Database Users

Any tips on improving the camera?

My only complaint with this phone is the camera is pretty much crap. I find it almost impossible to take a photo without motion blur, if the light level is not perfect then its pointless even trying.
Are there any tips or tricks I am missing, or apps from the market that can replace or improve upon the stock camera app? Or are we stuck with what we have?

Try holding the phone still, and make sure what you're trying to take a picture of isn't moving? Lol thats the only tip that I have.

Anartic said:
Try holding the phone still, and make sure what you're trying to take a picture of isn't moving? Lol thats the only tip that I have.
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haha .. getting my kids to stay still while I take their picture is as as likely as me nailing water to the wall!

SnapPhotoPro is the best replacement camera app I have used - includes a stability/auto focus feature which I find eliminates most blur (havent tried taking a picture of anything moving though).

the best fix I found for indoors was setting the phone on a fixed surface when taking pics but really though, if you disable the auto focus to infinity, the camera snaps instantly instead if having to wait. its not a huge improvement but sometimes it helps.

Exposure compensation lag

Hi all,
Automatic correction of exposure is slow and in stages.
example if you record a video of the sky and ground, we see that AutoCorrect is slow.
Do you think this is software? or hardware?
Thank you

It's annoying and let's the camera down. I've also noticed pixels are block.
It'll be software based due to compression and refresh rates
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

I keep getting blurred pictures, it looks fine on the screen, then it focuses in, still looks good and just as it takes the photo it does something weird and the picture comes out blurry. I hate this! It looks really amazing and then just before it takes the picture it blurs it!
Anyone else have this problem?

mupet0000 said:
I keep getting blurred pictures, it looks fine on the screen, then it focuses in, still looks good and just as it takes the photo it does something weird and the picture comes out blurry. I hate this! It looks really amazing and then just before it takes the picture it blurs it!
Anyone else have this problem?
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Yes, I experience the same problem sometimes, but it's with a cause.
This is probably because you don't hold the camera still enough when you shoot the picture. It is absolutely critical to keep it super steady, because the shutter speed isn't incredibly fast, hence more exposure, and thus more susceptible to motion blur.

Do you think it's the lens or the software?

foxilliams said:
Do you think it's the lens or the software?
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Maybe both haha..
I found that lowering the ISO to 100 made the pictures look much better..
It still needs sorting though, the light to dark exposure sensor is plain dumb.

foxilliams said:
Do you think it's the lens or the software?
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Click to collapse
It's either the camera module itself, or the software, or both.

camera takes shocking blury picture with the slights movements

camera takes shocking blury picture with the slights movemonts..... how do I fix this? The first Apple iPhone hasn't got this problem.... why do we have it on our new HTC phones ? I'm so wishing I never got this phone

lol, why don't you sell it then
There's nothing you can fix as it's not broken, why not try some camera apps, perhaps you might get better luck with them. Personally, I have no problems with any of it.

If you're taking pictures/video in low light it will start to blur. This is because the camera will try to get more light to the sensor for better, brighter images.
To "fix" this go to camera app>menu>image adjustments and set exposure to -2 and sharpness to -1 or -2. The image will be much darker now, but atleast you'll be able to record videos in darker places at 30fps.
RobSimmo is right, why don't you sell it then? I'm sure your iphone is much better.

Foladko said:
If you're taking pictures/video in low light it will start to blur. This is because the camera will try to get more light to the sensor for better, brighter images.
To "fix" this go to camera app>menu>image adjustments and set exposure to -2 and sharpness to -1 or -2. The image will be much darker now, but atleast you'll be able to record videos in darker places at 30fps.
RobSimmo is right, why don't you sell it then? I'm sure your iphone is much better.
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yep it is proven that low light capturing will result in blurry images. one of our forumer hamdir posted a very (I mean it) useful thread regarding camera. suggest that you have a read through it and play around with the configuration. this guide help me a lot!
edit with link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=875230

One thing I've noticed is that turning off your Auto focus feature will actually help you to get rid of those blurry shots. Turn it to manual focus instead.

But wait! Why don't you buy a camera? clap clap
Right, enough being off -topic an mean It's just how HTC always built its phones. The camera failed always

RobSimmo said:
lol, why don't you sell it then
There's nothing you can fix as it's not broken, why not try some camera apps, perhaps you might get better luck with them. Personally, I have no problems with any of it.
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I would love to sell it but I just got locked into a 2 year contract with Vodafone.... I don't think people are hearing what I'm saying..... this camera takes amazing pics but for you to take really good pics you MUST hold the phone 100% still can't move it one bit.... how am I meant to take a picture in a night club and be 100% still.....do you get me ? Other phones can do it ?

