Database Users

Polaris camera tweak

Hi, I recently got a polaris and I'm loving (most of) it.
One thing I realy hate, is the way the fps goes way down with video's in low light conditions. I searched trough the registry myself and found some values to increase the fps of video's a bit, but the moment the light conditions change, it get's crappy again.
Is there some way to fix the light condition so it doesn't adjust while making a video?
I love going to parties and I'd like to make some video's. There is enough light there to make a video, but because of the strobing of the lights, the camera thinks there isn't any light and goes to crapy fps mode trying to...I don't even know why it does it, longer shutter timing maybe or something. So I want to find a way to fix the fps, light mode and shutter timing. If that is possible.
Or I would be hapy with any other info you guys can give me on this matter to improve the camera.
In case someone would like to change some camera settings:
HKLM\software\HTC\camera
In the recparam, you can set the framerate at witch the video records. It can handle a bit more then the default setting. The default is 15, I got mine set at 25 witch works fine. The display isn't able to keep up while recording, but the recording itself looks fine on the pc while playing back.
If anybody can help out more with tweaking the camera more, I'd love it!
I'm especialy looking for the light metering settings that change the fps when the light changes.

Clicky!
Welcome ^_^

cellshadow mean welcome to Camera & Graphic issues Polaris club
to get some information about it you can read this loooooong thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=359991
any way, I will teach you a trick to get full performance from Camera and you can shot video if you have enough light
start camera, hide the lens by your hand, press the power button, wait for 5 or 8 sec, press the power button again, remove your hand from up the lens
now you can shot video in 25 frame/sec
if you get any new tweak or trick for camera please post here

Secoseco, your trick really works! The illumination auto-adjust seems to be not processing the image when I follow your steps, so the image is just captured, a bit darker, but almost realtime!
Is there any official fix on this?

XD
Zomg the trick really works. thats nice.

SuperJMN said:
Secoseco, your trick really works! The illumination auto-adjust seems to be not processing the image when I follow your steps, so the image is just captured, a bit darker, but almost realtime!
Is there any official fix on this?
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benleonheaert said:
Zomg the trick really works. thats nice.
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waiting for some one to analysis this trick to solve the camera issue
may be shutter speed, or white balance

Well I know a little bit about imaging and stuff.
Camera's have different ways to alter the amount of light in a recoring. They can change ISO values (higher value means more responsive to light) wich would not affect the shutter time.
The sensor in a camera (video or photo) needs a certain amount of light before it can register the image projected on it. The better the sensor, the higher quality and options. If you got a lesser quality, like in most cell phone camera's, you don't have to many options for changing the sensivity of the sensor. Meaning, if you want more light projected on your sensor in low light conditions, you need a higher shutter time. This is for both video and photo, the way the finer mechanics work differ, but a video is nothing more then a series of photo's put together. Now when the camera, or in our case, our lovely polaris, notices there isn't much light, it sets the shutter speed (for photo's) longer (that's why photo's in low light get blurry) and the fps (for video) lower (giving the sensor more time to register the light for each frame).
How the trick from secoseco works, I do not know, but it works like a charm. It has to be some sort of bug for it to work this way.
Now I know about the wm6.1 that is supposed to increase video preformance, I have not installed it yet. But the thing I want to fix is the way the camera measures the light and addapts to it. There are so many settings, there just has to be one that controls the way camera settings change in different light sircumstances. Because in good light, and with the trick of secoseco, the fps is just fine and the video is good quality. But the moment the light value gets lower, the fps drops waaay down and the video gets crapy. Wich isn't always needed, like at a party when there is enough strobing light to get a good video, but when the fps is still way down.
I want to either lock the fps, shutter time or disable the light measuring or any other thing that can cause the current proformance of video's in low light conditions.
I'll try looking for myself when I'm not working, but I'm new to this phone, so if people come across anything that can help, it would be great. Registry locations of stuff related to the camera, files that control the camera, anything.

Yeah that trick has been around for awhile. However the moment you point the camera to a bright light source it resets again and will lag in low light conditions.

hambola said:
Yeah that trick has been around for awhile. However the moment you point the camera to a bright light source it resets again and will lag in low light conditions.
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what is the benefit to point the camera to the light source during picturing ?

