My guess would be that the sensor or software is biased toward highlights because it results in faster exposures making life easier for snap shots and selfies.
M1810 said:
Anyone tried to mod the camera to enable debug mode? You can disable noise reduction from there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you guys paid attention for once on this XDA, you might have seen my damn thread or the chromatixx thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/g5-plus/how-to/workaround-noise-reduction-t3744031
https://forum.xda-developers.com/g5-plus/themes/modcamera-aggressive-sharpening-noise-t3604458

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