Database Users

poor camera software

i tried 'vignette' with the image stabilisation feature on and the quality set to superfine ....the resulting images were literally twice as good as with the default camera app ....no blur and sharper, more detailed.
The Image Stabilisation obviously helps, and the superfine setting on vignette saves the images at a much higher quality with less compression, the file sizes being about 2.7mb vs 1.6 for default app.
so with these facts in mind it is apparent that samsung is not making full use of the camera hardware .....it is being limited once again by the poor software.
unfortunately 'vignette' is not really useable full time because it is slow as heck!
you have to wait 10 - 15 seconds between shots while it processes, so ideally it would be nice if samsung got their heads out of their asses and fixed the software so it is not crippling the hardware.

Seriously? In my opinion the Samsung camera is the best camera software for Android. Beats even the HTC Camera.
BTW, this thread probably wasn't meant to be in Development section...

don't know where it's meant to go, i guessed since it had to do with the built in firmware ......
ok, it's not a terrible camera, but it could be much better, especially in low light conditions. In perfect daylight it does take superb photos.
here are two samples, identical conditions, tell me which you think is better
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+1 for second 1

2nd one is better

thanks, the second is the vignette one .....there's obviously a noticeable difference

Wow, you're absolutely right. I just tried it myself (quick test here at work) and Vignette solves my main issue with the SGS camera, which was the aggressive noise reduction that made images way too soft.
With Vignette (no filters applied) there's a lot more detail in the image. It might be due to Samsung compressing images too much (which accounts for the file size differences) but it might also be image processing on the stock camera app is way too agressive.
I'll do some more proper tests soon.
These are 1:1 crops of a test pic. Both pics taken from the same spot, focusing on the middle of the image and with no other processing applied.

damn it i cant buy this app till i get my debit card pin!

diehard2222 said:
damn it i cant buy this app till i get my debit card pin!
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There's a free version available. I'm going to do tests with some other camera apps and see whether every app is doing a better job than Samsung's app or if it's just Vignette.

i didnt try them all, vignette had the best reviews, and seems to be one of the only ones that includes image stabilisation and saves images at a higher quality (less compression) than samsung.
the demo does have some limitations, and, as i said, it is very slow in processing the photos.
if u find an alternate one that does the same job faster pls let us know.

ohhhhhhhhh.... thanks for the suggestion
http://www.appbrain.com/app/uk.co.neilandtheresa.Vignette

Camera 360 also provides IS. There is a free and a paid for app, and the IS is available on both. Not sure about the level of compression though, not checked respective file sizes.
Phil

i have ben testing with camera apps also yesterday,and i realized there must be some bug in the camera firmware either, that prevents all apps that feature a zoom to do this, as soon as i zoom in, the image freezes and gets pixelated.
during tests with vignette i found that it uses a different approach to zooming by just actually cropping the immage and therefore not causing a freeze. also i did not see the sayed delay on taking a photo...

Yes, the Vignette pictures seem a bit more detailed and it certainly has to do with the lower compression it's using. However, some of it is just because Vignette seems to sharpen pictures more as well (which is something you don't really want) and that also seems to accentuate noise. Also, from my test it seems that Vignette also tends to underexpose pictures, another not really welcome effect (most digital camera pictures are already way too underexposed).
So while it would be nice to be able to choose lower compression in stock camera, because of the things mentioned above (and also because of the ability to change metering method) I'd still pick stock app as an overall winner, despite the less detail (some of which can be reclaimed by sharpening the picture a bit afterwards). Though Vignette might certainly come handy under certain circumstances (so thanks for the tip, I'm keeping it even though I just wanted to test it at first).

the camera 360 seem to produce a better picture in a lit room. not sure if it's a placebo effect, shall compare it with the stock camera tomorrow. eyes too tired tonight.
gonna compare the shots taken tomorrow in the day too.