Try the app Vignette which has anti shake setting

Camera quality is bad

So I've been taking a few pictures on my phone, and I have noticed that the Galaxy S2 is very very inconsistent in taking quality photos. I can have a great clear shot of some mid-ranged photos, but far distanced photos have horrible quality. I understand if you take pictures of something really far, obviously it won't be that good, but when I compared to my friends iPhone 4, the 8MP is barely on par with it. Do any of you know what might be the problem? I've tried using auto focus and manual focus, but it is always blurry.

It seems to be an hardware problem. I find the sgsw camera pretty good, especially the dynamic range. My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.

Can you upload and provide some shots samples?
Everything on auto? It might help to know which ROM/mod you are using.
I'm not an expert in mobile digital photography but if I can see your blurry distant shots it might be able to tell if I get better result with my device.

The S2 tends to like low shutter speeds (1/4s - 1/20s) ALL the frigging time.
It will select this slow shutter speed even when it should raise the ISO and get a faster shutter speed.
This is why the S2 often takes blurry photos, because even 1/15 or 1/19sec is not fast enough to take a photo sharply with a 28mm lens (effectively what the S2 is).
The slowest shutter speed the S2 should use is 1/30sec to ensure the photos aren't blurred by *camera* vibration/shake. (But, if the *subject* is moving, like a child, then 1/60s or 1/80s are the minimum that are needed to freeze the subject).
This is why the photos are so often blurry as soon as the light gets slightly low - cloud day, in shade, etc. I don't have a solution sorry!
Proof: check the EXIF data of the blurry photos you take. Most will have a stupidly low ISO (like ISO25, ISO50) and a stupid low shutter speed.

Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear

I don't want to be captain obvious, and I am sure you are a better photographer than me but can you check if the focus mode is set to macro if it is then change to auto focus.
Since this happened to me once i set to macro and forgot and all the photos were blurry.
I just felt that might be the reason.

I am guessing that what you're doing is pressing on the "Capture" button without focusing on the subject yet?
I do find that it's best to press to focus on the area you want to take and then press the main capture button to capture it. It seems like the focus hasn't focused on what you want to take.
It's quite annoying because then that means I have to press in the middle and then press the capture button to take a decent shot. I wish I could just hold down the capture button to focus, then release to shoot.. which works sometimes but not as good as what I said above.

Here you have 2 images, far and close focus. You can see the great quality of the camera. Take a look at the focus settings: better in auto mode if you don't want to manage it in all photos. Maybe you have some problem in the camera hardware... so warranty is the best option here.

There are at least 2 types of camera modules in SGS II.
Check this:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098834
Mine also had this problem (blury at far objects), the soultion is set the metering to matrix in camera menu.It works for me.

iocar said:
Yes I have noticed that the shutter speeds are quite low...now I'm assured that its not just me
I can take SOME really good photos, but almost every other pictures are very blurry even at a close distance.
Everything is on default, except I have enabled Anti-Shake or something like that, and I am using CheckROM 3.1.1 (KJ3)
The first 2 are taken at a considerably good range, with no zoom or any effects, just a normal shot, but then the outcome was very weird.
The last one was a closer shot, but in a darker area, and that one was a little bit more clear
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are you using macro mode to take farer objects ?
thats why it is more clear when you are taking photo of the specimen (3rd one)
or the camera firmware is broken , if not ,it may be the hardware issue

I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2

Try resetting the camera settings see if that works,try a third party HDR camera app or Camera 360,if quility is still bad in the 3rd party app then it could be a hardware fault
Sichroteph said:
My only concern is with indoor pictures, a bit noisy and cold.
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auto contrast I find helps take better indoors

Cant say I've had any problems with the camera. Love the macro focussing.

It seems obvious that your device doesn't behave like it should and have focus problems. I can have the exact same results with macro mode activated (and not shooting close objects)
I would suggest :
- trying another camera app (like TheiPhoneKiller suggested)
- trying a totally stock rom
- trying a rom like CM7 or MIUI
If you still got totally unfocused shots, you may very well have an faulty device. Try to get a replacement unit if you can.
(And did you try the fix kisstom suggested?)