There is no benefit in intentionally pointing it at a light source. But if it so happens as you're trying to take a picture or video of something and you do happen to get too much light it will lag again.

Problem
I have problems with Send/Receive email client on me Polaris,not working. Internet connections is ok, help me pls. Sorry for me english.

Thanks secoseco
For real. Thanks secoseco. This trick really works

Wow this trick works like a charm! Many thanks goes to you secoseco!
I think it has something to do with whitebalance because changing it in low light conditions will give me some more fps... but it is still not enough for taking videos!
Too bad that the picture quality sometimes gets worse after using the trick.

Thanks a Million it workssssssssssssssssss..

Flash fix?

I have a hd2 tmobileUS rom version 2.13 and radio 2.10
when i take pictures at night and the flash kicks in i get this green hue in the picture..
ive seen the fix for the older version but it was for pink dot in the middle... i dont have that problem
can anyone send me to the right link to fix the green hue?

52 views and no one can reply?!?!?!?

For photography to work you need adequate illumination and a sensor medium that can capture that light at the correct level across the visible light spectrum. The medium needs to be exposed to the light for the correct duration and the light source needs to be bright enough and illuminate the scene for an adequate length of time. There are significant limitations in designing a phone camera to work this way and achieve a ballance and if you look elsewhere you will see that many phone cameras have this issue.
I don't think there is an actual "fix" and your choices boil down to trying different camera settings or downloading your photo's to a PC and tidying them up with Photoshop or similar. Try changing the camera settings from "Auto" to bright light, fluorescent etc. and take a picture of the same scene with each setting and determine which one you like best. Aslo, ensure you have explored the obvious and that there is no obstruction (case, plastic film, dirt) to either the flash or the lens.
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Flash darkens photos?

Anyone else observing that when they take a pic with the flash on in "medium" light conditions, the photo comes out actually darker than if the flash wasn't even used?
I swear the timing of the flash is bad on my S5. When I tap the button to shoot the photo, the flash turns on and the image on the screen looks bright and good. But then I think the photo is actually taken a split second later after the flash has turned off, and the photo that gets taken is dark as hell. I think I've tried all the combination of settings in the default S5 camera app, and nothing helps.

Brent212 said:
Anyone else observing that when they take a pic with the flash on in "medium" light conditions, the photo comes out actually darker than if the flash wasn't even used?
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I haven't seen this with my S5. Unfortunately you didn't elaborate on your camera settings, camera version or other crucial details.
At a guess, and it is only speculation since we don't have your details, you are expecting the flash to act like a fill flash. When the auto mode (which is probably what you are using) probably uses the flash in a conventional manner i.e. a fixed shutter speed (or limited shutter speed range). There are good reasons for that, but the net effect if the subject is outside of the flash range is that little of the flash is reflected back and the (presumably) higher shutter speed lets less total light in resulting in a darker picture.
You can test that thesis by taking some pictures of a subject that is very close to the camera. If the problem goes away with close subjects that implies that the problem is an artifact of using flash for a subject that is too distant for the flash to work with. No flash can work at an unlimited distance which is why people using a flash in a stadium when they are 75 meters from a subject is silly. In this case, flash mode simply isn't appropriate to the situation you are using it in and you'd be farther ahead to use a slower shutter speed, without flash.
It's highly unlikely that a bug would see the shutter opening after the flash.
.

It happens with literally *every* combination of the settings in the camera app (with flash set to "on"). Auto mode, beauty face mode... actually, are there any other modes that I'd use to take a picture of something 3 feet away in a darkish room? I have panorama, "shot & more", virtual tour... those wouldn't be right, correct? So both beauty face and auto, with all the combination of settings... hdr on/off, stabilization on/off, iso at auto and all four "manual" options, all three metering modes... nothing makes a difference.
The problem is the same all the times -- it's not just that the non "subject" areas are dark -- the whole image is dark, just like if you turned off the light in a room and snapped a pic at the moment when the light was still on at 50% brightness as it's turning off. It's super annoying just because of how damn good the image looks on the screen when the photo is being taken... it even seems to "snap" the shot at the right time... the shutter sound goes off and the little border animation happens when the pic is nice and bright. Then I open the actual image and it's garbage.
I was hoping someone might know of some setting in a config file somewhere for a delay between when the flash is triggered and when the camera attempts to capture the image, and that maybe mine got changed somehow to a larger than optimal value.
My wife has an s5, I'll have to test with hers and see if it suffers from the same problem.