i trashed camera 360 after 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to turn the random effects off and gave up when it kept adding a different effect to every pic i took
....but i found this one which at least to my own eyes (in limited testing) takes slightly better photos than the stock app, it has no settings whatsoever except for point and click (although there are some extra filter effects which i didn't bother with), it is very bare bones but fast. I will test it some more tomorrow in daylight.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.nate.android.cycamera

I'm using primarily Vignette, but damn, I think the programmers designed it in a way that is really is supposed to be slow (it's designed to be old-school-like right? LOL).

ok, tried cycmera in daylight ....it's rubbish, has no focusing mechanism whatsoever so is useless.
also noticed that vignette creates an invisible thumnails folder inside the dcim folder which can build up to huge sizes if not manually deleted ....this is really stupid imo

definitely the quality is much better with Vignette over the stock app.
however it is reallyyyyyy slow. Even when changing settings it is slow to react. When processing the image, takes about 10 seconds.
And also we can't choose with our finger where we want the focus to be like in the stock app.

maybe the "improvements" in vignette comes from the post-processing?

Camera tips! #2

Hi once again, everyone.
I've noticed that when using the flash on our Desire HDs, there is an extreme increase in warm colours. In other words, the picture will come out very yellow. This tip is only meant for indoors and macro shots, where lighting is needed, as outside pictures are balanced beautifully. To resolve the green-yellowish hue, hit the menu button while you're in the camera app. Go to White Balance, and touch Flourescent. Now take a picture, the picture will come out with more realistic colours. Do bear in mind that if pictures are not to your liking, you can use Photoshop, or for faster results, the built-in effects for our phones. Oh, and turn your ISO down to 100 when taking macro shots, or outdoors on a sunny day. Pictures are much more impressive and high quality.
Edit: it would seem ISO 100 images are better quality but overexpose extremely close macro shots. ISO 800 is recommended for this procedure
Remember to consult hamdir's guide for other problems

nice, ill try your flash tip tonight, if it works ill add it to the guide, if you don't mind
its seems your enjoying your camera as much as i do
autofix in the gallery effects improves tinted and badly contrasted pictures quit nicely

hamdir said:
nice, ill try your flash tip tonight, if it works ill add it to the guide, if you don't mind
its seems your enjoying your camera as much as i do
autofix in the gallery effects improves tinted and badly contrasted pictures quit nicely
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Click to collapse
Of course I won't mind, we're both equally interested. You're my xda brother I guess xD anyways if I find other solutions i'll let you know, that way your guide can be a solution-for-all for everyone who not only has a Desire HD, but also any modern camera

awesome! it works well thanks

I am glad it did

guide update
i've added this to the flash section
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thx again

You're welcome

Elemental_Fire said:
Hi once again, everyone.
Edit: it would seem ISO 100 images are better quality but overexpose extremely close macro shots. ISO 800 is recommended for this procedure
Remember to consult hamdir's guide for other problems
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sorry but that is wrong.
turning the ISO up would surely cause it to be more likely to overexpose? unless its a bug in the firmware.
you got to remember the exposure triangle. aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. our aperture is fixed, the shutter speed automatic, but the iso user controllable. increase the ISO and the camera increases the shutter speed to maintain the correct exposure. lower iso, longer shutter speed.
ISO is used to increase the sensors sensitivity to light. higher ISO number means more sensitive but more noise, low number means less sensitive with less noise.
so in summary, ISO 100 should not cause the photo to overexpose unless the firmware is buggy. ISO 800 is more likely to cause overexposure.
ISO 800 should not be used for macro since it destroys fine detail very quickly, thereby giving a poor quality picture.
ISO should be left on auto unless lighting is poor (change to high ISO 800) or unless you believe the camera is using a shutter speed significantly faster than neccessary, and that picture quality is suffering due to ISO noise and/or noise reduction (change to low ISO 100/200)
good tip on the white balance though.