Well... my shots is certainly much more grainy, since i upgraded to 2.3.5 - even if shot outside in bright sunshine. And many of the pictures is becoming more yellow than before - especially when using the flash-LED, so something has happened when i upgraded... this is one of my big complaints about the new upgrade. My old W800i 2Mpx beats the SGS2 in pure quality of the pictures now (but that was also, and still is, a VERY good camera for a phone)...
When comparing the newest pictures to some of the old pictures i have shot in the past, it's clear to me that i have a loss of quality since upgrading. How do i check manually, if there's a new camera-software version available - as i can't seem to find any in the Samsung apps, even if i have read somewhere that there's a newer one, comparing to my version of the camera-software???
But a least it's still not as crappy as my old HTC's camera - THAT was lousy...

Frankly speaking, 'Camera quality is bad' makes no sense. If you've said it's bad than this or that then I'd take it. Have used all the SE phones as I loved their image quality and I'll say after playing with the Satio, C905 I don't think this one would beat them. We are talking about a small image sensor here. So the main job is how good the post image processing is, some part still depends on the lens though.
The thing is I didn't buy this one for camera, believe me or not, after purchase, that is almost six months now, I've shot barely 10 pics with it. For normal usage and as a professional can't go without 350D, and for short tours and holidays I still shoot with my C905 , but not GSII.
But still this Camera is capable of taking some great pics, posting some of them here, after seeing them you certainly can't say Camera quality is bad.
The very bests I've found,

-> ithehappy
Well - i used to have that image quality too, but it has become somewhat impossible to shot such good pictures, since upgrading... i suspect that it's because my camera firmware still is TBEC28 (but of course not sure of it)

iocar said:
I always touch the place where I want to focus, and that is why I am confused
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality...Auto-Focus doesn't really help as it never focus properly, as in when I press the "Capture" button, most of the time it goes to red and doesn't turn green. I am holding the phone still and don't know why
The camera firmware is also up to date
What I don't get is that my old HTC Desire can take photos that are much more crisp than my Galaxy S2
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Click to collapse
Confused!!! Are you saying that you always have macro focus on?
If so then turn it off. My cousin complained about the exact same thing, blurry and red box when trying to focus. Went through his settings, turned macro off and everything was good again.
Also auto focus will not work correctly if macro is on, unless your taking really close range pics, which is what macro focus is for.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

well i am on 2.3.5 Images are really Perfect for me am seriously impressed the Quality iam on kI8 here is one example
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/20111118205552.jpg

iocar said:
Yes I was using Macro, but only because it had the best quality
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That's exactly why your pictures are blurry at a distance.
Macro focus is for close-up pictures, use auto focus for longer distances

Post Front Camera Pictures

Hey,
Can I get some full quality pictures posted from the Note 4 Front Camera? Good & Bad lighting, With and Without Beautyface.
They don't need to be selfies, but I would like a few to be.
I noticed my Note 4 when taking front camera pictures and selfies suck compared to my Note 3.
I tried recreating the same pictures (same room, same lighting, same angle) I took with the Note 3 and the White Balance is way off, there are more artifacts, and distortion, and the pictures really are not in focus, especially at a minor distance on the Note 4. Even lights in pictures have an starburst/halo effect that others don't seem to get on the same shot.
I contacted Samsung and they had me pretty much clear app cache and data and factory reset the mobile. Not much help.
I wanted to see if this is just the norm for the Note 4 or if I have a bad cmos sensor or whatever before I send it for repair or exchange.
With full spectrum daylight led and cfl bulbs, all front pictures are yellow hueued. Adjusting the white balance helps, but shows more artifacts and can't be done in apps like snapchat, skype, google hangouts... pretty much anything you would use a front camera for that's not a camera app selfie. I even have a softbox setup with proper professional lighting and images show up with lots of artifacts and halos.
It's almost as if it's ever slightly out of focus and when the system API jpeg compresses it, it shows sloppy artifacts.