Long story short: the camera is using a fast exposure time to keep the subject from being "blown out", i.e. overexposed, when the flash is used. That means that the foreground is going to be sharper but anything in the background will be lost in darkness if the ambient lighting is low. When you leave the flash off, the camera will use a longer exposure time (or shutter speed, if you will) to allow enough light, which also lets more of the background be seen in the picture.
Another thing to consider is that if your screen is set for auto brightness control, you will not have the same brightness when viewing the gallery pictures that you will when looking at the camera view. The camera view is full brightness at all times, but if you're viewing the pictures that you took in the gallery, screen brightness will drop down according to ambient lighting. Photos definitely look dark if you're looking at the gallery by lamp light.

Marlin29 said:
Long story short: the camera is using a fast exposure time to keep the subject from being "blown out", i.e. overexposed, when the flash is used. That means that the foreground is going to be sharper but anything in the background will be lost in darkness if the ambient lighting is low. When you leave the flash off, the camera will use a longer exposure time (or shutter speed, if you will) to allow enough light, which also lets more of the background be seen in the picture.
Another thing to consider is that if your screen is set for auto brightness control, you will not have the same brightness when viewing the gallery pictures that you will when looking at the camera view. The camera view is full brightness at all times, but if you're viewing the pictures that you took in the gallery, screen brightness will drop down according to ambient lighting. Photos definitely look dark if you're looking at the gallery by lamp light.
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That's interesting stuff, but doesn't really apply to the problem I described (at least the first part... the screen brightness setting stuff is potentially related, but isn't in my case). The exposure time is fine, it's just **when** the exposure starts that is the problem... a little too late, IMO. Really wish there was a way to adjust when it takes the photo in relation to when the flash is fired.
The foreground objects aren't lit up at all. No difference between foreground and background. Sometimes, I'm taking a picture of a t-shirt laying on a flat surface from 2 feet away. Without a flash it looks pretty good, but it's a little dark so I decide to try the flash to see if it'll lighten it up a bit. Instead, it makes it look like I turned out half the lights in the room.... way darker than no flash.

Same here, three friends of mine too.

I'm having the same problem s5 neo

I just figured out how to correct the pics from coming out dark. Go into camera-settings-exposure value-slide to the right to 2.5 or more.My pics come out fine now. Indoor light normal daylight.( with flash off.) I will know more in other settings (places ,situations )if it needs to be tweaked again.

no problems here
my settings are AUTO MODE
flash AUTO
no effets at all
and still i get good shots in night

Power/current draw issue?
Mine was doing this, and I noticed the first flash (ranging) was fine, but the second flash (to illuminate the image when taken) was much weaker. Whilst plugged into charge, repeated low light experiment, and the low light flash illuminated image was fine!! Maybe battery on its way out?

more camera flaws - color balance issues

I noticed when photographing clothes to sell on FB that black shirts and hoodies look navy blue and orange looks reddish orange and light grey looks bluish. the outside blue sky was shining in the window and the overhead light is warmer. if i hold the camera facing the window it's fine. but as soon as i point it anywhere else then the color balance goes to hell. i tried the stock and Gcam. Also noticed in the living room the green and orange blanket looked like a funny shade of orange instead of green and a yellowish orange on the orange. It seems impossible to get the colors right indoors with some things. anyone else notice this?

Do you have it in manual mode or auto ?

This is quite common. Digital cameras can either automatically or manually decide what is white. It can be hard to get this right in all situations - usually there are some assumptions made in auto mode, but "white" obviously varies based on lighting.
In manual mode, you can additionally turn on RAW saving (it will save jpegs too in this mode). The white balance can easily be adjusted after-the-fact on the raw images (but then you need to use something to convert them from raw to jpeg).
If you want accurate color rendition and you need to use your phone for the pictures, use manual mode. Put a white sheet of paper in the lighting conditions you are photographing in and adjust the color temperature until it looks white. Take a test shot and look at it on another device since everyone's display can vary. Once you get that right, see if your colored objects look right as well (and then maintain the same lighting for everything!).
Oh, and this actually is a problem with film too - only the color balance is a permanent part of the film There used to be tungsten and daylight films or you could use a filter to compensate.