I agree, there seems to be a bug. The flash light is not compensated for. In real terms, what I am trying to say is...setting the ISO to 100 causes the camera to slow down by approximately 50% There operations are also slowed down. When the camera takes a macro picture at ISO 100, it does not compensate for the flash fast enough. As a result, the picture comes out overexposed. However, at ISO 800, there is no such decrease in operations. Thus, the flash can quickly be compensated for. You will understand if you try for yourself. Try very close macro shots. Set your lighting mode, and then set your ISO to first 100, and take a few pictures. Now try again with ISO 800. What happens?

1/24000 shutter speed Pro Mode?

Has anyone tried setting shutter speed in Pro Mode to 1/24000? Whenever i set to 1/24000 the screen become dark even my ISO was set to 800. When we need to use 1/24000 shutter speed?

This mode is to use under ultra bright luminosity !
The photo is taken very fast (0,00004 seconds of exposition time!!).
Because it's very fast, you need a lot of light (and by a lot I mean a big lot) or else it's complete dark. But if you have enough luminosity, not a single photo will be blurred by camera or objects movements.
For example : a car is driving at 200Km/h, you take a picture of the tires of the car : on the photo you will be able to read the small writtings on it, even if the car was moving super fast

1/24000 is STUPIDLY fast shutter speed... i honestly can't think of a single situation where 1/24000 would actually be useful, unless you were aiming to deliberately under expose everything else while taking a photo directly of the sun lol
to give you an idea, 1/8000 setting can actually capture a bullwhip cracking without any blur on the whip at all... and 1/24000 is a hell of a lot faster than that lol

here's one example (not the best one) of a photo taken in 1/24000 mode :
https://goo.gl/photos/9KhKrU623WpwkinU7
I couldn't have done this photo without high shutter speed, I was in a fast train... at 1/8000 it wouldn't be blurry aswell but I wouldn't have the strong contrast I have on this mode and the sun would "melt" in the sky....

very nice @Mr_PoPoP
underexposed shadows is definitely the only use i can think of for that speed, unless i could wire the phone through to studio lighting, then i might get some use out of it just to sate my curiosity lol

Thanks @methosivanhoe
That's what I like with S7 camera, a lot of ways to play with....
I've been shooting the sky at night with 10 seconds exposure, and it's very nice...

haven't tried that yet... might have to give it a go sometime
i'm at a burlesque shoot this weekend, so i'll take the phone along with me and see how it performs next to my 1DX lol, i know it won't stand up fully to it, but it'll be a fun comparison of the samsung 'raw' files vs a proper DSLR raw file for me to compare quality

Thank you all for the answer. Now i have better understanding on shutter speed.

shutter speed is basically how long you expose the shot for... 1/24000 is stupidly fast really
easier to explain it with a photo
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short shutter speeds, like 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000 and so on, freeze any movement... like falling water, running people, whips, and so on... the faster the shutter speed, the higher the fraction... so 1/24000 is the fastest i've ever seen, which is saying something as top line pro cameras like the Canon 1DX only go up to 1/8000th of a second shutter speed.
it's a tradeoff really, to use 1/24000 shutter speed, you need more light around to get the same exposure... so either taking photos with a hell of a lot of light, or boosting the ISO up so it exposes right

Mr_PoPoP said:
Thanks @methosivanhoe
That's what I like with S7 camera, a lot of ways to play with....
I've been shooting the sky at night with 10 seconds exposure, and it's very nice...
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I wish I could get the shots im looking for of the night sky with a 10 second exposure. I am trying to find a camera app that will give me a 30 second exposure.
What ISO setting are you using along with the 10 second exposure? Also, do you have any pictures you could post?
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