My cat took a selfie the other day! Lol! Not sure if this will get alot of replies. Most of us are too ugly for front camera shots

sino8r said:
My cat took a selfie the other day! Lol! Not sure if this will get alot of replies. Most of us are too ugly for front camera shots
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Thanks, they don't have to be face shots. Like point it at a bottle of something with text on it or pictures.

htmltag said:
Thanks, they don't have to be face shots. Like point it at a bottle of something with text on it or pictures.
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Yeah I know. Couldn't resist though. Hehehehe! I'll play around with it some and see if I notice what you mentioned. What rom are you using? Have you tried the camera mod and talked to the guy who's been modifying the camera apk? Here's the link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/mod-camera-quality-mod-t2917502

sino8r said:
Yeah I know. Couldn't resist though. Hehehehe! I'll play around with it some and see if I notice what you mentioned. What rom are you using? Have you tried the camera mod and talked to the guy who's been modifying the camera apk? Here's the link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/mod-camera-quality-mod-t2917502
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on Stock Rooted Rom.
I have used multiple apps with the same result.
Apps that allow you to adjust the exposure and white balance can compensate a little.
I have a feeling when Android 5.x is released for our phones, if Samsung updates the driver to allow raw images, things would get a lot better.
It would be nice if you could adjust camera variable defaults in the OS for applications that don't provide an interface to them.
I am definitely going to check out that modded camera app. Thanks for pointing me at it.
Even if it doesn't make a difference, "No audio interruption if listening to music" alone is worth it.

htmltag said:
I'm on Stock Rooted Rom.
I have used multiple apps with the same result.
Apps that allow you to adjust the exposure and white balance can compensate a little.
I have a feeling when Android 5.x is released for our phones, if Samsung updates the driver to allow raw images, things would get a lot better.
It would be nice if you could adjust camera variable defaults in the OS for applications that don't provide an interface to them.
I am definitely going to check out that modded camera app. Thanks for pointing me at it.
Even if it doesn't make a difference, "No audio interruption if listening to music" alone is worth it.
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Yeah mine seems a little like that with the modded camera. I noticed the yellowed tint a little but it seems to be related to the lack of flash and it seems like it's being processed like it's in low light mode to make up for lack of a flash. Have you tried in day outside with alot of light? Might help a little. Not a fan of those low light/night modes. They are alway pixeled up and blurry. Look like sh!t most of the time. I've never used the front facing camera much on my phone or even on my computer. All my friends, family, and gf live here in town so I haven't had much need for it much. Sucks, I know, for those who need it. But!... Like you said, the lack of timer, audio interruptions and now that the camera works while on a phone call makes the camera mod worth it. Maybe the driver could be modded or at least the software related to it could be cleaned up by a dev or future updates might improve stuff some. You never know... Let us know if you think the camera mod helped any with the FFC at all. I just don't use it enough to know for sure. Thanks!

Selfie
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Thanks donnyp1, it appears you have Christmas spirits in there. You're in the spirit, you have spirits (drinks), and it looks like there is a Christmas Spirit hovering behind you guys.

All over it. This phone takes great selfies. This wasnt one of my better ones. Merry Christmas
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Representin'
I thought this might be appropriate...

The AT&T version never took sloppy shots. I'm experiencing a poor performing front facing camera on the T-Mobile Note 4 as well. Solution is, use the rear facing camera.
htmltag said:
Hey,
Can I get some full quality pictures posted from the Note 4 Front Camera? Good & Bad lighting, With and Without Beautyface.
They don't need to be selfies, but I would like a few to be.
I noticed my Note 4 when taking front camera pictures and selfies suck compared to my Note 3.
I tried recreating the same pictures (same room, same lighting, same angle) I took with the Note 3 and the White Balance is way off, there are more artifacts, and distortion, and the pictures really are not in focus, especially at a minor distance on the Note 4. Even lights in pictures have an starburst/halo effect that others don't seem to get on the same shot.
I contacted Samsung and they had me pretty much clear app cache and data and factory reset the mobile. Not much help.
I wanted to see if this is just the norm for the Note 4 or if I have a bad cmos sensor or whatever before I send it for repair or exchange.
With full spectrum daylight led and cfl bulbs, all front pictures are yellow hueued. Adjusting the white balance helps, but shows more artifacts and can't be done in apps like snapchat, skype, google hangouts... pretty much anything you would use a front camera for that's not a camera app selfie. I even have a softbox setup with proper professional lighting and images show up with lots of artifacts and halos.
It's almost as if it's ever slightly out of focus and when the system API jpeg compresses it, it shows sloppy artifacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That's an unfortunate answer.

I notice with face beauty set to 4 and up it creates a blur effect so I slide all the way off and my images are sharper but I haven't noticed and yellow tint that some of you are reporting.