Although automatic white balance works reasonably well most of the time, certain scenarios can confuse the algorithm. The mixed lighting scene you describe is one of them. The camera detects your indoor lighting but most of the ambient light is cool , from the outside. Use manual mode in these situations, and adjust the white balance yourself. If you're going to be taking a lot of photos in the same sitting with the same lighting, it is probably worthwhile to use a neutral or white card to set it. If its just a one time casual photo, just adjust the WB by eye until the look of the preview looks right.
railfan-eric said:
I noticed when photographing clothes to sell on FB that black shirts and hoodies look navy blue and orange looks reddish orange and light grey looks bluish. the outside blue sky was shining in the window and the overhead light is warmer. if i hold the camera facing the window it's fine. but as soon as i point it anywhere else then the color balance goes to hell. i tried the stock and Gcam. Also noticed in the living room the green and orange blanket looked like a funny shade of orange instead of green and a yellowish orange on the orange. It seems impossible to get the colors right indoors with some things. anyone else notice this?
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jshames said:
Although automatic white balance works reasonably well most of the time, certain scenarios can confuse the algorithm. The mixed lighting scene you describe is one of them. The camera detects your indoor lighting but most of the ambient light is cool , from the outside. Use manual mode in these situations, and adjust the white balance yourself. If you're going to be taking a lot of photos in the same sitting with the same lighting, it is probably worthwhile to use a neutral or white card to set it. If its just a one time casual photo, just adjust the WB by eye until the look of the preview looks right.
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Thanks, the mixed lighting and all what you said is what i figured. I didn't take the time to use manual. i just wanted to get the pictures done and posted to the FB groups before i got lazy and put it off.

Pixel 3a camera after update to Android 10

Here are my first impressions after the update to Android 10:
White balance presets have been removed for photos and videos. That's a stupid decision and I hope that they will add a color temperature slider in auto mode in the future. https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/16921343?hl=en
Machine learning white balance can't be turned off in Night Sight mode anymore. Previously you could turn off machine learning white balance and use the default white balance, if you used a white balance preset before using Night Sight.
Now HDR+ enhanced has the "super resolution" zoom algorithm. Previously this wasn't the case. Now the HDR+ enhanced zoom is about as good as the Night Sight zoom (in my opinion it's even better because Night Sight chooses too long exposures and can lead to slightly blurry photos)
HDR+ dng files have been fixed. Previously they were extremely desaturated. Though the update doesn't fix the dng files that were saved before the update. Furthermore the Lightroom mobile camera app still produces desaturated dng files.
When you use the Pixel 3a on a tripod in very bad light conditions, then it will combine thirteen 4s exposures (astro mode). When you zoom, it will combine fifteen 4s exposures. After one 4s exposure, it is possible to stop additional exposures.
Now the Pixel 3a has face detection autofocus, but I am not sure whether it works accurately.
Now the Pixel 3a has the Top Shot feature, but it seems to be useless as the image quality is terrible.
Bug: When you use exposure compensation in low-light conditions, the viewfinder can start to flicker. When you use AF lock, then this bug doesn't occur. You can use the exposure compensation after using the AF lock feature.
Bug: When you hold the phone too steady in Night Sight mode, the astro mode can turn on even though you don't use a tripod. This will lead to very blurry results. If the light conditions are not very bad and the astro mode doesn't turn on, it is still possible that Night Sight chooses 1.0s per frame. Before the update the maximum handheld exposure time per frame was approximately 0.85s in my case, often 0.5s.
Bug: This is a bug that already existed before the update. It hasn't been fixed: When you zoom or when you use Night Sight on a tripod (not astro mode), then several dead pixels can be visible. I have the impression that the astro mode handles the dead pixels better. https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/im...x=0.05119343664946224&y=0.0066202024429564575
Google Photos bug: Jpgs in the Photoshop Express folder do not look extremely sharp at pixel level in Google Photos. When I move them to a different folder, then they look sharper.