FerdinandT said:
Has anyone tried setting shutter speed in Pro Mode to 1/24000? Whenever i set to 1/24000 the screen become dark even my ISO was set to 800. When we need to use 1/24000 shutter speed?
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Here's a picture I clicked at 2 in the afternoon with the sun shining bright at 40°C and the shutter speed set to 1/24000. Note that it was an extremely bright sunny day when this was clicked. I am no pro photographer in this was actually the first time I used the shutter speed feature and got a pleasing result
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers mobile app

jrwingate6 said:
I wish I could get the shots im looking for of the night sky with a 10 second exposure. I am trying to find a camera app that will give me a 30 second exposure.
What ISO setting are you using along with the 10 second exposure? Also, do you have any pictures you could post?
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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I think this might work I bought it a while ago but never used it haha https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ui.LapseItPro

methosivanhoe said:
very nice @Mr_PoPoP
underexposed shadows is definitely the only use i can think of for that speed, unless i could wire the phone through to studio lighting, then i might get some use out of it just to sate my curiosity lol
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have you ever tried taking a light stream photo with your s7?..

Disgusting sharpening

The first thing I noticed when using the camera on this phone was how the images looked over processed. Most notably, I did a digital zoom photo yesterday and the sharpening on it was disgusting. It didn't even look like a photo.
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See what I mean? All I did was zoom in and take a photo. It looks horrible.
Look at this picture for example
Even just zoomed in a bit you can see way too much sharpening going on
Now I know this phone is a "budget phone" but it supposedly has the same lens as the Galaxy S7 so that isn't really an excuse. It looks like it comes down to it being the processing that moto put in.
Can anybody out there please let me know if rooting my phone and shooting RAW will produce cleaner photos? I would have to guess so, since I can control the sharpening myself. I haven't been able to find any RAW samples from this phone.

is it a software thing? I've converted to snap camera on whatever device.

I'm afraid it's in the firmware. Any camera app I've tried yields the same results

U should probably return or replace u your phone I had the same issue without even zooming
The phone couldn't focus on things right next the camera mine also had pink tints while recording
So I got mine replaced​
Now everything works good

It's also the processor. The G5 plus has the 625 while the S7 had the 820 allowing for much better image processing.

nigaindelhi said:
U should probably return or replace u your phone I had the same issue without even zooming
The phone couldn't focus on things right next the camera mine also had pink tints while recording
So I got mine replaced​
Now everything works good
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Click to collapse
Well it focuses just fine, and pictures in day light look alright but there is some heavy noticeable processing going on in the moto firmware.
This picture looks pretty good but if you zoom in just a bit you can really see the over sharpening.
Here is a photo of my Nexus 5x
It looks much cleaner to me. Less over processing and less sharpening artifacts. The processor on the G5 Plus should be pretty comparable to the 808 in the N5x so I really don't think its a processor issue. It seems to me like it was a design choice by Moto. All of the sample photos I have seen also have too much sharpening. I am strongly considering just rooting the device and shooting raw. At least then I can control the sharpening myself

Well then we would have to wait for an update then

emoney1219 said:
It's also the processor. The G5 plus has the 625 while the S7 had the 820 allowing for much better image processing.
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It should make no difference, if you do the same processing in software - other than perhaps taking slightly longer to process the photo?
Otherwise, we'll have to shoot RAW if we want the best quality I guess?
It seems to me however, that any settings affecting the image processing quality should have parameters which could be changed?

critofur said:
It should make no difference, if you do the same processing in software - other than perhaps taking slightly longer to process the photo?
Otherwise, we'll have to shoot RAW if we want the best quality I guess?
It seems to me however, that any settings affecting the image processing quality should have parameters which could be changed?
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The processor contains the ISP or the Image Signal Processor which controls HDR, white balance, auto focus, exposure, color filters and so on. The better the ISP the better the image. So while the 2 phones have the same sensor they will never have the same image results because they have different processors and the more powerful chips have better ISP on board resulting in better images even with the same sensor.

The strength of this camera's focusing is in the sensor chip - "dual pixel focus".
All the other things you mention such as white balance, HDR, color filters are applied after the RAW image is taken - so, there's really no reason that you couldn't generate the same quality of image.

if nothing else, I'm upgrading my everyday knock around (2015) moto e. I won't complain toooooo much.

I have to agree with the OP on this one - there is some horrendous post-processing going on with this phone.
I'd love to get that to stop - even if we have to go to RAW/DNG to get it.
Has anyone done the root/Freedcam method described in another thread on here and gotten DNGs from this camera?
I'd love to see how they look... I'll eventually do it when LOS gets stable enough.

wait couple of days more, there will be some nice mods incoming for g5p camera.

srb- said:
I have to agree with the OP on this one - there is some horrendous post-processing going on with this phone.
I'd love to get that to stop - even if we have to go to RAW/DNG to get it.
Has anyone done the root/Freedcam method described in another thread on here and gotten DNGs from this camera?
I'd love to see how they look... I'll eventually do it when LOS gets stable enough.
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2017_05_09_17_44_53-Edit-Edit by defcomk, on Flickr
Raw No Flat Field Correction - Bad Noise Profile so color bleed when doing NR

defcomg said:
Raw No Flat Field Correction - Bad Noise Profile so color bleed when doing NR
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Looks like a promising photo to me!
I'm new around XDA... is will flat field correction and NR come with time, or is this the best we'll get?

srb- said:
Looks like a promising photo to me!
I'm new around XDA... is will flat field correction and NR come with time, or is this the best we'll get?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably before Friday its only day two of having the phone but thanks for reminding me gonna do flat field now light nice and diffused

Blurru photos in (not so much) low lights

Hi guys!
Been loving my S8 so far, but I don't know if I am missing something or it's just the camera that works like this, but, photos taken outside come out bright and no problems.
But whenever I try to take photos of my 8 month ols son, 6 out of 10 times, I end up with a blurry shot. Am I missing some setting? Anyone else having the same problem?
I noticed a small milisecond kinda delay after taking the shot sometimes, doesn't matter if I have internal storage selected or SD card as save directory.
Here are some samples of the results I get.
Tried sports mode and while there's no delay when taking the shot, I get kinda the same results.
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He is clearly moving and in low light camera needs to have lens open longer to expose picture properly. To fix it you need to switch into PRO mode and then you have 3 options which do pretty much the same thing different ways:
1. add more or stronger lights into the room, 2. manually set ISO as high as you can tolerate noise (probably need to do few test shots) 3. set shutter speed at at least 1/100 sec or shorter depending on speed of movement, here you risk under exposure, high ISO noise. Also you can combine 1 and 2 or 3.

pete4k said:
He is clearly moving and in low light camera needs to have lens open longer to expose picture properly. To fix it you need to switch into PRO mode and then you have 3 options which do pretty much the same thing different ways:
1. add more or stronger lights into the room, 2. manually set ISO as high as you can tolerate noise (probably need to do few test shots) 3. set shutter speed at at least 1/100 sec or shorter depending on speed of movement, here you risk under exposure, high ISO noise. Also you can combine 1 and 2 or 3.
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Thanks for the advice. Used to get better results in the same conditions with the Nexus 6P that's why I found this strange.
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Either your kid is growing up and moving faster or Nexus defaulted to higher ISO settings in similar conditions. At 1.7 the lens on S8 is most likely brighter than 6P, but the ISO setting is double edged sword: higher the ISO less blur in fast moving object, but more noise, which could ruin the picture. Another way to do it is to time it just when the movement is smallest and if your timing is off, then set the cam into burst mode, you'll have whole bunch of pictures to choose from. S8 has one of the best, most capable cameras on any phone.

pete4k said:
Either your kid is growing up and moving faster or Nexus defaulted to higher ISO settings in similar conditions. At 1.7 the lens on S8 is most likely brighter than 6P, but the ISO setting is double edged sword: higher the ISO less blur in fast moving object, but more noise, which could ruin the picture. Another way to do it is to time it just when the movement is smallest and if your timing is off, then set the cam into burst mode, you'll have whole bunch of pictures to choose from. S8 has one of the best, most capable cameras on any phone.
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Haha maybe he is quite fast now
I thought maybe it was a setting I was missing or a defective camera. Thanks again!!
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